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How Does A Streetcar Named Desire Change Stella's Identity

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The way people grow up affects the person that they are today. Not only does it affect them but it also affects the shaping of their own identities. While reading A Streetcar Named Desire and “A Daily Joy to Be Alive” we saw many different ways that their identities are changing by their change in actions or the way they talk. Not only did we see the changing of their identities in many ways we also saw it in not just one but many characters. I would like to start with Stella from A Streetcar Named Desire. Stella has completely changed throughout the whole book with her identity. From the very beginning Blanche states “What are you doing in a place like this?” (Scene 1 page 12) to her sister, Stella. What Blanche says in this sentence is showing …show more content…

She has completely changed herself from how she was raised throughout her childhood and even got married to a mentally and physically abusive guy, Stanley. Not only has she changed her identity by changing herself but she also changed herself by marrying someone she knows isn't good for her which can affect her identity. Next is Stanley, husband to Stella and enemy to Blanche. Stanley has shown his true identity from the beginning. Not only was Stanley physically and mentally abusive to Stella he also shaped himself into being manipulative towards Blanche as well. In scene three Stanley gets angry at Blanche for her music on the radio and Stanley runs in to throw the radio out the window. Not only does he throw the radio out the window he also gets angry at Stella for defending her sister. In conclusion to that Stanley ends up hitting Stella. Towards the end of scene ten Stanley rapes Blanche, his own wifes sister. Throughout the whole book Stanley has been an enemy towards Blanche ever since she arrived, he has made her own sister turn her back on her. Concluding, Stanley has shown to what extent of shaping his own identity he is capable of by completing these actions all throughout the …show more content…

Blanche has always tried to get rid of her past but in nine Mitch confronts Blanche about her lies and says “But I was a fool enough to believe you was straight.” ( Scene 9 page 145). Blanche finally admits that she has lied this whole time but only because she is scared of being vulnerable truthfully. While reading this book Blanche has always seemed like a happy, joyful, and spontaneous person but deep down we all knew she was hurting and trying to find a way out of this dark hole she is in. I believe that she had good reason for lying and was shaping her identity in a bad way rather than good. With Stellas help Blanche is finally able to get help and I hope that she is able to turn her life around and start shaping her own identity for the better. Finally, I would like to talk about the poem “A Daily Joy to Be Alive.” The author has shown us the central idea of exercising his power to show that it is possible to shape your own identities. In stanza 1 lines 7-9 “and I must learn to fly again each day, or die.” The author talks about how you can choose the outcome of life and whether you get back up, fly, or if you stop trying, die. This really helps shape how you think about things and the extent someone is

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Stella serves as the buffer between Stanley and Blanche and tries to the best of her abilities to keep the hostility down by requesting Stanley to show kindness to her sister, scolding him for his rude behavior towards Blanche, and defending Blanche when Stanley insults her. She also defends Stanley and ignores his violent outbursts whenever Blanche tries to convince Stella of Stanley’s abusive nature and that she needs to leave him because of it. Stella acts as Blanche’s caretaker and enjoys waiting on her. She supports and encourages Blanche in her courtship with Mitch. She also understands Blanche’s delicate state of mind, but she did not realize how severe Blanche’s mind has developed.

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How Blanche has been treating relationships in her past affects how she treats the people around her. With how she goes about with their interactions she leads to sabotaging them for herself. Her confrontation with her husband homosexuality and her own words pushing him over the edge causes her to burden herself with the blame, the only release of which is the active search for short term relationships she has with other men. She fills in the void of a close partner with ones that can fit the role but never truly fulfill it. That manipulation of essentially disposable men skews how she sees relationships affecting her interactions with herself with the rest of the cast.

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Settling into a routine can bring peace and comfort, but it can be easily disrupted when events outside an individual’s control lead to uncertainty. The drama written by Tenesse Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, follows the protagonist, Blanche Dubois, who moves to live with her sister after tragic family deaths and losing her estate. The effects of Blanche’s presence in the Kowalski household lead

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Blanche believes inner peace and fulfilment through companionship can cover her sins and cleanse her reputation. Blanche experienced tragedy in her youth with the loss of her marriage. This has now led her to seek emotional fulfilment through relationships with men. But she does not realise that putting her dependence in men will lead to her downfall. Her fate is in the hands of others, including Stanley Kowalski.

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When Stella’s sister Blanche visits she picks up on his character quickly comparing him to caveman with animal like behavior. Threaten by Blanche’s influence on Stella, Stanley acts out by breaking glasses and even striking Stella even though she is pregnant. At the beginning Stanley tosses Stella, a

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When Mitch confronts Blanche, he asks her to be honest about herself she says, “I don’t want realism. I want Magic! I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be the truth” (Williams145). In these lines Blanche expresses her desire not to deal with reality. Blanche is being driven away by her delusions and desires she longs for.

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In life people have a plethora of choices, some you can control, others you can not. The way people respond can change the way their lives turn out. Choices in Blanche’s life were made for her and some she controlled. Outcomes of her choices shaped the way she acts now and how she responds to certain choices. In this book many events and desires led to outcomes that impact her life as a whole; her past, the different desires she has, and the outcomes shape the main plot of A Streetcar Named Desire.

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Finally, Blanche uses her power to throw out thinly veiled insults aimed at Stanley’s masculinity. As she describes how war-torn Europe has affected her life, Blanche makes a dig at Stanley’s physical appearance: “BLANCHE: I was so exhausted by all I’d been through that some of the colour must have gone out of my cheeks. I suppose that’s why I let him – make

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When Stella returns home, the two sisters fondly greet each other, but there is a sense of unease between the two. After a while, Stanley returns home. He finally meets Blanche and the two seem to have an amicable conversation until Blanche’s past is brought up. This causes tension between the two. Even though she wasn't on the best terms with Stanley, Blanche began to make herself at home.

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Stella's use of the adjective “pure” shows this idea of Blanche being promiscuous, it also could suggest Stella still sees Blanche as “pure” and innocent, no matter what Blanche does. Like a servant, she is obedient and subservient, and she does what her superior tells her to do. Although Blanche is “5 years older” than Stella, she sees her as the older sister, due to Stella’s protection over Blanche, even telling her husband that Blanche grew up “in different circumstances” from him. Blanche grew up in a world where everything was handed to her, and people bowed down to her as well, as Stella does now. She lives in a world with “magic,” where she can uphold her status as a woman, and she uses her femininity to control her situation and “circumstances”.

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We can infer that Blanche was intrigued by Stanley’s hyper masculinity at first and thinks that Stella really married a true “man.” Overall, Blanche breaks most traditional gender norms, by rejecting

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It is Blanche’s obsessive desire for a clean slate that ultimately drives her streetcar into destruction. With each lie she tells, the last lie becomes a reality to her, and once her delusional reality begins to fade, Blanche recedes into a dark hole where neither she or anyone else could ever truly see herself

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Eunice asks if she needs help figuring out where she needs to go and who she needs to see, allowing Blanche to become dependent on her, even just for a moment. Once Blanche finds Stella at the bowling alley with Stanley, she immediately draws Stella in as though she were tethered to a rope and attached to Blanche’s hip. “I am going to try to keep Blanche out…I don’t know how she would take it” (sc. 2). Stella becomes overwhelmingly worried about Blanche and her mental state and decides to put all her effort into Blanche. Stella brings her sister places and almost acts as a motherly figure to Blanche.

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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).

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