A Streetcar Named Desire?

Question

I have to write a paper on A Streetcar Named Desire, we read the play and watched the movie in class. However, our teacher didn't give us any outline on what the paper should focus on, she said it could be "anything". There are so many things I could potentially discuss, but I don't want to switch to a new topic with every paragraph, I am looking for a theme or idea that I can stem a whole paper (most likely 3 pages) off of. So basically I am having a mental block trying to come up with themes that can carry a 3 page paper, any thoughts to get me started?
I was also thinking of focusing on one character, as a way to include several themes (probably Blanche or Stanley), would that be a better way to go?

Answer 1

HERE's My Paper: Ignore the typos, I had to convert it it was so old. Maybe you'll get some ideas. But my thesis was over who was the hero of the play?


“Runaway Streetcar”

And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
-”The Broken Tower” by Hart Crane

Tennessee Williams could not have chosen a better quote to begin his masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. In using this quote as an introduction, he transcends Blanche’s journey and plight to a more universal application, including to that of his own life. In a letter he wrote to the New York Times on the subject,

“It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial. The right conditions for him is that in which his work is not only convenient but unavoidable.” (Williams Times 3)

While Williams draws a parallel between the illusionary world of Blanche and his visionary world of Streetcar, it remains unclear in his work who the true hero is and who the winner of the conflict is as well. There are strong arguments to be made in both the cases of Blanche and Stanley. However, it is Blanche and not Stanley with whom Williams connects himself. Blanche is the hero who makes the journey, is transformed, and who changes the realities of those around her. She is the one who in the end tells the truth and is punished for it. It is she and not Stanley who has the cards stacked against her and survives.

The streetcars and address opening the play significantly prelude Blanche’s journey. She takes Desire then Cemeteries and gets of at Elysian Fields, ironically the Hellenistic paradise. “Belle Reve”, the tragically lost plantation, also has a name of importance. Pronounced “Rive” in the productions, it stands to mean ‘shoreline’ which fits the feminine form of the word beauty (belle). However, “reve”, which means ‘dream’, would require a masculine adjective (beau). Perhaps as Felicia Hardison Londre suggest in her article “A Streetcar Running Fifty Years”,

“...over the generations the name has been corrupted as the family’s fortune dwindled. What had been a solid shore is now but an evanescent dream. of lost splendor.”
(LondrŽ 52)

Several other metaphors persist through the play. Blanche’s illusion of beauty and charm is manifested by the “naked” light bulb which she disguises with the Chinese lantern. There are several allusions to a biblical overtone as well. Blanche makes several references to her sign Virgo, the virgin. and Stanley is Capricorn, the goat. Blanche, however, guesses him an Aries, the fiery ram. This may sum up Blanche’s stereotype of Stanley as well as that of the audience. He is not a hot tempered, fiery, ram, but a stubborn and calculated goat. His actions against Blanche may seem crude, but they are well timed and designed for his motives. It is notable that it is Blanche who brings up the astrological conversation, and it is ingrained to her character to be presented thus. In the closing scene she wears a blue jacket which she describes as “...Donna Robbia blue. The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures.” (Williams Streetcar 135)
In addition to her illusions of youth, purity, and beauty, their myth is foreshadowed by her obsession with hot baths throughout the play. it is the bathroom that becomes her refuge and source of rebirth, as if she believed she could take a bath and wash the sins away. In addition to the watery element of the bath, there is the element of fire, a word she screams at Mitch in her “Tarantula” scene 9.

In the final part of the play she talks of spending her last days at sea and dying by eating an unwashed grape. Water calms her nerves, she had said referring to the baths.. Oddly, the play, which has a tendency to extend into the life’s of its actors, directors, and playwright, left a strong mark of Vivien Leigh’s career. In of her final movies was Ship of Fools, in which perhaps she has accidentally played out Blanche’s wish. One should not forget either that Leigh and Blanche had several of the same neurological orders, though unrecognized at the time. Leigh strongly identified with Blanche, and upon having delusions on the set of The African Queen, confused herself with Blanche and started spouting lines from the play. She went on to take a long vacation from Hollywood.

Williams’ play has several pivotal turning points; the throwing of the radio, “Stella!”, the breaking of the dishes, the ripping of the Chinese lantern, and finally the Stanley’s violation of Blanche Dubois. These visual metaphors of Stanley’s raw animal-like violence and desire against Blanche’s demure magical fantasies begin to make clear each characters motives. Stanley, the “king of the castle”, wants to get rid of his sister-in-law. Blanche, on the other hand, wants to forget the past and transform the present. As she says to Mitch,

“I don’t want realism, I want magic! [Mitch laughs] Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! -Don’t turn the light on!” (Williams Streetcar 117)

Audience’s and bad actresses often make the assumption that Blanche is crazy. She is not. She is aware of what she is doing, and her only way to survive the ghosts of her past that broke her and will break her again is to escape them in myths. She clearly has an anxiety disorder, and is probably neurotic and suffering from depression, but she is cognizant of her ordeals and stakes. She is not emotional equipped to deal with Stanley, but uses her intelligence to undermine his brutality.
On a larger level, Blanche symbolizes the old theatre. The classical actress, equipped with a trunk of costumes, faux furs, and rhinestone tiaras. The classical actress of whom the 1939 Oscar winner Leigh was the last and great. This actress parades into Stella and Stanley’s realistic world. Stanley portrays every aspect of a man meeting his basic needs; food, liquor, cards, and women.____ He is the super real and raw. It is no wonder Marlon Brando, fresh out of the school of Miesner’s new method acting, clashed so ferociously with Leigh’s Blanche. Elia Kazan, the film’s director used this to the point of driving Leigh to hysteria. In many respects this piece marks the end of the old American style and in with the new, as it marks the last great triumph of Leigh’s career and the first of Brando’s.
The question remains of these two great American icons, who won? This is left unclear. Stanley’s rape of Blanche is clear climactic. Disgustingly, it is often the dramteurge and audiences take that Stanley is the victim, that she lured him in, and upon closer examination, she did! It is she who plants the idea in his mind, it is something she fabricates, that occurs in her mind before it does his. And once overcome she gives in rather easily.
Now the question remains, why? What does she have to gain from all this? the answer lies deep within Blanche’s female psyche. She longs for male companionship___„. Stanley is the essence of raw masculinity. This move also traps Stanley into guilt over her, as she pretends to have gone mad in the following scene. Depending on the production of the play, or the version of the movie (Warner Brothers and the censors, heavily edited the work), one is led to believe Stella is going to leave Stanley, and Mitch's camaraderie with Stanley will never be the same. Stanley has lost more, and Blanche got exactly what she wanted, some nice rest in the country with a man (the doctor) to look after her.
The final scene of the novel, in which, Blanche is believed to have lost it, is sorrily prone to horrible interpretations. She and Stanley are both aware of what happened. It is obvious Blanche told Stella, but Stella has not accepted it yet, nor could and continue to live with Stanley. Blanche’s playing the lady before she leaves bothers Stanley. He says,

“She says that she forgot something [the echo sounds in threatening whispers]” (Williams Streetcar 139)

He is trying to get her goat, but it doesn’t work. He mentions that maybe she forgot the Paper Lantern, and tears it trying to again break her illusion. This again doesn’t work. Stanley is the cold hard facts of it all, but she escapes him in her Elysian fantasy. Then Stella shouts after Blanche, saying in reflection “What have I done to my sister, Oh God...”(141). Stanley has damaged his two closest relationships, and Blanche is off to the country.
There is another strange viewpoint on his rape of Blanche, offered by Williams himself, who explains that Blanche’s obsession with men half her age is not her trying to rekindle her lost love of Allan Grey, but her playing Allan Grey. Williams said,

“...in her mind she has become Allan. She acts out her fantasy of how Allan would have approached a young boy.” (LondrŽ 58)

This makes for a strong change in the conceptual idea of the rape, and of Blanche’s parallel to Williams’ own homosexuality. Imagine Stanley having been seduced into raping a young boy. It certainly corrupts his character beyond redemption.

While many side with Stanley’s territorial rights, and our seduced by his raw desire. It is Blanche’s spiritual quest and descent into a state of Hell that pinpoint her as Williams’ literary heroine. It is her knowingly escaping into the realm of fantasy and mentally survive all the wrongs she suffered that crown her the victor despite the superficial interpretation of the end. She got what she wanted, and Stanley has jeopardized everything.

Works Cited

LondrŽ, Felicia Hardison. “A Streetcar Running Fifty Years” The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. Ed. Matthew C. RoudanŽ. Cambridge University Press 1997

A Streetcar Named Desire. Dir. Elia Kazan. Perf. Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden. Warner Brothers, 1954

Williams, Tennessee. “On a Streetcar named Success” New York Times November 30, 1947

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar named Desire New York: Penguin 1974

Answer 2

Streetcar Named Desire Scene 9

Answer 3

How do the roles of men and women differ today from how they were when the play was written? How did Blanche's visit effect the relationship of Stanley and Stella? Are these characters happy with their chosen life? How do people manipulate those around them to get the things that they desire in life?

Answer 4

I think an easy theme would be the stereotype of Stanley as the super masculine male or examine the female characters as a feminist would argue they were stereotyped. One sister is demure and obeys her husband, the other takes on the role of the "harlot" and how they dress, their speech, whatever. It would be easy to make a list of the things throughout the movie that showed and didn't show the women breaking out of female stereotypes (why are we always the housewife or the whore?) and then you can just use that as your focus on the paper. I always resort to the feminist view or the gender roles of something when I have a paper and don't know what to write on. Teachers and professors seem to love it. It would be very character focused.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

Focus on one of the main characters and how that character interacts and influences the others.

Or chose one theme and illustrate how it runs through the entire play using examples and plenty of details.

Or select what the play comments on the human condition as presented in the play.

Answer 7

I would focus on the struggle between Blanche and Stanley.

There is a lot to discuss on that topic so go with that.

Answer 8

basic description of the movie: Tennessee Williams play about lust and repression in New Orleans.
You could talk about how this is the movie, i.e. give examples and explain how that relates to the description, and possibly how you interpret the message of the movie,and how you felt about it

Answer 9

It is difficult to even think of that a book can assist individuals to alter their destinies however } countless mens and ladies, individuals that they have actually benefitted in a huge

Answer 10

Here are 3 different themes you could go with;

Loneliness
Apart from her sister, Blanche is alone in the world. She loved once, and deeply, but since the death of her husband, the world has had no love in it for her. She longs for a deep connection with another human being. But her pathetic attempt to find love through sexual affairs with casual acquaintances has only made her situation worse. The attraction she feels toward very young men (the young man who come to the apartment for newspaper money, for example) is an attempt to reproduce the one magical, fulfilling thing Blanche had found in life—her love for her young husband. The more desperate Blanche becomes in her loneliness, the more deeply she digs herself into it.

Mitch is lonely too. He only has his mother and he is shortly to lose her. The brief moment of hope that he and Blanche share, when it seems as if they might find happiness together, is a poignant and tender moment in a world that will not sustain such romantic hopes for long. At least it will not do so for Blanche, and probably not for Mitch either, who also seems bound for failure and continued loneliness in life.

Blanche’s isolation and loneliness is contrasted with the hearty embrace that Stanley gives to life. He enters into male friendships with an easy camaraderie, and he effortlessly wins and retains Stella’s love. Unlike Blanche, he is well adapted to his environment. So are Steve and Eunice. They belong where they are; it is only Blanche who is rootless, unable to find her own niche.

Illusion and Reality
Blanche is sufficiently self-aware to know that she cannot survive in the world as it is. Reality is too harsh, so she must somehow create illusions that will allow her to maintain her delicate, fragile hold on life. “A woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion” (scene 2) she acknowledges to Stanley. And then when Mitch wants to switch the light on so that he can get a realistic look at her, she tells him that she does not want realism, she wants magic. This means that she seeks to manipulate reality until it appears to be what Blanche thinks it ought to be. She wants life to be lived in a permanent romantic glow, like the light that lit up the entire world when she first fell in love. But in this play, reality dominates. The realism of the setting, with its down-to-earth characters and the sounds of the busy life of this corner of New Orleans, suggests that Blanche’s illusions are not going to be sufficient. The fact that Blanche is probably aware of this too is what wins her the sympathy of the audience. Eventually, her thin hold on reality disappears altogether and she takes refuge in an illusory world in which she is about to go on a trip with her imaginary rich beau.

Passion, Sex and Death
The audience is given an early clue to the theme of sex and death when Blanche in scene 1 describes the directions she was given to reach her sister’s house. She was told to take a streetcar named Desire, and then take another called Cemeteries.

The theme is stated again in scene 9, when Blanche says that the opposite of death is desire. Blanche means love as well as sexual desire— the need for connection with another person. She does not admire the raw desire embodied by Stanley, even though it is sexual passion that makes Stella and Stanley (as well, in a lesser way, as Steve and Eunice) so fully alive in a way that Blanche is not. Stanley and Stella know how to keep the “colored lights” going, which is their term for rewarding sexual relations. Everything about Stanley suggests that sexual fulfillment is the center of his life. The playwright emphasizes this in the stage direction that accompanies Stanley’s first appearance: “Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes.” His sexuality is the “complete and satisfying center” of his life.

Blanche, on the other hand, finds that her desires are continually frustrated. She is associated with death—the death of her relatives at Belle Reve, and the death by suicide of her husband, which still haunts her. Reminders of death keep popping up to torment Blanche—the inscription on Mitch’s cigarette case, the Mexican woman who sells flowers for funerals. It was to stave off this death-impulse that Blanche indulged in promiscuous sex after her husband’s death. This was simply an attempt to keep life going, to stop her from withering inside, and to try to rekindle the transforming love and desire she had felt for her husband. But sensitive Blanche is no healthy animal like Stanley, which is why she is bound for failure and madness, while the final sight of Stanley is of him comforting Stella and reaching inside her blouse