A streetcar named desire
The play revolves around imaginations of fantasy in the place of reality. Blanche who is the main character of the play tries to disguise herself from the reality. She says that she lost her ancestral land to hide what happened to her. In real sense, she is not able to own a homestead because she lost her job as a result of her irresponsible sexual behavior. In addition, she could not manage to pay continue paying bills because she had lost her job (Mohanty, p. 67). She behaves responsibly to win Mitch’s favor. Only to be disappointed by Stanley who tells Mitch of the bad sides of Blanche. Blanche is upset because of the reality that dawns on her, she resorts to hide herself in fantasy in order to deceive others.
Stella abandoned her relatives in Laurel to hide herself in Stanley’s arms. By doing that she was just trying to escape from the reality of boredom after some of their relatives had died. Stella should just have stayed with Blanche in Laurel instead of hiding in the illusion of marriage with Stanley that is, after all, not peaceful. How could she abandon her sister to go and get married? Stella is upset by the hostility and awkward behavior of Stanley (Parks, p. 45). However, Blanche suggests that she leaves to go for the millionaire but she refuses. In fact, Blanche tells her that he raped her. Stella does not want to accept the reality and affirms that Stanley cannot do that.
The play portrays many characters trying to make the transition from the old to new. Stella and Blanche lose their beautiful mansion only to start mingling with common men. It is the reality and they cannot avoid it, in fact, Blanche ends up becoming desperate such that she is not able to own a house for herself (Mohanty, p. 23). She is despised by being given a one-way birthday ticket by Stanley. Stanley does not give her a gift; he wants her to leave the house. Blanche used be a respected high school teacher, her new status is horrible. She is no longer a wife material. She is not respected by Stanley as a sister in law.
There are several driving factors that drive different characters in the play. If Blanche was responsible enough, she could have remained in Laurel as the high school teacher and maintain her ability to afford a where to live. Her sexual emotions lead her to live in poverty as well as a desperate life. Mitch is at first driven by love to want to marry Blanche. However, after getting informed of the facts about her, he restrains. He instead comes again but with a different motive, to get sex ‘He comes to her with accusations and his tone is completely different’. Blanche shouts and keeps him off. Stanley is upset by Blanche’s characters and hates her. Later, he is driven by sexual emotions and rapes her. This means that her initial hatred for her was due to bad emotions.
Stanley is very primitive in dealing with Blanche. As his sister in law, he should have given her a warm welcome to comfort her. Blanche might have behaved abnormally because of mental obsession. Stanley instead reacted to her and even worsening the situation. If he sincerely hated her, why does he ask her for sex? If he was in good terms with her, she could have given in. However, he was bad on her so he could not access her willingly. He decides to rape her. On Blanche’s birthday, instead of giving her a presented, he gives her one-way ticket to Laurel. If he was bitter on her, he should have avoided giving her a gift.
Desire drives the play along as the characters crave to build their own perception of live. Otherwise, life is at times not fair on them. Blanche has the desire to hide her horrible reputation. She is unfortunately disappointed by Stanley who discloses her life story. Stella has the desire start her family and runs away from Blanche. She unfortunately runs into another problem but persevere Stanley. Stanley desires that Blanche goes away from his house. This makes him give her ticket back as a present on her birthday. This hatred makes him speak badly about her at a critical moment when Mitch is love with her (Mohanty, p. 56). Stanley is driven by sexual desire to forget that he is in bad terms with Blanche. He goes ahead and rapes her, ‘Then he rapes her: “Let me…let me get by you!”’.
The play brings out the theme of death. This starts with the death of Blanche’s husband. The good life that Stella and Blanche used to live in also dies as Stella moves to an apartment with the husband. Blanche even experiences death further when she loses her job. Death is directly referred to when we are informed that the two sisters are the last in their family after the others had died. We know Blanche with an awkward behavior probably suggesting that she is insane (Parks, p. 78). Towards the end of the play, a doctor comes for her probably that is the beginning of ending her mental situation ‘Just then the DOCTOR and MATRON arrive’.
Work cited
Eagleton, Terry. Marxism and Literary Criticism. New York: Psychology Press, 2002. Print.
Mohanty, Seemita. A Critical Analysis of Vikram Seth’s Poetry and Fiction. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2007. Print.
Parks, Edd. Edgar Allan Poe As Literary Critic. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.
