streetcar
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Title: Essay on "A Streetcar Named Desire" A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play which deals with many harsh issues like spousal abuse, rape, and insanity. The play is mainly about Blanche and her sister Stella. Blanche arrives at her sisterÕs house after being fired from the school where she taught and after loosing the big family house. She says she is on a leave of absence, but Stella and her husband, Stanley, soon find out the truth. Throughout the play Blanche acts as someone she isnÕt, in order to hide her past and hope that someone will desire her. Her escape is futile for her past is uncovered, and her last chance to meet a man is destroyed.The main theme of this play is the uselessness of escape. Blanche arrives at her sistersÕ house acting like someone she isnÕt. Her dirty past, and her motives for puting on this act are quickly discovered and Blanche ends up in a nut house. When Blanche arrives at her sistersÕ home she says that she has come to stay with them temporarily because she has lost the family estate (she could no longer support it financially). Blanche has an air of superiority, indirectly commenting on where her sister lives and acting as if she has more class. When Stanley meets Blanche he is quickly suspicious of how she obtained all of her clothes, furs and jewelry. In the third scene Stanley is drunk after a poker night and hits his wife. They reconciliate the same night and Blanche puts on an act of how terrified she is, even after being reassured by two people the event wasnÕt a big deal. In scene four Blanche tells her sister about one of her rich friends that could send her some money and get her out of her bind. This is a lie, later on Stanley finds out that this man is not rich, and just an old aquantance of Blanche. Later on Blanche has a converstaion with Stella, which Stanley over hears, where she speaks of Stanley calling him primitive and saying he has animal like behaviors. This turns Stanley against Stella, even though he says nothing to her face. Blanche meets Mitch one of StanleysÕ friends, and one day she explains to her sister that she wants to decieve Mitch so that he wants her. Blanche feels that if she can get together with Mitch, she could move out, forget her past, and salvage her life. Mitch and Blanche go out a few times and one night Mitch says to Blanche, ÔÔYou need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be-you and me, Blanche ?ÕÕ At this point things are going great for Blanche, she has managed to deceive everyone. In scene seven Stanley tells his wife that he has found out the truth about Blanche. Stanley has also told Mitch about BlancheÕs past. Blanche apparantly wasnÕt the girl Mitch thought she was. She had apparently dated many of the men of Laurel, where she lived, Blanche he had appeared as if she was rarely with men. The only man Blanche had told Mitch about was her first love, a boy of sixteen that committed suicide. Blanche was also kicked out of the school where she teached for getting involved with one of her students, she said she was on a leave of absence. Because of this news Mitch does not attend BlancheÕs birthday. Mitch realizes that Blanche had always tried to deceive him, always taking him out at night, being in BlancheÕs sistersÕ room where Blanch had put paper around the light bulbs. During the night of Stellas giving birth Stanley learns that all of BlancheÕs clothes, and jewels are fakes, or are not what they seem to be. Stanley is drunk and he rapes Blanche. Stanley and Blanche tell Stella different stories of what had happened that evening, and Stella beleives her husband. Blanches many lies have caught up with her, and when she finally says something true she is not beleived. Stella is eventually sent to a nut house by her sister. BlancheÕs escape of her problems, and inventions are seen from the start of the novel. She is lavishly dressed, acts superior to everyone, and innocent. Blanche pretends she is on a leave of absence, and that one of her rich friends will come and swap her away. In reality Blanche is a fake, asw are all of her clothes and jewels. She is escaping a bad reputation in Laurel, where no one wants anything to do with her. She has gottten involved with one of her students and for that has been fired. Therefore she has lost the family estate, but still blames her sister for not being there with her, after most of their family passed away. Blanche is escaping the truth. BlancheÕs denials of the truth and her pretense of being someone she is not cost her the only chance she had to be happy.