...Fantasy is a world that is welcome to the minds of all because it replaces worldly pain with something more enjoyable instead. In moderation, fantasy can be a healthy part of our lives. However, if the affinity for the fantastical is taken to the extreme, reality can be forgotten altogether. In life, all individuals have certain obstacles they must overcome that cannot be faced with illusion, no matter how painful the obstacle may be. Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire shows the tensions between reality and fantasy, common sense and imagination, and between male and female. The theme of reality versus fantasy is demonstrated by the DuBois sisters throughout the duration of the play. Blanche's immense universe based off of delusion is categorized by her pedophilic relationships, attempts to revisit her youth, and her obliviousness in the direction of reality of life. Stella is also unable to cope with the fact that her sister is suffering from mental illness. Both characters use fantasies and illusions to allow themselves to make life as they want it to be rather than how it really is. Blanche is portrayed as a delusional woman who creates a more preferable life by using her imagination to avoid the trials and tribulations of her physical existence. Blanche even admits that she finds living in fantasy more satisfying than living in reality. While talking to her newest lover, Mitch (long live Allan Grey), she admits that she would take the world of illusion over...
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...and brutal forces of society.” Compare and contrast how masculinity is explored in two texts you have studied in light of this comment. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the men are seen as cruel and bitter due to their harsh use of force to achieve what they want. Whereas in All New People, the men are perceived as the victims of society rather than its actual driving force. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley fulfils the duty of carrying the traditional patriarchal role of the breadwinner in the society of the 1950’s era. He is represented as masculine through the use of his dominance in the household, control over Stella and being the prime influence in his social group of friends, as they see him as someone they want to be. However, this is contrasted in the modern day text of All New People, as Charlie conforms to the image of the ‘new man’ by emphasising the different types of masculine forms in society and how they are widely accepted. He expresses this through the use of showing emotion and being more considerate of other people’s feelings, while being aware of his own. Tennessee Williams makes it prominent that in 1950’s post war America, men and women each had specific gender roles that they had to attain and carry out. Stanley’s physical sovereignty is embedded throughout the play due to way he behaves and his innermost desire to control everyone around him. “Well, you can hear me and I said to hush up!” “[yelling]: Sit down!” Stanley demonstrates his supremacy in the...
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...In A Streetcar Named Desire, the men are seen as cruel and bitter due to their harsh use of force to achieve what they want. Whereas in All New People, the men are perceived as the victims of society rather than its actual driving force. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley fulfils the duty of carrying the traditional patriarchal role of the breadwinner in the society of the 1950’s era. He is represented as masculine through the use of his dominance in the household, control over Stella and being the prime influence in his social group of friends, as they see him as someone they want to be. However, this is contrasted in the modern day text of All New People, as Charlie conforms to the image of the ‘new man’ by emphasising the different types of masculine forms in society and how they are widely accepted. He expresses this through the use of showing emotion and being more considerate of other people’s feelings, while being aware of his own. Tennessee Williams makes it prominent that in 1950’s post war America, men and women each had specific gender roles that they had to attain and carry out. Stanley’s physical sovereignty is embedded throughout the play due to way he behaves and his innermost desire to control everyone around him. “Well, you can hear me and I said to hush up!” “[yelling]: Sit down!” Stanley demonstrates his supremacy in the household through his aggressive tone when speaking to others, due to being the only way he can govern them as a way of illustrating his...
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...Blue Jasmine, movie by Woody Allen is a successful adaptation of the play “Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. Blue Jasmine presents Jasmine, main character, living in an entitled world who falls into nothingness due to the affair and the investment scheme of her husband. She, therefore, moves into her adopted sister, Ginger’s apartment situated in the downscale San Francisco. In hopes of starting a fresh life, Jasmine enters a job in a Dentist Office; however, she encounters frustration from the patients and harassment from her boss, Dr. Flickr. Jasmine finally quits the job, and instead seeks to find a man for a peace in her life. Although she finds a man, Dwight, she loses him due to her false reality and lies just like Blanche,...
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...will leave you blind to the things around you. The play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams creates a situation where A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the fantasy of Blanche, Stanley, Stella and Mitch. In the play the characters hide from their reality by acting as if the events they went through didn’t happen or were not important. The idea of reality vs. illusion seems to bring on the idea that these characters want to escape their world or they want to act blind they don’t have to face reality. One of the main characters that brings the idea of reality vs. illusion and escapism is Blanche. Blanche came from a wealthy background and lived in city named Laurel. When Blanche’s husband died and her family members began to die, she spent her money on their funerals and she ended up losing her home. Blanche losing her home can be compared to a princess losing her castle and money but in this story she didn’t have a handsome prince rescue her. She gained a bad yet truthful reputation for sleeping around with different men. She wanted to escape this so she went to visit her sister Stella. When she came to Stella’s house she acted as if everything in Laurel didn’t actually happen. This is when her fantasy began, in Stella’s town she acted as an old-fashioned woman who was proper and modest, this was not true. Her past revealed that she is not what she claimed to be. While in Stella’s town Blanche met a man named Mitch who is a friend of Stella’s husband. Blanche and Mitch’s...
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...new era where men are abusive to women, and blacks began to fit into the society slowly gaining the rights other races have had all along. This is described as the New South where people are always intermingling in a diverse manner. People in the Old South speak exceptionally formal and precise, as opposed to the slang that has been picked up in the New South. There are many reasons that contrast just how different these two eras became. The decay of the old south is present in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams. Blanche and Stella’s ancestors were wealthy plantation owners. In the old south majority of people were farmers. Although Blanche and Stella inherited everything from their ancestors, they didn’t have enough income to keep it all. They ended up selling all of it besides a small portion in which their ancestor’s graves laid. During the 1940’s in New Orleans, there is a constant theme of how society and class effects Americans in this era. A Streetcar Named Desire deals with these class differences in an abnormal way. At one point of view is a disappearing Southern belle that has outdated ideals about the upper class and those “beneath” her social class or rank. Neither Stanley nor Stella, put social class into concern when regarding their relationship. Both characters are exempt from their class boundaries all together. Since Stella is a southern belle and has qualities from the old South, its ideals almost seem as if it’s...
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...A Streetcar Named Desire Choose a play in which a central concern is clarified by the contrast between two characters.Discuss how the dramatist’s presentation of the contrast between the two characters adds to your understanding of this central concern. | * The theme of appearance versus reality is clarified by the differences between Blanche and Stanley. * Blanche represents illusion/false appearance – she tries to hide her past, her age. * Stanley represents reality – he is very honest and upfront about the type of person he is, he has no secrets. * They conflict throughout and finally Stanley crushes Blanche’s illusions (by revealing her secrets, confronting her about her lies and raping her) * Reveals the message of the theme – reality will win over illusion, you cannot live a lie. | Choose from a play a scene in which tension builds to a climax.Explain how the dramatist creates and develops this tension, and discuss the extent to which the scene has thematic as well as dramatic significance. | * Scene 10 (the rape scene) builds to a climax with tension being created through the conflict between Blanche and Stanley and the stage directions. * Blanche acts increasingly hysterical and irrational. * Stanley snaps after she calls him a swine and cruelly crushes her illusions, telling her she’s a liar. He becomes threatening and violent and eventually rapes her. * The menacing stage directions (sound, lighting, the streets of New Orleans) add to...
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...Shakespeare are two writers of different times who experienced vastly different events in their lives. Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 and while he was in University, his sister, Rose, had begun suffering from a mental illness. She later underwent a prefrontal lobotomy. We can see that his play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ reflects this experience, perhaps through the character of Blanche who is very frantic and hysterical. William Shakespeare lived through the time of change - England was a proud nation and full of power. This reflects through the male, dominating characters and the way women are submissive such as Hero and Claudio. Beatrice and Benedick, however, contrasts the typical relationship of that time as Beatrice doesn’t necessarily conform to the way a woman should behave, signifying a time of change. In both of these plays, we can see that men dominate and females are usually submissive to them. However, there are exceptions which are clearly shown through Beatrice in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ who has little regard for what is considered proper and is very outspoken and witty and rarely conforms to what is expected of her. This is also shown in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ through Blanche, who holds herself very high and thinks of herself above men. Both Blanche and Beatrice insult the men around them. It suggests that this is considered normal of both of these different times and as a result, men appear to hold higher power and importance over women, leaving them as...
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...Name Tutor Course Date Blanche De Bois versus Willy Loman Blanche Du Boise is a character in Tennesse‘s fictional plain by the title a street car named desire while Willy Loman is a fictional character in Arthurs miller play; death of a sales man. Blanche in the play street car named desire is an extremely complicated character who appears to have internal conflicts throughout the play. She appears to be from the upper class society as her name suggests and upon meeting her she appears cultured and sophisticated. Her dressing suggests purity and innocence but it doesn’t take long to realize she is pretending. Her attempt to cover up her drinking problem and promiscuous behavior all foreshadow her eventual destruction of her character. On the other hand Willy Loman is presented as a very simple man as the writer wants him to appear as a common man. His family background is not well known to him as we see he only has one memory of his father; when he was a toddler and was listening to him play the flute. His brother left him when he was three and only visited twice, while his mother died a long time ago. Blanche is a pretender.wen we meet her at the start of the story, she is dressed in white, a symbol of purity and d innocence. She is seen as a delicate, refined, and sensitive. She is cultured and intelligent. One when she found her young husband in a compromising situation with an elderly woman and later they went for a dance she tells him that he is disgusting. This leads...
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...book. However, it is possible to find the deception behind each personality within a book if one analyzes the character's beyond their superficial facade. Since the beginning of time, humans have always stumbled on a boarder between appearance and reality, using deception to mask weaknesses and obscure the harsh eye of society. By examining A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath the deception humans use in order to appear stronger in society are revealed. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, there is a dominant theme of deception portrayed by the three main characters in the play. Stella Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski, and Blanche DuBois all have simple personalities that are extremely skewed by the end of the book. Stella states "I'm not in anything I want to get out of," (Williams, 74). This gives Blanche a huge reality check, because someone she adores has accepted such an average life, and has given up in her pursue for perfection, even if most of it is imaginary. This deception also plays a huge role in Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare, through a continuos series of twists throughout the book and hidden motifs, that cannot be seen by the reader until the characters themselves accept the truth or the meaning behind it. The character traits that seem to define the characters in this play, are also their largest deceptions. "CLAUDIO -Can...
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...the World War Ⅱ, Tennessee Williams won lots of theatrical awards for his masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. As a result, Blanche, the heroine in the play, had been the focus point of the critics. This thesis tries to analyze profoundly the cause of the tragedy of Blanche from several aspects .As Williams T concluded, ‘The heroine Blanche was struggling between reality and fantasy, finally, her spirit was broken drastically under the beat of ruthless reality. She was the typical weak woman and victim in the patriarchal society. Her tragedy shows that the woman can’t escape the control of the typical patriarchal society in any case of resistances.’(Williams, 2).Some of William’s points will be elaborated in this paper which includes four parts. Chapter one serves as an “introduction”, which gives a general review of main characters in the novel. Chapter two, “Character of Blanche” ,Blanche’s being trapped by the conventionality; Blanche’s illusion about men; Blanche’s illusion about herself; her husband’s suicide; Stanley’s rude behavior and sense of dominance; Stella’s betrayal; Mitch’s desertion and the cold realistic world. In conclusion, it is the Blanche’s illusion about men ,herself and cruelty of Stanley that mainly causes her tragedy. Keywords: tragedy conventionality illusion 1．Introduction 1.1 Review of the protagonist In Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," each character represents something different. The play centers around two characters...
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...to higher education, working in predominantly male sectors, and by voting and lobbying for gender equality legislation. This allowed women to compete in the same spheres as men, resulting in a blurring of the once distinct boundaries between the male and female worlds. This intersection of the sexes had two effects: first, because women were no longer confined to domestic work, they had less incentives to remain in dominantly female circles; second, because women could operate in the male world as individuals, they had to learn to mirror male patterns of dominance or portray the traditional role of women. These combined effects resulted in the breakdown of sisterhood as women distanced themselves from female bonds in order to gain power in the male world. This fall of sisterhood is evident in literature, which I will convey through an analysis of three selections: A Streetcar Named Desire, a play by Tennessee Williams; “Recitatif,” a short story by Toni Morrison; and “Everyday Use,” a short story by Alice Walker. First, I will...
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...In the play of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams refers to human sexuality through the strong use of gender roles that represent the attitudes of post-war. Stanley sees himself as the provider and head of the household. He is a very dominant and in control figure throughout the play. Stanley wears denim, drinks beer and plays poker several times in the play to show his carefree and powerful attitude towards life. He sees Stella's role as a homemaker, who stays at home, cooks his meals, and generally takes care of him. From the very start of the play we see that Stella and Stanley seem pretty happy with each other, and also content in their gender roles we see this in scene one when Stanley returns from work, bellows, and hurls a pack of meat up to his wife. He's providing the day's dinner, and she laughs at his gruff antics, happy to make their meal and watch him go bowling with his friends. Stella in the play represents a very calm and relaxed woman. She cooks dinner, does the laundry and waits on her husband day after day. Stella is so wrapped up in Stanley’s appearance and sexually pleasing features that she doesn't seem to care about the way he treats her. During this time period women were very oblivious to the rude and harsh ways in which their husbands were treating them. All they wanted was to please them and to fulfil their every desire. Stella is a lost and powerless woman in society that is a slave to her husband. Stella represents most of the women...
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...strict puritanical code of behavior than men ever have”. Throughout history, women have often been viewed as the “weaker” gender and have been expected to behave a certain way. Women are seen as submissive and docile because of societal expectations, these expectations eventually became the societal norm. This “norm”, according to Sigmund Freud, is the repression of several archaic and primitive desires. Females have often had to repress these desires more than males. Males have been the dominating species throughout history and have expected women to repress their nature. For the most part, females kept their place in society and played their role but there were some who broke the norm. There have been serious consequences for females who have attempted to liberate themselves, especially when they attempt to do so sexually. Females have the ability to achieve their sexual liberation despite the patriarchal societies in which they live. Two females which have attempted to achieve sexual liberation are Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter and Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar named Desire. Both Hester Prynne and Blanche Dubois’s attempts to achieve sexual liberation were hindered by the patriarchal societies in which they lived in; making only one of them successful. The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850, takes place in the late 17th century in Massachusetts. At this time Massachusetts is a Puritan colony. A Puritan, according to Oxford Dictionaries, is a member of a group of English...
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...The literature from this semester from the 1920’s-1950s are examples of American Southern Literature that illustrate the struggle of the Old South. A time in American history of great change, national identity from WWI and WWII and the acceptance of minorities. During this time conflicts took place regarding race and society. These Issues of race, class and gender roles are due to inability to accept and embrace the new social order. In many of these texts read this semester involved issues of race and the way people in the south responded to it. In Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, the issue of race affects the story’s unnamed main character. The main character was invisible to the white higher class white men. The narrator’s skills were...
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