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The Characters in A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

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A Streetcar Named Desire is a classic tragedy written by Tennessee Williams, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize as well as many other awards. This brilliant play explores many important themes and issues. The main recurring theme Williams explores to the readers is the conflict between fantasy and reality, honesty and lies. However, sexuality, violence, and social differences also shape the action of the plot, in which they contribute to the effect of the characters of the play. The three main characters, Blanche Dubois, Stella Kowalski, and Stanley Kowalski, have different ways of dealing with the said conflicts in their harsh surroundings in which they live in, as they all face different crisis. Blanche, who suffers from emotional and …show more content…

She later discovers Allan’s homosexuality and when she confronts him about it, he commits suicide. Blanche has been haunted with the guilt of her husband’s death ever since. This perhaps has motivated a lot of her actions. Allan’s death demonstrates the end of Blanche’s sexual innocence as she is constantly in search of comfort and kindness, which she receives while “meeting with strangers”. She has also lost her job as a schoolteacher when her affair with a young student was exposed to the school and the people of Laurel, and led to her exile. All of these events point to the fact that Blanche is a social outcast due to her continuous sexual behaviour. As the play develops, the reader can comprehend that Blanche is less proper and superior as she portrays herself to be. Blanche, herself, is ashamed of her true identity and life, so she tends to keep her past life a secret. She is also realising that she is aging very quickly and fears of losing her beauty. Her insecurities and infirmities lead her to find comfort in a world of illusion which she creates herself, as she refuses to face reality. By creating her own world, Blanche is able to close her eyes on reality and expand her imagination to build the mental self-esteem she needs to survive. She admitted herself when she said “I do not want realism, I want magic!” (Williams, 117) that she would rather live in her made-believe world than in the harsh reality surrounding her. Her fantasies

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