Belle Reve

“A Streetcar Named Desire” Personal Response As a young damsel in Belle Reve, I was frequently reminded of the old cliché to “never judge a book by its cover”. Perhaps this was an attempt to teach my younger self the importance of seeing the beauty in all things despite their external appearance, but nonetheless, the lectures of my youth were of no avail. I am a firm believer in the idea that the way one chooses to display oneself to the world has a direct effect on how one is perceived by…

She is dreamy and refined, educated and naive, childish and calculating, self-confident and shy, or angelic pure and immoral at the same time (Poppe 60). She grows up in a sheltered atmosphere with her sister, Stella, at the plantation Belle Reve. The name "Belle Reve" means "beautiful dream" in French and represented a wealthy and beautiful manor at that time. With the loss of the manor, Blanche escapes real life by fleeing into her illusions which are fed by longings, hopes, and desires. She…

Achilles’ heel: “I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan-intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with” (146). Thus, her motivations to be a Southern Belle fails and then, her sexual desire camouflages that she cannot make sense of the loss of Allan, Belle Reve, and of her ideal; hence, forevermore pulling her back into a pattern of doom. Hysterically in quest of a safe haven, she looks to fantasies.Taking a retreat in amenities and the…

Naming the DuBois family home “Belle Reve”, which literally translates to “beautiful dream” in French, Williams plays with the idea that was Blanche once had represented everything she ever wanted in life. After losing their home, Blanche represents “high-society” in New Orleans in comparison to Stanley, who represents a “lower/working class”. The idea of Belle Reve is a “dream”, it helps us better understand that Blanche is stuck in a situation where…

demonstrates the emotional impact it may have when there is a struggle for affection. Throughout the modern drama, Blanche struggles for affection throughout the entire play. This was created by the emotional pain she faced while taking care of Belle Reve all by herself. When…

This extract is taken out from scene two of the play, directly after Stanley is very suspicious of Blanche and her actions. Stanley believes that Blanche is lying about her loss of Belle Reve and thinks that she sold it and doesn’t want Stella to have any part of the heritance. However, Blanche is horrified by this conclusion and decides to challenge Stanley by presenting him with her box of papers. In this excerpt from A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the author uses diction,…

giver for a plethora of dying relatives at Belle Reve has been forced to sell the family plantation. Blanche is total opposite of Stanley reality wise and lives in illusions which later in the book causes her to be sent to a mental institution later on in the book. The first time the conflict become apparent is when Blanche arrives at Stella’s house and Stanley's authority over…

is constantly reminded of her haunting past. She feels as if the suicide of her first husband is her fault. Due to this constant guilt she cannot escape from, she drives herself mad. In Scene One Blanche blames the loss of her previous home in Belle Reve on her sister, Stella. After Stanley hearing of this incident he begins to think that Blanche sold the house and kept the money for herself. Blanche quickly proves Stanley to be wrong, this makes him want to destroy her. In Scene 6 Blanche says…

he makes the choice to protect her and take the blame for the killing of Myrtle, which indirectly leads to his own death. In contrast, Blanche Dubois undergoes a large amount of losses in her life that she does not deliberately cause, thus being Belle Reve, her job and Mitch. Following these traumatic experiences, Stanley Kowalski inflicts emotional and physical pain on her that brings her to ultimate destruction, that being another outside source of her tragedies. While Blanche is wishing to…

How does Williams present the female characters’ dependence on men throughout “A Streetcar Named Desire”? In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Tennessee Williams utilises a range of characters to expose and critique the way that institutions and attitudes of post-war America placed restrictions on women’s lives. The female characters, Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, play a prominent role in this portrayal of the treatment of women, as while both females demonstrate two different types…