Tennessee Williams once said that, “Every artist has a basic premise pervading his whole life, and that premise can provide the impulse to everything he creates. For me the dominating premise has been the need for understanding and tenderness and fortitude among individuals trapped by circumstance.” Williams is an individual trapped by circumstance who gained inspiration for many of the characters in A Streetcar Named Desire from his own life. The play consists of a dysfunctional bunch of characters: a hysterical woman, a ditzy wife, and an aggressive husband, each with a connection to Williams’s personal life.
The protagonist Blanche DuBois; otherwise labeled as the hysterical women, is the embodiment of Tennessee Williams in A Streetcar Named
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Blanche disgusted and saddened by the life she lives decides to create her own reality, the “beautiful dream,” Belle Reve. Belle Reve, the Dubois plantation, was lost due to foreclosure. Blanche lies about this situation and pretends she still has life fully figured out, for it is the only way she can handle the unjust world that she lives in. This is only the beginning for Blanche, as the play goes on her suffering worsens. Blanche’s hysteria is inspired by Williams's own mother, Edwina Williams, who has been avoiding similar problems. In an article written in the New Yorker, comparing Edwina Williams to other characters Tennessee Williams has included in his plays, it describes her as this, “Edwina’s many malignant qualities included being a frigid hysteric, given to manipulative bouts of fainting, and a non-stop talker, whose barrage of chatter oppressed her mute and hapless children,” (The New Yorker). Although Tennessee owes her for giving him the confidence to be a writer, he still admits that Edwina caused many hardships in his life, and had a deep, lasting effect on his …show more content…
Williams, taking on facets of Blanch, has related other characters to her in order to mimic the personal relationships in his life.
Stanley Kowalski, the aggressive husband, represents all the men who have mistreated Tennessee in his life, especially one in particular: his father. Stanley is boisterous and abusive. “Williams's father loved poker and drinking and his life at the International Shoe Company -- but not, Williams felt, his doubly strange, gay-writer son,” (Today in Lit). Stanley’s personality could not be more different than Blanche’s; in the same way Williams personality contradicts his father's.
Stella, Stanley's wife, isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. She is fairly ignorant to her situation, and to the situations of those around her. In the story Stella doesn’t create her own thoughts, she simply follows and obeys others. At the end of A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche is sexually assaulted by Stanley while Stella is waiting to deliver her baby at the hospital. Blanche, being the protective and caring sister that she is, tells Stella the truth, but doesn’t get the reaction she expects. Instead Stella says, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley,” (Williams 165), and kicks Blanche to the curb, sending her to a mental hospital. Stella embodies the judgement Tennessee received in the past, as she represents the ignorant and unaccepting society that he lived
The streetcar Named Desire is a very complex and engaging book with 3 different themes, desire and fate,death and madness. I chose to be Blanche DuBois in scene 8 and scene 10 as it sets the theme,madness.Like the other major themes of the play - desire and fate, and death - madness too was Tennessee ‘Williams’s obsession. His sister Rose’s strange behaviour which had long been a source of anxiety to her parents, later took the form of violent sexual fantasies and accusations against her father.Not only did Tennessee Williams feel guilty for not having saved Rose from all this, but he now feared for his own sanity because the mental illness that afflicted Rose might be hereditary. He certainly did have a breakdown of sorts in his early twenties.
“Stella has embraced him with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche. He laughs and clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.” (Williams 73) A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams exemplifies the theme of a struggle to attain happiness. The play not only portrays this theme in its characters and setting, but through the literary devices of Foil, Imagery, and Intertextuality. Williams took great care in applying each of these literary device techniques to the theme as he presents an intriguing contrast between Blanche and Stanley, vivid images both animalistic and broken, and imploring the use of the Odyssey to further
To what extent does Williams present desire as a tragic flaw in scene six of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
One of the most prominent themes in Tennessee Williams' play 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is escapism. Several other themes, such as identity and the past and present, also relate to the idea of escape. This particular theme is primarily illustrated through the character of Blanche, due to her desire for escaping the truth; she appears to be on an endless journey to escape from her past experiences as well as her current situation.
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.
The arts stir emotion in audiences. Whether it is hate or humor, compassion or confusion, passion or pity, an artist's goal is to construct a particular feeling in an individual. Tennessee Williams is no different. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience is confronted with a blend of many unique emotions, perhaps the strongest being sympathy. Blanch Dubois is presented as the sympathetic character in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire as she battles mental anguish, depression, failure and disaster.
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.
The streetcar Named Desire is a very complex and engaging book with 3 different themes, desire and fate,death and madness. I chose to be Blanche DuBois in scene 8 and scene 10 as it sets the theme,madness.Like the other major themes of the play - desire and fate, and death - madness too was Tennessee ‘Williams’s obsession. His sister Rose’s strange behaviour which had long been a source of anxiety to her parents, later took the form of violent sexual fantasies and accusations against her father.Not only did Tennessee Williams feel guilty for not having saved Rose from all this, but he now feared for his own sanity because the mental illness that afflicted Rose might be hereditary. He certainly did have a breakdown of sorts in his early twenties.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who is in misplaced circumstances. Her life is lived through fantasies, the remembrance of her lost husband and the resentment that she feels for her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Various moral and ethical lessons arise in this play such as: Lying ultimately gets you nowhere, Abuse is never good, Treat people how you want to be treated, Stay true to yourself and Don’t judge a book by its cover.
While Blanche represents hope of women being able to be free and outspoken, however she also represents the idea that women are very dependent on men for everything. The idea of representing Blanche to be both proper and improper with the society’s rules and regulations is because Williams may have wanted to prove the idea that despite being independent, women will still somehow be dependent on men. Stella represents the submissive nature of women during that time period and is conveyed to be a submissive character, as Williams wanted her to represent what society thinks of women that time. Williams ultimately represents these women in this way in order to infer to the message of shattered dreams, which A Streetcar Named Desire also
In his 1940s tragedy, A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams explores the helpless psychological downfall of Blanch Dubois as she attempts to deal with her the events of her past, and resolve her uncertain future. Dubois’ lamentable romantic history acts to launch her on an unremitting path of mental deterioration, which manifests itself in a heavy reliance on alcohol, prostitution, and romantic fantasies—this gradually escalates from the benign and simple act of visualizing a better future for herself, to completely disconnecting from reality and becoming engrossed by her idealistic delusions.
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most renowned 20th century American plays and films. The playwright is Tennessee Williams, a respected author whose works artistic and structural merit warrants their study into the 21st century. There are numerous aspects and points Williams makes with his works, including "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of the richness this text offers, this paper will focus upon issues of mental illness and abuse in the play. No doubt an aspect that makes Williams' characters so vivid are their flaws, weaknesses, and desires. Where a person's character lacks weakness and what a person desires reveal a great deal about that person and provide insight into the choices they make. The paper will discuss aspects of abuse and mental instability in the characters and plot of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and will reference the play directly to underscore any points.
In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, Stella and Stanley Kowalski have a far from perfect marriage. In the Kowalski household ranking is set in stone; Stanley is the alpha and protects his ranking by emotionally and physically abusing Stella. Stanley is an aggressive husband but signs of a softer side peak through Stanley’s hard exterior creating two personalities. Stanley has destroyed the meaning of sex, using sex for physical satisfaction and creating a sense of desire for Stella. By using sex as a type of desire Stanley has created an animalistic need for sex. Stanley has contrived authority over Stella, creating a strained marriage. Out of panic, Stella has become Stanley’s enabler, returning to him regardless how hard the hit, Stella accepts the abuse. Stella has become so manipulated by Stanley that she believes that the abuse is a large part of marriage. Stella has grown so dependant on Stanley that Stella grows panicked by the thought of being without Stanley. The Kowalskis have become trapped in an endless cycle of domestic abuse. Stanley Kowalski’s control over Stella Kowalski creates an environment of fear.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, a tragic play, is based on the theme that desire leads to ruin. After losing her home and life due to her sinful actions, the main character Blanche DuBois travels to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. Blanche’s lies about her past and excessive drinking lead to the main conflict between her and Stanley. Blanche’s poor decisions from her past haunt her, and she continues to engage in self-destructive behavior during her time in New Orleans. Tension between Blanche and Stanley climaxes when Stanley rapes her in the tenth act of the play. Blanche loses her dignity, home, and hold on reality in this tragedy, and, as she is the main character, her downfall makes
In Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois unveils the theme of the story through her representation of the struggle to maintain innocence in a tragically guilty world. The main theme of the story is that the façade of performed perfection will always be unsuccessful; fantasy cannot overcome reality. As hard as Blanche tries to hide in her fantasy, eventually truth persists and, in the end, overtakes the delusions she holds. Blanche uses her appearance to suggest innocence and youth, yet with a closer look, readers see that, though she attempts very hard to be, she is neither. She also has a symbolic relationship with Mitch; the further they draw apart, the further into madness she descends. While it is clear that Blanche is not entirely innocent, the author creates her as a symbol of such. This way, as she slowly loses her mind—and Mitch—she symbolizes the loss of said innocence. Blanche can also be considered an embodiment of Williams’s older sister Rose, who is known to have been institutionalized for her erratic behavior. Rose Williams’s inability to overcome her mental instability is directly represented through Blanche, a character who also cannot maintain fantasy and ultimately succumbs to reality. Had Blanche been able to sustain her pretense of innocence, it is possible she could have avoided the harsh realities of life.