Fallen Victims:
Victim of her Haunted Past. Misery From the Thought of His Future Alone.
In Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, every character has their time of victimization. And although many argue that Stella is one of the biggest victims I beg to differ. She has had total control of where her life is now. She chose to marry Stanley, live in a house with him, even if it may be lower class, and to have his child. All decisions she made herself for whatever reasons. Now, on the other hand her sister Blanche has had a rougher life. Having to deal with watching death after death and developing financial problems with family, obviously a decision she did not choose for herself, Blanch has to continually run from decisions she has made. Most decisions made in vain trying to escape bad situations, other times to fight her insecurity issues. Ultimately though, throughout the story not only is Blanche a victim of her past and illusions, but a victim of Stanley. He verbally abuses her throughout most of the play and then rapes her in the scene before last. If this is not victimization I don’t know what is. At the end of the play, Blanche’s victimization is never reconciled. She is taken a way to a mental institution where she will be further a victim of the events in her life.
Another victim in the play is Mitch. A man who is kind hearted and ready to marry for his dying mother. When we first see Mitch in the play he is winning the poker game and is very prideful, nonetheless. By the end of the play though, Mitch is still single, but not only that, in the last scene we see him losing the poker game as well as being a very depressed man. The events in the story between him and Blanche, as well as with him and Stanley, lead him to this destination of mere destruction. He has fallen victim to disappointment and heartbreak. The lies, disrespect, and confusion he is put through throughout the story causes his demise. Nothing good actually happens to Mitch after the first wining of the poker game. So from the beginning we see that this ending wasn’t going to be a fairytale ending of any sort.
Overall, as I said, each character can be labeled a victim in this story because of the tribulations they go through. But in my opinion these are the biggest two. Williams has set things up in the play for them not to work in these characters favor. Ultimately, they don’t, and as an audience we aren’t left with much room to feel any other way but sorry for them.
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I agree with you that Mitch is a victim. I think the Blanche is the reason that he is a victim because she added him to her list of guys that she has lied to and tried to be with.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Stella may be thought of as being the most victimized in this play and agree that she really is not to a large extent. She indeed made most of the decisions that affect her life. Blanche is arguably the most victimized despite of all her lies and masking of her past. She tries so hard to erase her past and wants magic instead of her dark reality.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Blanche is one of the more victimized characters, but I think that Stella's situation is very similar to Blanche's- it's just that the play doesn't continue after the point where Blanche gets taken to the asylum. As we discussed in class, by the end of the play, Stella is also refusing to see reality, which tells us that it's possible that she'll walk down the same path as Blanche. Overall, I think we as readers maybe able to relate to Stella as a victim more than Blanche. Like Stella, we constantly get torn between conflicting desires and ideas, and there's really no middle ground where we can step back and look at the big picture. Society forces people like Stella to pick aside, because if they don't, they'll get mowed down like grass. It's more difficult to be in Stella's situation even though Blanche's predicament is more tragic and derives pity from readers, because we as readers are more or less stuck in similar situations all the time.
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