Reality and Illusion in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, first published in 1947, is considered a seminal work of 20th-century American drama, earning author Tennessee Williams a Pulitzer Prize. One of his most important themes concerns the contrast between reality and illusion. The purpose of this essay is to examine how this contrast is reflected in the way the main character constructs his identity. As Ruby Cohn defines it in her essay “The Garrulous Grotesque of Tennessee Williams,” A Streetcar Named Desire is “a touching portrait of a Southern gentlewoman who is extinct in the modern world” (46). The play's protagonist is Blanche duBois, a declining Southern belle, who comes to New Orleans to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. This provides the setting for a clash between two cultures: Blanche on the one hand, symbolizing the dying Southern politeness, and Stanley on the other, representing the rising pragmatic middle class. Blanche is a character who has been conditioned by the society in which she is raised, her background has influenced her personality. Dissatisfied with her life, she cannot or does not want to change it for the better. He prefers to retreat from reality into illusions and fantasies, building multiple facades of his identity, which he presents to the characters he interacts with. She was raised to imitate the ideal of Southern femininity: the beautiful woman, sometimes shy, sometimes flirtatious but always chaste. But the harsh realities of 20th-century urban America contradict this ideal, and Blanche is disillusioned, forced to make her own way in a world that doesn't understand her and that she doesn't understand. Her promiscuity and alcoholism are means of escaping these difficulties, as she… middle of paper… he in fact wears a mask throughout the entire play. As she tries to hide the lonely, disillusioned, attention-seeking woman she truly is, she is slowly but surely heading for a breakdown. Bibliography Venezki-Griffin, Alice. Living theatre. A guide to the study of great plays.Heilman, Robert Bechtold. "Tennessee Williams' Approach to Tragedy." Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc., 1977. 17-35Blackwell, Louise. "Tennessee Williams and the Plight of Women." Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc., 1977. 100-106Ganz, Arthur. “A desperate morality”. Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice

Topic > Reality and Illusion in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, first published in 1947, is considered a seminal work of 20th-century American drama, earning author Tennessee Williams a Pulitzer Prize. One of his most important themes concerns the contrast between reality and illusion. The purpose of this essay is to examine how this contrast is reflected in the way the main character constructs his identity. As Ruby Cohn defines it in her essay “The Garrulous Grotesque of Tennessee Williams,” A Streetcar Named Desire is “a touching portrait of a Southern gentlewoman who is extinct in the modern world” (46). The play's protagonist is Blanche duBois, a declining Southern belle, who comes to New Orleans to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. This provides the setting for a clash between two cultures: Blanche on the one hand, symbolizing the dying Southern politeness, and Stanley on the other, representing the rising pragmatic middle class. Blanche is a character who has been conditioned by the society in which she is raised, her background has influenced her personality. Dissatisfied with her life, she cannot or does not want to change it for the better. He prefers to retreat from reality into illusions and fantasies, building multiple facades of his identity, which he presents to the characters he interacts with. She was raised to imitate the ideal of Southern femininity: the beautiful woman, sometimes shy, sometimes flirtatious but always chaste. But the harsh realities of 20th-century urban America contradict this ideal, and Blanche is disillusioned, forced to make her own way in a world that doesn't understand her and that she doesn't understand. Her promiscuity and alcoholism are means of escaping these difficulties, as she… middle of paper… he in fact wears a mask throughout the entire play. As she tries to hide the lonely, disillusioned, attention-seeking woman she truly is, she is slowly but surely heading for a breakdown. Bibliography Venezki-Griffin, Alice. Living theatre. A guide to the study of great plays.Heilman, Robert Bechtold. "Tennessee Williams' Approach to Tragedy." Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc., 1977. 17-35Blackwell, Louise. "Tennessee Williams and the Plight of Women." Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc., 1977. 100-106Ganz, Arthur. “A desperate morality”. Tennessee Williams. A collection of critical essays. Ed. Stephen S. Stanton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc., 1977. 123-137