Suitable for those studying A streetcar named Desire in first year. It was a draft for the coursework aspect of the A level. 9/15 mark according to my teacher at the time. The essay covers the theme of desire which is present throughout the play in relation to specific characters and how this links...
Explore how the idea of desire is presented in this sequence of A Streetcar
Named Desire and in the text as a whole.
During Blanche’s speech surrounding her fading beauty, Williams uses euphemism
to hide the fact that Blanche is still under the impression that she is desirable. This is
ironic to an audience as we come to a realisation that her act is a façade. The term
“temporary magic” has been used in order to stress her means of survival.
“Temporary” insinuates that Blanche is aware that she is ; it also reveals that she
has hope in the fact that her running for “protection” will stop and she will be the one
that men become infatuated with. There are connotations of fairy tales surrounding
the word “magic” which introduce the idea that Blanche is living outside of
reality-which may explain why she can’t come to terms with her current situation.
Magic has both positive uses and negative ones, suggesting that although she may
not enjoy acting in the manner that she does, it is the thing which is keeping her
afloat and giving her some sort of stability. Blanche’s feelings of abandonment had
been expressed in the previous scenes where she claims that whilst she stayed at
the plantation she “tried to hold it together”, which can relate to her feeling
non-existent “unless men are making love to you”. Blanche epitomises a “moth”,
which had been mentioned in the beginning of the play, which can only be
recognised when in the light and when out of the light, she seems near non-existent
as they camouflage with nature around them. “The afternoon has faded to dusk”
mirrors Blanche going from highly desirable in the beginning of the play in the
audience’s eyes to her not meeting the stereotypical standards of a woman in the
1940’s due to her compulsive lying, drinking habits and hyperbolic speech.
Arguably, Stella lacks the ability to feel true desire due to her turbulent relationship
with Stanley that has caused her to hold this false idea of love. After Blanche’s
monologue, Wiliams uses short questions expressed by Stella to highlight her lack of
knowledge about Blanche’s interests and, as a whole, societal perspectives about
desire. She asks why Blanche is “sensitive” about her age, suggesting she has no
inclination of what it feels like to feel unloved due to age because she is younger
than her sister. In the beginning of scene 1 when Stanley “heaves” the meat at her,
she accepts the meat which marks a point at which she has been coerced to do as
what her husband says. Also, after Stanley had physically hurt Stella, she still
willingly cleaned up after him- although Blanche disproved of this. This would have
been expected of a stereotypical woman of the 1940’s, to obey and adhere to their
husband’s rules. However, it also disproves Stanley’s tending for her because
otherwise he wouldn’t make her do everything and would reciprocate the love that
Stella displays through his actions. Later in scene 5, Stella suggests that Mitch is not
as a man as Stanley, by questioning “you want him?”. This contemptuous attitude
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