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Theme Of Money In A Streetcar Named Desire

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During the era of A Streetcar named desire (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949), money and social status had power over peoples lives. In that sense, people were labeled for what they had. And the fast that money had power over the characters lives in both books, it showed that their world revolved around it. It also had so much power in the sense that both of the books ended in a negative note. So, i believe that Death Of a Salesman by Authur Miller and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams connected in a sense that money created problems between the characters. 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 …show more content…

Stella lived her life depending on him whereas Blanche was currently on her own after her marriage and had no one to depend on but herself. Unfortunately there was a commotion that occured in scene 4 between Stanley and Stella. Blanche went to check up on Stella and was brutally convincing her to leave Stanley. The way that Stella responded to her made her look naive over the fact that Stanley was the issue. When Blanche and Stella were talking, Stella goes, “Stanley doesn’t give me a regular allowance, he likes to pay bills himself but this morning he gave me ten dollars to smooth things over (Williams, 78). Stanley thought money was going to fix the issue. Blanche still continued to get into Stellas head about him but she wasn’t trying to hear it. Blanches independency was what created space between her and Stella because of their opposite views on situations. And due to that fact, Stella saw Blanche as a judgemental …show more content…

His desire to control Biff’s life caused so many problems between them. His insecurity came out when he states “I’m like a boy, i’m not married, I’m not in business”. He felt like he wasn’t living life to his father's expectations. Biff:”Well, i spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it’s a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still-- that’s how you build a future”(Miller,10). Biff sounded fed up with the way he was living and the pressure that his father had on him turned him to who he was and how he was

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That is why he hates Blanche because she is not the same as the girls he has seen. He sees her as a threat in the sense that she will ruin the marriage between Stella and Stanley. However, he has feelings of self conscious and feels threatened because he feels like she can ruin him. He hates that Stella and Blanche were always wealthy and he feels as if they look down on him for being poor. He does not feeling submissive which is why he reacts harshly most of the time.

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Stella loves her sister but she does not understand the fact that she does not approve of her life. Stanley has always disliked Blanche, her presence is a bother to him and eventually it becomes an internal conflict in which he begins to investigate her life. Both of these conflicts take a toll on their marriage.

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