Preview

Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
585 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire
The opening scene of a play is arguably the most important, for it sets the tone for all that is to follow and creates the proper atmosphere, begins the themes, and draws the audience into the interplay that follows.

Othello is a stage play written by Shakespeare in the 1600s. it was set in Venice as well as Cyprus; Venice being on of the supreme states that attract foreigners. The opening scene in Othello introduces the characters and the situation, evokes the desire on the part of Iago for revenge, and foreshadows much of what is to come.

Similarly, A Streetcar Named Desire is a stage play with elements of tragedy and pathos. It was written by Tennessee Williams in 1947. The action takes place between May and September in a shabby apartment building in the working-class district of New Orleans in the 1940s, shortly after the Second World War.
…show more content…
Reared in Old South aristocratic traditions, she lived elegantly in the family homestead, married a man she adored, and pursued a career as an English teacher. But her life fell apart when she discovered that her husband, Allen Grey, was having a homosexual affair. Disgraced, he killed himself. Blanche sought comfort in the arms of other men, many men. After she had relations with one of her students, a 17-year-old, authorities learned of the encounter and fired her. Meanwhile, relatives died and she could not keep up the family home. Eventually, creditors seized it. The play begins when Blanche arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and her crude, outspoken husband, Stanley Kowalski. Though scarred by her past, Blanche still tries to lead the life of an elegant lady and does her best, even lying when necessary, to keep up

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In scene four of “ A Streetcar Named Desire” Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she can get out of her situation with Stanley, but Stella insists she is not in anything she wished to get out of. Stella makes it clear that she is happy about her relationship with Stanley through their sexual chemistry by saying “ But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark”. Stella believes that there is nothing wrong and she can’t understand why Blanche is so frantic. Blanche tries to persuade Stella that her situation with Stanley is just desire by arguing, “ What you are talking about is brutal desire- just- Desire!- the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another…”…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire was based in the time it was written – New Orleans in 1947. The late 1940’s was a postwar era as the United States rose as a victorious superpower above the rest of the world. This era was also the beginning of the Baby Boom – a time of high marriage and birth rates in the country. There was a postwar surge in luxury with the end of rations and the emergence of better, cheaper cars and entertainment. Although there were many positive advances during the time, there was also the dark cloud of the Soviet Union as the Cold War was brewing and the atomic bomb was being threatened once again.…

    • 116 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the movie, A Street Car Named Desire, Blanche uses the quote, “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, Yes, magic! I try to give that to people." to explain her desire for her fantasy life to become reality. Blanches fantasy life would restore her youth, forgive her past and she would be more welcomed by people like Stanley and Mitch. I do agree with her statement, and believe that living in a “fantasy world” for a short period of time can be beneficial, but I do not agree with the circumstances Blanches is doing so by. Blanche wants to forget the death of her husband, the termination of her position as a schoolteacher caused by a discovered affair with a high school aged boy and the loss of her childhood home and plantation. Some of…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the commencement of the play, Blanche is quickly described as a damsel in distress. She is portrayed as a wealthy woman “in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earing of pearl, white gloves and hat…” (5). She resembles an embellished white moth. The fact that she is forced to live with her younger sister Stella and her domineering husband truly shows that Blanche is in a truly desperate situation. Her overall character is depicted as a traumatized woman that is in complete desolation. Experiences such as witnessing her family on a “...Long parade to the graveyard” (21). Being forced to live with your family until their tragic demise would emotionally and mentally torment anyone. She lives inside of her own world in which she…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Critics have praised Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire for its characters. Crude, sensual Stanley; dreamy, burned-out Blanche; bashful, meek Mitch. That being said, the successful portrayal of these characters is the mark of an excellent Streetcar performance. According to many readers, the stunning characterization is what makes A Streetcar Named Desire so compelling and legendary. Yet I would like to disagree. I think it is the play’s setting that makes the story so fascinating.…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the play, Blanche is living a lie and existing in a fantasy. Blanche DuBois, who is lost and confused, lies to herself through the entire play. At the beginning, Blanche lies to her sister, Stella, about taking a break from her school teaching job, when in reality, she has…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play “streetcar named desire” written by Tennessee William in 1949, which was received the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1948. The play commenced on Broadway on December 3, 1947 in the Ethel Barrymore Theater. This play is about life of a woman in 19th century who could not come out of the fantasy to the real life that her self instinct and her surrounding creates extra problems in her life that makes her hide her historical and physical appearances and lied her sister and suitor. On the other hand, the poem “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” by Emily Dickinson, in 1890, this poem believed toHhave been written in 1862, a year during which Dickinson supposedly produced more than 300 poems. This poem suggests the persona of this poem in order…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1604 commentary

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Consider how Shakespeare begins the play – time, setting, who gets the first words, how Othello is developed …things like that.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire: A Key to Confusion? Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Elia Kazan’s film version of the play share the same characters and the same story. Except for the opening scene, Kazan doesn’t change the plot at all. To emphasize the meanings of death and desire, the movie shows Blanche taking different streetcars in the area surrounding where Stanley and Stella live—and the viewer can imagine how difficult it is for Blanche to adjust.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism is an important literary device used to give the reader an understanding of a character. Tennessee Williams, with the use of symbolism, brings his character’s alive in his play, A Streetcar name desire. In the story the reader follows a young southern woman by the name of Blanche Dubois as she moves to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her brother-in-law, Stanley. From there the reader slowly sees the Blanche’s descent into madness as she begins to lose her grip on reality. In the play Blanche is characterized using symbols like, bathing, light, and music.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes the people in which others associate themselves with are the ones who restrict them from their dreams.In "A streetcar named Desire", the two main opposing characters are Blanche and Stanely as the desires they want can't exist with each other's company.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    She would later get run out of her home in Laurel after she became the disgrace of the town, town slut, and she loses her job after she attempts to have intimate relationships with her students. These two events leave her homeless and without a job, so in order to survive she decides to call on her younger sister, Stella, who is living in New Orleans with a war veteran. She believes that if she was to go and live with Stella, both Stella and Stanley would be happy to provide for her as she lives out the rest of her fantasies and possible finds herself a new man. She succeeds in finding a new man, Mitch, however, he later calls her a dirty slut that is not clean enough to bring into the house with his mother. Basically, Blanche got caught in her web of lies after she began attacking Stanley`s authority and out of spite he tipped of Mitch about Blanche`s true self and the Mitch dumps Blanche. This triggers an emotional breakdown, in which Blanches false hopes begin to come crashing down around her and in the end, Stanley decide to exert his dominance over her, which causes for Blanche to completely fall apart at the seams. Blanche is so emotionally distraught about what had happened to her that she gets sent away to a mental asylum so that she would finally be able to get the help she needed or at least live out her illusions away from everyone…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Mrs. Secunda’s, English class we are currently watching a play on and reading a book on “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. In my opinion, the play and book are actually pretty good and very interesting. The Kowalski rental is in a bad however charming community within the French Quarter. Stella, twenty-five years antique and pregnant, lives along with her blue collar husband Stanley Kowalski. It is summertime, and the heat is oppressive. Blanche Dubois, Stella's older sister, arrives abruptly, sporting all that she owns. Blanche and Stella have a heat reunion, however, Blanche has some bad information; Belle Reve, the own family mansion, has been lost. Blanche stayed in the back of to take care of their death family whilst…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Streetcar Named Desire

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the main characters have a difficult time facing reality. Blanche DuBios, Stanley Kowalski, and Stella Kowalski live different lives, but are all stuck within their own fantasy worlds. In this story, Williams shows that too much fantasy can lead to devastation.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To what extent do the Kowalskis and the DuBois represent a clash of cultures in “A Streetcar Named Desire”?…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays