Streetcar Named Desire Contextual Analysis

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.

In many modern day relationships between a man and a woman, there is usually a controlling figure that is dominant over the other. It may be women over man, man over women, or in what the true definition of a marriage is an equal partnership. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Stanley is clearly the more dominant figure over Stella. Throughout the play there are numerous examples of the power he possesses of her. Williams portrays Stella as a little girl who lives around in Stanley’s world. She does what he wants, takes his abuse yet still loves him. Situations likes these may have occurred in the 1950’s and lasted, but in today’s time this would only end up in a

In the opening two scenes of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the audience has its first and generally most important impressions formulated on characters, the plot and the mood and tone of the play overall.

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.

   Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is considered by many critics to be a “flawed” masterpiece. This is because William’s work utilizes and wonderfully blends both tragic and comic elements that serve to shroud the true nature of the hero and heroine, thereby not allowing the reader to judge them on solid actuality. Hence, Williams has been compared to writers such as Shakespeare who, in literature, have created a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty in finding a sole “view or aspect ” in their works. Because of the highly tragic elements encountered in Streetcar, many immediately label it a tragedy. Nevertheless, the immense comical circumstances encountered in the play

-She stated that on several occasions she had discovered urine stains on the walls in the laundry and linen area.

A piece of evidence that I found in paragraph 7 that could contribute to ideas was In sentence 1 stating," CORE planned the first freedom ride in 1961." So from the recent knowledge that has been given to me, a freedom ride is a civil right activist who rode buses. Also in paragraph 7, it states that several participants were arrested in bus stations, many because the police thought that they were working and that they didn't want to feel bad for what they were doing so that arrested them for their crimes.

Tennessee Williams, “A Streetcar Named Desire” relies heavily on the setting and the time period to create and carry to play. Williams uses events and influences from the time period to develop his characters and the conflicts presented to them. Using the characteristic of New Orleans and America in 1947, Williams detailedly interpreted the surrounds not only for visual but symbolic meaning within his characters and their actions through the setting. This symbolism within his stories drive deeper meaning into the overlying plot.

In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams there are two roles of womanhood represented. Williams touches on the topic regarding that women are forced to conform in society, and uses the play to create an outcome for those who don't conform. Femininity and the dependence of men can be clearly seen in both the sisters Blanche and Stella, through their behavior and traditional southern values. Both of their femininity is depicted in very different ways, Blanche is fragile and over-imaginative whereas Stella shows her femininity through her passive and easily influenced nature as well as her dedication to her husband. But their inability to be independent is very clear in the plot.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play, written by Tennessee Williams which is set in 1940’s New Orleans. The south, mainly the state of Louisiana, was booming during the 40’s, and everyone was happy, the jazz revolution was in full swing in the south and was sweeping up anyone in its way, however, New Orleans definitely was not thriving economically. Alongside the issues of money in Louisiana, there were also problems with domestic violence and racism. The location of the play makes all the difference, if the story’s location changes the setting changes, the behavior of the characters would change as well, and the play would be dramatically different if written into any other city. Often throughout the book, either the narrator or the stage directions give city specific examples which would make the play different if the story was moved from New Orleans to anywhere else.

Laurel realizes the malice behind her father’s actions and words in his interactions with the Mennonites. She realized her father had taken advantage of a humble people’s belief, in doing good to all people, with the sole purpose of seeing “a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free,” (Packer 27)—without even a nice word of “thank you.” Here was a people (the Mennonites) who were able to overcome racial prejudice in their service to all men (any ethnicity) and a man who refused to see beyond it. This was also shown in Arnetta’s desire to hurt a scout troop of Caucasian girls. Unable to see anything beyond the color of their skin and a TV version of “ponytailed and full of energy, bubbling over with love and money,”

I wonder if the foreclosure of Belle Reve, in Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, causes Blanche to create the illusion that surrounds her and her relationships. Blanche's sought-after relations with men could be a coping mechanism she uses to help with the loss of her beloved home. On the other hand, after the loss of Belle Reve Blanche seeks to find a suitor to save her from living a poverty stricken and uncertain existence. However, the problems that arise from the painstaking reality of her fading beauty cause her to create a false reality in which she uses lies to deceive her future suitors. Evidence suggests that the latter suits Blanche’s intentions the best. Therefore, Blanche purses relationships with men to satisfy her needs.

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

Blanche is the story’s protagonist, the story is centred her and how she perceives the world. Blanche mentions to Mitch that she lies as she refuses to accept the life she was given. The only person she is lying to is herself as she wants to seem higher status than she is. She is very insecure about who she is as a person which is a another contributing factor to why she lives. Blanch lives in her own world where she thinks that she can save Stella from a long miserable life with Stanley. As she struggles to see the good in Stanley because they are both different characters who come from different social class. She believes that a husband will save her from a life of tragedy and that she will run away with Shep (millionaire).

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams portrays a former southern belle’s fight against the change in her surroundings. The protagonist, Blanche DeBois, no longer lives on her family’s plantation, Belle Reve, and moves to her sister’s home in New Orleans French Quarter. Although Blanche loves her sister, she begins to despise and look down on her husband because of his status and actions. When Blanche eventually conveys her thoughts to her sister, she seems to oblivious to her own personality.