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Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

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Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire
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. 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 …show more content…
Stanley and Stella are married and live in Elysian Fields. Stella was born into a wealthy family from Belle Reve and married Stanley, who is from the middle class. Stella depends on Stanley for love and to make her feel better. In reality, Stanley is a powerful man and can get any woman he wants. Stella “couldn’t believe her story and [she continues] on living with Stanley” (133). Blanche tries to inform her sister how Stanley is not the man she thinks he is, and how she is living in a fantasy. Stella chooses to believe Stanley, which demonstrates how she is living a lie. Stella does not agree with the accusations that were made. Stanley is abusive to Stella, yet she proceeds to say “I am not in anything that I have a desire to get out of” (65). Stella admits she does not want to leave Stanley even though she is continually
Rockwood 3 abused by him. She has nowhere else to go. Stella lives in a lie because her husband regularly cheats on her and she chooses not to believe it. By Stella living a lie and in a fantasy world, she excludes herself from reality and responsibility. Streetcar Named Desire’s Tennessee Williams explains how Blanche and Stella are both living a lie and existing in a fantasy, where in time they must come face to face with their own realities. People that live lives they wish to have eventually with have to come to terms and realize to enjoy the life they have and stop comparing their lives to

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