Desire - A Destructive Driven Force

A desire for attention, devotion, and to be observed, considered, praised, and admired is common in A Streetcar Named Desire. It gives the characters a reason to keep on going when life becomes difficult and the future is uncertain. However, this desire manifests itself in many ways. For example, Mitch and Blanche—they are opposite in gender, but desire the same thing. They both desire love and companionship. However, the degree of this desire for love and companionship plays itself out cruelly in Blanche’s case because she cannot control it. As for Mitch, he is able to maintain it within his power.

Blanche's pursuit of her desire in Belle Reve has forced her to leave town which eventually traps her into fantasies and illusions. This desire leaves her with disgrace and shame when it gets out of control. This indicates that Blanche cannot manage the risks or consequences of her desire; she is not always in control of what she wants. Also, her unfulfilled desire to love and be loved has crippled her spirit and left her deserted and insane. Lies after lies, she denies reality and is content with her delusions, fantasies, and her make-believe world. Even when Stanley rapes her, this incident is supposed to bring her back to reality. Although reality crashes down on her when this happens; nevertheless, she is delusional-- this brings back to the idea that she is incapable of controlling her desire. Mitch's desire is less extreme. He wants Blanche; he wants to marry her, but when he discovers Blanche's dirty past, he retreats. This indicates he knows the extremity where this desire will lead him. He is cautious of the consequences of this desire and knows how to maintain a tight control of it when things don't turn out the way he wants.

The streetcar named Desire is symbolic to Blanche's desire. Although Blanche comes to Elysian Fields as a broken woman, she keeps alive her desire to be with a man who can help get her life back together. Mitch can be that man-- he is capable. Mitch is single and alone; he is craving for love and companionship. To fulfill his mother’s wish of seeing him getting married before she dies, he is planning to ask Blanche to marry him. Blanche, in many ways, is accustomed to the fulfillment of her desires because she is raised that way. She can be a match for Mitch. Now, she is craving for love, companionship, protection, and stability in life. She is also single and alone. Blanche and Mitch can be each other paradise. They can fulfill each other needs.

Unfortunately, Stanley tells Mitch Blanche’s secrets. Mitch becomes disgusted with Blanche even when he loves her and would ask her to marry him. He desires for her companionship and love, but this desire vanishes. It is under his control. He determines its limitations. When he learns Blanche’s dirty past and habit of telling lies, he says Blanche is not clean enough to be in the home where his mother lives-- his desire dies. However, Blanche's desire is still lingering. She continues to be delusional which ultimately drives her into insanity. She lies, cheats, and steals, but never harm any one. She only wishes to preserve an illusion--she has it in the end.

Stanley - Opposing Views

Stanley, a Polish man in his late 20s, appears to be a nice guy at the beginning of the play; he loves his wife and treats his friends nicely. He invites friends over for social events at his place and would hang out with them at the bar for bowling and other activities (scene 1-2). However, as the play progresses, the true character of Stanley is revealed, given readers a fuller account of how he is. He roughly dresses in blue denim work clothes most of the time. He possesses an animalistic physical vigor that tends to raise his voice and is always in the mood for action. He can be very violent with words; he yells at others. He enjoys gambling, bowling, and drinking (scene 2).

He has very little respect for women; especially Stella and Blanche. He physically assaults Stella while she is pregnant, but somehow still deeply in love with her (scene 3). He harasses Blanche and invades her privacy by digging into her past. For example, he learns from Shaw that the townspeople considered Blanche as a disgraced individual and the school removed her teaching position due to a relationship with a seventeen-year-old kid. He gives Blanche a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel as a symbolic birthday gift that depicts his uneasiness and animosity of her presence in his house. In addition, he ruins her relationship with Mitch by unsympathetically revealing to Mitch her secrets and ugly characteristics (scene 7). Overall, he represents a serious man with an animalistic physical vigor without remorse as he tries to reassert his control and dominance of his household.

However, Kazan’s 1951 film of this play depicts a different side of Stanley. Stanley still possesses his manly characteristics as shown in the play. Unexpectedly, Stanley is more submissive in the film. The posted video clip shows the scene where he kneels and begs Stella for forgiveness when she comes out from the room to see him; this is not a characteristic of Stanley because he is a straight-down-to-earth man, serious and aggressive. This scene shows a shift in power and dominance; at the moment, he is no longer a man in control. He cries with tears of joy as he hugs Stella as if she possesses something that dismantles his ego and tranquilizes his animalistic physical vigor.

Paralysis and Mundane

“Araby” is based on the theme of frustration. The nameless narrator has fallen for Mangan’s sister. He is driven by his desire to win her heart; so without any thought, he offers to buy her something from the bazaar even when she does not ask for it. The anticipation of what might come after he gives her a romantic gift fills him with great joy and fantasies.

The narrator waits for his uncle to come home to give him some money so he can come to the bazaar to buy the gift. During the late night, he happily travels to the bazaar only to discover its shops are closing. However, his tardiness does not matter because he realizes he only has a little bit of money. His price range is way too low to afford anything on sale. In reality, he is poor and can’t afford such a luxury; his financial situation is tight, so there are limitations on what he can and cannot do. He is paralyzed at the moment when he notices that all the items in the bazaar are so expensive. Everything is beyond his affordability; he is going to be ashamed because he can’t buy what he has promised Mangan’s sister. He says to himself, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 25). He finally realizes his harsh reality. He is stuck in an economic situation, and there is no escape from it.

The nameless narrator’s paralysis is similar to the moment when Lurie looks out the window watching the robbers shoot the dogs one by one in Disgrace. Lurie can’t do anything to prevent that from happening because he himself is also a victim of violence. He has been burned and locked up in the bathroom. His movement has been limited; he is scared. The dogs' killing happens in his presence, it horrifies him. However, he is powerless to intervene and too weak to save those dogs from brutality and death.

The nameless narrator and David Lurie both experience paralysis and epiphany. The narrator assumes that he can carry out his desire to purchase a gift as a symbol of love, but in the end it costs too much for him. As for David Lurie, a once almighty man, is attacked and trapped in a confined place where he is powerless to break free.

Lucy's Story - My Land, My Baby, My Love

Life passes by so quickly; things go so fast. I have spent most of my life on the land that I own. It is a little piece of land that I've considered as my home sweet home. It is a place where I find joy, peace and happiness in my everyday life. I don’t want to give it up because it is engraved in me. It is a piece of me, a part of my life. Now I am pregnant because I never took the emergency contraception after the rape. I do not know what to do right now, but abortion is not an option at all. I have gone through it before, and do not want to do it again. I do not hate children; I do not choose against a child because of who its father is. My father asks that I leave the farm. I really despise that idea. The farm, what farm is he referring to? In fact, it is not a farm, but the place where I grow things. It is the place that embraces my presence and sings me beautiful songs every day and also the place that I hold dear to my heart and will always cherish.

Analysis:
A lot of things happen on the farm that directly affect both Lucy and David. Lucy is the only person that David has been able to maintain a relationship with over the years. He looks upon her place and upon her companionship as a retreat from the things that have gone wrong in his life, for all the misdeeds that he has done. Lucy welcomes him warmly. During his stays he seems to impose his ideology on Lucy’s life and her ways of dealing with things. Despite the fact that Lucy is quite different from David in terms of personality and perceptions of life, they live together quite harmoniously for the time being.

And now that Lucy has been raped, a lot of things have changed; their relationship becomes distant as David tries to influence her further. Lucy says to David, “I have a life of my own, just as important to me as yours is to you, and in my life I am the one who makes the decision" (Coetzee 198). She wants to make decisions for herself and be in control of her life. She wants to keep the child and continues to stay on the plantation even when David says, “Particularly when he [Pollux] may be the father of the child you are carrying. Lucy, your situation is becoming ridiculous, worse than ridiculous, sinister. I plead with you, leave the farm before it is too late. It is the only sane thing left to do" (Coetzee 200). Lucy is upset that David refers the plantation as “the farm.” To Lucy, it is a piece of land where she grows things and she will not give it up. Her decision to keep the child is similar to her desire to keep the land.

Phases of Lurie's Life

Although David Lurie is an independent and controlling man at the beginning of the story, he later transforms into a dependent and vulnerable man. As a professor, he has no respect for the material he teaches, and very little regard for the law, societal rules or ethics that are associated with his position. He teaches because it provides him with a livelihood (Coetzee 4-5). He lives within his income. He can provide and support himself without relying on outside help which reflects his financial security and independence. He also cooks for himself, which is another way of displaying his independence (Coetzee 14).

Besides being independent, he is also controlling. He lives within his emotional means at the expense of others, particularly women (Coetzee 2). For example, he dislikes the stickiness of the makeup that Soraya, a prostitute, puts on her face, so he asks her to wipe it off. He also satisfies himself with a sexual experience with Melanie, a student, even when she averts and feels uncomfortable. These women are passive when dealing with Lurie as he dominates the stage and directs what happen to them and their bodies.

Lurie has always been a man of the city, but once he has made up his mind to leave, there is little to hold him back (Coetzee 59). After the exposure of his sexual misconduct, Lurie leaves the university and settles in the country on his daughter's farm. His settling in the country implies the depletion of his independence. He becomes more and more dependent on external forces. He used to cook for himself, but now he depends on Lucy, his daughter, to provide for him when he is hungry (Coetzee 61). He also depends on his daughter for clothes during the winter and as a guide to help him adapt to the country life (Coetzee 70-71).

The afternoon the three men attack Lurie and Lucy, Lurie receives a blow on the head that knocks him unconscious, and is set on fire with alcohol (Coetzee 96). His daughter is raped, the dogs that he spent some time with are killed and his car is stolen. This shows that he has become susceptible to outside forces more than ever before.The transition from the city to the country has transformed a once independent and controlling man like himself into a person whose survival and wellbeing are rely on others, and whose safety and personal security also depend on others.

Parody to Williams' poem

This Is What I Do

throw
the rotten
plums out
of the kitchen' window,

embrace
the broccoli
that my mother's hands

create
it was delicious
so green and healthy,
and full of love

Just for Fun (not for grading)

Just to Tell

I have put on
the socks
that were left in
the blackshoe

and which
you were probably saving
for special occasion

forgive me
they are new
so comfortable
and so warm