Blanche And Stella example essay topic

Look again at scene one, including stage directions. Do you find that The Scene prepares an audience for what is To follow in the play? The first scene introduces us to the major characters and themes of the play. The three major characters being Blanche, Stella and Stanley. The themes include madness, jealousy, death and the Old World changing into the new.

Scene one introduces us to the environment, disrupts the Kowalski household as Blanche arrives and appears to resolve it as Stanley accepts Blanche. The action focuses on the Kowalski home almost entirely preserving the concept of unity of place laid down by Aristotle. The setting uses symbolic name references, is claustrophobic to increase the tension and is poetically detailed through description. The title of the play, A Streetcar Named Desire is a metaphor for what has happened and what is still going to happen to happen to Blanche. Her first line encapsulates this: They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields!

The name Elysian Fields represents death. This is symbolic because this place is going to bring the death of Blanche's sanity. The setting also emphasises Blanche's fading life. As a reader of the play I can take note of the stage directions and the presentation of language. On the other hand, if I was watching it as a performance my perceptions would be thoroughly dominated by character based details the way they looked and how they acted in certain situations. In the first set of stage directions, we are introduced to the setting.

We are told it is May, this means spring is near and this symbolizes new life. We can see that this time and place does bring a new kind of life, especially Blanche and Mitch. We are also introduced to some minor characters Eunice and a coloured woman, neighbours of Stella. When Stanley and Mitch enter we see the contrast between Stanley and Stella: STELLA comes out on the first-floor landing, a gentle young women, about twenty-five and of a background obviously quite different from her husband's. Just as Stella follows her husband, Stanley to the bowling alley, Blanche comes around the corner. From the stage directions we can see that blanche does not fit in with this part of America.

We find this when Williams says, Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. He repeats the word white twice to emphasise that she is out of place, because the place she is staying in is really rather dirty. When Tennessee Williams says, her uncertain manner suggests a moth he means that just as a moth is attracted to light, Blanche is attracted to and cannot stay away from the truth. As the light, however, destroys the moth, the truth will destroy Blanche. She continuously looks back at her past, and this will eventually send her mad. She gradually realises the truth about many things in her life, such as Stanley and Belle Reve.

When Eunice tells Blanche that it is all right to go inside and make herself comfortable, Blanche says, How could I-do that to Eunice. This is like she is saying maybe you could but not me. This shows how much she believes she is of a higher class than her sister and her friends. She feels uncomfortable with Eunice and by telling her she wishes to be alone, Eunice is offended. When talking to Eunice, Blanche uses short, clipped answers. It is here that we first hear of where Blanche comes from Belle Reve.

This means Beautiful Dream, which is ironic because the dream has been shattered. When she has a drink from the cupboard, She carefully replaces the bottle and washes the tumbler at the sink. This is because she does not wish for anyone to know she has helped herself. When Stella enters the speech and language becomes rather emotional. Blanche uses light imagery to convey her vanity. An example of this is when Blanche says, turn that over-light off!

Turn that off! I won t be looked at in this merciless glare! She speaks with such a fast pace, that she does not give her sister a chance to speak. She deceives Stella about the alcohol when she says, I know you must have some liquor on the place!

Where can it be, I wonder? Oh, I spy, I spy! She uses dramatic irony when she says, your sister hasn t turned into a drunkard, because she has. In the stage directions, during Blanche's speech about Stella's appearance, it says Stella stands up reluctantly. This gives us the impression that Stella is used to ding what her sister tells her to do.

Blanche shows her ignorance of the situation when she talks about them having a maid. When talking of appearance she is constantly looking for compliments. An example of this is when she says, You haven t said a word about my appearance. She is, however, aware of the fact that she is getting older: You see I still have that awful vanity about my looks even now that my looks are slipping!

Blanche is living in a fantasy world, she is always acting a role. An example of this is when she says: I brought some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends in. One of the themes in this play is madness. When talking of her job at home, she says Mr Graves suggested I take a leave of absence.

This is a warning sign of her madness, which is yet to be discovered and will be later in the play. Another example of this is when Blanche tells Stella that she is unable to be left on her own. This is when she says, I want be near you, got to be with somebody, I can t be alone! Because as you must have noticed I m-not very well Later on, when describing Stanley Stella uses different techniques of language. She uses dramatic irony when she says, to Blanche You ll get along fine together. This is ironic, as they do not get along because of what happens later on in the play.

Another language ploy she uses is animal imagery. She describes him as A different species. When shown a photograph of Stanley, Blanche finds it hard to believe that Stella did not just fall for his decorations, but Stella assures her by saying: I assure you I wasn t just blinded by the brass. Another reiteration of Stella's love for Stanley is when she says that she cannot stand for him to be away for even a night, let alone a week. Blanche has never known love like this herself, so she questions it.

The repetition of the world loss and the questioning of Stella represent the change of society. In the stage directions after this short outburst we see there is music in the background and this becomes louder, which shows the increase in tension. Still on the theme of madness, we go into Blanche's long speech about the loss of Belle Reve. She talks of the loss as a physical attack on herself, but it is actually the emotional burden she is carrying. Her detail of death shows the emotional pressure she is under. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, Don t let me go!

Blanche accuses Stella of leaving her in the midst of trouble with Belle Reve. She thinks the reason her sister left was because of Stanley. She says this with anger, strain and resentment. I let the place go? Where were you?

In bed with your Polack! After all the emotional strain she has forced onto Stella, Blanche is surprised that she has taken it on board and has started to cry. This shows that Blanche jumps into saying things without thinking about it. It also shows us that Stella is very emotional. Characters may represent types found in other media such as the folk lore of the Wild West revealed in cinema. Westerns portray home-grown heroes to defend friends against savages.

Tennessee Williams uses this technique in the play when we see, the friendship between the men, Stanley, Steve and Mitch is a stereotype of men's relationship with other men. The women in this, and other plays, are stereotyped as child bearers, homemakers and whores. Blanche and Stella take on these roles. It is here that we are introduced properly to Stanley. Tennessee Williams, in the stage directions, describes him thus: He is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine, and strongly, compactly built. He is described as being terribly fond of women, he does not see them as friends but only as sexual beings.

This helps us realise his true character before his relationship with Blanche becomes too much. Unfortunately Stella is too blinded by love to see the whole truth. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them. ' In the film with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, this conversation is portrayed very well.

Marlon Brando, as Stanley, stands very close, in front of her with his arms folded. He is almost invading her space. Although she is continuously shifting away he stays very close. When referring to the bottle of whisky he knows that Blanche has had some. When she says she does not drink he replies with a harsh comment: Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often.

When Stanley says that he likes to be comfortable, Blanche reveals that she is very concerned with appearance. It's hard to stay looking fresh. I haven t washed or even powdered my face and here you are! The screeching of the cat is an example of Blanche's nervousness. In the film I referred to earlier, Stanley mimics the cat. This emphasises that Blanche is also nervous around Stanley.

At the end of the scene we see that she is unsettled and unstable. She has been struck by something that has just been said. This is a warning sign for later in the play, when she is moved by the conversation. Also we find here that she finds it uneasy to deal with her husband's death. This scene does prepare us for the later happenings in the play. It introduces the characters of Blanche Dubois, and Stella and Stanley Kowalski.

Also it leads us to key ideas and themes, that are carried on throughout the play.