essay on blanche in a streetcar named desire

• A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams

• Literature Notes
• Blanche DuBois
• Play Summary
• About A Streetcar Named Desire
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Stanley Kowalski
• Stella Kowalski
• Harold Mitchell (Mitch)
• Tennessee Williams Biography
• Essay Questions
• Cite this Literature Note

Character Analysis Blanche DuBois

Blanche DuBois appears in the first scene dressed in white, the symbol of purity and innocence. She is seen as a moth-like creature. She is delicate, refined, and sensitive. She is cultured and intelligent. She can't stand a vulgar remark or a vulgar action. She would never willingly hurt someone. She doesn't want realism; she prefers magic. She doesn't always tell the truth, but she tells "what ought to be truth." Yet she has lived a life that would make the most degenerate person seem timid. She is, in general, one of Williams' characters who do not belong in this world. And her type will always be at the mercy of the brutal, realistic world.

Early in her life, Blanche had married a young boy who had a softness and tenderness "which wasn't like a man's," even though he "wasn't the least bit effeminate looking." By unexpectedly entering a room, she found him in a compromising situation with an older man. They went that night to a dance where a polka was playing. In the middle of the dance, Blanche told her young husband that he disgusted her. This deliberate act of cruelty on Blanche's part caused her young husband to commit suicide. Earlier, her love had been like a "blinding light," and since that night Blanche has never had any light stronger than a dim candle. Blanche has always thought she failed her young lover when he most needed her. She felt also that she was cruel to him in a way that Stanley would like to be cruel to her. And Blanche's entire life has been affected by this early tragic event.

Immediately following this event, Blanche was subjected to a series of deaths in her family and the ultimate loss of the ancestral home. The deaths were ugly, slow, and tortuous. They illustrated the ugliness and brutality of life.

To escape from these brutalities and to escape from the lonely void created by her young husband's death, Blanche turned to alcohol and sexual promiscuity. The alcohol helped her to forget. When troubled, the dance tune that was playing when Allan committed suicide haunts her until she drinks enough so as to hear the shot which then signals the end of the music.

Blanche gives herself to men for other reasons. She feels that she had failed her young husband in some way. Therefore, she tries to alleviate her guilt by giving herself at random to other young men. And by sleeping with others, she is trying to fill the void left by Allan's death — "intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with." And she was particularly drawn to very young men who would remind her of her young husband. During these years of promiscuity, Blanche has never been able to find anyone to fill the emptiness. Thus Blanche's imagined failure to her young husband and her constant encounter with the ugliness of death forced the delicate young girl to seek distraction by and forgetfulness through intimacies with strangers and through alcohol which could make the tune in her head stop.

But throughout all of these episodes, Blanche has still retained a degree of innocence and purity. She still plays the role of the ideal type of person she would like to be. She refuses to see herself as she is but instead creates the illusion of what ought to be. She attempts to be what she thinks a lady should be rather than being frank, open, and honest as Stanley would have liked it.

Blanche's actions with Stanley are dictated by her basic nature. The woman must create an illusion. "After all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion." And if Blanche cannot function as a woman, then her life is invalid. She therefore tries to captivate Stanley by flirting with him and by using all of her womanly charms. She knows no other way to enter into her present surroundings. Likewise, she must change the apartment. She can't have the glaring, open light bulb. She must have subdued light. She must live in the quiet, half-lit world of charm and illusion. She does not want to see things clearly but wants all ugly truths covered over with the beauty of imagination and illusion.

But Blanche also realizes that she must attract men with her physical body. Thus, she does draw Mitch's attention by undressing in the light so that he can see the outline of her body.

When Blanche meets Mitch, she realizes that here is a strong harbor where she can rest. Here is the man who can give her a sense of belonging and who is also captivated by her girlish charms. She deceives him into thinking her prim and proper but in actuality, Blanche would like to be prim and proper. And as she later told Mitch: "inside, I never lied." Her essential nature and being have never been changed by her promiscuity. She gave of her body but not of her deeper self. To Mitch, she is ready to give her whole being.

Then Mitch forces her to admit her past life. With this revelation, Blanche is deprived of her chief attributes — that is, her illusions and her pretense. She is then forced to admit all of her past. After hearing her confessions, we see that Mitch aligns himself with the Stanley world. He cannot understand the reasons why Blanche had to give herself to so many people, and, if she did, he thinks that she should have no objections to sleeping with one more man. But Blanche's intimacies have always been with strangers. She cannot wantonly give herself to someone for whom she has an affection. Thus she forces Mitch to leave.

Later that same night when Stanley comes from the hospital, Blanche encounters the same type of brutality. Stanley rapes Blanche, assuming that she has slept with so many men in the past, one more would not matter. In actuality, Blanche's action in the first part of the play indicates that on first acquaintance, when Stanley was a stranger, she desired him or at least flirted with him. But Stanley was never able to understand the sensitivity behind Blanche's pretense. Even when Stella refers to Blanche as delicate, Stanley cries out in disbelief: "Some delicate piece she is." It is, then, Stanley's forced brutality which causes Blanche to crack up. The rape is Blanche's destruction as an individual.

Blanche's last remarks in the play seem to echo pathetically her plight and predicament in life. She goes with the doctor because he seems to be a gentleman and because he is a stranger. As she leaves, she says, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Thus, Blanche's life ends in the hands of the strange doctor. She was too delicate, too sensitive, too refined, and too beautiful to live in the realistic world. Her illusions had no place in the Kowalski world and when the illusions were destroyed, Blanche was also destroyed.

Previous Scene 11

Next Stanley Kowalski

Blanche Dubois: An Antihero

Lauren Seigle (WR 100, Paper 2)

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Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire presents an ambiguous moral puzzle to readers. Critics and audiences alike harbor vastly torn opinions concerning Blanche’s role in the play, which range from praising her as a fallen angel victimized by her surroundings to damning her as a deranged harlot. Critic Kathleen Margaret Lant claims that Williams prohibits Blanche from the realm of tragic protagonist as a result of his own culturally ingrained misogyny, using her victimization as an intentional stab at womanhood. At another end of the spectrum, critic Anca Vlasopolos interprets Blanche’s downfall as a demonstration of Williams’s sympathy for her circumstances and a condemnation of the society that destroys her. Despite such strong convictions, debate still exists over Williams’s intentions in the weaving of Blanche Dubois’ tale and the purpose of the play’s moral ambiguity. Throughout the play, Williams’s sympathies lie with Blanche; this sympathy proves Williams is not misogynistic but rather condemns the environment that has brought about Blanche’s tragic circumstances.

Sympathy for Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire is garnered in large part from the obvious trauma she has experienced due to the loss of her beloved husband, Allan Grey. Ironically, this aspect of the play is also one that critics and readers frequently use to demonize Blanche and disprove her role as a sympathetic character. Arguments arise that attempt to lessen the traces of author and reader sympathy in Blanche’s widowhood; critics claim Williams believes Blanche behaved hatefully toward her husband or failed him in some manner, leading to the death she now laments. Kathleen Margaret Lant claims that “Williams does consider Blanche guilty for not saving her husband from his homosexuality . . . and for not showing more womanly support and compassion for the young man . . .” (233). Lant posits that Blanche had a responsibility as a wife to somehow rescue her husband from his own sexuality, and Williams condemns her lack of calm understanding when confronted with a threat to her own happy marriage. However, this claim contrasts with the trauma that the death has caused Blanche, and the implications that the overpowering love she felt for Allan Grey may have been the last true emotion to which she allowed herself to succumb. She refers to her “empty heart” (146) and sadly mentions, “I loved someone too, and the person I loved I lost” (113). Blanche is visibly heartbroken by her loss, which intentionally evokes pity from the reader.

Evidence also abounds that the traumatic loss of her husband was a driving force for the downward spiral that leads Blanche to Stella’s doorstep. The scandalous events that drive Blanche to her ultimate defeat do not begin until after Allan’s death, and she even admits, “After the death of Allan—intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with . . . I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection” (146). Williams implies that Blanche is not inherently impious; the disintegration of the loving marriage she once clung to dissipates her naïve, youthful innocence and leads her to a sordid path. Blanche’s heartbreak following her first love causes her to descend into the degeneration that becomes her ruin, a fact which lends empathetic justification and a sorrowful light to her actions.

Another situation in which Williams shows sympathy toward Blanche is her most dramatic victimization in the play: her rape. This scene requires careful analysis in order for one to understand that Stanley’s rape of Blanche is indeed an antagonistic victimization and not Williams’s misogynistic idea of poetic justice, as many critics argue. Lant claims in her article that “Williams goes to great lengths to obscure the fact that rape is a political crime . . . making this seem a crime of passion and desire rather than one of violence, cruelty, and revenge . . .” (235). She insists Williams “harbors false notions about rape” and believes Blanche is “a loud-mouthed, flirtatious whore who really asked for what she got” (236). According to Lant, Williams condemns Blanche even as a rape victim and utilizes her as a symbol of justice, a promiscuous woman who essentially brought her victimization on herself.

However, this argument is in complete dissonance with the obvious signs of Blanche’s noncompliance in the rape and utterly ignores Williams’s vilification of Stanley throughout the play. Critic Anca Vlasopolos states the drive to prove Blanche, or any human victim for that matter, compliant in her victimization is simply the byproduct of “an arsenal of psychoanalysis” and points out that “The ‘inhuman voices’ and ‘lurid reflections’ on the walls link the victimization of Blanche in scenes 10 and 11 [in which Blanche is unwillingly seized by the doctors] in a way that dismisses Blanche’s complicity in the rape . . .” (165). Indeed, the “inhuman voices” and “lurid reflections” that Vlasopolos mentions are described by Williams during the rape scene as “grotesque” and “menacing” (159), an effect particularly unsettling in conjunction with Blanche’s protests of “I warn you, don’t, I’m in danger!” (161). The dark, sinister mood of the rape scene disproves the argument that Blanche is in any way compliant with Stanley’s violation, discouraging the notion that Williams approves of the rape or intends the audience to view the rape as Blanche’s just desserts.

In addition to Blanche’s evident noncompliance, Williams’s vilification of Stanley throughout the entire play draws a clear distinction between victim and villain in the rape scene. Upon Stanley’s first appearance, Williams describes how “[h]e seizes women up at a glance . . . crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them,” and in the next line Blanche not coincidentally “draw[s] involuntarily back from his stare” (25). This significant exchange sets the mood for the tension between Blanche and Stanley that continues throughout the play. Several times Blanche regards Stanley with a “look of panic” (127) or a “frightened look” (135), subtle stage directions that further Stanley’s dark portrayal and foreshadow his victimization of Blanche. The fact that Stanley is characterized as lecherous and Blanche merely as mentally weak and insecure reflects where Williams’s sympathies lie; it does not imply that Blanche brings on Stanley’s womanizing cruelty but rather that any woman could become his prey. Williams establishes Blanche’s role as Stanley’s victim far earlier on in the play than his physical domination of her, and Stanley’s menacing characterization implies that Blanche’s flawed character does not give her singular potential to fall victim to him.

In A Streetcar Named Desire ’s final scene, Williams makes his sympathetic tone toward Blanche tangible by exploiting her vulnerability before the indifference of the people and society that surrounds her. In addition to the iconic comment “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (178), Blanche’s vulnerability is also illuminated through stage directions such as “ a look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience shows on her face ” (167) and “ She turns her face to [the doctor] and stares at him with desperate pleading ” (177–8). Blanche’s vulnerability leaves her sharply exposed before the cold unresponsiveness of the people who witness her defeat and represent the society in which she has been immersed: the men’s poker game resumes abruptly after her dramatic exit, Blanche’s own sister Stella returns her pleas delivered in a “ frightening whisper ” by staring blankly back at her in a “ moment of silence ” (174), and Eunice simply responds to her claim of rape with, “Don’t ever believe it. Life has got to go on” (166). The other characters in the play, representative of the era’s misogynistic society, choose to disregard Blanche’s plight in accordance with what society expects. Blanche has fallen victim to the brutality of male dominance, yet even the women around her turn a blind eye to her suffering in order to avoid any disruption of their everyday lives.

Lant and Vlasopolos hold different interpretations of this final indifference toward Blanche. Lant claims that A Streetcar Named Desire ’s ending “dehumanizes Blanche, undercuts her tragic situation, and renders her . . . a maddened hysteric with no place in a well-ordered society” (230). According to Lant, Williams portrays Blanche as a stain on a virtuous, morally correct society. However, Williams’s negative descriptions of the chaotic, domestic abuse-ridden households that the Kowalskis and their neighbors inhabit hardly portray them as examples of a “well-ordered society” (Lant 230). Hence, Williams intends Blanche’s ousting to be a criticism of the surroundings that oust her rather than her as a reject.

Vlasopolos mentions, “The fact that audiences feel ambivalent about Blanche is not the problem Williams raises; the problem is rather the audience’s pragmatic shrug at the end of the play” (168). Vlasopolos explains that the permeating air of indifference surrounding Blanche’s final rejection is precisely the issue that Williams wishes to criticize. He utilizes the key characters of the play, who silently watch the doctors force Blanche away to an unknown fate, to represent the cold, misogynistic society in which she has been immersed and from which she is now ultimately rejected. Williams uses the juxtaposition of Blanche’s vulnerability with the indifference of the participants in her destruction to demonstrate further sympathy for her and direct criticism toward her surroundings.

One can easily deduce Williams’s sympathy toward Blanche throughout the play and even in the circumstances of her downfall, which gives greater insight into both Williams’s perceptions of her role as a character and his own views. Although at first glance Blanche’s checkered sexual past and addiction to the attention of men seem to safely secure her a pigeonhole in a womanizing society, in reality her experiences have only broken down her weak spirit and driven her to her downfall. Because of Williams’s sympathy, Blanche becomes a tragic protagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire and transforms the play into a sort of allegory: Williams uses her plight to criticize the social circumstances that have both shaped her flawed persona and led to her demise. This social commentary leaves Williams’s motivations in question: as a homosexual male, why exactly is Williams so sympathetic toward Blanche? One possibility is that Williams’s homosexuality in a heavily masculine society rendered him naturally sympathetic toward the plight of women, with whom he probably identified more than with the archetypical male of the era. Another explanation is that, as a homosexual, Williams criticized heterosexuality itself, condemning the sexuality that turns Blanche into a victim, Stanley into a monster, and the rest of the characters into puppets on socio-cultural strings. Although Williams’s personal motives are debatable, the story he creates with Blanche Dubois presents a clearly sympathetic portrait of a woman downtrodden by a misogynistic world.

Works Cited

Lant, Kathleen Margaret. “A Streetcar Named Misogyny.” Violence in Drama . Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1991. 225–238. Print.

Vlasopolos, Anca. “Authorizing History: Victimization in A Streetcar Named Desire .” Feminist Rereadings of Modern American Drama . Ed. June Schlueter. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, 1989. 149–169. Print.

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire . New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004. Print.

A Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire: The Passion of Blanche Research Paper

Despite of her degenerate personality, dissolute desires, frivolous fantasies and her misdoings, Stanley Kowalski does not have the right to show disrespect towards Blanche DuBois simply because of their differences in terms of cultural background, and to set up her ultimate downfall.

A streetcar named desire might have never taken us to the capturing experience of watching several people’s lives and their final tragedy if there has not been the so-called Southern Gothic Movement. Or, should I say better, there would have not been any Southern Gothic Movement if the famous streetcar had not started its route?

The movement began its pace in the southern part of the US in 1930ies and can be traced to 1950ies when it begins to cease. The very movement brings back the fleur of the England of the XVIII century, to “Southern-Gothic imp of Poe-etic perverse” (Simon 83) with all its ideas of Gothic culture and the features that are due only to the gothic genre, very sharp and gloomy, the idea of a human life inevitably ending in death dominating. (Smith 63)

The pessimistic spirit aside, the new genre gave the writers the opportunity to explore the secrets of life in the calm and reserved way that the slow XVIII century had brought.

That was what A Streetcar Named Desire and the rest of the wonderful literature novelties appeared. Carrying the spirit of hopes fallen and the people broken down by the hand of doom, they showed that there could be things that even the weaker people had to face and that there was practically nothing to be afraid of now, in the stagnate times.

Tennessee Williams was one of those to explore the new vision of the world with the great care and with the hope that people will finally be in time for their streetcar to take them to the place unknown. His works are shot through with the feeling that the world is shattering to pieces, but those survived could see the better place.

So Tennessee writes, and he writes a lot. And with the sincerity of a man who has learned to tell the truth from a lie, he shares his knowledge and his idea as long as he can. Of course, you might say that, being dead for a long time, he cannot share any idea with us. Bu he can. These are his stories that do. Take a streetcar to 1930.

Being a woman is a tough luck, and being a pretty woman is a constant torment. Tennessee explains it just fine in his play. He makes it clear that she is always facing a danger of a shame and a danger of getting subdued by her husband.

These are quite the same things, in fact. In the first case, it is the society that teases the woman, in the second one the tormentor is her husband. That is the fate of the third class, the people who are both blessed and cursed. A woman must get married and o raise children, which goes without discussions, and everything that does not fit the settled standard is considered a shame, weirdness or an obscenity.

It has taken an entire lifetime to change at least something about the widespread opinion, but even now a woman who does not follow the established scheme is someone to point fingers at. Just imagine what I could be in 1930ies! And God forbid a woman to get pregnant before getting married – the crowd will stone her down. “William is careful to distinguish the underlying reasons for their behavior (101)”, Blackwell claims. It becomes clear as Tennessee depicts Stella and her attitude towards her husband and the household chores.

Stella herself is a live predicament of those women “who have subordinated themselves to a domineering and often inferior person to attain reality and meaning through communication with another person” (102). The fate of women being lower next to the superiority of a man is what all Stanley’s idea of a woman is. This can be clearly traced as he speaks both to Blanche and to Stella:

Blanche . Keep your hands off me, Stella. What is the

matter with you? Why do you look at me with that pitying look?

Stanley (bawling): QUIET IN THERE! – We’ve got a noisy woman on the place.

The cultural problem that the reader faces here is the problem of the notorious American dream – broken, forgotten and forsaken.

Yet, with this behavior Blanche expresses a certain class-consciousness. Equality, which is implied in the American dream, does not exist for her. She acts predominant towards the whole neighborhood that Stella and Stanley live in. (Schweke 8)

Tennessee showed the world he was living in with the utter sincerity and without any mercy neither towards the people he was displaying, nor for himself, for he was a part of that cruel world as well, he was living in that time, he was the time himself, judging these people and crying with them. They were his concern and his pain to bear.

Blanche DuBios is everything that Tennessee felt was wrong and right about the women of the 30ies. The former Southern belle as she was, used to be married to a homosexual who had committed a suicide as she found out the whole truth about his sexual orientation, she is a person for the people of the small town to feel sorry for and to tell fruitful gossip about.

However, the strength that she showed as she paid no attention to those malevolent ideas disappeared as she had to face the hard truth. It was far easier for her to lie behind the bars of her idealistic illusions than to admit that the world has some initial cruelty and misery in it. She seems a half of what it takes to be a woman, with all her spiritual strength she cannot see the truth. Does it blind her? Can she realise that a man cannot live a make-believe? I’m afraid she cannot.

The only thing she does is merely living and speculating and acting. Acting us her life, after all, and she turns her life into a performance hall for her to take the leading part in. It is hard to say if she really acts or lives artificially, but whatever she does, she does in a half. It’s like a rag doll that cannot sit and stand.

Stella Kowalski is something completely different, but she is cast of the same mould. There is no other way it could have been, for they both belong to the same epoch and the same voices speak to them. Belonging to different layers of society creates an illusion of two completely different people, but like all illusions, it dissolves as you take a look at the problem from another angle.

Her younger sister, her flesh and blood, literally, is a striking contrast to the soft and artistic lady. With a background being different and a bit more prosaic, she seems to stand on her feet better than the artistic sister, but, since she has always been used to the ideas implemented to her by the society she was living in, the society of farmland and rural life, she was too hasty to marry for good.

Her husband dominating her and regarding her in the rudest way, she got desperate and segregated in her own world of chores and housekeeping. The life she was living has broken er, too, and she turned into a wreck of a person, just like her sister has.

Despite the difference in the character and the destiny, the women depicted in the play are both desperate and broken. They have left their hopes long forgotten, and their lives are doomed to be senseless and full of misery.

However, they are facing it courageously. They are trying to get hold of the situation, and this struggle destructs them step by step.

The next idea that comes in question about A Streetcar Named Desire is the long-run conflict between the Old and the New South.

What made the Old South were the agriculture and the plantations that helped the country to develop. As the Civil War ended, the South, the agriculture laid at rest and the technological progress creeping into its body, has started to become foreign to people who have known it since the day they were born.

It was a clash of cultures that made the Old South, used to be prolific and prosperous, look so miserable and poor at the beginning of the new era. Tennessee managed to show it with the best of his talent, reprinting the spirit of the dying dreams in his play. It was the conflict of the dream that had died unborn.

Promising a new, better life and a new wonderful world, the new ideas led the South to the state of poverty and misery at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is important to admit, however, that during the Great Depression times all the US were suffering on and the same problem, but the northern states managed to recover much faster, due to their technical development and that they were prepared for the new way of living much better than their southern counterparts.

In fact, the self-contained and self-sufficient South is an epitome of patriarchal society (Fang 103)

That is also the clue to the characters of the play. Blanche, a woman of a noble Southern descent, is certainly the one who is supposed to be always prosperous, she is not used to a busy lifestyle of the North and she cannot think of something that does not fit er ideas of being a lady. She is so – so unaware of what a life in the New South might mean.

Blanche shows her courage by stepping into the new environment and begins her adventures in the new world full of evils and danger. However, her ignorance of the complexity of the reality in the New South, she fails to foresee the force that shatters her dream and finally destroys her. (Yuehua 88)

This is also the conflict of perceptions that takes the lead characters of the play so far from what can be called a life. The characters of the play have absolutely different world pictures, and that complicates things in the worst way. The opposition of what Blanche expects a life to be, the ideas of Stella and her own misconceptions about living a life, and of what a real life is, stir a tragedy within the play.

The characters are doomed to make the mistakes that will ruin their lives, and they are actually aware of the fact that they are doing them, but they cannot think of another way to act, and that is where the key to all their miseries is.

The constant constraint that the play sets is due to the conflicts that arise between Blanche and Stanley. The problem is the culture clash, and thus the problem is unceasing. The quarrels between the two characters are basically the quarrels between the two different societies, two different universes that can never meet.

Every single topic that Blanche touches upon is a subject of Stanley’s mocking remarks. Starting from their short talk on the alcohol: “ Blanche : No, I – rarely touch it.” Stanley Kowalski : “Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often,” to something more meaningful and serious. But whenever they talk, they would always get it to debates that grow into a big conflict. It is either that Blanche does not hesitates to answer Stanley when he starts grumbling about something, or the clash of their cultures, but whenever some of them starts talking, the other contradicts.

Stanley : I have a lawyer acquaintance who will study these out.

Blanche : Present them to him with a box of aspirin tablets.

Blanche’s refined manners, her lady-like lifestyle and her attractiveness mixed with boldness make it unbearable for Stanley to listen to her wits without answering in turn. It is clear and obvious that the worlds that they live in cannot coexist side by side – they will explode because of their unlikeness.

Stanley. If didn’t know that you was my wife’s sister I’d get ideas

Blanche. Such as what?

Stanley. Don’t play so dumb. You know what!

Those people are getting on each other’s nerves, and they cannot be accustomed to living together. That is where the conflict of the contraries clashes.

Stanley. Where are the papers?

Blanche. Papers?

Stanley. Papers! That stuff people write on.

As you read the play, you can hear something rattling. These are the dreams getting shattered, the dreams of Blanche and Stella, and of thousands of people like them, from all layers of society and of any descent. Those dreams born on the day the people were given the hope are the reminiscence of the past days of a stable and calm life, when people knew there was someone they could rely on.

With the state of affairs that came in 30ies, people no longer had a sufficient backup. Neither had Blanche, or Stella. The author plays with the names of the characters, Blanche for “white” and Stella for “star”, knowing that there would be no wishing stars for them, and that the white color as the symbol for purity and dreams coming true has been soiled so bad that nothing pure has been left:

Blanche DuBois, being French by extraction, tells Mitch that her last name “means wood and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods”. She even goes on and compares it to an orchard in the spring. (Sontag 5)

The “neurotic and wistful Blanche DuBois” (Kuhn 241) is broken as she can be, living desolated in the new world.

One more idea of making the incompatible things meet touches upon the relationships between the leads.

A brute that Stanley Kowalski is, he brings the dreams of Blanche down without even thinking what harm and pain that may cause her. He acts the way he is used to, the way his culture makes him to, and though with Stella it is rather easy, since she is used to his domination, it is harder with Stella. She does not want to believe him, but the stone cold facts make her subdue, and she gets broken. Stanley acts as a barbarian, crushing people’s lives and tearing their dreams apart just for his own fun and satisfaction.

Stanley has brought the harsh light of reality onto all of Blanche’s carefully crafted illusions. He realizes Mitch cannot marry Blanche now. He plans to force Blanch out of his home in a humiliating way, by degrading her. (Vaughn 81)

That is something that even he can hardly do anything about. It is in his blood. And it is the environment which he lives in that has made him act like that. He is used to give commands and orders, for women to follow:

Blanche. Poker is fascinating. Could I kibitz?

Stanley. You could not. Why don’t you women go up and sit with

However, the fact that it was the society that made him be what he was does not make his fault lesser. He is a beast, as far from being a human as possible, with base instincts controlling him.

Stanley : What do you think you are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said – “Every Man is a King!” And I am around here, so don’t forget it! [ He hurls a cup and a saucer to the floor ] My place is cleared! You want me to clear your places?

As the twisted truth that he took for granted was turned into ashes, used to expressing his grief with his anger, Stanley treats the wife and her sister in the most cruel and mischievous way.

“Garbage is being collected” and “someone is cleaning the front of a store with a hose”, what shows the great symbolism of the play. Directly after the rape, dirt and garbage is removed. In connection to the scene before, one can come to think that this already gives a hint to Blanche’s leaving, because this also suggests the interpretation that Blanche is seen as dirt or garbage by people she lives with. (Hurst 5)

The conflict between the two, Stanley and Blanche, is literally tearing the play apart. Totally incompatible with Blanche, Stanley destroys her world deliberately, to keep safe his one.

Next to her awful husband, there is Stella Kowalski. She is devoted to her husband like a dog, literally, not because he is superior, but because it is in her nature to play the part of a slave. Her mild and kind ways are not much of a virtue, but the result of her primitiveness and her physical passions dominating over the spiritual ones. She is a mate, not a woman in the very sense of the word. Craving for the physical relationship and indulging into the life which is deprived of any sense but is merely existence.

Stella Kowalski, in A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), is superior in background and personal endowments to her mate, but she subordinates herself to his way of life because they have a satisfying sexual relationship. (Blackwell 10)

Finally, there is one more character to discuss. It is Eunice, a woman who lives next door to the family of Kowalski. This is the woman who Blanche runs for protection from Stanley to. Eunice has witnessed a lot of frightful scenes from the Kowalski family life, but she does not want to intrude, thinking it is not her business.

The very indifference and not only the unwillingness, but the impossibility of doing anything good to protect people from injustice, cruelty and violence have been depicted in this woman. In fact, the author emphasizes that there is no place for women in the New South but the place of a servant to a man.

Women are annoyance, but are needed in life to fulfill the needs of food preparation and sex. (Walker 13)

The conflict between Stanley and Blanche does not seem to end somewhere. It takes both characters to the place where their cultures clash in an ever-lasting conflict. In spite of the fact that people are supposed to search for compromises, Stanley and Blanche will never reach the one, for they are way too different. With all the respect to the cultures that they represent, they will never be able to understand each other. And there is hardly anyone’s fault about it.

The dreamy world of Blanche that is being broken by the rude grasp of Stanley’s hands is far too fragile to stand the harsh reality. Meanwhile, Staley will never be able to see the world the way that Blanche does – this is where his poor imagination comes to an end. The tragedy of the two worlds that will never meet is what Tennessee speaks about, and he speaks more than convincing.

Reference List

Blackwell, Louise. (1970) Tennessee Williams and the Predicament of Women . South Atlantic Bulletin. Vol. 35. No.2. Print.

Fang, Wei. (2008) Blanche’s Destruction: Feminist Analysis on A Streetcar Named Deisre . Canadian Social Science. Vol. 4. No 3. Print.

Hurst, Valerie. (2009) Tenessee Wlliams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” – Contrasting the Play with the Movie from 1951 directed by Elia Kazan . Germany: Druck und Bildung: Books on Demand GmbH. 2009. Print.

Kuhn, Annette and Radstone, Susannah (1994). Leigh, Vivien. The Women’s Companion to International Film . California: University of California Press.

Schweke, Jessica. (2007) The Reception of the American Dream in Tennessee Williams’ Play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ . Stuttgart: Green Verlag.

Simon, John. (1992) From Loesser to Lasers. New York Magazine . 27 Apr. 25 (17). NY: New York Media, LLC.

Smith, Andrew. (2007) Gothic Literature . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Print.

Sontag, Ilona. (2009) Reality and Illusion in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Germany: Druck und Bildung: Books on Demand GmbH. Print.

Vaughn, Sally R. (2005) Gender Politics and Isolation in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire. Denton, Texas. Print.

Walker, Christine. (2005) The Alienation and Estrangement of the Female Characters in the Plays of Tennessee Williams. California. 2005. Print.

Yuehua, Guo. (2007) An Analysis of the Conflicts in Thunderstorm and A Streetcar Named Desire . Canadian Social Science. Vol. 3. No. 3. June. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2020, July 1). A Streetcar Named Desire: The Passion of Blanche. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-streetcar-named-desire-the-passion-of-blanche/

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IvyPanda . 2020. "A Streetcar Named Desire: The Passion of Blanche." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-streetcar-named-desire-the-passion-of-blanche/.

1. IvyPanda . "A Streetcar Named Desire: The Passion of Blanche." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-streetcar-named-desire-the-passion-of-blanche/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "A Streetcar Named Desire: The Passion of Blanche." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-streetcar-named-desire-the-passion-of-blanche/.

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A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanche’s flaws and her ultimate downfall amy wesson 11th grade.

In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, despite Blanche Dubois’ desire to start fresh in New Orleans, her condescending nature, inability to act appropriately on her desires, and denial of reality all lead to her downfall. Blanche believes that her upper class roots put her above the “commoners” she spends the summer with, which gives her a pretentious attitude that bothers other characters. Desire, a main theme of Streetcar, acts as a precursor to negative outcomes in Blanche’s past and time spent at Elysian Fields. Blanche also lives in a fantasy world, finding herself entangled in lies she tells others and herself. These flaws in Blanche’s character cause her eventual destruction.

The distaste Blanche has for “commonness” is present from the beginning, and is condescending and offensive to others. Blanche is surprised upon her arrival to Stella’s home in Elysian Fields, which is described by Williams as “poor, but, unlike corresponding sections in the American cities, it has a raffish charm.” (13) When she finds Stella, she demands to know why her sister lives where she does. “Why didn’t you let me know … That you had to live in...

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A Streetcar Named Desire: a Tragic Hero

This essay will analyze the character of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” as a tragic hero. It will explore her complex personality, her tragic flaws, and the circumstances that lead to her downfall. The piece will discuss how Blanche embodies the elements of a tragic hero and how her story reflects broader themes of reality, illusion, and societal change. PapersOwl offers a variety of free essay examples on the topic of A Streetcar Named Desire.

How it works

• 1 Introduction
• 2 Conclusion
• 3 Work Cited

Introduction

Tennessee Williams, also known as Thomas Lanier Williams, was an American play writer. He is considered among the three foremost playwrights of the 20th century. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi. After college, he moved to New Orleans, a city that would inspire much of his writing. Tennessee Williams wrote his play “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1947. This was a period of rebuild after World War II. This play caught a lot of the audience off guard because it was not normal to write such topics during this time frame.

This play was probably the most revealing play ever written from what I read and base during the time it was made. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, this well-known drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois as she leaves a small-town of Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski, and her husband, Stanley, in New Orleans. Blanche’s flirtatious Southern-belle presence causes her problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a violent relationship, leading to even greater conflict in the Kowalski household. Ever since Blanche found out her husband was talking to man and committed suicide, she was not the same. This all made her act out differently in life.

A tragedy highlights a serious drama in which the protagonist (usually of noble position) suffers a series of unhappy events that end in catastrophic: deaths, spiritual breakdowns, and etc. Essentially, tragic characters are often efficient in their ability to withstand suffering, courting and circumscribing their individual destruction. Concerning the definition of tragedy and a tragic character, Tennessee William’s Blanche Dubois in “”A Streetcar Named Desire”” play befits the definition as she mordantly leads herself in experiencing her downfall. Throughout the play, Blanche demonstrates the aspect of being misplaced as she tore’s herself away from the image she is. Blanche hides her true self from the world as a result of the standards imposed by society on women based on societal and moral obligations to be considered a good woman. Even though she paints a completely different image of herself which she projects to the world, she continually is cruelly ripped of that image through different events which result in her demise. The play embodies the character of Blanche Dubois as she struggles with financial insecurities, loneliness, and guilt in playing her role as the tragic protagonist.

In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tennessee William exemplifies the character Blanche Dubois as one who undergoes several tragic flaws. Blanche suffers from her inability to overcome her haunting past and her desire to become someone else in addition to overcoming the memories from the cruel animalistic treatment that she had to sustain from Stanley. It is saddening that Stella, her sister, plays a significant role in her downfall. Following her experience on these overwhelming factors, Blanche eventually experiences a tragic breakdown. Blanche is unable to overcome her past since she is not willing to own it and accept what happened. Blanche was passionately in love with Alan before she discovers that Alan was gay and consequently disregarded her feelings for her inability to stomach the news. Blanche goes ahead to reveal to Alan how much disgusted she was upon discovering he was gay which prompts Alan to go ahead and commit suicide. Blanche, thus, could not overcome her level of guilt as she considered herself to be behind Alan’s act of ending his own life. Ever since the day he committed suicide, she makes this the reason why she acts the way she does. She shouldn’t go around selling her body for pleasure knowing she is a school teacher. Also, her incident with fooling around with a seventeen-year-old from the school should have had a more severe consequence than just being exempt from teaching. She should have been put in jail or giving help knowing she isn’t right.

Repeatedly, Blanche had to lie to others to establish a righteous image for herself. Her ability to lie acted as a masquerade in hiding her reality which she considered to be sinful and dirty. Blanche not only lied about why she had to leave Laurel but also lied about her age, promiscuity, and alcoholic behavior. When Stanley asks her if she prefers a shot of alcohol she states, “No, I—rarely touch it” (Williams 26). Because she is unwilling to confront her reality, she decides to hide in illusion. This becomes one of her most prominent tragic flow for if she acknowledged her past, she could have been able to salvage her sanity. If Blanche decided to be truthful to herself and those around her from the beginning, she most likely would have been able to survive redemption. Upon finding that everything Blanche said was nothing but fabricated lies, Mitch is unable to trust her again. Blanche admits her guilt by stating; “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic!” insinuating that she is not comfortable with being real but wants to fake everything in establishing a picture in her world of illusion (Williams 145). Blanche admits to misinterpret things to people and confirms before Mitch that she does not tell the truth but rather what she feels should have been the truth. She also does not find this sinful as she tells Mitch “if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it.”

The fact that Blanche feared lights evidence that she feared reality and placing her life on the known. Blanche confesses that Alan’s death took away her light with him out of her living self. Blanche states that “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this.” (Williams 115) Even though Blanche desired light, she never thought she would ever be able to achieve that. Moreover, her desire for gentleness and kindness was always out of her reach since she did not have a supportive family. Her intention in seeking to belong also did not work out in her favor since she consistently lied to her friends. Mitch should have known from the moment when he first met Blanche that she was not right. Every time they hang out together it had to be at night or somewhere dark because she didn’t want him to see that she lied she was older and not all that pretty. This shows she has no satisfaction in herself and brings herself down due to her past experiences.

As evidenced above, Blanche experiences numerous things which solidify her as a tragic proponent. Blanche is a tragic hero as despite being known for being dignified, she has a flaw which leads her to her downfall. Blanche refuses to own up her true self and hides in an illusion image she paints for herself with an attempt to match up the society’s definition of a good woman. She ends up losing the people she loves through lying and continues to lie hoping she will retain the few people she still can interact with. Notably, every hero has experienced a tragic flow which ultimately brought about their downfall just like Blanche Dubois who makes a fatal flow of judgment errors which work out with external forces and fate to bring about a tragedy.

• Williams, Tennessee. “A Streetcar Named Desire”: [a Play.]. New York]: New American Library, 1947.”

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Plays — A Streetcar Named Desire

Essays on A Streetcar Named Desire

Choosing the right essay topic is crucial for your success in college. Your creativity and personal interests play a significant role in the selection process. This webpage aims to provide you with a variety of A Streetcar Named Desire essay topics to inspire your writing and help you excel in your academic pursuits.

Essay Types and Topics

Argumentative.

• The role of gender in A Streetcar Named Desire
• The impact of societal norms on the characters' behaviors

Paragraph Example:

In Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the portrayal of gender dynamics is a central theme that sheds light on the power struggles and societal expectations faced by the characters. This essay aims to explore the significance of gender in the play and its influence on the characters' decisions and relationships.

Through a close examination of the gender dynamics in A Streetcar Named Desire, this essay has highlighted the complexities of societal norms and their impact on individual lives. The characters' struggles serve as a reflection of the broader societal challenges, prompting us to reconsider our perceptions of gender roles and expectations.

Compare and Contrast

• The parallels between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski
• The contrasting symbols of light and darkness in the play

Descriptive

• The vivid imagery of New Orleans in the play
• The sensory experiences portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire
• An argument for Blanche's mental state and its impact on her actions
• The case for the significance of the play's setting in shaping the characters
• Reimagining a key scene from a different character's perspective
• A personal reflection on the themes of illusion and reality in the play

Engagement and Creativity

As you explore these essay topics, remember to engage your critical thinking skills and bring your unique perspective to your writing. A Streetcar Named Desire offers a rich tapestry of themes and characters, providing ample opportunities for creative exploration in your essays.

Educational Value

Each essay type presents a valuable opportunity for you to develop different skills. Argumentative essays can refine your analytical thinking, while descriptive essays can enhance your ability to paint vivid pictures with words. Persuasive essays help you hone your persuasive writing skills, and narrative essays allow you to practice storytelling and narrative techniques.

Reality Versus Illusion in The Streetcar Named Desire

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How Blanche and Stella Rely on Self-delusion in a Streetcar Named Desire

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An Examination of The Character of Blanche in a Streetcar Named Desire

The flaws of blanche and why she ultimately failed, analysis of stanley kowalski’s role in tennessee williams’ book, a streetcar named desire, analysis of blanche and stella relationship in a streetcar named desire, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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The Concealed Homosexuality in a Streetcar Named Desire

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December 3, 1947, Tennessee Williams

Play; Southern Gothic

The French Quarter and Downtown New Orleans

Blanche DuBois, Stella Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski, Harold "Mitch" Mitchell

1. Vlasopolos, A. (1986). Authorizing History: Victimization in" A Streetcar Named Desire". Theatre Journal, 38(3), 322-338. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3208047) 2. Corrigan, M. A. (1976). Realism and Theatricalism in A Streetcar Named Desire. Modern Drama, 19(4), 385-396. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/497088/summary) 3. Quirino, L. (1983). The Cards Indicate a Voyage on'A Streetcar Named Desire'. Contemporary Literary Criticism, 30. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1100001571&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00913421&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E8abc495e) 4. Corrigan, M. A. (2019). Realism and Theatricalism in A Streetcar Named Desire. In Essays on Modern American Drama (pp. 27-38). University of Toronto Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781487577803-004/html?lang=de) 5. Van Duyvenbode, R. (2001). Darkness Made Visible: Miscegenation, Masquerade and the Signified Racial Other in Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll and A Streetcar Named Desire. Journal of American Studies, 35(2), 203-215. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/abs/darkness-made-visible-miscegenation-masquerade-and-the-signified-racial-other-in-tennessee-williams-baby-doll-and-a-streetcar-named-desire/B73C386D2422793FB8DC00E0B79B7331) 6. Cahir, L. C. (1994). The Artful Rerouting of A Streetcar Named Desire. Literature/Film Quarterly, 22(2), 72. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/7040761d75f7fd8f9bf37a2f719a28a4/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=5938) 7. Silvio, J. R. (2002). A Streetcar Named Desire—Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 30(1), 135-144. (https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/jaap.30.1.135.21985) 8. Griffies, W. S. (2007). A streetcar named desire and tennessee Williams' object‐relational conflicts. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4(2), 110-127. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aps.127) 9. Shackelford, D. (2000). Is There a Gay Man in This Text?: Subverting the Closet in A Streetcar Named Desire. In Literature and Homosexuality (pp. 135-159). Brill. (https://brill.com/display/book/9789004483460/B9789004483460_s010.xml)

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Review: ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at Paramount has all of that Tennessee Williams pain

“I am not one who can find in Mr. Williams’ farewells the ray of light called hope,” Claudia Cassidy wrote in this very newspaper some 75 years ago. “As ‘The Glass Menagerie’ dimmed its candles on desolation, so ‘Streetcar’ opens the doors of the madhouse to a woman who only by the grace of God will be mad when she enters them.”

Indeed. Those words of the late, great drama critic — who adored Tennessee Williams and jump-started his career — always ring in my ears when I review Williams’ plays, especially “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which now can be seen in a truly wonderful little staging at the Copley Theatre in downtown Aurora, a production of sufficient artistry as to be well worth a train or a drive out to the western suburbs for city-based aficionados.

It’s part of the Paramount Theatre’s so-called Bold Series, a weird moniker for one of the great classics of American drama, now some 78 years old. The intention, I think, is to prepare audiences for not seeing a musical, even though this production is filled with all kinds of rich melodies.

“Streetcar” has not been seen much of late in Chicago; the last truly memorable production was David Cromer’s staging at Writers Theatre in Glencoe in 2010.  This one is right up there with that gobsmacker.

Paramount’s “Streetcar” is from the gifted veteran director Jim Corti, the man who has elevated big-scale musical productions in west suburban Chicago, and who clearly has been itching to try something different. He co-directs here with Elizabeth Swanson. As Blanche, Corti and Swanson have cast Amanda Drinkall, a highly accomplished Chicago actress known for (among others) “Venus in Fur” at the Goodman Theatre, “Othello” at Court Theatre, and Robert Falls’ valedictorian staging of “The Cherry Orchard” last year.  Stella is Alina Taber, who I last saw (believe it or not) as a fine Rizzo in Drury Lane’s “Grease.” Stanley is Casey Hoekstra, a veteran of American Players Theatre in Wisconsin.  This is a highly skilled cast, all palpably hungry to wrestle with these roles.

I had a sense this “Streetcar” was going to be really good when I first saw Taber’s face as Hoekstra’s Stanley entered. Blanche may depend on the kindness of strangers but “Streetcar” depends on Stella being so sensually consumed by all that Stanley has to offer her that she sells her sister down the river.

“Could anyone forget that last “Streetcar” scene?” Cassidy wrote of the the play’s first staging. “Pretentious, promiscuous Blanche of the pitiful airs and graces, who has found that the obverse of death is desire, is raped by her potent hulk of a brother in law, and her sex-obsessed sister has her committed rather than admit the truth.”

Cassidy hated Stella and felt deeply for Blanche. I think that’s because the critic saw herself in the poor woman, and also thought her beloved Williams resided there, too, forever pursued by his demons. You certainly feel Drinkall agrees — her Blanche has this wonderfully relentless quality, a existential kind of determination to keep powering on with all of her self-constructed artifice on pain of death. This is such a hard role to pull off nowadays and Drinkall is just spectacular.

If you read John Lahr’s biography of Williams, you come away believing that Williams had plenty of Stanley in him, too, and that idea is also richly reflected here. Hoekstra’s Stanley is as needy as he is cruel and violent, a disturbed man-child chaos agent, bringing anguish to two vulnerable women.

As the lynchpin of the play, Taber makes the case that Stella is only pursuing what she wants out of her adult life, which after all is a product of her rough youth. Until Blanche shows up, she’s happy.

But a kid coming? How would Stanley have coped with that, Blanche or no Blanche, I always wonder.

Paramount’s show doesn’t come with the typical Big Easy soundtrack, nor does it traffic in the standard sweaty sensuality, as advertised in the marketing materials.

Sex here is an act of both destruction and survival, as Williams knew and Cassidy hated to admit.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

[email protected]

Review: “A Streetcar Named Desire” (4 stars)

When: Through April 21

Where: Paramount’s Copley Theatre, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Tickets:  $40-$55 at 630-896-6666 and paramountaurora.com

©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.