ENCW 205: Art & Identity in New Orleans

Ophelia’s feelings of New Orleans remain largely negative throughout Bellocq’s Ophelia: “the gray husk of winter”; “…the city’s dull palette of gray”; “flies buzzing the meat-stand, cockroaches crisscrossing the banquette…and mosquitoes skimming flat water like skaters on a frozen pond.” To her, it is a prison (a larger one from the brothel) that she cannot […]

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As a whole, Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia is a stunning collection of poems that are written from the viewpoint of one of the famous photographer’s subjects. I think that by using poetry, Trethewey elevates the fictional story being told: there is a certain amount of mystery around Bellocq – details about his life, his choice […]

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There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up; Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress, Or like […]

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Blanche. […] Do you remeber Shep Huntleigh? Stella. No. There is an overarching theme in A Streetcar Named Desire of men we never get to see but are named and talked about often. The most obvious one is Blanche’s dead husband Mr Allen Grey who committed suicide after Blanche confronts him about being gay. This incident traumatizes […]

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I first read A Streetcar Named Desire when I was a sophomore in high school. I was under the impression that reading classic plays would make me an interesting and cultured individual. This endeavor only made me more confused about the literary canon, but it did make my dad take me to see Cat on a Hot […]

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In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the characters Stella Dubois and Stanley Kowalski express the stereotypical gender roles of the period. Stella Dubois is a woman completely dependent on her husband, Stanley Kowalski, who is “the king’ of the household. Stanley believes that he is superior and can get away with whatever […]

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The movie we watched today based on the play “A Street Car Named Desire” was different in quite a few ways. The movie chose a different and perhaps a happier ending when the play did not. The play ended with Stella, Blanche’s sister, being held by her husband when she was upset over Blanche leaving for the asylum. […]

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Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a classic American play that is full of sex, violence, and symbolism. The first instance of symbolism, or foreshadowing in this case, that I noticed in the play was in scene one, on page 6, when Blanche first arrives at her sister’s home: “They told me to take […]

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A Streetcar Named Desire was  character driven play mainly following the life of Blanche after she lost everything and had to move into an apartment with her sister. While there, we as spectators get to watch as she slowly succumbs to the trauma she’s been through. While many things may have lead to her decline […]

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Allan Grey is a ghost that haunts the storyline of A Streetcar Named Desire. He is a character with no speaking lines or appearances, yet he is spoken of frequently and is a key player in the decline of Blanche DuBois’ mental state. When Blanche was sixteen, she fell deeply in love with Allan. At […]

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From C-SPAN: Author and playwright Tennessee Williams is best known for his plays, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948. Kenneth Holditch, co-founder of the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, talked about Williams’ life in New Orleans and the influence it had […]

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Blanche’s overly sexual nature most likely came from discovering her first love and husband in bed with another man. Blanche saw his homosexuality as personal rejection and inadequacy and caused her to be licentious as well as obsessed with her age and looks. She tells Mitch,” …I’d failed him in some mysterious way…” as though […]

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At the sound of Stanley calling for her, Stella steps outside. She stands at the top of the stairs, looking down with an expression that is equal parts fed up and exhausted. Stanley stares back at her, his own expression guilty and pleading. She descends slowly, keeping her eyes on him, though now her expression […]

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Mexican Woman [she is at the door and offers Blanche some of her flowers]: Flores? Flores para los muertos? Blanche [frightened]: No, no! Not now! Not now! (p. 148) It was the death of her husband that led to Blanche DuBois’ desire for men – to fill the void in her heart left by his […]

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Edna is a sad character made out to be a hero because of her circumstances. Let me explain. From the beginning, Edna is presented as a woman bored with the mundanity  and her position in her own life. When we first meet her, we hear her (or perhaps the narrator) introducing the reader to how […]

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Chopin’s novel presented a rebellious and independent awakening of the character Edna Pontellier. Edna discovered herself in some way or the other in every chapter. Her discoveries were followed by the desire to be independent and to cater to her own needs instead of others. Chopin showed how Edna’s character initially unhappily conformed to societal […]

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In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy […]

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