ipl-logo

Euphoria In A Streetcar Named Desire

1070 Words5 Pages

The idea of reaching a state of euphoria is one that humans naturally strive to achieve. Though such a state is near impossible to reach, or even keep over the course of a life time. This is so, as humans are complex beings. One requires a delicate sense of balance in their life to achieve a joyous life. The balance can be thrown off by a great deal of occurrences. An unwilling spirit, refusing to abandon their pride or an individual tortured by their past experiences can both tip the scales in a negative way. The natural sense of achievement and improvement involves perspiration to grow as a self-motivated individual searching to prosper and transform into a well-rounded individual that reflects on the happiness of a person. Happiness is due …show more content…

Having a tortured past, she often leaves her mental state in the hands of a bottle. With her messy past comes a deep routed need to hide it. The troubled woman is haunted by the memory of her lost husband Allan Grey, who had committed suicide after she had caught him with a man. “Blanche didn’t just love him but worshipped the ground he walked on!” (102.Tennessee Williams) Aside the obvious fact that witnessing the suicide of another human can have a scarring effect on any one, the devotee of Allan was left with a major hole in her life. Every time Blanche is reminded, or effected by Allan’s death the Varsouviana polka gets stuck in her head which is only halted by “the shot! It always stops after that.” (114) From the death of her husband and the loss of the plantation there is a lot of things that have left a physiological mark on her and give her the will to cover her past up. While living with the Kowalskis, if Blanche had not lived many different lives, and lied to her new acquaintances she could have had a normal life. Of course Stanley would act up eventually and reveal how he treats his wife Stella, but she could have finally had her happiness with

Show More
Related
224 Words | 1 Pages

Wait! There now, the shot! It always stops after that”(114).(A3) Due to Blanche’s extreme guilt and desire to get Allan back: she repeatedly hears the polka and the gunshot, showing that she is slowly descending into insanity.(B1)(TR) In addition to Blanche hearing the polka, she also shows she is going (R) mentally unstable by trying to cover the light.(B2)

Read More
1085 Words | 5 Pages

She also prefers keeping her past to herself because of all the problems she has had. She prefers for people to not find out what has happened and why she is the way it is. An example is when Blanche panicked because they took off the little paper covering the lamp which made the room dim and got pissed because she did not want to show how she looks. Stanley is shown to be the “manliest man” but he is unstable and irrational when he realizes what he has done when the damage has been done. For example, when Stanley physically abused Stella he realized what he had done when he was brought back to his senses.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

He desires a normal life with Stella, without Blanche in the picture. As told in A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, “After exposing all of Blanches shameful secrets and destroying her plans to marry Mitch, Stanley completes her violation and subjugation by raping her, which drives her to insanity” (A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Silvio). Stanley desires a normal life without Blanche so bad, that he completely broke her to get it. Stanley also wants to be desired.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

She brings this sense of superiority to Stella who unintentionally tries to distinguish her background from Stanley as well. Stanley recognizes the fact that Blanche looks down on him forcing him to assert his masculinity over her. Stanley’s dominance over the household and Stella is being questioned upon Blanche’s

Read More
1886 Words | 8 Pages

In A Streetcar Named Desire, there is an ongoing power struggle between Stanley and Blanche, which propels the narrative. Stanley has the power of masculine physicality and mentality whereas Blanche only has the power of her background, of which she feigns to be her class. As the battle between the two is predominantly over Stella, we begin to witness in scene 2, where Stanley openly accuses Blanche of hiding “legal papers connected with the plantation”. His aggressive nature, towards her, motivates the idea of his resentment towards her, as

Read More
733 Words | 3 Pages

A Daily Joy to Be A Streetcar Named Desire Our identities can be limited by our past experiences. A Streetcar Named Desire is a southern gothic play by Tennessee Williams and “A Daily Joy to Be Alive” by Jimmy Santiago Baca has a dark but hopeful mood. A Streetcar Named Desire follows Blanche Dubois as she attempts to reinvent a new identity for herself when moves in with her sister and her husband, but she ends up making trouble for everyone down in New Orleans.

Read More
1266 Words | 6 Pages

To hide her true self, Blanche restored to duplicity, coupled with her voracious desire and ubiquitous deception caused her a breakdown. In the following paragraphs, there will be more events that led Blanche to such end. One of the things that led Blanche to her downfall is the past. The past, where she was the reason why she lost her husband, Alan, he

Read More
1697 Words | 7 Pages

Stanley continues to impose his reality onto Blanche, which causes her more anxiety relying more and more on herself to create more of an illusion by creating an admirer for herself, saying that she ended it with Mitch because she does not deserve “deliberate cruelty”, and crating this alter ego for herself as being pure. While Stella is in the hospital, he and Blanche are left alone for the night as she continues bragging about her admiration coming from Sheep Hunt Leigh and how she just got a wire from him. Stanley catches her in her life, finally tearing apart Blanche's illusions. Although Stanley has been a threat to her through his suspicion and empowering masculinity over her, the last scene is where he finally takes final control over her, or symbolically where reality has a final triumph over her illusions. While catching her in the midst of her lies she reveals to Blanche that “[he’s] been on to [Blanche] from the start!”

Read More
652 Words | 3 Pages

He is verbally and physically abusive towards his wife, Stella, in order to establish his power over her. He is described as giving a ‘loud whack of his hand on her thigh’ to which she merely retaliates ‘That’s not fun, Stanley.’ Whilst ‘the men laugh’.   This shows how abusive behaviour towards women is normalised and accepted within this patriarchal society as the men simply choose to ‘laugh’ along with Stanley.

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

As soon as Blanche steps into the Kowalski household and meets Stanley, it is evident that her appearance is a threat to his superiority. Both characters attempt to establish dominance through their control over Stella, a minor character who exists mainly to deepen the contrast between Blanche and Stanley. In scene four, Blanche advises Stella to leave her abusive husband and attempts to influence her by saying “I have a plan for us both, to get us both—out!” (69).

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

In the avid pursuit of happiness, an individual can feel compelled to fabricate the truth about themselves in order to achieve the joy that they believe they deserve. The harsh truth of reality can force us to turn to the warmth of a fantasy to ease us in our search of contentment. Such is the case in Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where sisters, Blanche and Stella both lie to themselves and others in order to become satisfied with their lives. Through the eyes of the beholder, happiness is measured differently; to Blanche, happiness is measured in wealth, particularly a wealthy man, whereas to Stella, happiness is in the comfort of a husband whom she refuses to call abusive. When we are first introduced to Blanche, Williams

Read More
959 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1371 Words | 6 Pages

Stella is a prime example for this case as she constantly shifts her loyalty between Blanche and Stanley throughout the play. Scene 11 is the pivotal scene where Stella makes the final decision as to who to side with. The dialogue “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” suggests she believes Blanche’s story to some extent but is consciously choosing to think Blanche is lying in order to live peacefully with Stanley. Stella’s choice is symbolic of relationships which are made to conserve an individual’s existence. She carries a seed of doubt towards her husband however in order for her to survive especially when she bears a baby, Stella chooses Stanley, hence sustaining her placid lifestyle.

Read More
1547 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More
1397 Words | 6 Pages

Psychologist Sigmund Freud developed an idea that there is more than one aspect to the human psyche. The human psyche rather is structured into three separate parts including: id, ego, and superego. In a similar manner, Tennessee Williams has three main characters in his Southern Gothic play, A Streetcar Named Desire. In addition to the human psyche as the three mentioned categories, Freud introduced psychoanalysis, which is the belief that people could be cured through developing their unconscious thoughts or motivations into their conscious decisions, receiving insight (McLeod). Characters are shaped by their thoughts and actions, as this is present in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Read More

More about Euphoria In A Streetcar Named Desire

Related Topics

Open Document