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How Does Tennessee Williams Use Direct Characterization In A Streetcar Named Desire

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Tennessee Williams was a writer that had great success writing plays in the 1940’s. Some of Williams’ more well-known plays include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Because Tennessee Williams grew up with a strong attachment to his mother, his world became increasingly feminine, and he became negatively sensitized to masculine roles. (Panda 51) Through his dramas, Tennessee Williams has won many awards such as The Pulitzer Prize award. A Streetcar Named Desire is about a middle aged woman named Blanche DuBois from a small town in Mississippi. After taking a break from teaching, Blanche decides to stay with her sister and husband, Stella and Stanley Kowalski. They in a small apartment in New Orleans. Throughout the play, Blanche and Stanley have constant conflict which adds to Stella and Stanley’s already terrible relationship. Blanche has a very flirtatious personality that causes problems between Stanley and his friends. As her past catches up with her, Blanche tries to keep a stable mind but she 's slowly losing her mental state. In the drama “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tennessee Williams uses characterization of the main characters to convey theme of the desire. Two of the main characters, Blanche and Stanley, have …show more content…

In conclusion, “A streetcar named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, uses characterization of the main characters to convey theme of the desire and how it can influence and change someone’s personality. Because of the situations and arguments the characters get in, Williams is able show how desperate the characters are to get what they want. Stanley was willing to put his wife and his baby’s lives at risk, only to prove that he was the man of the house. Blanche ruined her chance of getting married because her promiscuous past caught up with her. Tennessee Williams uses his upbringing to show the theme of male versus female in many of his plays and it especially shows in “A streetcar named Desire”.

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