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1、A Street Car Named DesireThe appreciation of A Street Car Named Desire A Street Car Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams, is a play about the story of Blanche DuBois, a southern gentlewoman in her late twenties, who, having lost her youth, husband, employment and nearly all the other reliance
2、, turns to her younger sister Stella and her husband Stanley. Her family plantation Belle Reve (beautiful dream) is lost as a result of the indulgence of the male members of the family. Both sisters marry young, or rather, rush into marriage. Stella chooses passion and sexuality incarnated in the pe
3、rson of Stanley. And Blanche prefers delicacy and refinement in the form of the young poetAllan Grey, whom she takes as the light of her life. However, the light turns out to be nothing other than a disguise of his homosexuality. Shocked by this disgusting exposure, Blanche is at a loss. Not knowing
4、 how to cope with it, she publicly degrades her husband when he expects comfort and help more desperately than she does, which precipitates his suicide. Left alone, Blanche begins to involve herself in a succession of sexual promiscuity . Of late she taught English in Laurel. Accused of having an af
5、fair with one of her students, she is evicted from school and town. Blanche, desperate, wretched and alone, then arrives in New Orleans to find her refuge in Stellas home. However, she is disconcerted to find that Stella is married to an uncouth salesman of Polish origin living in a small and dingy
6、apartment. During her stay with the Stanleys, she might have secured one hope of escapea possible marriage with Mitch, but Stanley ruthlessly destroys the relationship by exposing her past to Mitch who leaves Blanche in the lurch. At the end of the play, raped by Stanley, Blanche is unhinged and is
7、committed for an indeterminate period to an asylum. A Streetcar Named Desire is a very socially challenging play in the way in which Tennessee Williams depicts how brutal and deceiving human nature can be. He takes the point of view that no matter how structured or civilized society is all people wi
8、ll rely on their natural animal instincts, such as dominance and deception, to get themselves out of trouble at some stage in life, even if they dont realize it. Williams has created three main characters of society, they are, Blanche Dubiou, Stella and Stanley Kowalski. Each of these characters is
9、equally as civilized as one another, yet their acts of savagery are all on different levels. Throughout the play Williams symbolically relates these three characters to animals, savages, by the use of their attitudes, beliefs, appearances and desires. The most obvious example of a savage in the play
10、 is Stanley Kowalski. He is a large well-toned, territorial male with simple beliefs and a short temper. He does not have many manners and does not care what people think of him. He seems very simple but there I much more to him. He feels threatened by Blanche because she moves in on his territory a
11、nd wants Stella to leave him. At first, Stanley acts physically dominant over both Blanche and Stella; by rifling through Blanches possessions, quoting to Stella and Blanche that every man is a king, throwing the radio out the window in a drunken frenzy and actually striking his pregnant wife (Stell
12、a). However, towards the end of the play, Stanley realizes his power over Blanche and he acts a lot wiser, but still with the same intentions. He dresses smarter, talks to her nicely, but mockingly, and finally rapes her just to prove his status and to fulfill his desire. Stanley has to be the domin
13、eering figure in his relationships we see it not only with Stella and Blanche, but with his friends as well. He is a leader and does not like it when someone tries to complicate his role. All in all, Stanley is a man who lacks insight to see what he really is a coarse, crude, domineering man ruled b
14、y animal instincts, Stanleys intense hatred of blanche is partly motivated by the aristocratic past blanche represents, he also rightly sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they Williams uses a different t
15、ype of savagery in Blanches character. Blanche is more deceptive and exaggerated than Stanley is, she tries to hide her age, from others, by constant bathing and dim lighting, and from herself, by drinking and lying. Through out the whole play she is trying to hide her real identity, the actual anim
16、al instincts that are inside her. She hides these with perfume, wearing fancy clothes, even by putting a lampshade to hide the actual light. She also attempts to steal Stella away from Stanley by relating him to an animal. This is best represented when Blanche says:” He acts like an animal, has anim
17、als habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!” Despite the fact that there is a lot of truth in Blanches words she deceives herself by her drinking and her need to feel wanted by men. She blames society for these cravings and states that she only does it to survive. Blanche is not happy
18、 with her actual self, so she is always trying to hide it. Although she appears the opposite of Stanley, they both share the same characteristics. They both are very lustful, they both drink a lot, and they are both very competitive toward each other. They are both savages raised in different worlds
19、. Williams character Stella seems to set the standard for the civilized person, but at a closer look Stella may be just as guilty of savagery as Stanley and Blanche. The humble Stella has desires just like Blanche and Stanley; she needs Stanley for his security and companionship, she likes to feel o
20、verpowered by a rugged man. Stellas weakness is present throughout the play, when she takes Stanleys word over Stellas, but more so when she goes back to Stanley after being struck by him. Once again with Stella we see that she enjoys sex. At the end of the play she knows that her husband, Stanley,
21、raped her sister but still decides to be with him. She wants sex and she needs it. Stella is basically admitting that her and Stanleys relationship is based around sex. This is a very animal instinct. Stella, although does not say it, enjoys being domineered. She needs it. There is no doubt that Ten
22、nessee Williams believes we are all savages at heart. He seems to indirectly-attack the way in which society makes people think and act towards the more untamed desire, guilt, spiritual torment, and repressed sexuality. In the play every one has certain basic animal instincts and all of our characte
23、ristics can be drawn back to that. He seems to base most relationships on sex, which is the most natural, act that humans and all other animals can do. All three of these characters have the same personalities in many ways. Blanche hides her real emotions and her savageness, While Stanley does the o
24、pposite and does not hide it enough. And Stella is the most intriguing character of them all. she is mixed up in between the two. Having the American south as the background, Tennessee Williams play depicts the decline and decay of the south, the frustration and nostalgia of the characters and the torturing and dying out of desires. The play is concerned with the marginalized and psychologically-sacred individuals, highlighting the inner animality of his characters by means of poetic language.
