Stanley and Blanche Relationship in a Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a classic of American theater. Thomas P. Adler said that â€Å"it was the finest play ever written for the American stage† (Kolin 1). Exactly this play determined the author’s themes, thoughts and ideals.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Stanley and Blanche Relationship in a Streetcar Named Desire specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Harold Klerman, it is the only play that describes the personality, society and depicts realistically the reality of that time. The setting of the play took place in contemporary times. It is a story of a decline of a Southern lady Blanche DuBois. In this play, Williams disclose a wide range of themes. Among them are the themes of domestic violence, relationships of men and women, the fantasy and its confrontation with reality. One of the most important themes of the play turns around the relationships of the mai n characters, Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. These are two characters that are put in opposition. The climax of their opposition is the Stanley’s rape of Blanche. On one hand, this episode depicts a cruel attitude and immoral behavior, â€Å"Stanley is wrong and Blanche is right, the moralists agree† (Fleche 500). On the other hand, Blanche’s rape was inevitable (Fleche 500). And through the characterization of Blanche and Stanley’s relationship, I will argue that Blanche was raped. Blanche DuBois comes to New Orleans to her sister Stella married to rude and down-to-earth man Stanley Kowalski. Blanche and Stanley did not like each other from the very first second they met each other. Blanche saw Stanley beat his wife and behaved as an animal, â€Å"the primary example of physical abuse against Stella occurs in Scene Three, when drunk and angry, Stanley first tosses the radio out the window and then charges after his pregnant wife and strikes herâ⠂¬  (Koprince 46). Stanley is showed as a brutish person without moral qualities. However, Blanche is also not â€Å"an angel†. Her previous life is not perfect and all the manners and tenderness is just a mask to hide her â€Å"dark† past and alcoholism. The only person who suspects her and wants to show her real face to everybody, â€Å"and yet it seems â€Å"natural† to read A Streetcar Named Desire as an allegorical journey toward Blanche’s apocalyptic destruction at the hands of her â€Å"executioner,† Stanley† (Fleche 504).Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As it has already been mentioned, these two characters are put in opposition, however we cannot say that this is an opposition of good and evil. Thus, Blanche appears as a young, beautiful, and unhappy woman who survived the suicide of her husband and wants to start all over again. For the first time, we see her elegant and tender. The first impression is absolutely positive. She is so light and smart, she knows French and music. However, we do not know much about her past and it is also suspiciously. We guess that she lies and Stanley helps us understand it. The author is sympathetic to his heroine. He does not idealize her, on the contrary, he is quite objective: he shows her live to whiskey and relations with men after her husband’s death. â€Å"Blanche who has never spoken an honest word in her life is allowed, indeed encouraged, to present her life to the audience as a vocational decision†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Toles 119). The â€Å"impurity† of Blanche’s past suggests the final of the play and it is a quite logical completion of the story. The truth cannot be hide and everybody should pay for his/her actions. Blanche planned to marry Mitchell, but sooner or later, he would find out about her â€Å"sins†, â€Å"she cannot esca pe the status of victim, on many fronts, nor avert the plans which have led to her committal† (Toles 117). She could not expect other attitude to herself, especially in that social layer with it principles and relations between men and women. Thus, the character of Blanche can be interpreted as positive and negative at the same time, on the one hand â€Å"she has been enshrined as a hallowed representative of the Old South, a secular saint. On the other, negatively, she has been branded a nymphomaniac, a liar, an infectious source of destructive feminine desire† (Kolin 3). With this â€Å"image† of a liar and nymphomaniac Stanley fought. Stanley appears as a person with animal nature. He drinks bear all the time, â€Å"copulates, play games, smashes light bulbs, paws through Blanche’s wardrobe, throws plates on the floor, even commits rape† (Cardullo 29). Stanley is a representative of a dark reality. He embodies the â€Å"prototypical battererâ₠¬ . According to Susan Koprince, he has all signs of such person. â€Å"He is hypermasculine, believes in mail’s superiority and has dual personality† (50). Those traits make him hate Blanche.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Stanley and Blanche Relationship in a Streetcar Named Desire specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More First of all, he hates her aristocratic past and he is outraged by her attempts to fool him showing that she is better than he and his friends. This is contradictory to his image of a woman. It makes him look for â€Å"dark spots† in her past and he finds them. Stanley does everything to ruin life of this woman. It seems to be cruel and basely. However, he is the only person who supported the truth and â€Å"justice† and reality. Stanley is a dark version of the salesman, selling the idealistic Blanche a harsh reality on the specious grounds that it is somehow good for h er and willing to use force, if necessary, to make the sale.† (Cardullo 30). The result of the confrontation of Stanley and Blanch was the rape. However, it cannot be considered as a cruel violation. Neither the context, nor the scene manifests it. In her article, Anna Fleche says, â€Å"she is the erring woman who gets what she â€Å"asks† for (her realistic antecedents are clear)† (507). This is the way other men treated her, this is what she expected, this is how a logical flow of things should be like. All the situation and Blanche herself â€Å"suggests† rape to Stanley. If other men did it, why he cannot? Moreover, she does not resist but sinks on her knees and remains â€Å"inert†, â€Å"She is not only silent but crumpled, immobile, while he takes over control and agency† (Fleche 508 ). Thus, the scene of the rape denies any emotions, it is a conflict that arises between two characters. In addition. With this action Stanley returned B lanche to reality. As George Toles mentions, â€Å"Stanley’s casually violent gesture recalls the rape and, less malevolently, repeats the realist’s inalterable lesson: those who live entirely in dreams will perish† (130). Thus, Blanche and Stanley are two characters put in opposition. Neither of them is perfect. Blanche lives with her dream and she constantly lies to hide a cruel reality and her real past. Stanley is a representative of this cruel reality which opens Blanche’s eyes through the violent action. However, both, with context, main characters’ traits of character and actions, especially in the scene of a rape, the author coverts the meaning of the rape. Now, it is not just the act of violence, but the conflict that shows who is who in the play.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Works Cited Cardullo, Robert James. â€Å"Selling in American Drama.† Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. (2007): 29-33. Fleche, Anne. â€Å"The Space of Madness and Desire: Tennessee Williams and Streetcar.† Modern Drama. Vol. 38. Issue 4. (1995): 498-509. Kolin, Phillip. Williams. A streetcar named Desire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print. Koprince, Susan. â€Å"Domestic violence in A Streetcar Named Desire.† Southern Studies. Vol 7. Issue 2. (1996): 43-55. Toles, George. â€Å"Blanche Dubois and the kindness of endings†. Raritan. Vol 14. Issue 4. (1995): 115-144. 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Dispositions Essay Essay Example

Dispositions Essay Essay Example Dispositions Essay Paper Dispositions Essay Paper I found it easy to peg these six as my strongest and weakest points and thought through of how to issues each and every one of them. Am a very accepting person, Im the first person to introduce myself to the new kid in class, and often found myself giving tours to many new kids when was in high school. Ive listed adaptable to change as one of my weakest points because of how accepting am. Was the first person my best friend came out to; I find people have a degree of comfort with me. I think this is important in the area of childhood education because not all kids fit in with the majority, bullying develops where some children feel excluded in activities and as the trusted adult in the tuition, having a level of comfort with me will help them feel more safe and included. I also feel this helps with accepting situations along with people. As much as I dont adapt to changes, I will accept the situation. Believe that will be successful in early childhood education because am imaginative and problem solving. This comes in handy with any situation involving children, when babysitting it easily helped me develop games to keep them entertained while also teaching them important lessons. Children are filled with imagination already and it seems to fade away earlier and earlier with very generation. I also listed self confident about abilities, meaning I am not. Enlisted my mother to help me pick out my traits because I couldnt decide them on my own accurately. Im told constantly how smart I am but also how I hold it inside, hold myself back. That being said, a lack of self confidence never helped anyone get anywhere. My plan when it comes to this weakness is with this course, want to start trusting myself and what decisions I make. My last strength is that Im patient with others; this comes in handy when it comes to children. Children are not patient beings at all; I dont know how they survive all year waiting for Christmas. That being said some children arent as fast to learn things in school, such as special needs children, and being patient with them will be positive to both of us. Some children do feel rushed and overwhelmed in school and I believe being patient with them will only help further their education and help them succeed. My last weakness is trusting Of others, this was another trait I enlisted my mother for, she tells me Im too trusting of others and I agree. I have always been the trusting one, someone people can count on even when I cant count on them. I believe everyone deserves a second chance and my plan to fix this to develop a thicker skin when it comes to trusting. Not to say trusting someone is a bad thing, when it comes to early childhood education, trusting your children is great and the children you teach trusting you is even better. I believe I have many positive traits but the strongest ones would be that am very accepting, imaginative, problem solving and patient. With all of those strong traits I have overall weak traits including that I am not very adaptable to change, am also not very self confident in myself or my abilities and Im over trusting of those Of whom might not deserve it. Hope to improve on my weakest traits by improving myself and my education. Feel as my weakest traits stem from myself and that I can only change by changing and loving myself. I have explained how each and every trait is helpful in the world of early childhood education, even the bad traits. In conclusion, I can only get better by furthering myself and my education.

2008 Financial Crisis Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

2008 Financial Crisis - Term Paper Example In 2007, the US entered a financial crisis, consequences of which are still suffered by the entire country. Until the crisis began and unraveled in 2008, most economists were optimistic. The US economy was growing, markets were considered to be liquid and employment levels were high. However, within one year, everything changed. According to Reavis, â€Å"the collapse of the U.S. housing market triggered the financial crisis† (3). Weak financial regulatory structure, lack of understanding the innovations in the financial sector, over borrowing and securitization of mortgages are seen as main causes of the crisis. Though already in 2006 the Treasury recognized the need for a stronger financial regulatory structure, the crisis was unexpected. Short run potential financial market challenges together with the long run challenges were discussed by the Treasury staff (Swagel 6). The result was March 2008 Treasury Blue print for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure in case of policy changes in the long run (Swagel 6). Possible near term scenarios were considered, with some of them being: market driven events such as the failure of a major financial institution, a large sovereign default, or huge losses at hedge funds; as well as slower-moving macroeconomic developments such as †¦ a prolonged economic downturn (Swagel 6). ... ge – backed securities, because â€Å"they added to the liquidity and efficiency of capital markets and made it easier for firms and investors to lay off risk† (8). The policymakers did not have a solid plan to save the economy. Moreover, the US politicians, financial regulators, and monetary authorities did not view any of the risks to be plausible threats (Obstfeld & Rogoff 6). This paper will focus on causes and solutions to the 2008 crisis. Previously mentioned causes of the crisis will be discussed in more detail. It will also be shown how causes interacted and thus also deepened and prolonged the scope and length of the crisis. As also mentioned previously, policymakers were not prepared for the 2008 crisis. Thus, solutions will be discussed as well. Prior to the crisis, the economy was over performing. According to Reavis, the US real estate markets were blooming: From the late 1990s into the mid-2000s, housing prices around the country rose at a compound annual growth rate of 8%. By 2006, the average home cost nearly four times what the average family made. (Historically, it had been between two to three times.) Demand was outstripping supply (Reavis 3). Despite flat incomes, families bought houses whose prices were rising. The Clinton administration enabled them to do so by easing the eligibility requirements (Reavis 3). Risky homeowners and the housing boom from the late 1990’s till the mid 2000’s drove the US economy’s growth through additional jobs in construction, remodeling, and real estate services ( Reavis 3). Families borrowed $2 trillion (Reavis 3). Mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps (CDSs) became popular. A mortgage-backed security is a pool of mortgages that were bundled together and sold as securities (Reavis 7). They became