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Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

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The character role of Blanche in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire was full of fantasy and delusion where Stella and Stanley started to live a life in romance. The place names were real, the journey foreshadowed Blanche’s psyche orientation throughout the play. Blanche’s desires had led her down paths of bad sexual relation and alcoholism, and by making contact with the Kowalski; she had crossed the limit. Blanche’s desire to escape made her to isolate from the world around her. By the end of the play, Blanche could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality. The controversy between fantasy and reality based on Blanche’s relationship with both other characters and the world around her. Blanche didn’t want to live real life she wanted …show more content…

When Mitch observed that Blanche was avoiding to expose her from bright light, he realized stories, Stanley had told him of her past. Mitch then compelled Blanche to confront her by standing under the direct light. When he told her that he did not care for her age, just her deceitfulness, Blanche responded by saying that she did not mean any harm she believed in magic, rather than reality. Blanche’s inability to tolerate light meant that her grasp on reality was also nearing to its end. In scene six, Blanche narrated past events of her husband, Allan Grey to Mitch. Blanche told that the bright light had been missing during her inconsequential sexual affairs with other men; she had enjoyed only in dim light not in the bright light. Bathing Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche bathed herself. Her sexual experiences had made her a hysterical woman, but these baths, as she said, calm her nerves. In light of her efforts to forget and shed her illicit past in the new community of New Orleans, these baths represented her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history. It was very hard for her to abolish the past, her bathing was never done. After beating Stella, Stanley used showers to get cool down. The shower relieved violent temperament; afterward, he left bathroom feeling relax and called out longingly for his

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It is what is haunting Blanche’s life, it is what has made her mentally unstable. Throughout the play, she has been hiding her past from people so she looks like

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Blanche’s final, deluded happiness suggests that, to some extent, fantasy is a vital force in every individual’s experience, despite reality’s inevitable triumph. This refers to her reality of how Mitch had came over to apologize to her, and she tells Stanley that she turned him down. This lie backfired, since Stanley knew exactly where Mitch was at this time. As well as Stanley saw through Blanches delusion of how she has received a wire, from Shep Huntleigh, inviting her to go with him down to the Caribbean cruise, in which Stanley later shuts down as

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Blanche acts as if her life is not falling apart and carries herself as the same girl from Belle Reve. She carries herself as the most sophisticated, classy, pure and innocent than everyone else, however later within the play the readers witness Blanche’s true nature. A promiscuous, manipulative, former aristocrat with a poorly hidden drinking problem. “She springs up and crosses to it, and removes a whiskey bottle. She pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down.

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Blanche is only trying to escape the trauma of her past and present. As Blanche's mental state continues to deteriorate, those around her make attempts to help. This is where the most striking contrast between Sethe and Blanche is found; those around Blanche do not offer the same support as those around

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III. Literary Device- Foreshadowing On page 111, Blanche was talking to Mitch about her current living conditions and she described to him the behavior of Stanley. Blanche said "It 's really a pretty frightful situation.

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There are several ways you could say Tennessee William uses the motifs of light and shadow throughout the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. One of the most obvious is how both are used to convey the difference between reality and the fantasy world some characters seem trapped in. Reality is represented by light, under it nothing can be hidden. Whereas staying in the shadows allow one to hide parts of themselves they wish to keep secret and create a false sense of reality, a fantasy of who they want to be. Williams also uses light to develop the character of Blanche, who struggles with her past and aging body.

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However the main conflict is Blanche’s inability to accept reality or her inability to let go of her past. Blanche sees herself above her sister’s life and carries a sense of entitlement that no longer fits her environment like it did in her past. Underneath, Blanche is a liar and Stanley is not. Stanley and Stella are able to able to admit what they are while Blanche is constantly trying to hide who she is. She is unable to come to her desire and sees herself superior to the people around her.

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This shows how someone can think they are doing a good job how hiding their true self, but actually, everyone can see through their persona. Blanche tries her best to make sure her appearances are well kept; she is completely oblivious to the fact that she has severe mental and emotional problems, due to the fact that her husband took his own life.

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In Scene 10, she deviously claims that she has just received a telegram from the millionaire, Steph Huntleigh, to explain why she is dressed up. At first, Stanley plays along, but once Blanche musters up the audacity to say that Mitch returned to their apartment seeking repentance, Stanley draws the line. He calls her out for her fictitious tales of her past, and states, “We’ve had this date from the start,” just before he maliciously rapes Blanche. Their natures root in primal, animalistic instincts, Stanley like a dirty hog, open and free concerning his sexuality, Blanche like a fox, sly and deceitful. Despite her incessant attempts to destroy her past, Blanche is unable to stop their sexual connection as she has had so many other men.

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(10.225). towards the end of the play Stella, Mitch, and Stanley play a role in imposing reality into her allusions. As Stella calls for the Doctor to pick Blanche up it rips her away from her fantasies with Shep Huntleigh. When Mitch reveals to Blanche that she isn't pure enough to take home to his

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When Blanche first comes to Stella’s house, she firmly demands Stella to “turn the over-light off!” as she cannot “be looked at in [the] merciless glare” (Williams 11). Although the light seems harsh, Blanche acts hardhearted and pitiless and could possibly be seeing herself in the glare. Blanche “cannot tolerate being seen in bright light” because she is “hypersensitive to her declining physical beauty” (Adler 30). In attempts to protect her own image, she buys a paper lantern to cover the harsh light in Stanley and Stella’s bedroom; Blanche’s mental state is “as fragile” as the paper lantern that protects her from her own reality (Adler 30).

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The Fight for Dominance In today’s society, gender norms convince men that unless they are able to control women, they are weak. Considered the inferior gender, women must find new ways to prove their own strength, whether it be through manipulation or their sexuality. The battle between the two continues as men strive to remain dominant, often by immoral means, and women attempt to gain the upper hand. In the screenplay, “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, the sexual tension and struggle for dominion between Blanche and Stanley is evident, and as the play continues, Blanche's promiscuity and Stanley's predatory nature foreshadow an inevitable confrontation.

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Blanche’s knowledge that she must attract men with her physical body is shown when she tries to get Mitch 's attention by undressing in the light so that he can see the outline of her body “Blanche moves back into the streak of light. She raises her arms and stretches, as she moves indolently back to the chair” (88). However, her sexual encounters quickly gained her a reputation that prevented many

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And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” Blanches magic is seen through her illusions and delusions. In Blanches world Mitch doesn’t fit however she has reached a point of intimacy by being honest about her first husband and the guilt she endures as she begins to share the painful moment of her life with him. Stanley’s intrusion ruins her plans of marriage with Mitch and yet again she had to retreat in the world of her delusions. Stanley who represents realism in this novel and play pops Blanche’s illusion bubble through seeing the realism in scene ten

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