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Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams exhibits the worst of human nature. Stanley, the antagonist, best exemplifies the terrible qualities of humans. Stanley is brutal, animalistic, and possessive. Stanley’s malicious personality is seen through the poker night, his descriptions in the play, and the Napoleonic Code. Stanley’s brutal character is best shown through his many actions during the pokers night. The night begins with Stanley and his friends playing poker. After a while of playing poker, Mitch says,”I oughta go home pretty soon,” due to his sick mother (47). Although Stanley knew about his sick mother, he rudely states,”Shut up,” to Mitch (47). Stanley’s unsympathetic reply shows his callous nature, especially toward weak …show more content…

While talking to Stella about her abusive relationship with Stanley, Blanche states,”the only way to live with such a man is to-go to bed with him!” which shows his strong sexual desires(79). Just like an animal, Stanley has very powerful sexual desires. Also hitting Stella, Williams writes,”He throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife’s name,”(Williams, 66). In the last statement, Williams directly compares Stanely to a dog. This idea continues on page sixty-seven when Williams writes,”Then they come together with low animal moans.” Not only does this show Stanley’s animal like a character but his relationship’s animalistic characteristic as they moaned together. Through the playwright’s and Blanche's commentary on Stanley, both of their animalistic characters is …show more content…

Stanley is brutal, animalistic, and possessive. Stanley’s malevolent attributes are shown through the first poker night, his relationship with Blanche and Stella, and The Napoleonic Code. To continue with the Napoleonic Code, there are many differences between the real Napoleonic Code and Stanley’s. In the real one, it’s main focus is the freedom of man however in Stanley's it is the exact opposite and expresses possessiveness over a spouse. This paradox shows how a person can twist things in order to justify their own deeds such in the case of

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Stanley is a blunt, practical, and animalistic man who has no patience for subtleties and refinement. His animalistic character shows the moment he meets Blanche, when he, moving with “animalistic joy” (24), “sizes” Blanche up with “sexual classifications” and “crude image” in his mind (25). Under his stare, Blanche draws “involuntarily back” (25), a movement that foreshadows their later conflict and her subsequent demise. His practical and straightforward side shows when he interrogates Blanche about the sale of Belle Reve to make sure that his wife is not swindled. His straightforward, practical nature makes him “boom” out of impatience (46) and demands Blanche to cut straight to the point when she tries to talk in an indirect, subtle manner as befit a Southern gentlewoman.

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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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Stella’s sister, Blanche, sees through the illusion and can see how toxic the marriage really is. Stanley and Blanche come from distinctly different backgrounds, Stanley is from the working class while Blanche comes from wealth. Williams uses these two contrasting points of views on marriage, to show the issues of possessiveness, class, and sexism. When it comes to Stanley’s marriage to Stella, one of the most notable characteristics is how possessive Stanley is. An example of this is when Stanley found out that Blanche and therefore Stella, lost their estate.

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For Blanche, her changing relationships with Stanley appeared on Stella’s attitudes. As fastidious as she cried out “…I haven’t washed or even powdered my face and – here you are!”(Act I, scene 1) in her first meeting with Stanley, her pretentious manner represented the upper-class family background that both Stella and she used to share. Having this advantage, she disparaged Stanley as an animal that “he acts like an animal, has an animal habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!”(Act I, scene 4), trying to bring Stella to her side in order to stay in the house. Meanwhile, physically and mentally, Stanley was too tough to be dealt with.

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Question - What are some significant themes in your novel and how do these themes help us understand the world? Published in 1954, William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” (“LOF”) makes use of different themes in his novel such as primitive instincts, loss of innocence and fear. These themes help us understand modern society better. The novel delves deeper into how society would turn out without social etiquette or unspoken rules. For example, how society would break into chaos if people were to fall into their primitive instincts, and how fear could drive society to slowly descend into savagery and lose their innocence.

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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.

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In response to Stanley’s animalistic cry of her name, [her eyes go blind with tenderness…] showing her deep affection and sexual desire towards Stanley and above all demonstrating her desire to stay with him. However, Williams shows this to be affected by change as after the rape of Blanche, Stella comments that she ‘couldn’t’ believe Blanches story and stay with Stanley. TERMINOLOGY: Williams uses the adjective ‘Blind’ to show Stanley and Stellas relationship is based on deep desire rather than truthfulness. When coupled with the abstract noun ‘tenderness’ Williams portrays Stella as ignoring Stanley’s faults due to her own infatuation with him.

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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

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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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Playwright Tennessee Williams once said “a symbol in a play has only one legitimate purpose which is to say a thing more directly and simply and beautifully than it could be said in words”. He seems to take his own advice to heart when writing such a thought provoking play as A Streetcar Named Desire. While Williams makes extensive use of symbols in Streetcar, the use of animals and animal-like characteristics as a symbol are constantly used to define Stanley Kowalski’s character and convey his desires as primal and ferine. Stanley has the first line in the play and is immediately characterized by Williams with the use of his stage direction “bellowing” (Williams 244; sc. 1). Like a wild animal, Stanley has a desire for unrefinement and

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This statement could offer insight as to why Stanley not only beats Stella, but also rapes Blanche at the end of the play. These actions confirm Stanley’s alpha male status. Stanley does not only take out his actions physically on Blanche and Stella, as he also postures himself in an aggressive manner and often becomes verbally aggressive. An example of this posturing appears when Williams gives the stage direction of, “Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table.

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The themes of violence and power in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ hold an important role in the criticism of 1940s American society. Conflicts perpetuated by violence and power, such as abusive relationships and violent oppression are projected through the characters within the play.  Williams uses these conflicts to highlight his criticisms of faltering values and social norms, from the perspective of an individual constrained by the expectations of a strict, Southern society. To begin with, there is an indefinite violence between men and women within ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Stanley Kowalski, a focal character, is the epitome of male dominance and primitive aggression.

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It all started when I was at a party with my best mate jack. Now I am living in a 60 dollar a week room with jack and getting high every day and night at home and wasting 300 dollars a day. My name is Dylan and I am going to tell you about my life over the last few years whilst being on the drug ICE. When I was 15 Jack

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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.

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“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play.

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