A Streetcar Named Desire and Blues for Monsieur Charlie are both concerned to a large extent with tensions between different ethnic groups and, since in the two pieces, the ethnicity of each group defines its social position, the different social groups as well. The two pieces are stylistically similar, employing expressionist techniques while maintaining a naturalistic dialogue and making only occasional forays into lyricism. The plays differ in that while A Streetcar Named Desire explores the tension between two specific characters, each implicitly representative of a particular group, Blues for Mister Charlie explicitly deals with large societal groups at odds. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay After the founding of the Washington Square Players and the Provincetown Players in 1920, American theater became more concerned with bringing social analysis to the stage. This movement toward “social drama,” of which A Streetcar Named Desire is a product, found its impetus in admiration for the turn-of-the-century European drama of Ibsen and Brecht. American theater quickly broke away from Europe by developing a style of its own, fusing expressionism and naturalism to express central concerns in America. The economic boom and civil unrest that followed World War II led many writers to question the essence of American identity. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams seeks to define America's new identity in relation to its old identity by adopting a form present in many of Ibsen's plays (e.g. Ghosts), an exploration of how repressed emotions of the past burst into the present. An American, Williams was also a Southerner. Through films like Gone With the Wind, American cinema fostered a national fascination with romantic perceptions of the South. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores this notion of the romantic South and its relationship to modern America. The tension between past and present finds expression in the conflict between Stanley and Blanche, representatives respectively of the booming industrial North and the declining bucolic South. Stanley is descended from 20th-century Polish immigrants and Blanche is descended from French founding fathers. This difference indicates not only ethnic, but also temporal separation between their respective social groups. Thus, the tension between Stanley and Blanche reflects the tension between old and new America, recent and long-established immigrants, North and South. . These conflicts are linked to those between the poor and the rich, the crude and the refined, the beastly and the artistic. These tensions emerge in the language, appearance, and mannerisms of Streetcar's characters, as well as in the operation of its plot. Stanley does not speak, but "screams", favoring monosyllables and simple sentence structures and often employing imperfect grammar, as in: "When 'We first met, you and I, you thought I Was common. How right you were, baby, I was common as dirt." Stanley values ​​directness of expression and rarely uses imagery. When he uses images, they are hackneyed and primitive (“Common as dirt… shut up like a clam”). His language amounts to the “groaning,” as Blanche comments, of Stone Age man: superficial, purely in the service of reality. When asked for a compliment from Blanche, Stanley replies that he "doesn't likenot that sort of thing." Such language suits a man who dwells more on the physical world rather than the intellectual or emotional world, and who sees things in terms of what they are rather than what they are. 'they suggest. On the other hand, Blanche's language is ornate and often lyrical: "Me, I took the blows to the face and to the body! All these deaths!...the burials are pretty compared to the dead." She also uses images from literature in everyday speech, comparing New Orleans to "Weir's ghost-haunted forest." For Blanche, the Language is less a tool for communicating reality than for obscuring it. She frequently uses euphemisms (Belle Reve is "lost" and Mr. Graves "suggested she take some time off") to preserve the illusion of her happiness and. of her beauty and, consequently, that of the romantic South Blanche maintains this illusion through her appearance and her behavior as well as her language. She wears a “rhinestone tiara”, an image of opulence whose hollowness is. demonstrated when Stella describes it as "a suit...next to the glass". Blanche's avoidance of harsh light is symptomatic of her avoidance of the truth - she does not wish to be seen as she is. by Blanche, Stanley is lively and vital, surrounded by vivid "primary colors": "yellow linoleum... bright green... solid blue... purple... red and white". Additionally, despite his apparent simplicity, Stanley is very insightful and often witty. He perceives Blanche's artificial character and her hidden baseness and is therefore capable of destroying her. For example, when Blanche states that she "rarely touches" alcohol, Stanley responds that "some people rarely touch it, but it affects them often." The scenes concerning Stanley are eloquent. He is "primitive" in his physicality and animality, throwing bloody meat at Stella like a prehistoric hunter dropping off his catch. Stanley does not walk but “stalks”; he “throws” furs and “suddenly opens” drawers: each of his movements is energetic and wild. In comparison, Blanche is an image of delicacy and fragility. She is physically weak and sickly ("I'm going to be sick") and Williams compares her to a "moth", suggesting her fragility and the lightness of her movements. She worries that she hasn't "washed or powdered" her face, and her clothes are made of "feathers and furs." Even the name "Dubois" seems tricky compared to the tougher "Kowalski". At certain moments of tension between Stanley and Blanche in the play, Williams interrupts the action with the noisy passing of a streetcar. This expressionist technique highlights the importance of the moment and helps build an association between Stanley and the tram, a symbol of industrialization. It is significant that in an earlier version of the play, Williams had Blanche die by running in front of a streetcar. Stella can be seen as the focal point of A Streetcar Named Desire, the woman for whom Stanley and Blanche fight their battles. A constant exchange of power occurs as the play progresses, with Blanche and Stanley alternately gaining and losing influence over Stella. For example, after the poker incident, Blanche gains influence and seizes the opportunity to keep Stella away from Stanley's apartment. The stage directions describe her with “arms around” Stella, “guiding” her. When Stanley wins her back with a display of animal passion (screaming "STELL-LAHHHHHH"), he has defeated Blanche, who walks "fearfully...as if she had been struck." The battles between Stanley and Blanche also take place on the territory. For example, they argue over Blanche's intensive use of the bathroom, and Blanche even covers aStanley chairs as if to claim it. While A Streetcar Named Desire dramatizes the conflict between two social groups (or, more precisely, two sets of values) in terms of conflict between two individuals, Blues for Mister Charlie deals with conflict on a community level. Furthermore, while in Streetcar Blanche Blanche's systematic lying is exposed and Stanley emerges as a clear winner, no clear winner appears in Blues for Mister Charlie. Rather, conflict is seen as unnecessary and harmful to both parties. Blues for Mister Charlie was written later than A Streetcar Named Desire, and the societal groups it focuses on are therefore different. Baldwin wrote his play in 1964, when racial tensions were at their peak. In 1963, Martin Luther King led his march on Washington and delivered his “I Have a Dream…” speech to protest widespread discrimination against black Americans. The play was actually precipitated by real events: the murder of a black man in Mississippi by a white merchant. It focuses on the conflict between black and white sectors of society and is set in the South, where this conflict was most intense. Baldwin's set is highly expressionistic and contributes greatly to the feeling of a community at war with itself. A central aisle separates the action involving whites and that involving blacks. Baldwin calls the alley a "chasm" and says "the stage should be constructed in such a way that the audience responds to the enormity of that chasm." As another example, Baldwin writes that in the final act, "the audience [should] be aware of the steeple, the church, and the cross." Given that religion is shared by both blacks and whites and yet is used as a justification for discrimination, this arrangement is quite ironic. The conflict between black and white in Blues for Mister Charlie is similar to the conflict between Stanley and Blanche in many ways and has some characteristics. of Stanley and Blanche can be seen in every racial group. Just as Stanley, representing the new, destroys Blanche, who represents the old, growing black unrest threatens the old order of white supremacy. It was in the North that Richard developed his rebellious ideas. When he brings them to his Southern hometown, he creates a conflict between the progressive values ​​of the North and the conservative values ​​of the South, similar to the one that developed in Streetcar. Furthermore, Richard's method of confrontation is similar to Stanley's in its physical violence. He uses his sexuality to hurt his enemies ("to fuck with their heads forever"), in the same way that Stanley does when he rapes Blanche. Like Williams, Baldwin explores the question of the essence of the American. Stanley, although an immigrant, claims to be “one hundred percent American”; Faced with oppression, black people struggle to assert their American identity. For them, America remains “a foreign land” although it is their “home”. Indeed, much of the struggle between whites and blacks is primarily territorial and tribal. Juanita ironically describes Lyle as an "honorable member of the tribe [who] defended, with blood, the honor and purity of his tribe." Just as Stanley and Blanche each feel the need to protect Stella, white characters frequently discuss their need to protect their wives from black men. For example, Lyle complains about not having "big niggers next to Josephine." Baldwin cultivates a sense that white people are trapped in their prejudices and that conflicts result from their failure to adapt to black empowerment. As Parnell points out: "It is not so..