A Streetcar Named Desire Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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usually comes out as the victor. The one key factor which makes this play realistic is the fact that Williams gives the character both positive and negative personality traits, which makes the play easier to relate to by the audience and makes the plot seem like it really could have occurred. In placing the characters of Blanche and Stanley against each other, Williams depicts an image of the weak being defeated by the strong. Dispite this fact, Stanley represents an ambiguous moral character. Even though he possess a rough exterior of animalistic and savage values he genuinely loves and needs his wife (Mary Ann Corrigan, 575). Thus further increasing the overall believability of the drama and adding to the credential evidence of its realistic content. Blanche DuBois is the

epitome of the tragic hero. She is a liberated woman who stops at nothing to get what she wants. Her tragic flaw lies in her false pretensions, and disillusioned views of what life is really like. ?Blanche is often regarded as a symbol of decaying tradition, beauty, and refinement pitted in a losing battle against the crude vitality of the progressive mainstream (Felicia Hardison Londre, 79).? In the controversy of Blanche verses Stanley, it is evident that Williams sides with Blanche. Evidence to support this theory can be found in Williams response to a reporter after he was asked about the significance of the drama?s chief male character, he stated ?[A Street Car Named Desire] means that if you do not watch out the apes will take over (Joseph Wood Krutch, 462).? This is

obviously in reference to over powering nature of Stanley?s brute strength. With this statement Williams is telling his audience not to let go of all that is dear to you and all the hopes you have for the future, because the ?apes? [Stanley] will force you to discard these desires. Through out this drama, Williams uses many objects and actions symbolically of the greater internal conflict that lied deep with in the confines of Blanche DuBois?s soul. Evidence of this symbolism can be found in the opening scene when Blanche shows up to meet Stella. We learn that the two sisters? plantation, called Belle Reve, has been lost due to financial circumstances surrounding it. the name Belle Reve is symbolic it that the word Belle is the feminine form of the adjective beautiful in French.

While the word Reve is the masculine form of the noun dream. It has been proposed by many scholars that the original title of the plantation was Belle Rive, which means Beautiful Shore, and the corruption of the name from Belle Rive to Belle Reve is symbolic of the false hood of it reality that it has acquired by the time it has come to Blanche?s generation (Felicia Hardison Londre, 89) Another specific example of symbolism can be found in the context of chapter three. In this chapter Blanche makes the statement ?I can?t stand a naked light bulb, anymore than I can a rough work or a vulgar action.? She than asks Mitch to put a colored paper lantern over the bedroom lamp. This lamp is symbolic of reality and the truth behind her past. She can?t bare the fact that she is an

alcoholic, a tramp, and a lonely has-been, so she conceals it and covers it up with a front of fabricated sophistication and charm, just as she covered the lamp with a colorful paper lantern. More evidence to support the lamp as an object of symbolism can be found in scene eight of the drama. This is the scene in which Mitch as just learned the truth about Blanche?s secret past. Mitch confronts Blanch about this knowledge he has of her and rips the paper lantern off of the room lamp, in an effort to get a better look at Blanche since he has never seen her in the light of day. Blanche cries out for him to stop and states, ?I don?t want realism. I want magic! … I don?t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth( Felicia Hardison Londre, 92)? Another object of heavy symbolism in

the drama are the many wore drobes that Blanche possesses. While they may appear exquisite, elaborate, and very expensive, they are actually all made of synthetic material and are actually cheap in value and quality. This is symbolic of the front Blanche puts up for her self, while she may seem charming, beautiful, and sophisticated, when you examine her more closely it is revealed that she is nothing but a corrupt, lying, whore. Tennessee Williams is obviously one of the most innovative playwrights of modern theater. Through his play, A Streetcar Named Desire, he set the stage for realistic plots and characters to combine with conventional theatrical dramatics, for an overall spectacular show. Through his use of realistic characters, whom the audience could relate with, as well