A Streetcar Named Desire And The Bell Jar Analysis

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the main characters, Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski, share a great dislike and distrust towards one another, ultimately becoming the basis for the story’s conflict. Their common contemption stems from their contrasting personalities and backgrounds, their incompatibility of being able to function under the same environment, and inability to adapt to the situations they find themselves in. Although Blanche detests Stanley and the manner in which he behaves in, she realises that he is a necessary part for Stella’s life in New Orleans, an environment that greatly differs from the southern aristocracy that Stella and Blanche once lived in. Blanche expresses this idea by stating, “Oh,

Williams ' choice of having Stanley brutally unveil Blanche’s secrets contrapuntally with Blanche singing a sweet tune in the tub serves to expose Blanche and Stanley’s inner selves in order to create a strict contrast between the two. As soon as Stella mentioned Blanche soaking in the tub to Stanley after he entered, Stanley began to mock Blanche by mimicking her and saying, “Soaking in a hot tub?” (117). Stanley’s remarks persisted to the point where even Stella had to tell Stanley to “stop picking on Blanche” (118).

In this final project I am going to present costumes for the play “ Streetcar named Desire” written by Tennessee Williams in which the main character appears some imperfection but also gained a lot of admiration to the audience. The original play was set on late 1940s, New Orleans. Blanche DuBois arrives at her sister’s home, Stella in New Orleans hoping to start a new life after losing her Belle Reve mansion, her job, and her reputation in her hometown. During the play Stanley Kowalski, Blanche’s brother in law seeks to destroy Blanche’s character in New Orleans as well. His cruelty, merged with Blanche’s unstable, insecure character, leaves her mentally detached from reality by the play’s end.

This links to her inability to stop lying, even in this moment where she is confessing as it goes against what she believes, which is that she is of a higher class than this men. In line 36 she describes the “tub” the men are in as “such a filthy tub” (36) and the word “filthy” has connotations of more working and lower class jobs and connects to the motif of bathing as she is trying to cleanse herself of her horrid past, but this men are bringing it back with them into the tub. Williams creates these opposite lifestyles and social statuses as it gives us an insight into how different Blanche’s life has turned out, yet she can’t seem to let go of the past and her social status, which links to Williams’ mother’s inability to accept her different social status when they moved

These selections from the novel show how, similar to Myrtle, many women, both in the 1920’s and now, use their bodies to feel confident. Instead of relying on their intelligence and personalities, women rely solely on their sexuality and assets to set them apart from others. This thought was not only prevalent in the 1920’s, it still

Williams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.

. . he is also an expression of the brutality and social banality reduced to positivist tendencies” (53). To her mind, Stanley’s sexuality, for all its power and vivacity, is merely a function of the basic bestial, animal aspect of society. This lower class sexual expression is precisely what threatens to trample Blanche’s old southern identity. Blanche is powerless to stop his attack on her past by way of the present.

After having been performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in 1946, A Streetcar Named Desire brought about much controversy. At first it seemed that much of the controversy stemmed from the unpleasantness with which the subject was presented, such as the vulgar, unprecedented topics acted out on stage. George Jean Nathan, an original critic of the play, touched upon the vulgar manner of the drama, calling it “The Glands Menagerie.” (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire”) Perhaps the more pressing reason as to why this play was received controversially, however, is a result of its cynical nature.

On a daily basis men and women are lied to by strangers, friends, and even ones who they love and trust the most. Young Blanche is introduced to the story in the beginning of the play through leaving her hometown to come live with her sister Stella. As the play progresses and more information of the backstory on who Blanche is, is revealed the more the viewer sees that it is not all entirely true. She lies about key events in her life such as the passing of her husband, how she was fired, age, and even love interest that she has. As these lies continue Stella's husband (Stanley) starts to become aware of Blanche’ false life that she is telling not only himself but everyone else around them.

Tennessee Williams wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Williams, 1947) It is based in New Orleans a new cosmopolitan city which is poor but has raffish charm. The past is representing old south in America 1900’s and present is representing new America post world war 2 in 1940’s. Past and present are intertwined throughout the play in the characters Stanley, Blanche, Stella and mitch. Gender roles show that males are the dominant and rule the house which Stanley is prime example as he brings home food and we learn of one time when he got cross and he smashed the light bulbs.

A Streetcar named Desire written by American playwright Tennessee Williams is a Marxist play that depicts the socio economic status of the characters and people living during that time. The play was written in 1947, two years after the second world war. The historical time leading up to the Second World War known as the Interwar period from 1918-1939 was an era classified with economical difficulties for a majority of American citizens. After the new economic system based upon capital emerged succeeding the Industrial Revolution, the United States saw a massive prosperity in the early twentieth century only to be demolished by the stock market crash of 1929 also known as Black Tuesday (source). These unsuccessful stock markets were one of the signs that showed that the new system, which depended on an extensive labor force and an open and unregulated market, was not as reliable as previously thought, this period was known as the Depression.

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play.

The Role of Fantasy and Purpose in Individuals “I don’t want realism, I want magic”- Blanche DuBois (Williams 145). In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams presents readers with the acute presence of fantasy in individuals’ lives. Every character fabricates fantasies in his life to gloss over his struggles and forget each other 's flaws. A Streetcar Named Desire evaluates individual’s use of fantasy as a crutch to avoid the hard truths and give purpose to an empty life. Blanche DuBois, the protagonist of the story, uses fantasy to cope with her world crumbling around her.

A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis The late 1940’s were characterized by the emergence out of World War II that led to a dependence on the idea of The American Dream, which meant men were working harder to achieve a more comforting lifestyle and opportunity while women were still fighting the oppression of caused by unequal representation. This idealistic dream is illustrated throughout Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”, which has a rigid dichotomy between illusion and reality revealed throughout multiple characters and their dysfunctional lives that are a direct result between fantasy and actuality. Illusion is taken advantage of as an alternative to the unfair circumstances that the characters in “A Streetcar Named

The character role of Blanche in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire was full of fantasy and delusion where Stella and Stanley started to live a life in romance. The place names were real, the journey foreshadowed Blanche’s psyche orientation throughout the play. Blanche’s desires had led her down paths of bad sexual relation and alcoholism, and by making contact with the Kowalski; she had crossed the limit. Blanche’s desire to escape made her to isolate from the world around her. By the end of the play, Blanche could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality.