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"A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE."
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Essay Subject:
Analysis of the Tennessee Williams play.... More...
5 Pages / 1125 Words
1 sources, 1 Citations, MLA Format
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Paper Abstract:
Analysis of the Tennessee Williams play. Centers on main character of Blanche as a symbol of tradition and idealism. The conflict between Blanche and Stanley. Stanley as a symbol of the new culture. Themes of loss, denial. Brutality. Belief in magic vs. reality. Blanche as an intiricate and complex character; her flaws. Tragedy of the play.

Paper Introduction:
Funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths--not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go." As if you were able to stop them! --Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, Act 1, scene 1. Blanche is a symbolic representation of tradition and the idealism of old southern culture. She sees herself as she would like to be all the while denying what she actually is by trying to seem special or different than everyone else. Stanley, is her opposite, the symbolic representation of the new South through his sexuality, his violence, his overall brutishness. The conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorizes the struggle between old-style culture and new, crass, hands on blue-collar strength.

Text of the Paper:
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Stella, Belle Reeve was his headquarters -- Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, scene 1 . Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go." As if you were able to stop them! As a woman, she is refined, sensitive, cultured,intelligent. So you want some roughhouse! Magic!Yes, yes, magic! Funerals are pretty compared to deaths. We've had this date with each other from the beginning! Drop the bottle top! OH! . "I warn you, I'm in danger" she states nearthe end of scene 1 . It is true that Blanche has oftendepended on the kindness of strangers, but all of them have abused andabandoned her. She bears anindomitable spirit and pathetic elegance [her delusions of grandeur] alongwith her innocent tenderness and seeming honesty. In thisfashion, she was able to escape the spectre of death which surrounded her. Pivotal to the breaking of her illusion is the scene in which Mitchwants to turn on the light. However, this defense is weak andwill be broken by Stanley. Blanche's famous line about being dependent on the kindness ofstrangers is full of a terrible irony. -- Stanley Kowalski, Scene 1 And her illusions are broken. Most obviously, this will not work with Stanley. She doesn't want the realism: "I'll tell you what I want. The conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorizes thestruggle between old-style culture and new, crass, hands on blue-collarstrength. Without her 'magic' to fall back on,she breaks. This represents her need for purification or renewal. . In Belle Reve, her life was a miserablewreck. She has just experiencedloss on an extreme scale: she has lost her ancestral home, Belle Reve, andher teaching position. This is strongly laid out in this dialogue: He acts like an animal, he has an animal's habits! --Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, Act 1, scene 4. I try to give that to people" (2 4). She hassuffered much for this choice. Shetells things not as they are, but as what she thinks they ought to be. These contrast hercharacter flaws of untruthfulness and outright manipulation of the truth,before her inevitable tragedy. WORKS CITED:'A Streetcar Named Desire.' The Norton Introduction to Literature by Jerome Beaty (Editor), J. Tiger - Tiger! Blanche is simply a fading [or dying] representation of the oldSouthern belle from an upper crust background. She had been a delicate young woman wholived alone in a house full of the terminally ill. There isno chivalry, though, in this play. In the first sceneBlanche is described as "daintily dressed" and he mentions that she is"incongruous to her setting". How strange that I should be called a destitute woman! Stanley relies on 'just thefacts'. Stanley persists in finding out hertrue past throughout the story. --Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, Act 1, scene 1. She sees herself as she would like to be all thewhile denying what she actually is by trying to seem special or differentthan everyone else. This was her 'Desire'. They are quiet but death is not. Blanche is an intricate and complex character. Bain (Editor) 6 pages 7th edition (April 1998) W W Norton & Co. Stanley, is her opposite, the symbolic representationof the new South through his sexuality, his violence, his overallbrutishness. Her deceits arenot malicious but come from her inability to confront truth head-on. . She chose to remain behind at Belle Reve to care for the dying. Forher, fantasy has a freeing sort of magic like a talisman that protects herfrom the losses she has had to undergo. Loneliness and desire are integral pieces of Blanche's psyche. When I have all these treasures locked in my heart Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, scene 1 . He's never seen in her in the light. Blanche's most notable fault is her inability to adapt to hersurroundings. We see this in a Williams play on words. Later on, Stanley and Stella will devise theirown kind of illusion: Stella will force herself to believe that Blanche'srape accusations are false. Well, look at itnow! Blanche is a symbolic representation of tradition and the idealism ofold southern culture. But now, Blanche is at the mercy of the brutal, realisticworld. She herself admits she had sexual relations with anyone who wouldhave her. Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! This room is almost-dainty!". She has known onlystrangers intimately; the young, vibrant girl in a house full of the dying,and then a tragic ghost of a woman seeking protection from callous men. During the play Blanche is constantlybathing. Although she is here to forget her past she has also come tohave a fresh start in life. Paul Hunter (Editor), Carl E. She tells everyone her history of loss but neglects to tell themwhat else she has done to escape it. The Grim Reaper has put up his tent on our doorstep! Stanley, is more ape than knight.Blanche's line reiterates her terrible loneliness. Before one can understand Blanche, one must understand the reason whyshe comes to New Orleans and joins her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law,Stanley. For Blanche, fantasy is the means of self-defense. However, Blanche cannot adapt to hersurroundings [the Kowalski home], so tries to change them. Blanch has suffered terribly; there are great depths to herloneliness. Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and ther he is - Stanley Kowalski - survivor of the Stone Age! [The treasures to which Blanche alludes here are her intelligence and breeding.] But I have been foolish -- casting my pearls before swine! Yes, something - ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in - anthropological studies! In thefirst scene she describes her journey: "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields" - Blanche, Act 1 Scene 1. In the end, even her own sister has betrayed her. Mitch turns on thelight, and Blanche gasps under its glare. Blanche left her ancestral home [because she could no longer care forit] to live with her sister. Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! He believes it to have all beenan act - pretending to be old-South, and devoted to the ideals of chastity. Blanche makes up a good portion of her past for the majority ofthe play. Stanley is the person with whom Blanche is most directly contrasted.Blanche loves living in her delusional world. All right, let's have some roughhouse! Blanchestalls. By using the very word dainty in bothplaces we see how Blanche tries to change her surroundings rather thanadapting to them. Where the streetcar takes her is Elysian Fields - the place of theliving dead. Stanley further shatters her illusion by executing the old-Souththrough his rape of Blanche. Blanche admits in the fourth scene that shewants to "make myself a new life". Funerals are quiet, but deaths--not always. Later on then inthe story she says to Mitch "You saw it before I came. -- Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, scene 1 . This was to fill the void in her left by the loss of intimacyshe experienced when her husband died. She speaks the linewith hope; yet, in her madness, she upholds a belief in chivalry. There's even something - sub-human - something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! And herein we tie back to the opening line of thispaper, the line she relates of funerals.

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