Characteristics of main personalities of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Essay Example

Characteristics of main personalities of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Essay Tennessee Williams is one of the most provocative and widely respected playwrights in the modern theatre. His strengths in playwriting were in his bright and vivid characterizations and brilliant dialogues. A Streetcar Named Desire (original name was The Poker Night) is one of the most remarkable plays of our time. It has gathered the wide audience in contemporary dramatic literature. In the first year of its presentation in New York, the play received the Pulitzer Prize, The Donaldson Award and The New York Drama Critics Awards. The play has been produced in many countries throughout the world and has been made in to the popular movie with amazing Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. Many of the major themes of A Streetcar Named Desire are embodied in the history and culture of New Orleans. The lively setting of the French Quarter, with its streetcars, bars, entertainment, and jazz and blues music, provides a rich background for the emotional events of the play; the setting also draws symbolic attention to changes which were taking place in American society, especially in the South during the post-World war II years. The characters of the play are also very realistic and specific, I think that everyone of them deserves special note. Blanche DuBois is a complex individual who provokes strong reactions from the other characters. We know that she has been a schoolteacher in Mississippi but was asked to leave her job because of an obscure story with a student, that she was once a Southern belle from a wealthy family, and that she has a failed marriage and doubtful past which she has left behind. At once strong in her desires and determined in her claims on the men who are around her, and yet weak and forever looking for someone to take care of her, she gives off a series of conflicting signals. She is neurotic, psychologically deceived about her beauty and attractiveness, and perhaps also an alcoholic. In the opening scene where elegant and beautifully dressed woman who appears leads us to expect quite a different character to emerge than the fragile woman running from her past who begins to display her neuroses and obsessions during the following acts. We will write a custom essay sample on Characteristics of main personalities of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Characteristics of main personalities of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Characteristics of main personalities of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The division between emotional surface and depth is brought out throughout the play in the way that Blanche cant face up to her past, but only reveals glimpses of it through her neurotic behavior and occasional comments. Blanche is also really self-centered. As a guest in a small apartment, her behavior seems very irritating. Not only must Blanches presence disrupt Stanley and Stellas sexual intimacy, but it also spoils the routine of their everyday life. The fact that she freely (and dishonestly) drinks Stanleys whisky and that she sends the pregnant Stella off to get a drink for her emphasizes a selfish nature. But despite all of her disadvantages, Blanche comes across as a sympathetic character. Williams himself commented that . . . when I think about her, Blanche seems like the youth of our hearts which has to be put away for worldly considerations: poetry, music, the early soft feelings that we cant afford to live with under a naked light bulb which is now. Much of Stanleys character is seen through his relationship with Blanche. Her response to Stanleys strong presence suggests that he is some kind of an animal. In earlier versions of the play, Stanley had a gentler, ineffectual side, but in the final writing of A Streetcar Williams made him Blanches complete opposite angry, animalistic, and reliant on his basic instincts. These qualities are seen most clearly in Blanches comment to Stanley that youre simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side I should think. To interest you a woman would have to . . .. The sentence is finished off for her by Stanley, but what we suspect she would have said is what she later says to Stella: that the only way to live with a man like Stanley is to go to bed with him. For Blanche, Stanleys sexual appeal and his primitive nature are closely bound up together. Stanleys actions are what would now be described as macho. But not only is he violent in his masculinity, he also appears to lack any sense of moral order: his rape of Blanche does not strike him as betraying any moral principles. It is simply the outcome of their strained relationship. At the same time Stanley represents the new social order of modern America as a contrast to the decayed gentility of Blanches Southern manners. This is also seen in the fact that Williams makes him an immigrant who is proud to be part of the new society of a multi-cultural America: I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is one hundred percent American . . . so dont ever call me a Polack. Stella appears to be a simple character, but is actually more intriguing than her role as sister and wife to the plays two main protagonists would suggest. She acts as a background for both characters, allowing their selfishness and emotional failings to be emphasized. In relation to Stanley, Stella is sensitive and loving, practical and sometimes independent. She clearly loves Stanley, despite his many failings and his violence towards her, and she is willing to accept his temper as part of the passion they feel for each other: But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark that sort of make everything else seem unimportant. Like many other people in society, Stella continues to function in her daily life despite considerable incident. Blanche pays attention to this stoical aspect of Stellas character when she comments: I never had your beautiful self-control. Stellas decision symbolizes a greater choice facing American society. She rejects Blanches strategy of living in a glamorous past and chooses instead the rational, practical, sometimes flawed world which her marriage to Stanley represents. By the way, Eunice and Steve, who live upstairs from Stanley and Stella, are a vision of what Stanley and Stella could become. Eunice is overweight and run down from too many pregnancies while Steve is not particularly understanding or supportive of his wife. Domestic violence appears to be routine in their marriage. Despite their failings, however, Steve and Eunice are not negative characters, but quite the contrary they are hospitable and neighborly. Mitch is also one of the main characters of the play. He is gentle and discreet while Stanley is rude and sexually forward. Blanche is aware of his kindness and even comments on it, saying, I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle. Mitchs actions reveal him as a deluded and rather pathetic man who has not fully got to know how relationships work. Although Mitch may be upstaged by his more powerful friend, his actions bring about the destructive ending of the play. For now, I tried to observe all the main characters of a play and describe their personal qualities. Some of them (such as Blanche and Stanley) are versatile and presented deeper and fuller than the others, but still every person represents his own individuality and original principles, views, character traits and emotions. Taken together they depict complicated and detailed portrait of a relevant society of New Orleans with all its values and vices.