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An 'A' essay plan for the question: 'Explore Williams’s presentation of illusion and reality in A Streetcar Named Desire'. Includes a written intro as well as other possible arguments.
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Explore Williams’s presentation of illusion and reality in AStreetcar Named Desire
Possible Arguments:
techniques the playwright uses by referencing uncovered and shaded
lights to convey: the contrast between transparency and secrecy, truth
and denial, reality and pretence
• Blanche prefers illusion to facing up to the reality of her life: past
failures and the shame and fear of a degraded, poverty-stricken future
• how the play compares and contrast the two sisters with regard to the
theme of reality and illusion
• extent to which Stella is a realist. Her inability to face up to the truth of
what her husband has done to Blanche; her need for an illusion for her
marriage to survive and her future to be secure
• Mitch’s illusions and disillusionment with Blanche; is he able to accept
her failings, to have a realistic view of her as a flawed character who is to
be pitied rather than condemned?
• techniques the playwright uses to convey the complexity of the cost of
Stanley’s ‘realist’ approach to life
• how the final scene is structured so as to create ambiguity in the way
the audience reacts to Blanche and whether she is ‘mad’ or not
Intro:
Tennessee Williams uses the constant battle between illusion and reality as
a theme throughout his play A Streetcar Named Desire. Characters use
illusions to escape the reality in which they are living. Each character is
shown to live their life in some degree of illusion. Blanche, the protagonist,
is the most susceptible to illusions of grandeur due to her shame of her
promiscuous past and mental instability. Stella, her sister, initially seems
like a realist but in the final scene ultimately choses illusion over reality,
condemning her sister by choosing to believe Stanley. It is notable that the
inability to face reality has subsequent, tragic consequences in order to
reveal the humanity of Williams’ characters, who are just like the
playwright himself, marred by depression and loneliness.
Para 1:
paper moon” sung “contrapuntally” to Stanley exposing truth
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