Friday, 26 October 2012

Post 3- Street Car Named Desire- Clarisa Franceschelli


For me the main themes that appear in the play are:

°         Love: Stella: He promised this morning that he was going to quit   having   these   poker   parties,   but   you   know   how   long   such   a promise   is   going   to   keep.   Oh,   well,   it's   his   pleasure,   like mine   is movies and bridge.  People have got to tolerate each other’s habits, I guess.
°         Money: Blanche: Oh,   let   me   think,   if   only   my   mind   would   function!   We've   got   to   get hold of some money, that's the way out!
°         Insanity: Blanche [holding tight to his arm]: Whoever   you   are--I   have   always   depended   on   the   kindness   of .strangers
°         Death and tragedy: Blanche: We   danced   the Varsouviana! Suddenly   in   the   middle   of   the   dance the   boy  I   had   married   broke   away   from   me   and   ran   out   of   the casino.A few moments later--a shot!

As regards the title, there is part in the play where Stella is talking to Blanche after
Stella and Stan had the terrible fight:
BLANCHE:
What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the  name of that  rattle-trap   streetcar that bangs through the Quarter ,up one old narrow street and down another....
STELLA:
Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?

I believe that the title refers to the fact that people are driven by desires in life, and that is what makes us live. There are different kinds of desire that lead us into different directions and places in life.

When reading the play I thought a lot about family, and how important is to have family or friends around you when you are going through some difficulty in life. I believe Blanche has to overcome many situations alone and that is what disturbed her so much. The tragedy she had to face plus the death of her parents and the responsibility to try to save the family house was too much for her to handle. I feel like Stella wanted to protect her all the time while Stan did not trusted Blanche until he realized she had a problem and just then he became sympathetic towards her.

Something I did not mentioned previously about the setting is that the song Blanche danced with his husband the day he died, the Varsoviana, is heard in many parts in the story. I think that music accompanies the feelings of the characters.

If I could ask one question to the author I would ask her why Mitch and Blanche did not have the chance to start a relationship or something together. I think that they both care about each other and it may have worked.

3 comments:

  1. Are you sure your first quotation illustrates love? Or marriage? What about the one for insanity?
    Good quotation as regards desire but is it portrayed as a positive driving force in the play?

    When exactly did Stanley become sympathetic towards Blanche?

    NB: please revise verb forms and possessive pronouns!

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    Replies
    1. For me toleration is an important thing in a relationship that is why I’ve chosen the quotation about Stella tolerating Stan’s behaviour.
      Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen that quotation to illustrate insanity; I got confused because the whole scene is showing insanity and not that quotation.
      I think Stanley becomes sympathetic towards Blanche when he realized that se is a lonely woman that had to overcome several problems in her life, when they had the big fight at the end of scene 10.
      I treated the author as “she” because at first I thought he was a lady, sorry!

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  2. Let`s discuss these issues in class. Anyway, is it part of love to put up with abusive behaviour? How can sympathy lead to rape?

    NB: did not trusted;did not mentioned; his husband

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