Streetcar Named Desire

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A Street Car Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams. Through Tennessee’s writing he employs powerful dramatic techniques to leave us contemplating interesting ideas. The play is about a woman named Blanch Dubois who visits her sister in New Orleans, running from her past and the recent loss of the family home. Williams leaves us contemplating interesting ideas of conflict, desire and fate through his use of symbolism, contrast and the characterization of the main characters. A dramatic technique used in A street car named desire is the contrast of characterization to represent the conflict that occurs between Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski who is blanches sister Stella’s…show more content…
This leads to conflict between the characters. Stanley is described as being common “you thought I was common. Well, how right you was.” Stanley is constantly represented as origin of a lower, working class, which contrasts who Blanche is described as a “white suit” suggesting she is of a higher, middle class. Stanley is a very masculine character with a primitive nature and has a brutal, animal-like approach to life. In the first scene, he is seen bringing home the raw meat. His clothes are simple and dirty. His language is rough and crude and he carries a sense of violence, which contrasts with Blanche’s fragility. Blanche’s fragility and ‘moth like’ nature is further brought out through Williams’ use of symbolism. He symbolizes her sensitivity and illusive life through two symbols lights and the paper lantern. The light symbolizes reality and the truths and the paper lantern symbolizes Blanche’s frequent covering up of reality, her illusive world. Stanley’s violent nature is shown through Williams’s use of onomatopoeia “smacked”, “smashed”, “slammed”. This emphasizes Stanley’s violence and therefore creates sympathy for Blanche, as she obviously is weaker than Stanley. The rape scene highlights Stanley’s sexual power over women and blanches…show more content…
Blanche also has a constant need to bathe throughout the play which symbolises her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history. Yet, just as she cannot erase the past, her bathing is never done. Stanley also turns to water he is placed in the shower after beating Stella. The shower serves to soothe his violent temper afterward, he leaves the bathroom feeling remorseful and calls out for his Stella. Stanley’s characterisation is also used to establish the fact that Blanche’s fate is sealed from the very beginning of the play. Stanley represents reality which always wins over fantasy represented by Blanche. The use of music. The Blues piano suggests sadness and loss in blanches life. The fact that this plays throughout the play when Blanche is around conveys the fact that her ending will not be happy. The metaphor of “desire” also signifies the idea of fate within the

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