My written task is letter of emendation sent by the editor of Motion Pictures Association of America to the authors Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams concerning the screen adaptation of the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. The letter demonstrates the concepts involved in the play as well as the relation to the context of the English Language and Literature course. In the letter, I talk about the major points of moral contention that the MPAA had with the script. The perspectives of Homosexuality, rape and nymphomania were very controversial subjects which the censor board would want to omit. This highlights the conservative culture of the 1940’s and the 1950’s which give us an insight into how such a play would be perceived by the general
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores the internal conflict of illusion versus reality through the characters. Humans often use illusion to save us pain and it allows us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, as illusion clashes with reality, one can forget the difference between the two. When people are caught up in their illusions, eventually they must face reality even if it is harsh. In the play, Blanche suffers from the struggle of what is real and what is fake because of the difficult events of her past. Blanche comes to her sister Stella seeking aid because she has lost her home, her job, and her family. To deal with this terrible part of her life, she uses fantasy to escape her dreadful reality. Blanche’s embracement of a fantasy world can be categorized by her attempts to revive her youth, her relationship struggles, and attempts to escape her past.
This 1950's theatrical presentation was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Tennessee Williams. It is about a southern bell by the name of Blanche Dubois who loses her father's plantation to a mortgage and travels to live in her sister's home in New Orleans by means of a streetcar called Desire. There she finds her sister living in a mess with a drunken bully husband, and the events that follow cause Blanche to step over the line of insanity and fall victim to life's harsh lessons.
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois is thrust into a series of unfortunate events and undergoes drastic changes in an effort to come to terms with her completely changed life. Through these events, Blanche happens to be the only remaining individual left to take care of the once valuable and prestigious family belongings, and her psychological mind spirals out of control in her attempts to restore the family’s honor. In addition to experiencing loneliness and feeling isolation from humans, Blanche faced many new challenges in stressful situations, which contributed to her poor decision making skills and inevitable negative outcomes in most of those situations. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois, Williams’ intends to display the power of significant experiences in one’s life, which serves as a warning of how the effects of significant experiences on individuals should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, in Blanche’s case, abandonment by her sister was the perfect example of an individual underestimating the result of their actions, as this action was the initiation point of the events that would eventually lead to her unfortunate fate. Specifically, Williams’ focuses on portraying the disastrous effects of human isolation, which is often the result of an individual’s mindless actions. Human isolation plays an important role in the outcome of the play, as Blanche is known to have been abandoned at a young age, and her
In the classic fairytale of Cinderella, the main character is trapped in an abusive household. However, Cinderella’s self-perception of optimism and hope, enables her to believe that ultimately, her life will naturally improve with these attributes. True to her convictions, Cinderella gets her happily ever after by going to the ball where the prince falls in love with her. Cinderella is saved from her evil. On the other hand, Cinderella can be viewed as a victim who does nothing to enable herself to escape her abusive reality, insteads helplessly waits for fate to intervene. She does not confront the situation nor independently strive to improve her circumstances. Correspondingly, how individuals act when faced with conflict is strongly influenced by their self-perception. It is possible to become confused between reality and illusion, which is determined by their level of self-awareness. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character of Stella struggles between the control of her husband and sister. Throughout the play, this conflict is demonstrated as she struggles with becoming aware of her abusive household and the contrast to the fairytale illusion she desperately clings to. Ultimately, Stella’s choice to maintain her illusion, rather than confronting her reality, is due to the self-perception of her need to depend on others and desire for idealism, which overall controls her fate.
A Streetcar Named Desire Analytical Essay Michael Song Kleiber, 10F Drama 2016 The play A Streetcar Named Desire is a creation by Tennessee Williams. And in this play, Williams formed a complex web of conflicting emotions, which caused a great amount of tension between the characters. The play takes place right after World War II in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Desire – power and status. antithesis is death, moth, Stanley and Blanche, domestic violence, (chauvinistic), desire to be loved. She was bought to New Orleans literally by a streetcar that was named ‘Desire’, and also by desire in several other ways: her sexual desires and reliance on her body for pleasure meant her reputation and dignity were damaged at the Flamingo hotel and in Laurel where she was forced to leave her job as a school teacher, apparently taking an interest in younger boys; this kind of sexual desire is still something of a drive for her, yet she is not aware of its dangers; and her continuing desire, in an American Dream-like fashion, to re-find the gentility that Belle Reve and her dainty previous lifestyle beheld. It is
Have you seen the plays Skin of Our Teeth, Home of the Brave, All My Sons, or Lost in the Stars? Probably not. Why is it that today, it is still common to hear references to Stanley’s “STELL-LAHHHHH” in a Streetcar Named Desire, while few other plays of the 1940s remain relevant? First, Streetcar dared to delve into sensitive social topics, from mental illness to homosexuality to addiction, and even mortality. Tennessee Williams’ story of a young couple, Stanley and Stella, whose seemingly happy marriage is disrupted when Stella’s sister, Blanche, comes to town and brings her disastrous history with her, has captivated audiences throughout time with its highly developed characters, thoughtful stage directions, and intense dialogue.
In 'A Streetcar Named Desire', by Tennessee Williams, Williams explores many important themes and social issues in the book that are relevant in the real world. The most popular themes Williams investigates and explores to the audience in the book is illusion and fantasy. Each character in the book creates their own fantasies and illusions but at the same time has those fantasy and illusions destroyed by other characters cruelty. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams shows the harsh reality of people’s lives and the innate cruelness that people are born with. He also shows how they use that cruelty against people who are different than themselves.
“What you are talking about is brutal desire – just – Desire! – the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another…” (Williams 80). Within this quotation from Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, a streetcar is not what is being referred to literally. Instead, the quote signifies the adulterous search for sexual “desires” and the inevitable social deconstruction of the focal character, Blanche. The play takes place in New Orleans, during post World War II, where men and women are not seen as equals. It follows Blanche, a woman who unfortunately loses everyone and everything, as she enters the life of her sister, Stella. Departing from her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi,
In the play A Streetcar Named desire Tennessee Williams Structures the text to create suprise and keep the readers hooked on and into the his play. He uses interesting ways of showing this. Blanche is the main one that gets this special set of structer and is the reason why readers stay hooked throughout the play becuase everyone wants to hear about her.
Mitch shows to have a caring nature by taking care of and worrying about his ill mother and comforting Blanche. Mitch has an awkward, shy, but gentlemanly feel to him as shown when near Blanche and regularly asking for Blanche’s permission before kissing her to make such she feels comfortable with it, as well as wanting to bring home a nice girl to meet his mother before she passes. Mitch has a trusting heart as shown when Blanche easily deceive him and did not believe Stanley, at first, when he told the truth about blanche. Even though she lied to him, Mitch still tried to help Blanche when the doctors proceeded to take Blanche away and cried when unable to. Mitch has a massive bone-structure, a muscular physique as he enjoys excising, and
With words explaining the articles that surround him, a man erects and relates his reveries and this world which he imagines. The time and this constant movement feed his quest for the truth with proofs and doubt. And, the tawny girl cruises the Amazons, ravelling her way through her interlacing fronds.
The best example fantasy is found in the protagonist of the story Blanche Dubois. Throughout the play it clears she is a troubled woman with a troubled past who lives her life in illusion. The story begins with Blanche visiting her sister, Stella, in New Orleans where she will be living with both Stella and her husband Stanley. Blanche came from a wealthy family just like her sister, but when her husband died and began losing other family members, she ended up using up all the money and lost their home. She later then gained a bad reputation sleeping around with many different men. She wanted to escape so she went to visit Stella, here she acted as if everything she did in the past actually never happened, and so began her fantasies. Blanche is constantly giving remarks to show that nothing has changed in her life “You know I haven’t put on one ounce in ten years, Stella? I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Belle Reve. The summer Dad died and you left us.”(15) For Blanche looking good is maintaining her youth thus giving the illusion that nothing has changed. “I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.”(60). When Blanche says this
The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who goes to live with her sister after she loses her home in Mississippi. Between the hardships of her previous life and the way she is treated now, she is not in a good way by the time the play ends. She basically has a mental breakdown. There are three stages of Blanche’s mental state. She lives in a fantasy, Mitch rejecting her, and Stanley raping her, Blanche is mentally unstable by the end of this ply.
An astonishing drama was written and captured the attention of many people. Behind the success of the drama is the author. Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire back in 1947 with the setting of New Orleans in the 1940s. A Streetcar Named Desire was famous that Williams recived the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. New Orleans inspired many of his plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire when he moved to Old South after college (“Tennessee Williams Biography.” Biography). Williams’s dramas were based on the way life was in New Orleans during the 1940s. His dramas were also inspired by the people he encountered throughout his life. The story contains numerous themes and symbolism, especially the meaning of the title. The play has many ironies