.jpg)
The film A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan is one that has a strong content about social discrimination and psychosocial and psychological traumas, these is revealed to the audience by the dynamics and characterization of the three main characters of the film: Blanche, Stanley and Stella. That is why is important to understand each of these characters and the dynamics of their relationships.
At first Blanche appears before us as a person lost and scared in a new world, tough, violent and fast world. She seems to be too much naïve and innocent to keep up with the way of life she just clashed against. But eventually the façade is dropped and we realize that Blanche is a totally different person, with an inferiority complex that tries to fix by diminishing other people. Blanche is a very sick woman that develops very deep and sincere attachments for the illusion of a perfect man in her head. Then, we have Stella. Stella is a very passive woman, she is a person that takes all the bad things that happen to her and keeps them for herself, and she is a submissive person devoted to her husband and future family. Stella is a conservative woman that is more concerned with the sake of others, than that of herself. At the end, we know that Stella is a victim, without any good reason at all, caught up in the middle of a war between Stanley and Blanche. And then, there is Stanley, a real jewel of the conflicted world he lives in. Stanley is a product of the society he lives in, he is rude and brute. Stanley is an uneducated person with little knowledge about valuable or fine things, which is why he is always relying or bluffing about knowing someone that will help him, when she thinks his mental skills won’t let him, yet he is astute enough, to not show his deficiency masking it with even more rudeness. Stanley is a very interested person when it comes to money; he is a very perceptive person, and this is obvious, because she is extremely street smart. But not smart enough, because he judges people easily and jumps into conclusions, without being certain; even tough he investigates and proves he was right, this is not excuse for doing this. Finally we see that Stanley is a very noble person as we see that in the profundity of his mind, he is very ashamed of the serious anger management problem that he has. After a brief introduction to each character, it would be easier to understand the dynamics in their relationships between Blanche and Stella, Stella and Stanley and finally, Blanche and Stanley.
Following this, the first dynamics to get into are the ones in the relationship between the two sisters: Blanche and Stella. Blanche tries to put Stella down to elevate herself up, Blanche tries to make Stella belief that she is very secure of herself when in fact she is not and also Blanche plays to be a martyr in order to make her sister do whatever she pleases. Blanche is a very materialistic person which is extremely concerned with the looks of things, and she wipes this on her Stella’s face all the time trying to make her feel poor as opposed to her that is supposedly wealthy. Because of the serious emotional problems that Blanche has, probably because of the lost of her beloved ones, she feels guilty and as a mechanism of defense she tries to blame it on Stella, stating that she suffered very much because she stayed and Stella didn’t. Even more, because Blanche has such a big influence over Stella, she manipulates her trying to persuade her to leave her low social status life, probably because she wants to steal her sister’s husband; it can be implied also that Blanche is trying to get Stella out of the way. Even though Blanche is always looking at Stella over the shoulder and treating him as she was inferior and stupid; Stella is noble enough to always be looking after and taking care of Blanche, Stella is there for Blanche truly and unconditionally.
Then we have the dynamics between Stella and Stanley. Stella is always devoted to hr husband, she is all over Stanley and Stanley doesn’t even care, at first it seems as if he was stuck with Stella because of the marriage and the future newborn; but then we see that Stanley actually loves Stella very much or is obsessed with her. Either way, Stanley conceives Stella as a maid and a sexual object that he can use and abuse, yet Stella keeps coming back until the very end when she runs off Stanley to protect her son, obviously a mother’s feelings are stronger than those of a lover. Taking all these into account, Stanley and Stella’s relationship is, according to psychology and psychiatry, one of the strongest there are; their relationship is summarized as sadistic-masochistic one.
Further more, because of the apparent impossibility and the games of power and domination that finally end up in a rape, the dynamics of Blanche and Stanley’s relationship are more pervasive. While Stanley is always suspicious and madly disturbed by the fact that that Blanche is or pretends to be of a glamorous, fashioned and classy type; Blanche seeks to seduce him, because she is physically attracted to him and tries to find her lost love in Stanley, even more important, Blanche likes Staley because she is seduced by the fact that he represents strength, power and authority. However, Blanche discriminates Stanley because of his background and actual social status, and she does it because she is very concerned with appearances and what people says; a symptom of her insecurity. And finally she is always provoking Stanley’s anger so that he takes it on Stella and later, on her too because she likes to play the martyr. Also she provokes Stanley because, as she is traumatized with the fact that she is getting old and still doesn’t have a family neither is settled with someone, she wants to be the center of attention and as her sister she is masochistic too, finding pleasure in physical and psychological pain.
All of these feelings are transmitted to the audience by the elements of action, dialogue and acting, the chaos and the is introduced to us from the very begging and throughout the whole film when the audience sees the destroyed and violent New Orleans, and the feeling of claustrophobia and seeing no way out is transmitted by the fact that the director choose that the characters of the film where confined to a very small space with an facade of how the minds of the main characters might look like. The author of this paper belief, that the way in which the film closure is the best, because is very realistic and follows the natural flow of how things do happen in life. Every piece is very well put together in order to show that A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan is a film with a strong content about social discrimination and psychosocial and psychological traumas, which are revealed to the audience by the dynamics and characterization of the three main characters of the film: Blanche, Stanley and Stella.
At first Blanche appears before us as a person lost and scared in a new world, tough, violent and fast world. She seems to be too much naïve and innocent to keep up with the way of life she just clashed against. But eventually the façade is dropped and we realize that Blanche is a totally different person, with an inferiority complex that tries to fix by diminishing other people. Blanche is a very sick woman that develops very deep and sincere attachments for the illusion of a perfect man in her head. Then, we have Stella. Stella is a very passive woman, she is a person that takes all the bad things that happen to her and keeps them for herself, and she is a submissive person devoted to her husband and future family. Stella is a conservative woman that is more concerned with the sake of others, than that of herself. At the end, we know that Stella is a victim, without any good reason at all, caught up in the middle of a war between Stanley and Blanche. And then, there is Stanley, a real jewel of the conflicted world he lives in. Stanley is a product of the society he lives in, he is rude and brute. Stanley is an uneducated person with little knowledge about valuable or fine things, which is why he is always relying or bluffing about knowing someone that will help him, when she thinks his mental skills won’t let him, yet he is astute enough, to not show his deficiency masking it with even more rudeness. Stanley is a very interested person when it comes to money; he is a very perceptive person, and this is obvious, because she is extremely street smart. But not smart enough, because he judges people easily and jumps into conclusions, without being certain; even tough he investigates and proves he was right, this is not excuse for doing this. Finally we see that Stanley is a very noble person as we see that in the profundity of his mind, he is very ashamed of the serious anger management problem that he has. After a brief introduction to each character, it would be easier to understand the dynamics in their relationships between Blanche and Stella, Stella and Stanley and finally, Blanche and Stanley.
Following this, the first dynamics to get into are the ones in the relationship between the two sisters: Blanche and Stella. Blanche tries to put Stella down to elevate herself up, Blanche tries to make Stella belief that she is very secure of herself when in fact she is not and also Blanche plays to be a martyr in order to make her sister do whatever she pleases. Blanche is a very materialistic person which is extremely concerned with the looks of things, and she wipes this on her Stella’s face all the time trying to make her feel poor as opposed to her that is supposedly wealthy. Because of the serious emotional problems that Blanche has, probably because of the lost of her beloved ones, she feels guilty and as a mechanism of defense she tries to blame it on Stella, stating that she suffered very much because she stayed and Stella didn’t. Even more, because Blanche has such a big influence over Stella, she manipulates her trying to persuade her to leave her low social status life, probably because she wants to steal her sister’s husband; it can be implied also that Blanche is trying to get Stella out of the way. Even though Blanche is always looking at Stella over the shoulder and treating him as she was inferior and stupid; Stella is noble enough to always be looking after and taking care of Blanche, Stella is there for Blanche truly and unconditionally.
Then we have the dynamics between Stella and Stanley. Stella is always devoted to hr husband, she is all over Stanley and Stanley doesn’t even care, at first it seems as if he was stuck with Stella because of the marriage and the future newborn; but then we see that Stanley actually loves Stella very much or is obsessed with her. Either way, Stanley conceives Stella as a maid and a sexual object that he can use and abuse, yet Stella keeps coming back until the very end when she runs off Stanley to protect her son, obviously a mother’s feelings are stronger than those of a lover. Taking all these into account, Stanley and Stella’s relationship is, according to psychology and psychiatry, one of the strongest there are; their relationship is summarized as sadistic-masochistic one.
Further more, because of the apparent impossibility and the games of power and domination that finally end up in a rape, the dynamics of Blanche and Stanley’s relationship are more pervasive. While Stanley is always suspicious and madly disturbed by the fact that that Blanche is or pretends to be of a glamorous, fashioned and classy type; Blanche seeks to seduce him, because she is physically attracted to him and tries to find her lost love in Stanley, even more important, Blanche likes Staley because she is seduced by the fact that he represents strength, power and authority. However, Blanche discriminates Stanley because of his background and actual social status, and she does it because she is very concerned with appearances and what people says; a symptom of her insecurity. And finally she is always provoking Stanley’s anger so that he takes it on Stella and later, on her too because she likes to play the martyr. Also she provokes Stanley because, as she is traumatized with the fact that she is getting old and still doesn’t have a family neither is settled with someone, she wants to be the center of attention and as her sister she is masochistic too, finding pleasure in physical and psychological pain.
All of these feelings are transmitted to the audience by the elements of action, dialogue and acting, the chaos and the is introduced to us from the very begging and throughout the whole film when the audience sees the destroyed and violent New Orleans, and the feeling of claustrophobia and seeing no way out is transmitted by the fact that the director choose that the characters of the film where confined to a very small space with an facade of how the minds of the main characters might look like. The author of this paper belief, that the way in which the film closure is the best, because is very realistic and follows the natural flow of how things do happen in life. Every piece is very well put together in order to show that A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan is a film with a strong content about social discrimination and psychosocial and psychological traumas, which are revealed to the audience by the dynamics and characterization of the three main characters of the film: Blanche, Stanley and Stella.
No comments:
Post a Comment