A Streetcar Named Desire Essay -- A Streetcar Named Desire Essays

Though the primitive, rituals described in Schechners article diverge from the realism found in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, the same reactualization process exists in his work. Williams Streetcar focuses on the mock battle or complete contest between the generational cultures symbolized by Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalskis characters. Blanche, representative of the fallen southern aristocracy, searches for sensitivity and kindness in the new world of Stanley Kowalski, the modern labor class. In Blanches search for safety, the semiotical theatrical qualities of the play become a ritualistic clash of the titans as both Blanche and Stanley fight for domination and control over the future generations realized in Stellas womb. Yet the tragic dethronement of previous generations - represented by Blanches exile from the community and her subsequent departure for the asylum leaves the audience without an Aristotlean catharsis. Rather, the classically regenerative sa crifice of the herois gone what we have instead is a resignation to general guilt, (Vlasopolos, 323), as Williams titanic unmasking dies away rather than resolving the conflict. With much(prenominal) little hope offered in Williams dnouement audience members frequently question Streetcars resolution, finding no reactualizing lodges in the death characters masks. However, the answer to this question lies in the mythologic characterizations Williams creates in the battle between Stanley and Blanche. By examining the basic semiotic properties Williams foregrounds in both Blanche and Stanleys titanic characters the audience may understand the moral force actualized in A Streetcar Named Desires as mythic ritual. Tennesse Williams ... ...colors of men have already been established in earlier instances in the play. When Stanley first meets Blanche, he is reverting from the bowling alley. Though the stage directions do not explicitly state whether or not Stanley wears his bowling shirt in this scene, the bowling alley evokes the images of Stanleys bowling shirt, his green and scarlet bowling shirt, (717). In this case, Stanleys appearance not only demonstrates his generations definition of masculinity, as an aggressive, indulgent, powerful, and proud expression of sex, (Falk, 95), but likewise as a bright splotch of color in the otherwise physical grubbiness, (Brown, 41) of his home. Thus, Stanleys character, through both his physical gestus and colorful costumes, becomes symbolic of his generations male dominance, overwhelming and controlling the environment in which Blanche arrives.