Streetcar named desire..

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE-ASSIGNMENT III

• Assignment III: Streetcar Named Desire and Macbeth: answer five questions from each of this  literary work.  As you answer, quote from the texts to support your views and analyse them in depth.

• Due date: September 5th.

• You can do it individually or in pairs.

PART A

Answer FIVE of the questions below bearing in mind what we discussed about paragraph construction (topic sentence, supporting sentence, re-supporting sentence, the use of quotations, the exploration of technique, etc)

1. To what extent can the play be seen as critical of the American society and the rise and fall of classes after the turn of the century?

The play explores the social transition in America that took place at the end of the Second World War. Then, America was seen as the land of opportunity and equality due to people's optimism based on its great economic condition. Moreover, New Orleans (where the play is set) was a multicultural state chosen by many immigrants. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams portrays the fall of the bourgeois and the rise of a new social order and it shows the confrontation between the values of the two worlds through characters, symbols, ideas and language.  

On one hand, Blanche DuBois, the Southern belle, represents the bourgeoisie element, the genteel society of the plantation owners that presided through the nineteenth century and who exploited the labor of African American Slaves. She considers class and social status to be vital: “we are French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were French Huguenots” (Williams 60). She also estabish her superiority over Stanley using terms to describe him as "Polack", "pig", "greedy", "vulgar", "disgusting" or "greasy". Together with Stella are remnants of Southern aristocracy’s decadence. The family’s material resources have been swallowed up, and all that remain are its manners and pretensions. On the other hand, Stanley Kowalski, the son of Polish immigrants, who is engaged in the industrialization of the south, represents the American Dream of the new America which stands up for an equal society. He says: “what I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it” It is thought that Stanley hasn’t much education proved by his narrow range of vocabulary and his ‘vulgar expressions’. He also shows a shade of brutality, suggesting that this transition of social classes is not a kind one.

The play demonstrates that Stanley is well adapted for survival in the New South, while Blanche is incapable to adapt in the new society. “Her appearance is incongruous to the setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and a hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party,” (Williams 11). Even though she says: "I'm very adaptable-to circumstances" (Williams 60)

Relying on past and unable to support herself since the loss of Belle Reve "a great big place with white columns", Blanche goes mad, seeks refuge in alcohol and thus, she escape reality. Although Stella is from the same background as Blanche, she can sustain herself through her marriage and sexual union with Stanley. She supports and takes care of Blanche because she knows what has made her in her current state of confusion.

Another part that symbolizes the opposition between the two different classes is when Tennessee Williams describes the colors of the Elysian Fields in New Orleans. The "white frame, weathered grey" and "fades white stairs" represent what is happening to Blanche. "The dim white building" could represent the already fading old American society.

At the end of the play, the downfall of Blanche Dubois marks the decadence of the Old South. Furthermore, Stella and Stanley’s newborn child, a mixture of immigrant American and Southern American heritage, represents the South’s future offering a hope.

1. What three themes do you consider central in the play and which other sub-themes are important to foreground the most salient concerns of a given  time and culture?

THEMES IN STREET-CAR NAMED DESIRE

3 MAIN THEMES:

• SEXUAL DESIRE

Blanche perceives herself as an object of male desire and the journey that she has made at the beginning of the story represents her life. "Blanche: They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!"

Throughout the story Williams relates Sex to death. The Elysian Fields are the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Blanche’s lifelong pursuit of her sexual desires has led to her eviction from Belle Reve, her exclusion from Laurel, and, at the end of the play, her expulsion from society at large.

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