...The intense desire for power is a feeling that many human beings may have. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the theme of power is very evident throughout the play. Stanley Kowalski’s hunger for power has led him to violence. He is a man who takes pride in what he does and his role as the head of his household. His brutal and abusive attitude is one that readers are made aware of the moment he comes into the scene. In the first seen he is seen hurling raw meat to his wife showing his animalistic approach to life. All of his authority is put into question when Stella’s sister Blanche comes over for a stay. Always Stanley’s power upon others is served with a side of violence. In scene three we witness what happens when he feels that he is losing power. Stanley has been losing money from the poker playing and needs to save face with his buddies. He complains that that the women are talking too loudly, and then complains again when Blanche turns on the radio. He gets up and switches it off himself. Blanche, who obviously doesn’t see Stanley as a threat, turns it back on and begins to waltz with Mitch. Then Stanley who has been drinking takes the radio and hurls it out the window as a sign of superiority and putting his foot down. When Stella tells his friends to leave he chases her and beats her. Stanley has been losing money from the poker playing and needs to save face with his buddies....
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...Abstract The use of power to influence others within a social group has evolved over centuries. Gaining dominion, wealth and social standing are central motives for gaining power over others within a communal group. Those with power can leverage off humans innate psychological leanings toward normative and informative influences to create the norms which others in society will accede to. Psychological experiments by Stanley Milgram and Solomon Asch demonstrate humans predisposition to obedience and compliance, in order to secure their acceptance within society, mean many can are influenced by those in power. It is an astonishing power, to influence another person or a whole society to buy into a reality created by another. To first understand how those in power can influence others, an understanding of ‘power’ is required. Power is a currency, a power currency, that’s desired by others which affords the holder the ability to exert both influence and dominion over people and surroundings. The ‘currency’ can be power of knowledge, love, charisma, wealth, fear, acceptance, social status, strength, or beauty to identify just a few. An individual or group possessing a power currency desired or feared by others ultimately holds a social balance of power and subsequently gains the ability to influence. Those in power use the media to tell others how they should look, who they should like, how they should act and what they should believe. The powerful use media to sell...
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...Blanche's actions. Stanley Kowalski is represented by the color red, which symbolizes rage, anger, and power. Stanley is playing poker and he is already been drinking an alcohol beverage. Stella calls him a "drunk- animal thing" which then triggers Stanley because he isn't used to being called that and he sees himself as the man of the house and to be called that sparks his anger. Stanley "charges after Stella" he takes her down and begins to punch her as if she was a man. Stella is already pregnant with his baby at this point, this all happened because he was drunk at the time and his anger caused him to...
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...DuBois comes in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella after she lost the family plantation Belle-Reve because of money problems. She then meets her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, a World War II veteran. As soon as they meet each other, a mistrustful rivalry starts between them. A Streetcar Named Desire depicts the conflict between two opposing views as a poker game between Blanche and Stanley for control. From the beginning of the play, Williams starts distinguishing Stanley and Blanche by their mentalities. In fact, Blanche has the Old South mentality. She grew up in a plantation where she learnt how to behave as an aristocrat whereas her brother-in-law is an industrial and a Polish immigrant representing the New South. Blanche is described as delicate and fragile whereas Stanley is rude and violent. Blanche lives in a world of illusion. She acts as a queen and wants the men to treat her like it. Unlike Blanche, Stanley lives in a rude world, a world where if a person are strong enough physically and mentally, he or she can succeed. In addition, Williams opposes Stanley and Blanche by their description. First of all, he opposes their names. While Blanche means “white” in French and seems to represent innocence, Kowalski means “blacksmith” and represents the rudeness, the violence, and the primitive side of Stanley. Secondly, Williams opposes his main characters physically. Indeed, he describes Blanche...
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...P., 2006). “Social influence, refers to the influence of the presence of other people on thought, feeling, and behavior” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 663). The affects of social influence from environments can have both positive and negative consequences. Each individual approaches situations with their own set of personal characteristics (McAdams, D. P., 2006); however different aspects of influence determine how an individual may modify their behaviors to react in a given situation. Let us explore two examples of socially influenced behaviors to better understand the affects they may have on an individual. Obedience The blind obedience to authority study conducted by Stanley Milgram is an example of how social influence can actually change the way an individual will behave regardless of personal belief in the presence of an authority figure in a hierarchical situation (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). The Milgram experiment measured obedience to an authority figure through electric shocks which were given by study participants to another person upon directives given from whom the participants thought of as an authority figure (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). Milgram’s study showed how far people would go to obey orders from an authority figure. Description Obedience is the act of carrying out commands in compliance to authority (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). Information gathered from the Web site for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2011) tells us...
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...learned and shaped in the environment (McAdams, D. P., 2006). “Social influence, refers to the influence of the presence of other people on thought, feeling, and behavior” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). The effects of social influence from environments can have both positive and negative consequences. Each individual approaches situations with their own set of personal characteristics (McAdams, D. P., 2006); however different aspects of influence determine how an individual may modify their behaviors to react in a given situation. Let us explore two examples of socially influenced behaviors to understand the affects they may have on an individual. The blind obedience to authority study conducted by Stanley Milgram is an example of how social influence can actually change the way an individual will behave regardless of personal belief in the presence of an authority figure in a hierarchical situation (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). The Milgram experiment measured obedience to an authority figure through electric shocks, which are given by study participants to another person upon directives given from whom the participants thought of as an authority figure. Milgram’s study showed how far people would go to obey orders from an authority figure. Obedience is the act of carrying out commands in compliance to authority (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Information gathered from the web site for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2011), tells us that in World War II, Jewish slave laborers are...
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...Streetcar Named Desire, the main antagonist, Stanley Kowalski, can only be described as down-to-earth and brutish. This is unquestionable, and is evident numerous times throughout the play. Stanley serves as the antithesis to Blanche who, in turn, is quiet, fragile, and deceitful. The conflict in the play arises from Blanche’s arrival to the Kowalski’s residence and is a direct result from the meeting of these two contrasting characters. As such, it is perhaps not difficult to see that the motivations for most of Stanley’s defining actions in the play stem from Blanche who, from his point of view, is just a disruptive presence that doesn’t belong and only serves to annoy him. Blanche’s occupancy, coupled with Stanley’s dominant personality, is the basis for his multiple signs of aggression and assertion in the play. Stanley, as is so often claimed by Blanche, is simple. His motivations throughout the play aren’t very complex: he wants to be able to do what he wants, and to maintain control while he’s at it. Stanley is evidently an alpha male; if someone is doing something that he doesn’t approve of, whether it makes sense or not, he’s going to disagree. This makes it very easy to understand his actions. Blanche came uninvited into his home – the place where Stanley dominates. This already puts their relationship off to a bad start. Throughout the play Blanche made changes to his home as well as ripples in his relationship with Stella. Stanley didn’t approve of the lampshade simply...
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...Janet Ng Professor Faunce WRT 102 7 March 2012 Textual Analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire Based on Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan creates an award winning movie that helps readers visualize Stanley’s primal masculinity, the inner torments of the Kowalski women and the clash of the other characters’ problems which create a chaotic mess. Using stage directions in the play, William hints that Blanche is not who she appears to be while the movie subtly sheds light on Blanche’s strange little habits that suggests a bigger issue. The movie also censors many of the main themes in Williams’ play but makes up for it by having its actors flawlessly portray the characters’ emotions, allowing the readers to see the conflict at its full magnitude. Both the movie and the play sympathize with the powerless women by underlining the important theme of women’s dependence on men. Blanche is an insecure, miserable older woman who masks herself as a rich, upper class lady. She continues to shy from reality and seduce men as she cannot comprehend that her reliance on men will ultimately lead to her downfall. “Now run along, now, quickly! It would be nice to keep you, but I’ve got to be good-and keep my hands off children.” (Williams, pg 99) This isn’t the first time that Blanche has put moves on a kid as made evident when she states “I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children.” She clearly hasn’t learned her lesson after losing her job. The scene is even more...
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...left her town and went to her sister's house in New Orleans. She hoped she can start a new life and leave her past at Laurel. Stella is married to a man name Stanley Kowalski, who is kind to his friends, loves Stella a lot, but dislikes Blanche. Throughout the play he is always nasty to her and tries to destroy Blanche's mental emotions. The theme of the play is fantasy vs. reality. Stanley shows it throughout the play. Stanley shows how powerful and shows pride. In Scene 4, Blanche tells Stella that they must talk. Blanche tells Stella that she doesn't like the way that Stanley treats her and he is not a gentleman. She refers Stanley to animalistic man, and calls him common. He overheard the conversation, this made him upset and hurt. When Blanche first came to New Orleans there seemed tension already with Blanche and Stanley. Stanley enjoys keeping his roles in his home, shows that he is the man of the house. He likes spending time with his friends and his love for Stella is very important to him. Ever since Blanche has came to the Kowalski's house, Stella has been paying more attention to Blanche more than Stanley. He feels that Blanche is taking his family away. Instead of feeling like the man of the house, he feels like Stella's attitude will be changed. To show his pride he wants to get even with Blanche. Stanley can see through Blanche's lies and can tell that she doesn't have a perfect life, this shows reality. Blanche sees men as their only way to have happiness...
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...throughout the book. However, it is possible to find the deception behind each personality within a book if one analyzes the character's beyond their superficial facade. Since the beginning of time, humans have always stumbled on a boarder between appearance and reality, using deception to mask weaknesses and obscure the harsh eye of society. By examining A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath the deception humans use in order to appear stronger in society are revealed. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, there is a dominant theme of deception portrayed by the three main characters in the play. Stella Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski, and Blanche DuBois all have simple personalities that are extremely skewed by the end of the book. Stella states "I'm not in anything I want to get out of," (Williams, 74). This gives Blanche a huge reality check, because someone she adores has accepted such an average life, and has given up in her pursue for perfection, even if most of it is imaginary. This deception also plays a huge role in Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare, through a continuos series of twists throughout the book and hidden motifs, that cannot be seen by the reader until the characters themselves accept the truth or the meaning behind it. The character traits that seem to define the characters in this play, are also their largest deceptions. "CLAUDIO -Can...
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...Escaping your reality and living in a fantasy world will leave you blind to the things around you. The play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams creates a situation where A Streetcar Named Desire is driven by the fantasy of Blanche, Stanley, Stella and Mitch. In the play the characters hide from their reality by acting as if the events they went through didn’t happen or were not important. The idea of reality vs. illusion seems to bring on the idea that these characters want to escape their world or they want to act blind they don’t have to face reality. One of the main characters that brings the idea of reality vs. illusion and escapism is Blanche. Blanche came from a wealthy background and lived in city named Laurel. When Blanche’s husband died and her family members began to die, she spent her money on their funerals and she ended up losing her home. Blanche losing her home can be compared to a princess losing her castle and money but in this story she didn’t have a handsome prince rescue her. She gained a bad yet truthful reputation for sleeping around with different men. She wanted to escape this so she went to visit her sister Stella. When she came to Stella’s house she acted as if everything in Laurel didn’t actually happen. This is when her fantasy began, in Stella’s town she acted as an old-fashioned woman who was proper and modest, this was not true. Her past revealed that she is not what she claimed to be. While in Stella’s town Blanche met a man named Mitch...
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...access to higher education, working in predominantly male sectors, and by voting and lobbying for gender equality legislation. This allowed women to compete in the same spheres as men, resulting in a blurring of the once distinct boundaries between the male and female worlds. This intersection of the sexes had two effects: first, because women were no longer confined to domestic work, they had less incentives to remain in dominantly female circles; second, because women could operate in the male world as individuals, they had to learn to mirror male patterns of dominance or portray the traditional role of women. These combined effects resulted in the breakdown of sisterhood as women distanced themselves from female bonds in order to gain power in the male world. This fall of sisterhood is evident in literature, which I will convey through an analysis of three selections: A Streetcar Named Desire, a play by Tennessee Williams; “Recitatif,” a short story by Toni Morrison; and “Everyday Use,” a short story by Alice Walker. First, I will...
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...Dariela Colon AP English Senior Thesis Mr. Noel Sexual Liberation in a Patriarchal Society The American feminist writer, Kate Millet, once said that “We’re more sexually repressed than men, having been given a much more strict puritanical code of behavior than men ever have”. Throughout history, women have often been viewed as the “weaker” gender and have been expected to behave a certain way. Women are seen as submissive and docile because of societal expectations, these expectations eventually became the societal norm. This “norm”, according to Sigmund Freud, is the repression of several archaic and primitive desires. Females have often had to repress these desires more than males. Males have been the dominating species throughout history and have expected women to repress their nature. For the most part, females kept their place in society and played their role but there were some who broke the norm. There have been serious consequences for females who have attempted to liberate themselves, especially when they attempt to do so sexually. Females have the ability to achieve their sexual liberation despite the patriarchal societies in which they live. Two females which have attempted to achieve sexual liberation are Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter and Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar named Desire. Both Hester Prynne and Blanche Dubois’s attempts to achieve sexual liberation were hindered by the patriarchal societies in which they lived in; making only one of them...
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...Stanley Kowalski is a distinguished character in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, he is Stella’s husband, (a women which is from an upper class family) however he comes from a very different and less elegant background, than both Stella and Blanche (Stella’s older sister). We can tell this from the first impression Blanche give ‘Where were you? In bed with your Polack!’ this shows the clear lack of respect that Blanche has not only towards Stanley but towards Polish people and people of a lower class, we know that Blanche shows no guilt in what she has just said as she said it in such a shocking and shameful gesture, she is also clearly referring to him as a ‘lower class working man’. In Scene 1, Stanley is shown as having ‘animal joy’ and being a ‘richly feathered male bird’ this shows his superiority and this is also shown in most of his conversations that he has with his friends and wife, Stanley is typically the dominant speaker, he refuses to accept that someone tells him that his actions are wrong and he shows this throughout the play when he uses Stella’s upper class status against her by mentioning his ‘Napoleonic code’ meaning that everything that his wife owns, or partly owns is his. This shows that his character is very dominant and has an aggressive side to him. Stanley’s ‘animal joy’ can also show us that he has animalistic qualities for example when in scene three (the poker scene), Stanley and Blanche have a disagreement about the radio playing out loud, Blanche...
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...Дневник читателя READER’S JOURNAL Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Joseph Heller. Catch-22 (1961). Tennessee Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire (1959). Iris Murdoch. The Black Prince (1973). Jerome David Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Michael Ondaatje. The English Patient (1992). Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). Edward Albee. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1949). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- FULL TITLE · The Old Man and the Sea ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR · Ernest Hemingway ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TYPE OF WORK · Novella ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- GENRE · Parable; tragedy ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE · English ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · 1951, Cuba ------------------------------------------------- ...
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