Essay on Downfall and Denial in Streetcar Named Desire...

Downfall and Denial in Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams allows the main characters in the plays, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, to live miserable lives, which they first try to deny and later try to change. The downfall and denial of the Southern gentlewoman is a common theme in both plays. The characters, Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda from The Glass Menagerie are prime examples. Blanche and Amanda have had, and continue to have, many struggles in their lives. The problem is that Williams never lets the two women work through these problems and move on. The two ladies are allowed to destroy themselves and Williams invites the audience to watch them in†¦show more content†¦Amanda comments sarcastically, at the end of the play, that Tom shouldnt think about his poor mother and sister (Williams, T.G.M., 9.114.1-3). She tries to push her problems off on him rather than deal with them herself. By laying the blame on Tom, she feels as though she did nothing wrong an d that the family’s problems have been caused by others. If the two women had just accepted that they were also to blame, they could have moved on with their lives. Both Blanche and Amandas biggest problem is that they deny the truth. Blanche denies her drinking problem. She also indirectly denies the fact that she was a whore, mainly through omitting it from her memory. Blanche also tries to deny the reality of Stella’s situation as evidenced by her comment that, I take for granted that you still have sufficient memory of Belle Reve to find this place and these poker players impossible to live with (Williams, A.S.N.D., 4.70.1-3). She denies that she ever sank lower than Stella when, in truth, she was much worse. She was the one who lost her job for sleeping with a seventeen year old and was kicked out of the town by the mayor for being a prostitute. She then had the gall to lecture Stella on her choice of men. You cant have forgotten that much of our up bringing, Stella, that you just suppose that any part of a gentleman is in his (Stanley’s) nature! (Williams, A.S.N.D., 4.71.13-18)