Streetcar Named Desire:
The symbolic dichotomy and opposition between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski
Tennessee illiam'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. hen 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 to such dire straits. She simply does not seem to understand or care. "I think it's wonderful that Belle Reve should finally be this bunch of old papers in your big, capable hands" she says sarcastically to Stanley, mocking his emphasis on his legal entitlement to his wife's share of the estate (44). Hoping that a man will save her from her predicament, she flits like a moth in her sister's apartment, creating 'magic' with paper lanterns. She represents a…...
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Work Cited
Williams, Tennessee. "A Streetcar Named Desire." Dramatis Play Service, 1998.
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 the patriarchal system. Both Septimus and Blanche have separated themselves from painful reality and have created a new, less painful unreality for themselves. In this essay we will compare Septimus' illness to Blanche's by investigating their symptoms, the influence of patriarchal culture on their concepts of manhood and womanhood, and the situations leading to exacerbation of their symptoms.
At the end of World War I, Septimus has all the symptoms of shell shock, later called battle fatigue, and currently called post-traumatic…...
Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the book vs. The 1951 and 1998 movies. Each version of this memorable play brings a different slant to a well-known and often performed classic. Williams' play is the ultimate standard, but each work illustrates just how a different slant can update a dated piece.
STREETCAR NAMED DESRE
Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire" is such a pervasive play it was made into several film versions. The 1954 version starred Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, and Kim Hunter, and was directed by noted director Elia Kazan. The 1998 made for television movie was directed by Kirk Browning and was turned into a modern opera by the San Francisco Opera Company. Each piece retains the flavor of Williams' work, but brings a new slant to the performances.
The story of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is basically the same in all three works,…...
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In addition, Blanche was married before in all the versions, but in the 1951 film her husband's death is quickly glossed over, while in the harder hitting play, her husband committed suicide because he had been caught having a homosexual encounter. This is only hinted to in the film, and is lost in the 1998 opera version. This may not seem like an important detail, but for a woman to have lost a husband to suicide and homosexuality was a major stigma in 1947, and certainly would have affected Blanche and her self-image. Today, it does not seem like such an important or compelling issue, and so it does not take such an important role in the depiction of the characters.
When Blanche arrives at her sister's home, she notes how the play got its name. "They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at -- Elysian Fields!" (Williams, Scene 1). From the first, her relationship with Stanley is rocky, as all three pieces show: "Laurel.... Mind if I make myself comfortable?" (1998 Browning). As Stanley sings or speaks these innocuous words, he strips off his shirt, and the ultimate end to their relationship is already sealed. Stanley is the sexual predator, and Blanche is the victim, no matter her past.
Blanche cannot forgive her sister for leaving their family plantation and moving to the city. "I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body. All of those deaths. The long parade to the graveyard. Father, mother...You just came home in time for
The fulfillment of desire, that is, means the eradication of desire -- by its very definition, desire is gone once its object has been attained. This plays out differently for the two characters described above; Gatsby does briefly attain his desire -- i.e. Daisy -- but also learns that, through her own decision, he will never really possess her. This dual event of fulfillment and permanent rejection is symbolically paired with his death, and the complete randomness yet strange inevitability of the death as far as the storyline of the novel goes makes it all the more tragic. Blanche never really attains her desire, and in fact can be seen as destroying it utterly when Mitch leaves her, and this final rejection is enough to break her. Unable to attain her desires, Blanche suffers a complete break from reality that effectively destroys her, as well, yet she continues living in…...
Shakespeare's play, Romeo Juliet, film version: note defend effective ineffective. Do unknown young actors, Leonard hiting Olivia Hussey, opposed recognizable stars, made film appealing? Please explain
Although some might be inclined to believe that it is impossible to compare two works of art because they should each be analyzed from different points-of-view, it is only safe to consider that illiam Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet needs to be compared with the film that was inspired from it. One of the first things that the director needed to take into account was that the play that he wanted to screen contained a particularly powerful storyline and the actors thus needed to be prepared to express its full intensity. Franco Zeffirelli decided to cut some of the play's major parts and in spite of the fact that he created a less dramatic piece he managed to create a motion picture that was successful…...
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Works cited:
Dir. Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Bros. 1951
Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Romeo and Juliet. Paramount pictures, 1968
Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois goes to seek refuge at her sister's house. At first it seems decent enough- even though she has to bear with Stella's less than gentleman husband, Stanley Kowalski, she starts to disintegrate into madness when her once value beauty cannot get her the freedom and independence she craves. As some would say, beauty gets you far, for Blanche, nearing the age of 30, without hardly any money and losing her home and position as a high school teacher, her aging face is a far cry from her once flawless form. She was considered the "bell of the ball." She had money, she had worth suitors, and she had a good family name. Of course none of that mattered as her attempts to gain independence from her newly found poverty through being with men ended in a psychotic break that ruined any future chances of…...
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References
Bloom, H. (2009). Tennessee Williams's a streetcar named Desire. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea.
Cinema 1950s
1950s was a decade of change for the U.S. - cinema was no exception, as it modeled itself to accommodate the social changes U.S. society was going through. Films not only provide entertainment to masses but are also believed to express the general outlook of society by the way it sets and adopts trends. 50s was marked by postwar prosperity, rising consumerism, loosening up of stereotype families, baby boom and growing middle-class. It was the time of reaction to the aging cinema, especially by the freedom loving youth who were keyed up with fast food (Mc Donald's franchised in '54), credit card (first in 1950) and drive-in theaters (Filmsite.org). Young people were fed-up with the conventional illustration of men and women. With growing interest in ock-n-oll and break-free attitude prevailing, a social revolution was very much in the offering, and that was to transfer the cinema as well -…...
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References
Smith, Geoffrey Nowell. (1996). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Rafter, Nicole. (2000). Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Byars, Jackie. (1991). All That Hollywood Allows: Re-Reading Gender in 1950s Melodrama. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Wilinsky, Barbara. (1997). First and Finest: British Films on U.S. Television in the Late 1940s. Velvet Light Trap. Issue: 40. Pg 18.
Scorsese equates him with "a magician enchanted by his own magic." This freedom allowed Welles to create from narrative techniques and filmic devices a masterpiece that is self-aware of its own form. It intends to communicate this self-consciousness to the audience, thus contradicting the classical canons of filmmaking whereby the camera ought not to be noticed and the shots should be seamless. In other words, Welles expanded the art form of cinema, using the camera the way a poet uses a pen. He even created fake news footage in unique ways to enhance the film's appearance. His immense influence can be seen more on the art form as later with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Censorship was still rife in Hollywood. The league of decency suppressed adult themes. Elia Kazan's adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was censored. What we would see now as almost innocent -- a…...
Origins and Characteristics of the Law and Legal Systems in the U.S.
The Origins and Characteristics of the Law
and Legal Systems in the United States
The origins and characteristics of the law and legal systems of the United States
It is a commonplace observation to state that the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the U.S. are the origin of and provide the characteristics of the legal systems of the U.S. But in order to truly understand the ideas behind these landmark legal documents one must delve deeper into history. What of the texts that influenced America's Founding Fathers? Most may know that the Magna Charta, the English charter from the year 1215, was an influence. But the English weren't the only influential opinion-makers for revolutionary Americans. The Scottish and the French were too. The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath, for example, has been linked by scholars as an influence on Thomas Jefferson,…...
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REFERENCES
1. The Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, (Penguin Books Ltd. 2009)
2. John Adams, by David McCullough, (Simon & Schuster, 2001).
3. Inventing America, by Gary Wills, (1978)
4. The Scottish Invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights, by Robert Munro, et al. (2004, University Press of America.)
movie industry in America has been controlled by some of the monolithic companies which not only provided a place for making the movies, but also made the movies themselves and then distributed it throughout the entire country. These are movie companies and their entire image revolved around the number of participants of their films. People who wanted to see the movies being made had to go to the studios in order to see them. They made movies in a profitable manner for the sake of the studios, but placed the entire industry under their control and dominated over it. The discussion here is about some of those famous studios inclusive of that of names like Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Culver, RKO, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Universal Studios, Raleigh Studio, Hollywood Center Studio, Sunset Gower Studio, Ren-Mar Studios, Charlie Chaplin Studios and now, Manhattan Beach…...
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"What better way to annoy the Hollywood liberals than to remind them every single day that
For instance, renowned designer Barbara Matera explained that when Glenn Close first tried on the Norma Desmond costume described above, she "winced under its weight" (New York's Top Costume Shop Reveals Its Secrets 1996:3). The costume's designer, Anthony Powell, instructed Close to turn around and face the mirror, and "upon seeing the stunning result her whole attitude changed" (4). Other anecdotal accounts on the design process from Matera included: "e love shows that have underwear scenes" (referring to bustles, corsets, and pantaloons), and "bird costumes can be very taxing"; these comments provide some insight into the creative challenges that face costume designers and makers today.
Each character that appears in a production must be individually assessed, and gradually each movement of each character and each costume must then be integrated into a cohesive whole that presents the imagery desired. "At any rate," Cole et al. say, "slowly, harmoniously, must the…...
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Works Cited
Awards & Prizes. (May 2002). American Theatre, 19(5):9.
Barbour, David. (2001). You'll know who. Entertainment Design, 11:27.
Barnes, Denise. (May 28, 1998). Columnist Will Tell Times Readers Where Bargains Are. The Washington Times, 10.
The director makes this point very clearly in the scene where David and Dianna win some money.
They tumble among the bills, consummating their love for money as much as, or more so than, their love for each other. The scene is quite remarkable even beyond the basic idea of sex literally on top of money. Lyne spends significant amounts of time exploring the cash-filled crevices of his stars. While certainly a cinematic first, this union of love and money is a hollow pleasure.
The above quote also emphasizes the attitude projected by the film, which is a reflection of the contemporary world, where money and sex and power are closely associated. In a sense the film also points to another problematic aspect of the modern world; that the value of money is regarded above all else - including love and human relationships. The entire film is built around an exploration…...
Good Man is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Conner's short story, a Good Man is Hard to Find is a modern parable. The story is laced with symbolism and religious subtext. In many ways the piece is similar to classical Greek plays about pride and retribution.
efore launching into a discussion of O'Conner's story it is important to understand the woman and her motivations to write. O'Conner was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925 to her devout Catholic parents, Edward and Regina O'Conner. Flannery spent her youth attending Catholic parochial schools. In 1938, the family moved to a town just outside Atlanta called Milledgeville where Flannery continued her education. Unfortunately, her father would ultimately die in this town as the result of complications from the disease lupus. Flannery went on to Georgia State College for Women and then proceeded to the State University of Iowa where she received her MFA in 1947.
Anthony Quinn was often thought of as being larger than life. He was a talented actor who played many diverse roles and is now a Hollywood legend.
Anthony Quinn was born Anthony Rudloph Oaxaca Quinn on April 12, 1915 in Chihuahua, Mexico of a Mexican-Indian mother and an Irish father. When he was four years old, his family moved to California, where he was raised in poverty in East Los Angeles and shined shoes and sold newspapers.
Before he launched his acting career, Quinn worked at a variety of odd jobs including a boxer, butcher, street corner preacher and a worker in a slaughterhouse. At one point, he had even been a painter before trying his hand at acting. He launched his film career playing small character roles in several movies in 1936, including his debut in a movie called Parole. He also had small parts in worn Enemy and Night Waitress…...
Star Anthony Quinn Dies. June, 2001. http://www.news.bbc.co.uk.Anthony Quinn: A Life in Pictures. June, 2001. http://www.filmsondisc.com.Anthony Quinn (1915-2001). http://www.aptonline.org.Anthony Quinn: Reflections in the Eye. March, 2002. http://www.imdb.com.Biography for Anthony Quinn. http://www.allmovie.com.Anthony Quinn, Actor. http://www/ffolio.com.Zorba the Greek.http://www.news.bbc.co.uk.Zorba
Nan Goldin: Punk Expressions
Nan Goldin captures a raw, energetic visual spirit in her photography -- images of individuals outside the mainstream, persons who live in the sub-culture of the modern day world. These people are transsexuals or drug addicts, some of whom are involved in the punk music scene, others of whom are part of the underground by virtue of their "third gender" status, which Goldin applies to them. She does not photograph them as one who is reviled but rather as one who admires them and wants to be around them. Thus, her aesthetic judgments of her subjects are never scathing or attacking: rather, she presents them as they are -- boldly, objectively, almost defiantly, with their poses, attitudes, facial expressions (the eyes staring directly into the camera and hence into the viewer's saying, "Take me as I am" as in Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC,…...
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Works Cited
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. NY: Colonial Press, 1899. Print.
Manchester, Elizabeth. "Nan Goldin." TATE, 2001. Web. 9 Nov 2015.
You can find great information on Scene 3 of A Streetcar Named Desire here: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/streetcar/section3.rhtml
The use of language varies a lot between Stanley (very coarse) and Blanche (full of lyric and emotion when she speaks about her husband). Symbolism is particularly important, because Tennessee Williams was very focused on more than just what was said by the characters. He wanted the people who read his work to experience more than just the words of the people in the story.
It's also possible to find the scene on YouTube so you can watch it and understand more about the motifs and....
There are two main levels of language used in A Streetcar Named Desire. These are the text of the stage directions and the words the actors actually say to one another. The biggest contrast is between Stanley's course, slang language and Blanche's classy, flowery statements. While Blanche's language sounds much more proper, it also sounds very fake and false in comparison with Stanley's speech. This is how Williams wanted it to sound when he wrote the play. By using two styles of writing and language, Williams was able to distinguish the two main characters from one another very easily, which....
The stage directions in Scene 1 of A Streetcar Named Desire are very specific and detailed. They are more than just stage directions, and are focused on exactly how the characters are supposed to look and be portrayed. They discussed the outfits, the mannerisms, and the actual ways in which the characters are supposed to act, far beyond what they just physically do and what they say to one another. The motifs are clear and direct. They provide design for the set and the outfits the characters are wearing, along with the decoration the set has and what it portrays....
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