"Streetcar named Desire" by Tennesse Williams.

Essay by lordrichardHigh School, 11th grade September 2003

download word file, 4 pages 3.0 1 reviews

Downloaded 81 times

Going... Going... Gone

Throughout the course of Tennessee William's play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Blanche DuBois goes from being slightly mentally disturbed, to, by the end of the play, utterly mentally destroyed. Blanche DuBois goes through several changes throughout the play; most of them concentrate upon her relationship with other characters. But also, Blanche suffers her own change, an ever-growing slide into outright mental collapse. As Williams shows the change which happens to Blanche is something which can happen anywhere in society, a societal ill, and yet which society choose to ignore or to throw away because of societies inability to cope with the growing burden. In any case, Blanche DuBois goes through both extroverted and introverted changes through the play, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Blanche's relationship with Stella suffers a negative change by the end of the play. When Blanche and Stella first meet, William's own stage direction says that Stella is 'calling out joyfully'.

The stage direction also offers that they embrace during that first meeting. This is evidence of the, at first, clearly sisterly relationship between Stella and Blanche. Also, Stella defends her sister at first, as when Stanley questions Blanche vehemently about Belle Reve, and then, to Stella, accuses Blanche of a swindle, Stella says, "... you don't know how ridiculous you are being when you suggest that my sister or I, or anyone of our family, could have perpetrated a swindle on anyone else." Also, Stella takes Blanche out to Galatoire's on the poker night, showing a certain care for her sister's ill disposition. But the relationship of Blanche and Stella begins to fray right after the Poker Night. Blanche feels appalled by Stanley's actions, as in that he hit Stella in a drunken rage. Stella, though, goes back to Stanley,