Preview

Streetcar Named Desire Characters

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
238 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Streetcar Named Desire Characters
In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams the reader is placed in the middle of three way argument between a husband, wife, and the wife’s sister. The sister comes to visit her sister because she has nowhere else to go and the husband doesn't like this. Aside from that, other forms of conflict occur which are caused by the aggressive nature of the characters. The author demonstrates these animal characteristics in the characters by describing how they dress, how they act, and how they speak to prove how humans show how humans have an inner animal that will escape when is needed.
In the play, Stanley, is the head of the house and has a very violent nature in everything he does. Then when Blanche, the sister, is introduced

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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stanley's harsh, realistic world is often seen throughout the play this shows how different Blanches is. An example of this is Stanley's main interests: gambling, drinking, fighting, sex and bowling. All of these are very realistic things to do, very down to earth. Also throughout the play he shows no remorse for what he's done,…

    • 168 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory 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

    Everyone wants to live a life they do not have. Some people want to be rich, while others want to travel the world and never work a day in their lives. In order to live the lives they do not have, many people create their own fantasies. Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire depicts Blanche and Stella’s lives as lies, while revealing how they do not wish to face their own realities, for they will never to able to live the life they have always hoped for.…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thesis: In the play A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams ultimately portrays the struggles of a woman in the 1920s. Through the demonstration of the main character, Blanche, we depict the struggles between alcoholism, the conflicts in social classes and the indifferences in sexuality.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stanley shows instability throughout the play, especially after the arrival of Stella’s sister, Blanche. Stanley does not allow his anger to take over him at first, but after many months of what he sees as disrespect from his sister-in-law and eventually from his wife he completely breaks down. The first scene of instability shown in the play is at the poker game where when Stella tries to act as head of the house and attempts to break up the poker game. Stanley jumps up and charges after her and slaps her. Another example of Stanley being pushed from sanity is in scene eight when he says, “What do you two think you are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said- “Every Man is a King!”And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!” (Williams 131).…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He is a self-appointed boss of everyone he knows. From his friends to his family, Stanley barks orders to make sure that everything goes as he wants. Even at his poker night, he tells his friend when they can leave or not. So, when Blanche starts making changes around “his” house, he shows a strong hatred to her and how his wife treats her. When he realizes that whatever Blanche wants she gets, he starts to unravel her past and show everyone for whom she is, a selfish, demanding person. Sound…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better 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

    Blanche Vs Stanley

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    However, the challenges of authority in both Blanche and Stanley develop into the conflict and throughout the play determines who the “winner” is. Stanley although throughout the play loses his authority in some moments of the play; he is physically violent, intimidating, and most importantly economical dominant. Whereas Blanche goes against social order and victimized by Stanley through rape which raises the conflict of sociopolitical…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    An illusion is something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. In Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, characters such as Blanche Dubois, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), and Stella Kowalski often use illusion in an attempt to escape reality. Blanche Dubois is a woman who uses fantasy in order to protect herself from her own fears and the undesirable circumstances which occur in her life. Mitch uses illusion by regarding Blanche as the perfect woman in order to escape her lies and false reality. Stella uses illusion to make it seem as though she has a happy marriage in order to make her life and the abuse from Stanley bearable.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is riddled with symbolism. The symbols found in the play include masculinity, light, bathing, liquor, white, and much more. Each symbol can be interpreted with a profound underlying meaning. However, the most prominent symbol that drastically changed the play’s plot was the Varsouviana Polka. This instrumental tune manifested her guilty conscience and became her ultimate demise. Through the art of symbols, Williams narrated the tragedy of Blanche’s downward spiral into the internal abyss by employing the polka music.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Streetcar Named Desire

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The loss of identity is an oft-discussed subject in literature. A character's tie or affiliation to a defined identity in a piece has the tendency to illustrate how the archetype of the character functions in society as a whole. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the symbolic death of the aristocratic Southern lifestyle of grandeur serves as a notion that illuminates on the meaning of the piece. Comparing and contrasting characters such as Blanche DuBois, a typical Southern belle who is struggling to hold onto the dreams and mannerisms of the Old south and refusing to face of the reality of it all being over, and Stanley Kowalski, a working class brute who is representative of the emerging blue collar demographic in the newly industrious South, Williams uses the figurative death of America’s Old South to exemplify how the South is experiencing a demographic and cultural shift and how the notion of the Old South will soon be rendered meaningless. In displaying the figurative death of the “Old South”, Williams effectively shows how the notion of an old, traditional lifestyle can quickly become useless in America’s ever-changing cultural landscape.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 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
  • Better Essays

    In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire he creates many minor characters that have a huge underlying significance in the plot. All of the minor characters have huge impacts on Stella, Stanley, and Blanche, all of whom are main characters. Eunice is both Stella’s friend and neighbor who often helps Stella when the going gets rough. Not only is Eunice very helpful, her relationship with her husband Steve gives us an understanding of the neighborhood and relationship between couples in general. In most aspects Eunice is actually quite similar to Stella and in fact Eunice is a close representation of what society was like at the time.…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays