Streetcar Named Desire

The theme of reality vs. fantasy is one that the play centres around. Blanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defence, both against outside threats and against her own demons. Throughout the play, Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism, and in the end it is Stanley and his worldview that win. To survive, Stella must also resort to a kind of illusion, forcing herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false so that she can continue living with her husband.

Finally, Stanley rapes Blanche because “he has tried and tried to keep her down to his level” (Kagan 26) but she cannot go there.  The rape is his way of getting her there.  In the powerful scene where Stanley loses total control of his actions and strikes the person whom he has sworn to protect, love and cherish, William's shows Stanley's lack of control and hatred of the new threat in his life, Blanche.  What makes this scene so important to the topic is the way that the three characters react once the party has broken up.  Blanche is in her usual state of panic; Stella has retreated upstairs, while Stanley stumbles around calling out 'Steeelllaaa' in a drunken sweaty animal-like manner.  Surprisingly Stella answers her mate's calls and embraces him, the two of them exchanging words of compassion and kisses.  Stanley then picks up Stella and carries her off to his den to make love, which is Stanley's way of apologizing.  Stanley has to be the dominant male figure in all his relationships, not only with Stella and Blanche, but with his friends as well.  He is a leader and instantly rises to the challenge whenever his status is threatened.

Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.

To live in a world of illusion is to live a life of lies.Sometimes people try to escape reality, whether to avoid truths or to avoid their past. A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams introduces Blanche Dubois as the main protagonist and potential victim of the story. In the story, Blanche leaves her home in “Belle Reve” because it has been destroyed and takes a streetcar to to get to her sister’s (Stella’s) residence. She believes that she will find a new life as well as comfort and acceptance at her sister’s side. Unfortunately she is very wrong about it, in fact, it is the complete opposite. Blanche’s past life was very shameful for her and so in order to forget the tormenting truth, she resorts to living a fantasy life of her own, which causes problems for her later on (self-destruction).

“Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces” (Sigmund Freud). Illusion can be a part of our lives; however, if taken to the extreme, it can lead one to forget reality. Every individual has problems in life that must be faced with reality and not with illusion, even though it might throw one into flames of fires. Tennessee Williams' play of a family reveals the strength of resistance between reality and desire, judgment and imagination, and between male and female. The idea of reality versus illusion is demonstrated throughout the play. Blanche's

Everyone has fantasies but most know that is not the true reality. Defining dreams and reality are two different things. Some want to escape the real world and make their own dreams become true, due to seeking happiness. The author portrays Blanche, Stella, and Stanley as characters that are fixated on what they want to believe is the truth; however, the reason being is because they do not want face their fears. Stella and Blanche both desire to make their past non-existent and live in a perfect world, rather than accept the truth and move forward. Stanley does not let his fantasies take over his life as much as the two women. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar name Desire the three protagonists Blanche, Stella, and Stanley exist in a fool’s paradise by using denial and fantasy to display a public facade in desire to obscure the truth; however, the characters want to escape their undesirable reality through their more desirable fantasy.

One of the play’s main characters, Blanche, has by no means had an easy adulthood. She has had to deal with her sister setting off to New Orleans with her new husband, the death of her father, losing her own husband, and the loss of their family’s beloved plantation, Belle Reve. With all of this going on, Blanche disguises her pain and delusion, and pretends that is does not exist. In a way,

Desire is prominent in Stella and Stanley’s relationship; Stella is drawn to Stanley because he has a strong male sexuality and he is drawn to her because of her traditional feminine sexuality. Stanley abuses Stella, and when Blanche finds out she is perplexed. Stella explains that, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant.”(1.4). Stella and Stanley stay together because they use sex to smooth out their disputes. Stanley views sex as an important aspect in marriage (Panda ). He views women as sexual objects; Williams gives an insight on Stanley, he says, “[Stanley] sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing through his mind”(1.1). Stanley ends up raping Blanche at the end of the play; thus causing Blanche to lose her sanity. Although Blanche’s husband is only mentioned a few times in the play, the audience is able to see that his own sexual desire leads to his

It was not just her self that put her in the lime light of being a victim; it is also her new change of environment and people. Stanley is Stella's husband; he is described to be very masculine and aware of his sexual magnetism. “Strongly, compactly built”. He is mostly at ease with people however, if they lack loyalty and affection to him, he will bully them. Especially women, as he believes them just to be easy conflict. It is seen in scene 3 that Stanley has little respect for women. “I said to hush up!” This is addressed to his wife who is seen emotionless and impassive in this play. As for Blanche how is fussy and at edge, she would be very effected by the crude attitude that Stanley presents and so tries to hysterical take Stella away from her husband. Stanley does not forget of this act of interference and makes him all the more determined to be rid of Stella’s “charity case”. The real reason for Stanley’s bulling is that Blanche immediately received all Stella’s attention. “How about my supper huh? I’m not going to no Galatorires’ for supper” This made Stella dominant in power over Stanley and Blanche, something Stanley was not used to. “I put you a cold plate on ice”.

Although there is nothing wrong with Stella offering her sister a help and let Blanche stays in her place, but the biggest missing component, in this case, is the cause a huge embarrassment, that is Stanley. Stanley is Stella’s husband, they live together with peace and entertainment so far; nevertheless, the involvement of a third person would interrupt or even shatter the situation, and this person is Blanche. Stanley represents the new rising Americans, and we can envision him as urban-hunkey. His lifestyle is full of manhood; he goes to bowling, loves poker party, and we gain the picture of him as an aggressive, dominant and very sexual person. To satisfy Stanley is quite simple, first, his sexual desire would override his other senses, which means his sexual relationship with his wife is extremely important to him; second, Stanley enjoys maintaining stereotypical gender roles in his home and being respect as the head of the household. After Blanche’s visit, both of his old habits are being disturbed because Blanche takes herself as someone who’s more superior which goes against his gender role and she sleeps right across them with only a thin layer of the barrier which also stops his lovely night party with his wife. These reasons caused Stanley being so unsympathetic to the way Stella treats Blanche, which furthermore

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.

The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not

Similar to Stanley, Blanche also faces a power struggle. Her ultimate downfall is a result of Stanley’s cruelty and lack of understanding for human fragility. Comments about Stanley’s ‘animal habits’ and ‘sub-human’ nature act as the agent of Blanche’s downfall. Stanley cannot deal with her mocking him in his own home and is fed up with her lies. During the final scenes his

Stanley overhears these comments as they are ‘unaware of his presence’ (S4:pg.164*; and wants to dispose of Blanche to protect his marriage as Blanche has a hysterical determination to urge Stella to leave Stanley. Stanley refuses to accept Blanches’ conduct as she had no right to intervene and arbitrate as a guest in Stanley’s home supporting the idea that Stanley was preparing her downfall all along.

Her passivity is shown on several occasions throughout the play. Blanche constantly commands Stella, ‘I like to wait on you Blanche’ , and this shows that Stella is considered inferior to Blanche. Moreover, her submissiveness is shown when Stanley hits here at scene three, this action is shown through stage directions ‘Stanley charges after Stella (…). There is a sound of a blow’. If Stella was a strong-willed character instead of a passive and submissive one she would have left Stanley for what he had done, but she chose to continue suffering domestic violence. In addition, it may be argued that her financial dependency on her husband is also one of the reasons she continues with her husband, this is linked to the Marxist theory as this the economic class of the character affects her personality and action. In addition, her subordination is also linked to a satisfying sexual life, ‘But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark – that sort of make everything else seem – unimportant.’ This is linked to the Freudian theory as it shows that sexual pleasure affects her decision to keep tolerating Stanley’s abuse. The representation of Stella as the subordinating submissive housewife is a representation of the women in the 1940s, who lived in a patriarchal society and in some occasions suffered domestic