Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Deferred Dreams
The two plays A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry are two classical plays that are based on the daily struggles by families trying to live life as best as they know how. There in are several setbacks and obstructions that come their way and work against them in achieving their dreams. Some of the hindrances are from without yet some are from within the family itself. One common factor between the families however is that they are both struggling to cope with the hostile societies that they live in and optimistic that some day things will look up and better days will come.
Langston Hughes in his poem poses the question "What happens to a dream deferred?" And there after gives several suggestions in form of questions to the possibilities that can befall a deferred dream. This poem perfectly applies to these two plays that are mentioned above. Deferred dreams in the two plays refuse to 'dry up like a raisin in the sun' and this is exemplified by the continued presence of Mama's plant that she carries whenever they relocated from one place to...
It is symbolic of a dream that Mama would not let dry in the sun and disappear. This refusal to let the dreams dry is also portrayed by Williams when in the play we see Stella giving birth towards the end of the play and the ill character that is Blanche is allowed to be raped and be sent to the asylum, an indication of a new and fresh era and generation, one that will live within the conscious of reality and morality, and not in self deceit like Blanche did.
In both plays, the authors at one point paint a picture of dreams 'that fester like a sore
And then run' just when the audience think things are working out for the god of the families. For instance in A Raisin in the Sun, just when the family gets the insurance compensation and the audience expect the family to stabilize du to the $10,000 compensation, it becomes the point of contention in the family pitching Mama against the son Walter Lee. The same is depicted in A Streetcar Named Desire when Blanche DuBois runs to New Orleans with the hope of starting a new life after losing her ancestral mansion yet she is met with hostility from the…
Streetcar Named Desire: The symbolic dichotomy and opposition between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski Tennessee William's Blanche Dubois from an "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most complex characters in dramatic literature. On one hand, Blanche represents fine, southern gentility. When she speaks of losing the family estate Belle Reve, in contrast to the practical Stanley Kowalski, she is vague about the legal and financial complications which led her
Septimus and Blanche: Victims of Patriarchal Culture Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire are interesting fictional characters who suffer from mental illness in the 1920s. Septimus' illness stems from his wartime experiences while Blanche's illness stems from her position as an oppressed woman under patriarchy. In a sense, patriarchal society has produced both illnesses because exploitation of others, war, and oppression of women are characteristic of
Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play by Tennessee Williams that explores the relationships between Stella (DuBois) and Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, Stella's sister. In the play, Williams analyzes how social constructs and expectations influenced Blanche's behavior and the factors that contributed to her mental breakdown. Blanche's mental breakdown piques towards the end of the play, however, it can be argued that Blanche was psychologically damaged before she arrived
But on the other hand, men lose interest quickly" (Williams 81). She believes the way to catch a man (which she believes she must do to stay alive), is to act innocent and girlish, and she is not innocent and girlish at all. This shows how tragic her character is, and how self-defeating her dreams and hopes are, because she is setting herself up for failure, and she will
Streetcar Named Desire Blanche is a person of imaginative and false illusions, whereas Stanley is a creature of bestial reality. Although the binary holds firm throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche and Stanley are multifaceted and complex characters that preclude oversimplification. For example, Blanche's imaginative and false illusions are exacerbated and enhanced by her devotion to the drink. Her compulsive and excessive drinking prove to be expressions or symptoms of her
Streetcar Named Desire and the Snows of Kilimanjaro The epigraph of Tennessee Williams' classic play A Streetcar Named Desire contains a quote from Hart Crane's poem The Broken Tower: "And so it was I entered the broken world / To trace the visionary company of love, its voice/An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)/But not for long to hold each desperate choice" (1947). Ernest Hemingway also elected