Outline Streetcar Named Desire

Essay2

Intro paragraph 1 with Thesis: 

A Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women’s lives. Williams uses Blanche’s and Stella’s dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. While reading the play it unfolds a sense of fantasy’s inability to overcome reality. How comparing and contrasting the way Tennessee Williams uses characters motives to slowly reveal who they truly are. While sympathizing to what “life ought to be” than to the one who goes about accepting “life as it is.” Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois are two of the main characters in this play that I will talk about.  

 

Paragraphs 2, 3,4

•  Analyzing how Tennessee Williams portrays Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois from beginning to end.
• How Tennessee Williams shows the characters values and keeping of them.
• Stella Vs. Blanche (Contrasting)

 

Conclusion Paragraph 5:

In conclusion, Tennessee Williams portrays Stella as the person who “accepts life as it is,” while Blanche “clings to what life ought to be.”

Quotes that I will use:

One thing that appears constant in the character Blanche Dubois is her struggle to keep up a certain appearance, that being a character of pure and delicate femininity.  Because of specific examples that Williams gives us—particularly how Blanche behaves when she is alone vs. her behavior around men—allows us to see her character’s “range” and the contradictions.  Among examples we see are how she keeps her drinking habits hidden, and her refusal to be seen in bright light or daylight.  Another is the way her dialogue expresses an ultra-melodramatic femininity (her bizarre treatment of the Young Man at the end of scene five is a great example).  This being said, is Blanche the only character who performs?  A strong argument can be made that Stanley too, has begun to convey and demonstrate more masculine behavior since Blanche’s arrival in New Orleans.  Breaking radios and plates, making lewd demands of his wife, raping Blanche; these all point to the notion that he is acting out the common man (“I was common as dirt.”) as a sort of retaliatory gesture.  You could argue about some other characters performing as well, though Stanley and Blanche might be enough.

 (taken from the internet) http://www.paperstarter.com/streetcar.htm