Essay written by an A-level English Literature private tutor + A* student.
Essay on self and identity in A Streetcar Named Desire
Edexcel English Literature A-level
DANIELLA SPOTO
‘Shame lies at the heart of each character’ In light of this statement, explore William’s
presenta on of self and iden ty in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider
relevant contextual factors.
The self is presented to be a fragile concept mirroring the dichotomy of the old and new south,
furthermore con icted and malleable iden ty and self percep on is explored as a social construct.
Its therefore evident that Williams mourns the loss of the old south whilst recognising its
destruc ve nature hence Blanche’s self and character cannot be presented to be consistent as
opposed to Stanley who symbolises the modernisa on and violent reali es of the new south.
Williams explores the fragility of the self through Blanche’s indulgence in her own delusion and
fantasy. Blanche is presented as desperate to remain in her own delusion presen ng her self to be
subject to con ict ‘I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, magic!’ It seems evident that the
boundaries between fantasy and reality have been blurred. Furthermore the erra c punctua on
serves to present her language as disjointed further illustra ng her separa on from reality as well
as her own despera on to separate her real and ideal self. The concept of the self was discussed by
Carl Rogers who created the theory of congruence. This suggested that when one’s ideal self and
actual self are not congruent this will result in mental distress as well as con ict, he further argued
that the further apart these percep ons are the more this con ict will intensify. Blanche’s
separa on of her ideal and actual self are further presented ‘Je suis la Dame aux Camélias’. She
usurps an aristocra c posi on by calling herself the lady of ‘Camélias’ furthermore during the post-
war period French was seen to re ect the language of the upper-class and those who were highly
educated hence she desires to be viewed solely as an aristocra c woman. Addi onally she
seamlessly changes her language in order to usurp this respected role sugges ng she can easily
move into her own delusion and therefore easily change her selected self presenta on. Therefore
it is clear Williams presents the self to be a fragile yet malleable construct. As an audience we see
her conclusive descent into unreality through the employment of plas c theatre 'She has dragged
her wardrobe trunk into the centre of the bedroom. It hangs open with owery dresses thrown
across it/…Decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white sa n evening gown’. The
Plas c theatre of the trunk and its contents is employed to tarnish Blanche’s present and send her
spiralling in to unreality. The placement of the trunk is especially important; the apartment is made
up of two rooms, we can infer from Aristotle’s descrip on of a tragedy that the fact that the
apartment is small and that most of the play takes place in this apartment the sense of tragedy is
thereby intensi ed. As the trunk is in the centre of the apartment and it can be established that
the trunk is symbolic of Blanche’s past and her self, an audience would understand that her
distorted self percep on is the centre of her tragic downfall; the trunk is the centre of the
apartment where the tragedy takes place. Flowers are symbolic of youth, beauty and innocence
‘ owery dresses’. However the violent verb ‘thrown’ juxtaposes this symbolism suggests that these
ideals are incompa ble with Blanche’s person they have been discarded and are at the centre of
the tragedy. Therefore sugges ng that the inconsistency and false aspects of her self presenta on
catalysed her downfall. Moreover as she is wearing the ‘crumpled white sa n’ it is clear that she is
unable to preserve her ideal self as the ‘white’ has connota ons of innocence and truth, similar to
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