Analysis Of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams uses setting to illustrate various themes and messages as they pertain to the events of the play. The setting plays a crucial role in the story line and the outcome of the play.

Moreover, the relationship between Eunice and Steve demonstrate the domestic aspect of sexism. In the play there is a scene where Eunice and Steve are having a heated argument and things are being thrown, people are being threatened. Steve then ends said argument saying “what do you want in the papers?” leaving Eunice speechless, thus upholding the sexist idea that men hold all the power. This also depicts what happened behind closed doors back then. That is what society between men and women was like back then. Tennessee Williams drew this parallel between the relationship between Stella and Stanley with Eunice and Steve making it so that domestic abuse whether physical or verbal, did exist in everyone’s life.

Established as one of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams used his writing as a form of therapy. The author came from a troubled background consisting of alcoholism, mental breakdowns, and general unhappiness; Williams exploited these unfortunate events and allowed them to motivate his literature. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois’ struggles represent the reality of people’s lives, “an enduring concern of [Williams’] throughout his writing career (Henthorne 1). Blanche captures our focus with her seemingly sincere and fragile nature, but it is later revealed that this is just an illusion within her own mind. She resides in a world of fantasy to shield herself against the harsh threats of reality and her own fears. Blanche’s main objective in the play is to keep herself from falling apart in a world of cruelty through alcoholism and illusion. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts the coping mechanism of fantasy and its detrimental repercussions by exploring the specific experiences that eventually impede her happiness.

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 is a widely celebrated play that was written by Tennessee Williams. Throughout this play, Williams uses a significant amount of references to light in order to make an assertion about reality. In A Streetcar Named Desire, light represents the harsh reality that exists in the world, particularly with Blanche. With the huge emphasis that was placed on light, Williams asserts that Blanche’s avoidance of light demonstrates an avoidance of her reality. The author illuminates the harsh realities that exist in the world by using vivid imagery, purposeful foreshadowing, and characterizing metaphors. In this instance, it was Blanche’s desire to stay out of the light in order to hide her age. This desire is quite evident because of her assertive tone when regarding the subject of light. While trying to avoid light, Blanche initiated her own demise by being forced to divulge her true age and appearance to Mitch. Because of this event, Blanche was forced to face the harsh reality that she wished to evade for so long. Williams uses brilliant literary and figurative elements in order to lead up to the inevitable event. Thus, the significance of light in A Streetcar Named Desire is astronomical when placing it in context.

Unlike character, characterization can be defined as methods an author uses to create the characters. Two examples an author can use are direct characterization where a character is directly described by the author, and indirect characterization where the character is revealed by their actions, reactions of other characters, thought, and speech. There are a few scenes in the play where the author directly describes a character. One example of major direct characterization comes from scene one in which Stanley is first introduced and described. Tennessee Williams writes, “Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.” (Williams 84). His description of Stanley gives the reader a picture of how he acts and how he will act throughout the rest of the story. Much of the indirect characterization of the play can also be centered around the heated topic of sensuality. Blanche is an important character whose characterization heavily relies on her actions related to sensuality, and other’s reactions to her actions. “Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear.” (Williams 97). This quote shows the relationship between Blanche and Mitch, a potential love interest, after she

The next major theme of the book is the relationship between sexuality and death. Blanche’s fear of death manifests itself in her fears of aging and of lost beauty. She refuses to tell anyone her true age or to appear in harsh light that will reveal her faded looks. She seems to believe that by continually asserting her sexuality, especially toward men younger than herself, she will be able to avoid death and return to the world of teenage bliss she experienced before her husband’s suicide. Blanche’s lifelong pursuit of her sexual desires has led to her eviction from Belle Reve, her ostracism from Laurel, and, at the end of the play, her expulsion from society at large. Sex leads to death for others Blanche knows as well. Throughout the play, Blanche is haunted by the deaths of her ancestors, which she attributes to their “epic fornications.” Her husband’s suicide results from her disapproval of his homosexuality.

Tennessee Williams was an American writer known for short stories and poems in the mid 1950’s. His more famous writing was A Streetcar Named Desire. His writings influenced many other writers such as August Strindberg and Hart Crane. His writings A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie was adopted to films and A Streetcar Named Desire earned him his first Pulitzer prize. In A Streetcar Named Desire there is many elements that build the plot and story line. The story is about a girl who is drove crazy by his sister’s husband and eventually sent to the mental hospital. The main plot is towards the end of the story when Blanche Dubois is blackmailed by her sister’s husband and raped by him. Everything takes its toll on her until she begins drinking heavily and is thought to have gone crazy and placed in a mental hospital. In this story, many things play affect in the contrast of the writing such as Blanche arriving at her sister’s house, seeing her sister’s husbands attitude, the poker game, Blanche getting raped. These events make Blanche an easy victim. In Tennessee Williams, a street car named desire, the start of kindness turns to tragedy and pain.

Tennessee Williams has also made use of symbols - and his consistency in using them is very helpful to the audience to grasp the ideas he is putting across. The very names of the characters and places are symbolic. The famous streetcar that brings Blanche to her sister’s house is called ‘Desire’ - desire being one of the main themes in the play. Interestingly, it is the superintendent of the school in Laurel - Mr. Graves - who is one of the main causes for Blanche having to make this journey, from a streetcar named ‘Desire’ to one called ‘Cemeteries’ and finally to her sister’s house, situated in Elysian Fields - the Elysian Fields being the dwelling place of virtuous people after death (in Greek mythology). Blanche DuBois itself means ‘white woods’ as she tells Mitch - which implies something virginal and unsullied - both of which she is not. Stella means star: “Stella, oh Stella, Stella! Stella for Star!” as Blanche cries wildly, yet Stella burns not with the intensity of Blanche. Her passions are different, and she is extremely unlike her namesake. Even the home of the DuBois - Belle Reve - means ‘beautiful dream’, symbolic of the past that has gone forever, and Blanche’s inability to rouse herself from her dreamworld of illusions and magic. This use of irony is

Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.

In the opening of the play Blanche says, “They told [her] to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—at Elysian Fields!”(1.1). This sentence sets the theme for the entire play. The streetcar “Desire” brought her to Stella’s home, but symbolically it shows that Blanche’s

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Mississippi but moved to New Orleans at the age of 28, there he found the inspiration for his play A Streetcar Named Desire. The play is set in New Orleans and cooperates the vibe of the setting particularly through music. Williams uses vivid music in this play which heightens its themes such as madness and social differences.

The testing of animals in scientific and commercial research has been debated for many years. Some people view animals as companions or part of the family, but others think of them as a way to advance medicine by providing researchers with a means to develop better medical techniques, discovering vaccines, and helping to find a cure for a disease. Regardless of how a person may view animals, they are worthy of better protection by our government and us as a society. Although some animal testing has been successful, there are research alternatives that could eliminate the pain, suffering, and deaths that animals endure in scientific research. Therefore, animals should not be used in scientific research

The authors belief is that these are steps to help identify and create culturally sensitive classrooms and become members of an ever changing society. This statement connects to an impression left within many school systems that First Nation students are educated in;

Katharine Berry and Zora Neale Hurston are two outlandish storytelling authors. Although, the two authors create myths, each women writes about completely different stories. Individually they write about how something came to be using the creativity in their minds. Both through storytelling. Though, they are in the same genre of writing, each has a distinct style which gives the readers, the chance to open up their imagination, with all of it’s creativity, cleverness and unlikeness.