In the Film, A Streetcar Named Desire, our leading lady, Blanche, is nothing short of crazy. This seems to follow with a theme I’ve noticed in Southern Gothic literature. There are almost no ghosts but the stories seem to revolve around people who are not completely all there, mentally that is. Blanche attempts to pass herself off as a frail woman of upper class but we eventually find out, this is all a façade as she is single and has lost her family’s estate. To society at this time, that is a failure.
In “A Goodman is Hard to Find,” the grandmother uses her perfect Christianity to try and stop a murderer from killing her family. But in the end, she realizes that she is not that much different from the murderer himself and attempts to form a connection with him. She uses a metaphor to describe the murderer (The Misfit) as her son and to further this connection, the murderer puts on her son’s shirt in the end after killing them all.
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” adventurous Connie finds herself in a heap of trouble as a man named Arnold Friend shows up at her house to take her away. He threatens to murder her family if she doesn’t agree to come along. She resists at first but eventually finds herself giving in because she has no way out.
I didn’t care for A Streetcar Named Desire but, I really liked “A Goodman is Hard to Find,” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.” To be honest, crazy Blanche just got on my last nerve. The other two stories were so much more interesting and I really liked that there was a sense of danger.
A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche was very annoying to me in the film. I agree that she portrayed herself as being better than her sister because she acts like she is part of higher class but we find out she is doing worse than Stella. I think if Romance of the Forest was a film, Adeline would act similar to Blanche because she acted weak and helpless through most of the film; complaining about every little thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Blanche was annoying in the film A Street Car Named Desire. She seriously gave me nightmares. In regards to the previous comment, I also thought of the similarities of Adeline and Blanche, and how they both acted weak and helpless. However, Adeline used those characteristics to her advantage and were therefore a trait and she eventually overcame her obstacles because of them. This is not so for Blanche as she ends up getting raped and got herself locked in an insane asylum!
ReplyDeleteWhile at the end of the story I agree that Blanche is not completely there, I think she is very there in the beginning. Her character is for sure strange though, but I think that this is the mainly due to the southern belle in her. She has grown up in a different class than the people she is staying with and that gap is very evident and makes her seem like she is crazy at some time. I do think however that her time spent with her sister is what finally did push her over the edge and made her go crazy.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just me, but I sympathized with Blanche throughout the movie. Sure, she was over-dramatic and seemingly always trying too hard, but her psychotic breakdown seemed like a culmination of many past events. Maybe it's the fact that Vivienne Leigh is such a good actress that I was able to better understand the psyche of her character. The character I disliked the most was Stanley, as his persistent alcohol and domestic abuse were so out of line.
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