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Characters and Staging of A Streetcar Named Desire Essay -- Tennessee

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   In Tennessee Williams' A http://writing-services896.mystrikingly.com/ Streetcar Named Desire, the characters are extremely well defined.  In fact, they are so well defined obtuse critics have characterized them as two-dimensional, but Williams drew them that way intentionally so as to underscore the flaws that make their characters so memorable.  

  

Blanche is an aging single Southern woman whose best days are in the past.  Blanche has not been able to make the adjustment from when she was the belle of the county at Belle Reeve, her family's southern home, to the harsh realities of her present situation, one in which she has always "depended on the kindness of strangers" (142).  All of her attempts at living in reality involve her trying to keep up appearances to match the fantasy "self" she sees in her mind.  Stella adjusted to the loss of Belle Reeve better than Blanche, but she cannot resist being submissive to her brutish husband, her way of maintaining an identity.  Stanley is all animal passion and male hormones.  He works, eats, drinks, plays poker with the guys and has sex.