What do you believe Tennessee Williamsis saying about human sexuality in A Street Car Named Desire?
What do you believe Tennessee Williams is saying about human sexuality in A Street Car Named Desire? Tennessee Williams presents each character in his/her typical gender roles that the attitudes of post-war America recognised. Stanley's family portrays a typical nuclear family that was common and ideal at the time. Stanley appears to be a fully masculine breadwinner who has power and control over his family. Williams uses Blanche and Stella's dependence on men to present and review the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South in post-war America. Blanche and Stella see male companions as their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for both their sustenance and sexual desires: "When he is away for a week I nearly go wild" Stella appears to be fully dependant on her husband financially as she is a housewife and therefore relies on Stanley's income as her means of living. When Blanche advises Stella that she could be happier without a physically abusive husband, Stella chooses to remain with Stanley. Stanley is the man she relies on, loves and strongly believes, as he is the only man between his friends who is "likely to get anywhere". Stella knows Stanley is common and aggressive but she explains to her sister that she is "thrilled" by his actions on their wedding night and allows her abuse to be the price of what they "do in
How does Tennessee Williams create sympathy for Tom, both as an individual, and as a representative of his milieu? To what extent does Williams' creation of suspense help to convey this sympathy for his audience?
How does Tennessee Williams create sympathy for Tom, both as an individual, and as a representative of his milieu? To what extent does Williams' creation of suspense help to convey this sympathy for his audience? 'The Glass Menagerie' was originally named 'Portrait of a girl in glass'. Tennessee Williams wrote the play. The play is very convincing because Williams uses many symbols, which represent many different things. Many of the symbols used in the play symbolize some form of escape or difference between reality and illusion. The play is written in the point of view of the character Tom. Tennessee Williams was born as Thomas Lamier Williams in 1911. Tom is a symbol of Williams in his early life. The play is clearly autobiographical; it reflects the life of Tennessee Williams. Tom Wingfield lives with his Pressurising mother who is trapped in the past, which effects both Tom and Laura. Amanda reflects Williams' mother 'Miss Edwina' and Laura reflects Williams' sister 'Rose'. Tom, Laura and Amanda live on there own in a house, which symbolises a trap. Its trapping all of them especially Tom. Tom and Laura's father deserted the family and went away to another place. The audience may feel that the father moving away from the family was more of an escape. The only image the audience has of Tom's father is a picture hanging on the wall in the living room. The picture takes
High Fidelity - Critical Essay.
Alison Wood High Fidelity-Critical Essay "High Fidelity", by Nick Hornby, is a humorous contemporary novel dealing with the themes of love, work, and relationships with friends and lovers. The thirty-something owner of a minor record shop, Rob, deals with every day trials and challenges in his relationships with colleagues, family and girlfriends. This essay will explore how Rob's character progresses throughout the novel. The novel begins with an amusing account of Rob's former girlfriends. During the first stage of the novel, Rob's partner moves out as they split up. Whilst Rob thinks about days gone by and former broken down relationships, an obvious bitterness is apparent. "These were the ones that really hurt. Can you see your name in that lot, Laura?" Although Rob is bitter about past events and partly about his current split, his mood appears to be more regretful than angry from this quote. Rob believes that he is already past the stage of caring enough about his relationships to become very depressed when they end. This is illustrated in him saying, "we're too old to make each other miserable," which appears a strange remark for a man in his thirties to make. This makes Rob appear very pessimistic about the chances of finding a relationship that will make him eternally content. The reader gains the impression that Rob and Laura's relationship is in such a
Silence on the Stage.
Silence on the Stage. In drama, a character on stage always serves a purpose. The space is far too valuable to waste with a useless character. Most often, a character's purpose is to deliver lines, whether they are dialogue, soliloquy, narration, or other forms of dramatic speech. These lines may advance the plot, reveal character, establish a setting and countless other possibilities. However, characters on the stage do not always speak. This does not mean that they are without purpose. A silent character can be used by the playwright in many of the same ways as one that dominates a scene. Often these characters make more of an impression than those who are speaking. In the plays Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, and The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the playwrights have characters on the stage that speak very little in scenes of the plays. The effect of these characters is very strong in both to establish the setting and atmosphere of the play. Trifles is set in the house of a murdered man and his wife, suspected as the killer. Entering are the County Attorney, the Sheriff, Lewis Hale, who found the dead body, the Sheriff's wife and Hale's wife. The County Attorney and the Sheriff are looking for clues to help solve the mystery. The play can be divided into three sections, the beginning, when the men and the women are all downstairs, the middle, when the
language in scene 4 and how the past affects the present notes
How the past impinges tragically on the present in A Streetcar Named Desire. ? Tennessee Williams uses the past to influence the fate of characters in his play, this is especially evident with the character of Blanche Dubois. Her past haunts her throughout A Streetcar Named Desire as the audience begins to glimpse into Blanche's life of deception and death. The Introduction of Blanche ? Blanche Dubois enters Scene One in an act of desperation. She seeks refuge at the Kowalski's which marks the start of her impending doom. Her family fortune and home are gone along with the loss of her young husband. ? She is Described as "Shocked" when she arrives at Stella's home and says, "this - can this be - her home?". It is apparent of her expected upper class living conditions she received back in Belle Reve. ? Williams also includes moth-like imagery to portray Blanche as "delicate" and "white" which again highlights her high-class status but also her fragility and how the past may have caused her to become so delicate. Belle Reve ? One of the tragic themes in A Streetcar Named Desire is death. Blanche blames Stella abandoning her at Belle Reve with her dying relatives. ? Blanches previous experience in all the deaths she has experience would explain her alcoholic nature and need to cover up her delusion with fantasy and deception. ? Williams implies how Blanche's sexual
The birthday party
Gcse scripted play 1 The birthday party : The play the birthday party by Harold Pinter. This is a dark humoured play set in an English town. It is about a couple who let out a room to a lodger called Stanley. One day two men arrive on a door step looking for rooms. The arrival of these men opens up a can of worms for Stanley, as they come from a mysterious past. Although we never discover the whole picture of what Stanley did, a web of tension is woven around the relationship that Stanley has with these men. Goldberg, the stronger character of the two, masterminds the destruction of Stanley and the play centres Very much around the way in which they do it. 2: The extract We chose this section because it involved the final showdown, which is the most moving part of the play. It is the bit where Goldberg and McCann are scaring him with psychological warfare. The rest of the play really gives reader/ watcher the full background of the play. There is a lot of tension built up as the story progresses. In the scene that we going to perform is a climax until Stanley has a mental breakdown. This is made very humorous as Stanley is not expecting this and starts to feel very uncomforted as the speech is confusing him mentally. 3: the character I began to like McCann because he wasn't really that strong at getting his point across but he was used by Goldberg to put pressure on
How and Why does Williams dramatise the influence of the past on the present?
How and Why does Williams dramatise the influence of the past on the present? 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is a fascinating and intriguing play. The playwright, Tennessee Williams, uses many sound effects and dramatic devices to emphasize the influence of the past on the present in a mesmerizing and interesting way. It is upon the main character, Blanche, that Williams shows this influence. Many of these effects and devices are expressionistic and give us an insight into what Blanche feels at any one time, as they are a physical representation of Blanche's mental regression. Williams also uses a variety of naturalistic effects. These are stage directions which describe the realities of the quarter. The "Blue Piano" music and the cat which screeches in the first scene are both examples of this. On the other hand, expressionistic devices describe Blanche' psychological progression depending on what the context is. The most important example of this in the play is the Varsouviana, which appears regularly throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, Blanche appears unexpectedly at her sister's home, the influence of the past begins to appear. The way she treats Stella reflects her desire to return to the past as she calls her "my baby" and "Stella for Star". It also seems that Blanche is trying to lay claim to Stella by reminding her that she is the younger sister and
A streetcar named desire - Blanche and Stanley.
A streetcar named desire was written by Tennessee Williams in his mid thirties. Williams takes the audience to New Orleans where the relationship of Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella and brother illuminated. In this play Blanche, Stella and Stanley were very important and controversial because they represent a distress society by problems of class differences. This essay will point out the similarities and differences of Blanche and Stanley as well as my own impression about the characters. The first impression that I received from Blanche is that she's a very high class, intelligent, beautiful, and arrogant with aristocratic background lady. The example from the play is when Blanche was very shocked by the place that her sister is living in. Blanche is a very sensitive and emotional woman. This is shown when Stanley asked her about the boy that she has married to, her impression is suddenly changed. She seems to me as the person with inability to face reality. She can't accept the fact that she's thirty; she still seeks put compliments on her appearance from her sister and other people in order to fulfill herself and her self-esteem. To me she also seemed to be a flirting type of person. In this play it's clearly shown that she's trying to attract Mitch and also when she asked Stanley to button her dress. She attempts to make herself appear attractive to new male suitors.
tConsidering the opening two scenes of 'The Glass Menagerie', how effectively does Tennessee Williams use imagery and dramatic devices to suggest the themes of the play to his audience?
Considering the opening two scenes of 'The Glass Menagerie', how effectively does Tennessee Williams use imagery and dramatic devices to suggest the themes of the play to his audience? The opening two scenes of 'The Glass Menagerie' by Tennessee Williams show a range of different dramatic devices and imagery. Williams used his writing as a way to escape the reality of the world and became renowned as one of the greatest expressionist playwrights of America. His expressionist style enhances the viewing for the audience by not rejecting realism but looking at reality from a different perspective for an emotional effect. This gives the audience a more emotional and thought provoking play rather than a natural and realistic one. Expressionism is first discussed by Williams in the production notes where he explains the importance and use of dramatic devices such as music, projection and lighting which have one aim to bring a 'closer approach to truth' and avoid the mundane trappings of conventional stage realism. The dramatic devices used are common to films and this gives the plays cinematic qualities which help to show the themes to the audience. Tennessee Williams asserts control over the play through the production notes and stage direction, as he is specific in how he wants the play to be presented. Furthermore, the production notes heighten the expectation of the audience
Show how Tennessee Williams uses expressionistic effects to highlight the themes of the play.
Show how Tennessee Williams uses expressionistic effects to highlight the themes of the play. There are a number of expressionistic features used by Williams throughout the novel The Difficult of Accepting Reality The Impossibility of True Escape The Unrelenting Power of Memory The Difficult of Accepting Reality - Among the most prominent and urgent themes of The Glass Menagerie is the difficulty the characters have in accepting and relating to reality. Each member of the Wingfield family is unable to overcome this difficulty, and each, as a result, withdraws into a private world of illusion where he or she finds the comfort and meaning that the real world does not seem to offer. Of the three Wingfields, reality has by far the weakest grasp on Laura. The private world in which she lives is populated by glass animals-objects that, like Laura's inner life, are incredibly fanciful and dangerously delicate. Unlike his sister, Tom is capable of functioning in the real world, as we see in his holding down a job and talking to strangers. But, in the end, he has no more motivation than Laura does to pursue professional success, romantic relationships, or even ordinary friendships, and he prefers to retreat into the fantasies provided by literature and movies and the stupor provided by drunkenness. Amanda's relationship to reality is the most complicated in the play. Unlike her
