A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around a theme of progressing madness. Blanche is the focal point of the madness because she has a low self esteem and her behavior is delusional. Her delusional behavior consists of her alcoholism, promiscuity, and compulsive lying. She constantly tries to cope with the madness, but the people around her drive her deeper into a delusional mental state. Many aspects of her life; however, make her madness more excusable.
And if that’s sinful, then let me be damned for it!”(Scene Nine).She seems enraged that her reality is unraveled, that everyone now sees her fantasy for what it is, fantasy. Her lies about her purity, her age, her background, everything is now out in the open to be judged and scrutinized by the public. Blanche DuBois is a tragic figure. She is out of place both geographically and temporally (Scene One). She appears to be trying to remain a ‘young women’ when in fact she is getting old, this results in an unappealing persona.
How does Arthur Miller use Contrast in the Presentation of the Characters Abigail, Mrs Putnam and Rebecca Nurse? Arthur Miller’s presentation of the characters Abigail, Mrs Putnam and Rebecca Nurse contrast to each other in such a way that it adds to the characterisation of the characters. However, it is not just the use of contrast that adds to this effect, but also the use of similarity. In general, Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar, Mrs. Putnam is bitter about the loss of all her babies and feels resentment to those who have been more fortunate than herself but does not intend serious harm or hatred towards others and finally Rebecca Nurse is a pillar of the community, a devoutly religious and kind hearted woman. Now from those brief descriptions we can already see the difference in the characterization of all three characters.
Another coinciding element found in Medea was vengeance. She seeks out the one who hurt her and did whatever she could to make sure he felt worse than she ever did, even at the expense of her own children. While both women crave independence, they are denied the environment in which to successfully follow through with this need. In each of the stories one can feel a sense of sympathy for each woman because they were not raised to survive successfully in their respective societies. Neither were able to deal with relationships, and rely instead on their innermost qualities of their character to get through.
Although she has lost all connection to this part of her life, Stanley is not fooled by Blanche’s aristocratic pretenses. Blanche does not want to accept that she is now equal to people like Stanley. She has adopted idealistic and fantastical values to separate herself from average people and to hide the mistakes she has made as well as hiding who she really is as a person. In this play Tennessee Williams explores the complexity of the relationship between these two characters and their inability to understand each other. The abuse that Blanche goes through leads her unstable and emotional nature to the point of mental insanity.
Medusa is described in a very negative manner. On the other hand, the final stanza makes us feel pity for her. Her lover had other ‘girls’ meaning he was unfaithful and the rhetorical question that follows makes Medusa seem desperate. This part of the poem evokes feelings from the reader as she is clearly distressed and suffering. She reminisces about when she was ‘fragrant and young’, illustrating her complete lack of confidence.
The term ‘tart’ has connotations of someone who is unfaithful, and this would cause the reader to distrust Curley’s wife as a character. Steinbeck gives the reader the impression that she is portrayed as a villain as the workers did not have nice things to say about her. We are encouraged to dislike her without actually her being present or doing anything in the story. Steinbeck also uses light and darkness to portray attitudes towards Curley’s wife. An example of this is when Curley’s wife first appears in the bunkhouse; both Lennie and George notice that the rectangle of sunshine is cut off.
What is a person who has just been concurrent “bad cards” supposed to do? Is it so wrong to try to turn against what one was brought up to believe in order to escape the harsh realities of daily life? Was Blanche then wrong for trying her best to conceal her past and attempt a new life, a new identity? Blanche’s issue is that she is motivated by her desires and those desires lead her to be impulsive. Still she is a product of the sum of all the bad things that had happened in her life, the blunt of which she did not ask for.
Women are the weaker sex in this play: they are forced into giving into male power by doing what they are told; which is expected of them. Characters like Beatrice do not conform: she is the complete opposite to what a woman should have been like in Elizabethan times. Women were expected to be quiet and obedient. She, however, is a loud, aggressive and sarcastic character, and she does not obey the commands of any man. If anything she gives commands, ordering Benedick to “kill Claudio”.
Blanche’s intimacies created her downfall as they weren’t permanent. After Blanches husband committed suicide Blanche was alone and felt the need to be intimate with many men so that she wouldn’t be alone, she thought that the men were helping to detach herself from the horrors of her life and stop herself from acknowledging her guilt from her husband’s suicide; Critic Kathleen Margaret Lant claims ‘Williams does consider Blanche guilty for not saving her husband from his