How is tension conveyed between Stella and Blanche in Scene 1 of A street car named desire.
How is tension conveyed between Stella and Blanche in Scene 1? During the conversation between Blanche and Stella, there is a lot of tension, which is conveyed in various ways. The reason there is tension there is because Blanche had to tell her sister that she has lost their old family home, Belle Reve, and there is a gradual build up of tension before Stella is finally told. This scene shows us how nervous and anxious Blanche is. Before Stella arrives, Blanche is sitting 'very stiffly' in a chair. The body language described to us shows that she is on edge and obviously nervous about something. When she notices some whiskey in a cupboard she has some without thinking, but is then very careful to put everything back. The word tosses is used to describe how she drinks it, suggesting that she is used to drinking strong alcohol quickly. When Stella arrives we are told Blanche starts to speak with 'feverish vivacity as if she feared for either of them to stop and think.' She then starts t speak at Stella, to which Stella can only have time to reply with a laugh. She tells Stella not to look at her, and does not give her the opportunity to speak, and even when Blanche tells Stella to speak, she still keeps talking. Blanche pretends to look for some liquor, knowing where it is already. Again, we see how nervous she is; 'She is shaking all over and panting for breath as she
Holes - How did Stanley's character change and develop as the story progresses?
Holes-How did Stanley's character change and develop as the story progresses? This is a story about a boy by the name of Stanley Yelnats who is sent to a juvenile detention centre called Camp Green Lake due to a slight miscarriage of justice. In the detention centre Stanley is forced to dig holes to build character and later he learns more about his family history and discovers the truth about 'curse' of bad fortune. The real message behind this story is that good is always victorious over evil. I believe this because the warden being a character, who lies to obtain the treasure that belongs to Stanley's family, doesn't manage to acquire it but instead Stanley who is being honest receives the treasure. At the start of the story, Stanley is an innocent boy who is from a poor family. He is timid and lacks self-confidence. He is more of a person who doesn't like accepting the fact that anything that goes wrong is his fault. He instead finds it more comfortable to blame it all on his no-good-dirty-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley also seems to be a person who isn't able to accept reality. He judges the stealing of shoes as an accident and decides that it is because he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. This makes us conclude that at the start of the story, Stanley seems to be a person who is innocent but at the same time a person who heavily relies on
A Streetcar named desire - Williams uses symbolism effectively not only to convey the fragility in Blanche’s character but also the imposing force that finally destroys her - Discuss and refer to critics in your response.
Williams uses symbolism effectively not only to convey the fragility in Blanche's character but also the imposing force that finally destroys her. Discuss and refer to critics in your response. Throughout the play symbolism is used to capture attention and to appeal to viewers' emotions. It is expressed through music, colour and imagery all of which help to heighten tension and reflect the atmosphere created by an impending force. A very dominant symbol used throughout the play is music. It portrays Blanche's headlong descent into disaster, which is inevitable because of her fragile state. The constancy of the sound of the recurring "blue piano" creates an impression of a foreboding threat. It could be said that Blanche herself is similar to the Negroes who invented the blues music so prevalent in New Orleans. The blues expresses the isolation and depression portrayed by Negroes who were taken from their homelands in Africa and the Caribbean to the Deep South of America and were forced to work as slaves in the cotton fields. Blanche could relate to their emotions of melancholy and anguish, although she would have been a slave owner back in Belle Reve. Blues exemplifies Blanche's connection with the rough and unmelodic music of New Orleans, but also shows that her true background is in contrast, melodic and harmonious. It "evokes the time and place and echoes Blanche's
How Much Sympathy Does the Audience Feel for Blanche at the End of the Play?
How Much Sympathy Does the Audience Feel for Blanche at the End of the Play? From the very first scene, we as the audience find ourselves sympathising with Blanche. Her first introduction into the play causes this sympathy. Williams describes Blanches appearance as 'daintily dressed in a white suit' with 'white gloves' and 'earrings of pearl'. From the first stage direction at the start of the play, a description has been created in our minds by Williams of New Orleans. It is a poor section with a 'raffish charm'. It is evident then that Blanche is not a character that will fit in here. Due to this fact, I feel sympathy for her as she has entered a world that is new and unknown to her. Williams describes Blanche as having 'delicate beauty' that 'must avoid a strong light'. The word 'delicate' suggests a great vulnerability and coupled with the fact that she is in a territory unknown to her means that she must feel afraid and foreign to the area and so again I sympathise with her character. I find it interesting that Williams chose to describe Blanche in a way that she 'must avoid a strong light'. He also refers to her as a 'moth'. This word is also associated with light and suggests to me that Blanche fears the light, as it will show her age. Williams makes constant reference to 'light' throughout the first five scenes, for example, in scene three she lies about her age
Ideas explored in a literary work
ideas explored in a literary work. Fantasy's Inability to Overcome Reality - Although Williams's protagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire is the romantic Blanche DuBois, the play is a work of social realism. Blanche explains to Mitch that she fibs because she refuses to accept the hand fate has fabrications and does everything he can to unravel them. The antagonistic relationship between Blanche and Stanley is a struggle between appearances and reality. It propels the play's plot and creates an overarching tension. Ultimately, Blanche's attempts to remake her own and Stella's existences-to rejuvenate her life and to save Stella from a life with Stanley-fail. One of the main ways Williams dramatizes fantasy's inability to overcome reality is through an exploration of the boundary between exterior and interior. The set of the play consists of the two-room Kowalski apartment and the surrounding street. Williams's use of a flexible set that allows the street to be seen at the same time as the interior of the home expresses the notion that the home is not a domestic sanctuary. The Kowalskis' apartment cannot be a self-defined world that is impermeable to greater reality. The characters leave and enter the apartment throughout the play, often carrying with them over its threshold the problems they encounter in the larger environment. For example, Blanche refuses to leave her
Explain what you have learned about Blanches' character and her past - A street car named desire.
Explain what you have learned about Blanches' character and her past Blanche Dubois arrives in scene one carrying a valise, looking at a slip of paper, and seeming quite lost. It is clear from her description that she is in sharp contrast to the settings she is in. Blanche is 'daintily dressed' in a complete white ensemble as if she were attending a 'summer tea or cocktail party' whereas her surroundings consist of 'rickety outside stairs' and 'the faint redolences of bananas and coffee.' Blanche has been raised in the lap of luxury and she expresses how distasteful she finds Stella's current living conditions, commenting that 'only Mr Edgar Allen Poe' could describe more of a horrific setting. Blanche admits that she wasn't so good the last two years or so, after Belle Reve had started to slip through her fingers. When Stella asks if Blanche is really interested in Mitch, Blanche replies, "I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! Yes--I want Mitch . . . very badly! Just think! If it happens! I can leave here and not be anyone's problem..." It is evident that Blanche has had a colourful and rather traumatic past many terrible things have happened to her since Stella left and they have affected her nerves and mental ability, for instance she is obsessed by her appearance and needs constant compliments from anybody willing to provide them, she is also a heavy
'A Streetcar Named Desire' - How concerned are each of the four characters with their own survival? Discuss their needs and how they go about fulfilling them, and evaluate their success in terms of surviving events of the play.
AS English: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' homework assignment How concerned are each of the four characters with their own survival? Discuss their needs and how they go about fulfilling them, and evaluate their success in terms of surviving events of the play. I believe all characters are concerned with their survival as all humans are but most extensively seems to be Blanche Dubois. Blanche, when the play begins is already a fallen woman in society's eyes. Her family fortune and estate are gone, she lost her young husband to suicide years earlier, and she is a social outcast due to her indiscreet sexual behaviour. She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly. Behind her front of social snobbery type behaviour. Blanche is an insecure individual. She is an ageing Southern belle who lives in a state of continuos panic about her fading beauty. Her manner is delicate and frail, and she shows off a wardrobe of showy but cheap evening clothes. Stanley quickly sees through Blanche's act and seeks out information about her past. Blanche's fear of death manifests itself in her fears of ageing and of lost beauty. She refuses to tell anyone her true age or to appear in harsh light that will reveal her faded looks. She seems to believe that by continually asserting her sexuality, especially toward men younger than herself, she will be able to avoid death and return
A Streetcar Named Desire - With which of the characters do you have the most sympathy with? Illustrate with specific reference to the text.
26th March, 2001 A Streetcar Named Desire With which of the characters do you have the most sympathy with? Illustrate with specific reference to the text. It could be argued that Stella is the victim in this story as she suffers the most. Because she is stranded between Stanley, her husband and Blanche, her sister, she has to choose between the two and decide whom she trusts. She says, 'I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley.' Stella is hurt emotionally and physically by Stanley, as in Scene Three when Stanley hits Stella, but she comes back to him shortly after and forgives him. This is because it's not just herself she has to think about, but also her newborn baby. Her baby is her foremost priority. Stella loves Stanley and she tries to make him happy. But she feels threatened by Blanche, because she thinks she will take Stanley away from her. In Scene One Blanche asks Eunice, 'I'm looking for my sister, Stella DuBois. I mean-Mrs. Stanley Kowalski.' This shows that Blanche doesn't accept that Stella is now married. Stanley is the type of man that Blanche likes. She thinks that he is a real man, something that her former partner wasn't, she likes strong men. Her ex-boyfriend was homosexual and she might think that it was her fault, because she wasn't good enough. She flirts with Stanley more than he flirts with her. One example is when she asks him
A streetcar named desire - Summery 1st scene.
2-10-2002 N°1 ROBINSON WOLLERSHEIM A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Summery 1st Scene: The first Scene plays in an exterior two-storey corner building in Elysian Fields, a street in New Orleans. The area is poor with a raffish charm. This building contains two flats that are owned by two women, one white, one coloured. The white woman is called EUNICE, occupying the upstairs flat. Above the flat the "blue piano" can be heard overlapping. The "blue piano" symbolises the Jazz that New Orleans is the origin of. The main characters are Stella, Stanley, Blanche and Mitch. Stella and Blanche are sisters. Stanley is a bit of a macho. Mitch is an urban labourer. Stanley calls for Stella and she appears. He tosses some meat at her, announcing, that he is going bowling. She wants to watch. After she left, Blanche Dubois arrives on the black. She looks at the address, being shocked of the surroundings. She cannot believe in what conditions her sister lives. Eunice, the landlady, helps her into the Kowalski apartment. Eunice mentions, that she saw pictures of their home, Belle Reve. She is wondering whether such a place is hard to keep. After a short while of small talk, Blanche is exhausted and not in the mood for small talk, that she wants to be left alone and wants to see Stella. Finally, Eunice walks of to fetch Stella. Stella and Blanche greet each other with some emotion. Things start
Can you feel compassion for The Woman In Black?
Can you feel compassion for The Woman In Black? Throughout the book the woman in black is portrayed with an image of evilness. All of the terrible things she did, all the children that died and all of the coincidental things that happened when she was around. Mr Kipps was tormented I think from the very beginning of his adventure, at Mrs Drablow's funeral. In the sixth chapter ' THE SOUND OF A PONY AND TRAP ' Mr Kipps hears the sound of a screaming child drowned in the marsh with a pony and trap. While he was fully aware what was going in he was helpless against the woman in black's evil powers. Also in the chapter ' in the nursery ' Kipps once again is confused when the nursery looks almost as if it had just been used as all of the toys and clothes were set out. It was not until the chapter ' a packet of letters ' when Mr Kipps realised that the woman in black was not all about evil, but about longing and revenge. In this chapter we learn of a lady named Jennet who inevitably had to give her child up for adoption. She could not afford to give him the upbringing he deserved and so had to give him to a wealthy woman who could look after him well. It was unfortunate that the woman happened to be Mrs Drablow, Jennet's sister. Jennet was allowed to visit her son, but it just wasn't the same. Having her own child growing up with ought really knowing her must have torn her
