Williams Viewed the Characters He Created as 'My Little Company of Faded and Frightened, the Difficult, the Odd, the Lonely'. Are There Any of the Charatcers Recognised from This Description?- a Streetcar Named Desire
In the novel 'A Streetcar Named Desire', Williams uses vivid language to paint the characters and environment clearly to the reader. There is also an excellent plot and dialogue between the characters. Even without an extensive background on each character, it is possible to judge a charatcer based on speech and actions alone. Based on Williams' description of the characters he created, I would think of Blanche as the 'faded and frightened' and also 'lonely'. She was once a Southern belle from a wealthy family, but she has a failed marriage and fled from her dubious past. Although Blanche still thinks of herself as a wealthy socialite, in reality, she is an alcoholic who has little money or real dignity left. Not only that, Blanche is aware of herself getting older and often worries about losing her beauty so she seeks out compliments on her appearance and assurance to alleviate her anxiety. Therefore, she tries every possible way to hide herself in the dark, especially when around Mitch whom she tries to deceive. Blanche: "I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me." (Scene 9). In this context, I would consider Blanche to be faded, a mere shadow of what she used to represent a long time before Belle Reve crumbled as a result of her ancestors' profiligate ways of indulging in sexual desires. Blanche paints a picture of herself as a frail figure and requires her sister, Stella to assist her in rejuvenating her youth. It starts with Blanche DuBois going to visit her sister Stella in New Orleans, who was also raised in Belle Reve, a grand and illustrous plantation in the South but instead chose to leave behind her heritage to marry the lower-class Stanely, a no-nonsense, Polish worker. Due to a clash of personalities, conflict soon arises between Blanche and Stanley. Blanche is aware of her aristocratic backround when she finds herself in New Orleans, where is considered to be a decaying background. As Blanche is used to leading an educated and rich lifestyle in...