Stanley And Blanche example essay topic

A Streetcar Named Desire is the story of the pathetic mental and emotional collapse of a fragile, delicate Lady of aristocratic descent who is attempting to make one last play at having a meaningful life. Blanche comes from a once-wealthy family of Mississippi planters who has lost everything including the family estate. She has moved to the French Quarter to live with her sister and sister's husband in hopes that she can make a new life. Blanches journey is very representative of her downfall in life. She is told to Take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields. Later in the story we find out that this has been Blanche's journey for the last few years of her life and that she really is arriving at Elysian Fields.

We find out that Blanch was married earlier in life, but to a homosexual. The young man commits suicide, apparently form the pressure of Blanche's taunts and Blanche is left without a partner for the rest of her life. However, Blanche is not willing to simply be without. She admits later in the story that, after the death of Allen, intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with. (679) Blanche apparently has spent the time before coming to New Orleans as a very promiscuous woman and even as a prostitute.

This is her ride on Desire. The next leg of Blanche's journey is on Cemeteries. Blanche had been a teacher in Laurel but left in the middle of the spring term. Blanche tells Stella that she left on because my nerves broke. I was on the verge of lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves suggested I take a leave of absence.

(635) Mr. Graves is the school superintendent. In her journey of life Mr. Graves sends her on the second leg of her trip. Blanche is not on a leave of absence but instead has been fired. We find out much later that Blanche has had sex with a seventeen-year-old student who's father found out and there was practically a town ordinance passed against her (671).

Blanche was forced to leave the town she had grown up in was left with nowhere to go she went to see Stella and Stanley. The final stop in Blanche's journey to see Stella is in Elysian Fields. Elysian Fields is the place of the living dead in ancient lore, the inhabitants of which are described in book six of the Aen ied: They are the souls, answered his father Anchises, Whose destiny it is a second time To live in the flesh and there by the waters of Lethe They drink the draught that sets them free from care And blots out their memory. (Homer?) This is the place Blanche has come to start her new life and she does a very good job of filling the role. Throughout the play she drinks more and more to drown the sorrows of her past. In order to emphasize Blanche's weakness and fragility, Williams contrasts her to Stanley.

Stanley is Stella's common husband of Polish descent. When Blanche first meets Stanley, he has just come home from his bowling game. They stare at each other for awhile and then she introduces herself: You must be Stanley. I m Blanche. He offers her a drink, but she declines, telling him that she rarely touches it, which we know, is a lie. Stanley shows his rudeness and simple ways by taking off his hot sweaty T-shirt in front of her.

They have a short conversation about where she is from and how long she will be staying. Blanche gives short, polite answers that seem to be very cautious in an effort to not offend Stanley. Stanley senses this separation and comments Well, I guess I m gonna strike you as being the unrefined type, huh? From that moment until their hostility peak with rape, Stanley and Blanche argue about pretty much everything. Blanche is constantly taking a bath to the great irritation of Stanley. Apparently she is trying to cleanse and purify herself of the things she has done se she can start her new life.

When Blanche comes out of the bathroom after her first bath Stanley is waiting for her like she is his prey. He has been through her trunk and has thrown her belongings about the room. He begins questioning her about her expensive clothes and jewelry and asks Stella where her expensive things are. Blanche describes Stanley's attitude: You re simple, straightforward, and honest.

A little bit on the, uh, primitive side, I should think. Stanley is interested in knowing the details of Belle Reve because under the Napoleonic Code any money that belongs to Stella also belongs to him. In this scene, when Stanley is prodding her for the truth about the estate we have the first statement from Blanche where she admits she is not always honest: I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion. (644) The play moves on to a poker game being played in Stanley's kitchen among several of his friends. One of the players is Harold Mitch Mitchell.

Mitch meets Blanche when he is coming out of the bathroom and is attracted to her genteel appearance. Blanche gets Mitch to put a paper lantern over the light bulb to soften the glare: I can t stand a naked light bulb any more than I can stand a rude remark or a vulgar action. We see this theme throughout the play. Blanche refuses to be seen in the light and finally in the ninth scene Mitch turns the lights on and forces Blanche to reveal herself and he sees that she has been deceiving him about her age. Stanley is not satisfied with Blanche's story about Belle Reve and her leaving Laurel. He hears some rumors about the Hotel Flamingo and confronts Blanche about them.

Blanche adamantly denies that she has ever been to the hotel but Stanley says he will have a friend check in Laurel for him. Very nervous and on edge, Blanche is extremely paranoid about any unkind gossip about her past. She then confesses to Stella: I haven t been so awfully good the last year or so, since Belle Reve started to slip through my fingers. She is morbid about the unpleasant realities of life, the new threat to shatter her hopes of a fresh start, her lost fortune, and her advancing age: I never was hard or self-sufficient enough.

Soft people have got to shimmer and glow-they ve got to put on soft colors, and put a paper lantern over the light. It isn t enough to be soft. You ve got to be soft and attractive. And I-I m fading now! I don t know how much longer I can turn the trick.

(660) Blanche goes on to tell Stella that she has not told Mitch of her true age because she says men will lose interest in a girl over thirty especially, if she doesn t put out. A young man comes to the door collecting money for the paper and Blanche is immediately attracted to him. She calls him back three times when he tries to leave and finally kisses him on the mouth before telling him to leave. Her act of telling the boy to go almost shows that she doing better, that maybe she is moving beyond her past weaknesses and is ready to move on with her life. However, she will not get the chance.

Stanley's friend has checked in Laurel and Stanley learns the truth about Blanche's past. Stanley tells Mitch at work the day they are supposed to celebrate Blanche's birthday. That night, while Blanche is taking a bath, Stanley tells Stella the story about Blanche's prostitution and how she was evicted from Laurel after seducing the student. Stanley has also told Mitch. Mitch does not show up for the birthday party and Blanche is very suspicious that he has learned the truth.

That night, Stella goes into labor and Stanley takes her to the hospital to deliver their baby. While they are gone, Mitch comes over to confront Blanche about the truth. As she has at other stressful moments, Blanche hears the polka tune playing in her head that she heard the night her husband shot himself. Mitch tells her that he didn t come to her party because she has misled him and he doesn t want to see her anymore. He is quite drunk and forces her to show herself to him in the light because he wants her to be realistic to which she replies: I don t want realism.

I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!

( (678) Then Mitch tells her that he has checked for himself in Laurel and learned the truth about her past. Blanche then tells him everything. Stanley comes home from the hospital and finds Blanche has gone crazy, she has made up a story about an old suitor taking her on a cruise. They get into an argument and eventually Stanley advances toward her telling her that maybe he will interfere with her. They get into a fight that ends with Stanley raping Blanche. After the rape Blanche loses all contact with reality.

Stella refuses to believe her story in order to save her marriage and stability. Arrangements are made for Blanche to be taken off to a mental asylum so that Stanley and Stella can go on with their lives. Blanche believes that she is leaving with her suitor to go on the cruise. Throughout this play, Blanche tells lie after lie until she doesn t know the difference between what is real and what is a lie.

Her grasp on reality is gradually fading and is ultimately shattered with the rape by her brother-in-law. Blanche has fallen from the aristocratic upbringing of a Mississippi plantation family to a weak, pathetic, lunatic who is taken out of a dirty flat in the French Quarters by a mental asylum. The final act that shatters her weak personality is the brutality of a man and nearly all of her descent is orchestrated by men but the most basic reason for her fall is her own inability to cope with the brutality and savageness of reality.