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Human Existence In A Streetcar Named Desire

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Milan Kundera once said, “For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?” In other words, authors use different methods in their writing to reveal truth about humanity and its place in society by revealing truths that answer the question of what human existence is. Tennessee Williams, a controversial post-modernism playwright, is an ideal representation of Kundera’s statement. Williams says that the “sense of the awful which is the desperate black root of nearly all significant modern art may be expressed by diseased and perverted and fantastic creatures” (Falk, 20). Or in other words, modern art is rooted by creating emotion that is shown through …show more content…

A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams’ most acclaimed play, epitomizes this theme. This play is a study of the mental and moral ruin of Blanche Dubois, a former Southern belle, whose innocent pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, when Blanche is visiting her sister Stella (Britannica, Williams). Blanche is a tragic character because she is more often living in her own fantasies than she is existing in reality. For example, Blanche fantasizes about a man named Shep Huntleigh who she claims can help her, and she proceeds to send a telegram to him. Shep Huntleigh does not exist in reality, but Blanche has herself convinced that he actually does exist. This instability is largely the result of her desire. When speaking with Mitch about the death of her husband Allan she says, “Yes, that’s where I brought my victims… Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with” (Williams, page 382). In this instance, Blanche uses her desire to escape the destruction of negative emotions, all the while causing more disaster for herself. Through these actions, she is seeking refuge from reality. She achieves this escape because giving herself to random men helps her to forget her pain. Therefore Blanche is being plummeted further into her own fantasies and causing more trouble for

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The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is about an emotionally unstable lady named Blanche. She moves in with her youngest sister and her husband because the landlord took the land away from Blanche because they could not pay for it anymore. After being their for a while Blanche starts remembering her horrible past which is something she was trying to do in the first place. The husband of Stella, Stanley Kowalski was also someone that made Blanche’s life miserable for complicating everything and harassing her in every possible way. Death is one of the most symbolic terms in this play.

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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,

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In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, the main character, Blanche DuBois, travels to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski. Throughout the play, sexulaity is seen as a strong motivator for many of the characters actions. Early in the play, Stanley is introduced as a particularly sexual character, “ Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence... He sizes women up with a glance, with sexual classifications…” (Williams 25).

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Tennessee Williams is acclaimed for his ability to create multi faced characters such as Blanche Dubois in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire. She comes to New Orleans after losing everything including her job, money, and her family’s plantation Belle Reve, to live with her sister Stella. During her time there she causes many conflicts with Stella’s husband Stanley and tries to get involved with the people there, all while judging them for their place in society, although she is imperfect too. Through her, Williams has created a complex character. She is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her own fantasies throughout the entirety of the play.

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A streetcar named desire was written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, in purpose to show the “declining of the upper class and the domination of the bourgeois middle class in the U.S.A. where the south agriculture class could not compete with the industrialization.” Blanche Dubois the protagonist of our story, a southern beauty that is trapped by the restrictive laws of her society. But she broke them, and eventually put herself in a state, where she had no job and no house. So she had to go to her sister, Stella and live with her and her sister’s husband, Stanley. While staying there, she created a façade for her to hide her flaws and kept acting as a lady, where she is anything but that.

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The reason behind why Blanche cannot get what she desires is because she is a liar, she lies to people which has them thinking that she is crazy. This is evident through "When she

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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

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She was upset over his life choices. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the street. This left Blanche feeling guilty and alone. She begins to have insecurities as to why she could not please her husband. Blanche also held the responsibility of taking care of all her sick family until they died.

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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.

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