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Theme Of Cruelty In A Streetcar Named Desire

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Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire has a setting off back in time when there were not any cell phones and when not very many people had cars and could not just drive from place to place anytime they wanted. In Tennessee Williams’s play, it is clear that none of his characters have a lot of money that they could just spend on what they like. When Stella’s sister, Blanche, comes to visit, it is not what Stella thinks it is for. Blanche needs her help, because everything and everyone in her life have left her or had passed away, leaving her with nothing but a broken heart. Blanche needs help and is hoping that her sister will take her under her wing. Blanche and Stella are both from the old south raised with values, but the values mean nothing to either one of the girls. Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, displays the theme of cruelty and violence through the relationship of Blanche and Stanley. The relationship is seen in the way he treats her throughout the play, in the final scenes when he …show more content…

Blanche starts to feel unworthy, venerable when entering the scene. Stanley starts to take Blanche down piece by piece by making indifferent comments such as “Swine, huh?” (10.1872) and “You did, huh?” (10.1873) Stanley means by all of the hateful comments because he is tired of all her bogus lies and wants Blanche to feel like she has been treating Stella. Blanche is in the process of trying to redeem herself when Stanley picks her up and throws her on the bed. The violence here shows that Stanley then rapes Blanche. C.E. Atkins states, “Talk about rape, like talk about love, hardly ever hits its target” (175). This quote from Atkins can relate to what the audience is thinking about how Blanche is feeling right now. At this time, Blanche is discouraged by how she has been treating her sister. At this time, Stella realizes that Blanche needs help, and plans to put her into a mental

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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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Stanley sexually assaults Blanche, along with humiliating her throughout the novel. This forces Blanche to mentally escape to somewhere else. A place filled with illusionary ideas and fantasy. She regresses back to her time with Shep Huntleigh, believing the oil millionaire is coming to rescue her from Stella's apartment. Yet, as the play progresses, it becomes clear that Shep will never rescue Blanche.

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The purpose of her life is to be desired. However the extent to which she goes is demonstrative of her lack of integrity. Blanche takes a “streetcar named Desire” (15) to get to her sister’s home; the streetcar is symbolic of Blanche’s decisions after the death of her husband. Initially, Blanche is married to Allan, whom she “loved unendurably” (95). Her marriage with Allan is a way for her to escape the lack of integrity which has been passed down.

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I. Vocabulary Effeminate- Adjective -(of a man) Having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly. (Pg 114) Repertoire- Noun - A stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform. (Pg 130) Malarkey-

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She refused to leave him when Blanche insisted and didn’t believe Blanche when it came to her being raped. Blanche, Stella, and Stanley all have the same want to be desired. The ways they act and treat each other back that up. Blanche feels the need to be desired by everyone around her, Stanley by Stella and others, and Stella by Stanley. Their lives revolve around desire.

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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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741 Words | 3 Pages

In Blanche and Stanley’s initial interactions, there was an air of sexual tension. This tension dissipates completely as the play progresses, and their relationship turns into a resentful and hateful one. Throughout the play, Stanley has several violent outbursts towards Stella that worry Blanche. This allows Stanley to assert dominance over both women. At the end of the play, Stanley releases his pent up anger and frustration toward Blanche through a sexual attack.

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In other words, Stella is very aware that her sexual relationship with Stanley can help her sort out any problems between them. Also, shortly before Stanley rapes Blanche, Williams says in the stage directions that there were “inhuman voices like cries in the jungle” (399; sc. 10). Blanche, which means white wood, is out of her element in this jungle of Stanley’s and it is she, who once called Stanley “bestial” (322; sc. 4) and “sub-human” (323; sc. 4), who has now found herself being stalked and charged like prey being hunted by an animal. With his sister-in-law present, Stanley has been unable to fulfill his sexual desires and so he releases them out on Blanche.

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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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Not only has Tennesse Williams portrayed Stella and Blanche to be seen as delicate and dependent, our own society has created this image but this not only affects how individuals see themselves but affects relationships immensely. Tennessee Williams reinforces the stereotype in which women are often the victims of unfortunate fate within the usage of the character Blanche. Throughout the whole play, we have witnessed Blanche being on the bitter end of life's miseries as she has encountered the tough loss of Belle Reve, dealing with her ex-husband's suicide and the loss of her relationship with Mitch. Arguably, the expectations and beliefs of women were either to be a housewife or a mother, whereas Blanche shows neither, as a result of automatically feeling out of place possibly leading to her downfall. Blanche was constantly fantasizing about the traditional values of a southern gentlemen, proving her dependence on this sex.

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1233 Words | 5 Pages

You will be charged with driving under the influence if your blood alcohol content is above the legal limit or if you are under the influence of drugs (prescription or illegal drugs) to such a degree that you are impaired. When a police officer stops you, he or she may initiate a DUI arrest if you smell alcohol or otherwise appear to be under the influence. The officer must have seen you driving. The officer will use various methods to determine if you are under the influence including a chemical or breath test, field sobriety tests, testing your reflexes and balance as a measure of how well you are able to operate a car. Blood Alcohol Level

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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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In A Streetcar Named Desire, the author Tennessee Williams exaggerates and dramatizes fantasy’s incapability to overcome reality through an observation of the boundary between Blanches exterior and interior conveying the theme that illusion and fantasy are often better than reality. Blanche, who hides her version of the past, alters her present and her relationship with her suitor Mitch and her sister, Stella. Blanche was surrounded by death in her past, her relatives and husband have passed away, leaving her with no legacy left to continue. The money has exhausted; the values are falling apart and she is alienated and unable to survive in the harsh reality of modern society. Throughout the novel Williams juxtaposed Blanche’s delusions with

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

In A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Blanche Debois happenly decides to go visit her sister Stella Kowalski who lives in New Orleans. Blanche was not pleased when she arrived

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