I fear I'm doing too much for my Streetcar Essay (H English)

“Choose a play in which a character exists in a Hostile Environment
“Briefly describe the environment and discuss the extent to which it influences your
response to the character’s behaviour and to the outcome of the play.”

In Tennesee Williams' play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, there is an environment that is hostile to the heroine, Blanche DuBois. Whilst personally, I dislike Blanche, I feel for her as she is in an atmosphere that, through no fault of her own, is intensely oppressive and dangerous, or at least, hostile insofar as Blanche is from a high social class, and she is forced to live in a run-down working class area, with different ideals than she has.

Set in the inaptly named “Elysian Fields”, it follows the story of Blanche as she is forced to live in the apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski, and husband, the “gaudy seedbearer”, Stanley. Also featuring in the play is Stanley's friend from work, Harold “Mitch” Mitchell. As the play progresses, we find out more about Blanche's mysterious past, and find out that she has not been entirely truthful with anyone, and this leads to her downfall, spurred on by the “perverse” advancements of Stanley.

Immediately in the play, it is clear to the reader, and to the audience, that Blanche is out of her element. Elysian Fields is “poor” with a “raffish charm”, which contrasts with Blanche, whom is dressed as if going to a “cocktail party in the garden district”. She meets the Kowalski's landlady, Eunice Hubbel (along with a negro woman), and is surprised and overtly upset that Stella lives in an apartment. Almost immediately, she offends Eunice, as Blanche looks around the flat, and then later tells Eunice overtly that she wishes to be left alone.

Later on in Scene 1, we are fully introduced to, separately, both halves of the Kowalski marriage. Firstly we meet Stella, and immediately, Blanche, so to speak, pours petrol on the bridge posts. After a display of formalities and catching up, Blanche lets lose with a big rant at Stella, concerning the loss of the family mansion, Belle Reve – The Beautiful Dream. This upsets Stella to the point of tears. As Stella is in the bathroom, Stanley enters. Stanley is a man who “sizes women up at a glance” and has sexual images at his stare, and this stare disturbs Blanche. He goes over to the “closet” to “remove a whiskey bottle”, noting that “Liquor goes fast in hot weather”. From clues later on in the play, it is obvious here that Stanley is taking a shot at Blanche for drinking a lot of his alcohol. This is immediately a case of hostility on Stanley's part, as Blanche relies on alcohol, and to have this pointed, albeit subtly, will be a cause of distress for her.
Finally from the first scene, though due to no deliberate fault, Stanley checks if Blanche was married, to which she replies “the boy died”, before announcing that she feels sick. All of the above incidents help met to sympathise with Blanche, as she has lost her security (Belle Reve), and her husband, and has nothing in this world apart from her sister and Stanley, and Blanche, because of her distress, immediately sends out the wrong signals to both of them.

In Scene 2, Stanley confronts Blanche about the loss of Belle Reve, citing “The Napoleonic Code” as his interest. Blanche does not take this seriously, and flirts with him, but then gets, understandably, upset when he “rips off the ribbon” of love-letters from Allan (Blanche's Husband) from their younger years. The confrontation, and the fondling of letters, both highlight the hostility that Blanche faces. First, she is up against an overly masculine figure, who whilst at first would seem to be smart, citing law, is in fact ignorant, as Louisiana Law has no jurisdiction in Mississippi, where Belle Reve was. It also lets the reader know that Stanley is incredibly sexist, feeling that he has a claim to his wife's property, and to his sister-in law's property. The Love Letters help us to understand that Blanche misses her husband deeply, and her remark “I hurt him in the way that you would like to hurt me”, shows that she is aware that she could be in danger because of Stanley.

In the fourth scene, Blanche returns to the apartment after spending the night, due to Stanley's vicious assault on Stella in Scene Three, at Eunice's, and finds Stella looking like an “Eastern idol”. Blanche here is overt with her feeling that she is in a hostile environment. She is concerned therefore when Stella reveals that she finds Stanley's violent streak to “thrill” her. Their debate grows more heated, until at the end, Blanche says that she has something to say about Stanley, and, coldly, Stella invites her to go ahead. In perhaps her longest speech, and additionally where a social commentary of Williams comes through most clearly, Blanche compares Stanley to an animal (“has an animal's habits), and then muses about how centuries of superior things like “art and music” have happened, yet Stanley is there, “survivor of the stone age”. This is an ironic speech, as despite her claims that Stanley is primitive, he uses stealth to eavesdrop on this, sneaking into the apartment under cover of a rumbling train. It is here that my sympathy for Blanche sways. She is in a desperate situation, however, she is cruelly insulting Stanley. Whilst she could have some justification after what she had witnessed the night before, Blanche is still wrong to say this, since she claims to have “Southern ideals” which include respect.

Despite only being present in the bathtub, Scene 7 also emphasises the hostile situation that Blanche is in. Stanley comes back from work, and informs Stella that, despite it being Blanche's birthday, and that her beau, Mitch was invited, Mitch would not however be coming. Stella inquires as to the reason, and Stanley replies that it is because “Sister Blanche is no lily”, then proceeds to tell Stella about Blanche's “Epic Fornications” (as described by her about her ancestors in scene 2) in Laurel, including Belle Reve being a place that the soldiers on the army camp loved to visit, and that Blanche had “gotten mixed up with” a seventeen year old boy. Stella denies all knowledge of this and calls Stanley's informer a liar, to which Stanley replies that he shall be checking up on it.

Scene 8 features the first instance of Blanche's dislike and anger towards Stanley. Stanley complains about the heat in the bathroom, to which Blanche snaps back that she had apologised three times. This is clear evidence that she is feeling the hostility. She takes the baths to “soothe her nerves”, yet they are clearly not working with Stanley's influence over her.

The remainder of the play features more scenes of hostility, both from Blanche and towards Blanche. In Scene 9, eager to confirm whether Stanley and Kiefaber (the informer) were telling the truth or not, Mitch visits with Blanche, alone, whilst Stella and Stanley are at the hospital. Blanche reveals all to Mitch. Before finding out however, rips the paper lantern off of the light-bulb, which, similar to the breaking of the glass menagerie in Williams' other famous play, emotionally hurts Blanche to a significant degree. This leads to Blanche telling him everything, including the fact that she had many “intimacies with strangers”. She then sums up her position right now, by saying “Kiefaber, Stanley and Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.” The symbolism here is important, as cans will weigh down a kite. Stanley has been hostile towards Blanche,who, like a kite, is trying to get away from the ground (her past in Laurel), yet is being dragged back regardless.

Blanche is mentally, destroyed in the Penultimate Scene, when Stanley returns from the hospital and starts flirting with her. Blanche concedes that she was a fool for making up her past, stating that she was “casting pearls before swine”. However though, in one of the most shocking scenes in theatrical history, despite taking place in the blackout, Stanley then rapes Blanche. This, coupled with her drink and sorrow, destroy Blanche's mind, and she fully, because of the hostile environment, retreats into her “magic” world of “make-believe”

In the final scene, Blanche exists the hostile environment of Elysian Fields, in the hands of a Doctor from the Mental Asylum, uttering her famous line “I have always relied upon the kindness of strangers”. This is a powerful line, as everyone she has known, the people in Laurel, Stella, Stanley, Mitch, combined, have destroyed her, but she is always happy with strangers, as seen when she initially meets Mitch.

In conclusion therefore, Blanche DuBois had to live in the hostile environment of the Kowalski Apartment in Elysian Fields. Despite her sister, Stella's, attempts to protect her, Stanley ruins Blanche completely, emotionally by digging up information on her past, and physically with the rape. As a result of this hostile environment, Blanche is left a broken shell of what she used to be, and retreats into a world of dreams. This is upsetting, as Blanche seemed eager, to an extent, to shed her past, but as usually happens, you can never forget about your past, and as a result, Blanche is committed.
I suppose I have two questions

1) Is the quality good, as I have scored 23/25, 25/25, 25/25 and 21/25 on my past streetcar essays and
2) Is there a maximum word limit?

Reply 1

namedeprived

1. From a quick glance at it (and to be honest it is self evident that I'm not the best at judging the quality of essays!) it does seem very well written. I wouldn't use the following:

"Whilst personally, I dislike Blanche, I feel for her..."

I would opt for something more like:

"Whilst it would be understandable for the reader to take a critical viewpoint to Blanche, we are also allowed to empathise with the character through the fact that she is in a hostile..."

2. No. (99.99% sure of this, although it can be self penalising if too long as you will have to do two full essays in 90 minutes.)

I've not read the play, but am I right in thinking there is a Simpsons episode based on this, with Marge playing Blanche and Ned playing Stanley? :p:

Reply 2

MGIL

3. dont put essays online

Reply 3

MGIL

4. it seems like you're just retelling the story even though i havent read the book but yeah got quite a good description of a scene...

Reply 4

RobbieNewton

Yeah, it was a Simpsons episode, "A Streetcar Named Marge" if I remember.

To MGIL, I thought that it was fine in order to get a critique. This is not going to be used for appeals purposes, nor will the question appear in the 2009 paper, thus discrediting me for posting something like this.

4) I see, I try not to retell the story, rather, I try to sum up some key points in a chapter then pass analysis on it

Reply 5

beverleyx

Its not a bad essay, but the real question may be wether you can really aim to get the same standard down in 45 minutes without access to the notes or the text.
Why don't you try doing it without notes or anything in 45 and get your teacher to have a look?

x

Reply 6

RobbieNewton

Hmm, I done pretty good in both firsta nd second prelims, with 21/25 and 25/25 respectively. :L My teacher says that my excellent essays (Over 40 out of 50 in both prelims), coupled with my improving CR (25/50 in first prelim, 42/50 in second), I have nothing to worry about but I still worry as I need this to get into Stirling :L Updated with the full essay. Thanks for the feedback guys

Reply 7

javjamoll

I know people going to Stirling :biggrin:

Sorry, not helping your thread lol.... and I'm def not one to judge on English!

Reply 8

xandertho

Hey, Im doing Streetcar for my Advanced Higher Course this year. Though your knowledge is good, my view is that you are telling the story too much and not referring to the specific question about hostility. Write about her fading youth and that Elysian Fields ultimately, means the Land of the Dead. The environment adds to the themes.
It just feels to be like you are going through each scene and telling the examiner what you know.
Good knowledge though. (Y)

Reply 9

RobbieNewton

OK, I got 21/25 on this. My teacher has suggested a new way, instead of referring to "Scene 1" for example, I should say "Near the start of the play, Blanche is established as standing out" for example. Thanks for the advice guys