Reality

 

I sit by the glass, silently watching the city below. The rain trickles down the window’s cold flesh and shimmers the twilight hour. My cheek presses against the chilly transparency, soothing my body but not my mind. How harsh a cold, how harsh the autumn cold on my skin. The glass blurs from my breath and denies me sight of the world below. I don’t move away. I can’t. I am as frosty inside as the chilly panes of glass I lean against. Chilled, bitten, dead.

 

I saw my brother today. I’d gone to visit him in that wonderfully small country cottage, with his brilliant wife and his glorious children, and we’d sat in his cosy little living-room lounge and we’d spoken of life, of work, of business. It’s all we ever do discuss. That and Darell; the only thing in my empty existence; my job and my friend.

 

He never comments on my dismal state of life. I know he wants to, I can see it in his eyes each time they connect with mine, but he never does. How could he confront me with such pity, I wonder, when he knows better than anyone how that would only hurt me more.

 

I’d watched his children play on the floor today: ‘broom, broom’ and ‘bang, bang’, and I had been struck then by a distinct sadness. I had remembered a time we used to play like that; children’s bodies, children’s minds. The innocence and joy and such utter simplicity. I had seen us there on the floor as boys and I had wept silently for all that I had lost. My internal tears though, were of no consequence to my brother. Because for as much as he loved me, he had his own life now, his own precious children.

 

I could’ve had that. I could have had a family: a wonderfully small country cottage, a brilliant wife, glorious children. I had tried once, to marry, to live with my commitment and love her. It hadn’t lasted long. Three months. Three months I’d lived with her, slept with her, woken to her. Three long months I had suffered the lies and betrayal. And then it had dawned on me how utterly selfish I was. If she had fallen pregnant, what would have happened? What would have come next? What would I have done? I would have suffered a family and that woman would have suffered with me. Because eventually I would stop pretending. Nobody could live out their life like that and I would have doomed her like I had doomed myself.

 

Would that have been better though? Would it have been better to live miserable than to live lonely?

I’m supposed to be an Darell’s right now. It’s Friday and we always meet at his place for drinks on a Friday. My best friend. My only friend. The sole love in my life. I wonder sometimes if he is as lonely as me. He smiles, he always smiles, but are his smiles real? Or are they as false as the marriage I once tried to make? How could he be happy? Living a life like mine? Living in loneliness? Or does he not feel it?

Perhaps, I think, it is because I know I have no future. He may find some brilliant woman, a wonderfully small country cottage and have glorious little children. I never would. I’d never love a woman. Never. I had tried. I had tried so hard and failed. I would never love a woman. I would die alone. The only person I had ever loved – would ever love – was waiting for me this moment, waiting and wondering if something wrong had happened.

Nothing had happened; I was sitting on my windowsill looking down at the world below and seeing nothing.

I didn’t know if I wanted to go tonight. I wanted to see him, I always wanted to see him. But after today, after seeing life the way a man should live it and knowing I never, ever could. After that I faltered. Cursed, I swore. I was cursed. Cursed to live my life alone, never to love a woman and forbidden the love of my friend.

But even though the desire may have been missing, I would still go. I would go to see his smile, his precious smile, when he opened the door and saw me there, when he poured the glorious drinks and prepared the wonderful food, when he sat down on his brilliant couch beside me and when he looked into my eyes. When he laughed at our empty, boring lives and called us silly. He would smile at me and sometimes, in the moment, I would smile too. I would smile at him and let myself believe that he loved me even a portion of the amount I loved him.

But that was only on Fridays. That was only tonight. And that was not reality.

- Leila

Emm…this is new, but I haven’t gone over it very much so it may not be all that good. But here it is! I hope it’s clear what’s going on, and let me know if there’s anything wrong or that…

Xx..xX

Dissertation.

How does the soldier’s status in society differ with culture and how do Dialogue, Imagery, Symbolism and Narrative Voice help to convey this?

War. To attempt to fathom is most courageous, for it is both noble and often highly unnecessary. It is an unwavering constant, weaving a savage and sanguinary tapestry on the canvas of humanity. It has claimed a myriad of lives and souls since the very first rapacious blade of jagged steel was forged.

If the annals of history are analysed, the soldier as an entity has always had a changing status in society. This seems to be due to a perpetual equilibrium between three key variables; the given era, the given nation (and therefore culture) and the importance of war and what it represents to that given nation.

When analysed comparatively, the two novels I have chosen act as conduits for two rich, highly distinct status. Set in the year 1600, firmly in the midst of medieval Japan, James Cavell’s established and classic epic ‘Shogun’, heartily encaptures the honourable and mighty spirit of the legendary ‘Samurai’ warrior and exemplifies their fearless and utterly “male” attitude to war by the use of symbolism, imagery, narrative voice and dialogue, and by the hiss of their venerated killing sword, and the proverbial spray of blood. Warriors holding fast the test of time are evidenced by their intrinsic place in a culture over a millennium old. Literally, they made up a middle class, below their liege lords but above ‘eta’, merchants, and peasants. Yet I believe their status in society is far richer and deeper than this, and certainly far more satisfying than so brief a summary. Bobbie Ann Masons’ novel ‘In Country’, is set in a sleepy 1980’s American town but with constant references to the 1960’s war in Viet-nam. This book was written to expose the immaturity of the young American soldier during the Vietnam war and the disastrous effects war can have on those who are not prepared to run its gauntlet, by using imagery, symbolism and extensively dialogue. The American soldiers in this novel are not short of courage (for indeed they were soldiers), and are as stereotypically belligerent as one might expect. However their place in society is, far less desirable than that of the Samurai, and indeed harder to ascertain. I believe, that to those who still remember it at least, it remains in the dense humidity of the baleful Vietnam. Banished to reside there with their failure.

How were the techniques setting, climax and characterization used in the Novels ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen and ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte to present heroism in the protagonists of their time?

In the novel ‘Emma’, written by Jane Austen, the protagonist is portrayed on many levels as a modern heroine for her time. This is done through sophisticated use of techniques such as setting, climax and characterization. A similar case can be seen in Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘Jane Eyre’. Her protagonist shows a unique character, specifically strong willed and selfless, which mirrors Austen’s on many levels.

One prominent difference separating these two heroines is the path they are taken on as characters. Austen initially shows us a character with strong will; however her character begins as self-obsessed and proud. Throughout the novel, though, her character is developed and her selfishness turns to selflessness as she experiences a multitude of mistakes where she is forced to learn from each that she is not perfect. In ‘Jane Eyre’ the protagonist is also selfish to a degree at the beginning of the novel, though this stems mainly from her being a child and ignorant of the world out with her home, coupled with the treatment she receives from those she lives with. Bronte uses a change in her character as well, when she attends the school and becomes a mature woman, when she is introduced to new characters and sees a new way of life.

Disseration- Final.

How does the soldier’s status in society differ with culture and how do Dialogue, Imagery, Symbolism and Narrative Voice help to convey this?

War. To attempt to fathom is most courageous, for it is both noble and often highly unnecessary. It is an unwavering constant, weaving a savage and sanguinary tapestry on the canvas of humanity. It has claimed a myriad of lives and souls since the very first rapacious blade of jagged steel was forged.

If the annals of history are analysed, the soldier as an entity has always had a changing status in society. This seems to be due to a perpetual equilibrium between three key variables; the given era, the given nation (and therefore culture) and the importance of war and what it represents to that given nation.

When analysed comparatively, the two novels I have chosen act as conduits for two rich, highly distinct status. Set in the year 1600, firmly in the midst of medieval Japan, James Cavell’s established and classic epic ‘Shogun’, heartily encaptures the honourable and mighty spirit of the legendary ‘Samurai’ warrior and exemplifies their fearless and utterly “male” attitude to war by the use of symbolism, imagery, narrative voice and dialogue, and by the hiss of their venerated killing sword, and the proverbial spray of blood. Warriors holding fast the test of time are evidenced by their intrinsic place in a culture over a millennium old. Literally, they made up a middle class, below their liege lords but above ‘eta’, merchants, and peasants. Yet I believe their status in society is far richer and deeper than this, and certainly far more satisfying than so brief a summary. Bobbie Ann Masons’ novel ‘In Country’, is set in a sleepy 1980’s American town but with constant references to the 1960’s war in Viet-nam. This book was written to expose the immaturity of the young American soldier during the Vietnam war and the disastrous effects war can have on those who are not prepared to run its gauntlet, by using imagery, symbolism and extensively dialogue. The American soldiers in this novel are not short of courage (for indeed they were soldiers), and are as stereotypically belligerent as one might expect. However their place in society is, far less desirable than that of the Samurai, and indeed harder to ascertain. I believe, that to those who still remember it at least, it remains in the dense humidity of the baleful Vietnam. Banished to reside there with their failure.

Bushido is the way of the warrior. All male Samurai are trained in this extensively from a young age, that they may serve their ‘daimyo’ or liege Lord gallantly in battle. We in the west have always had a fascination with the culture of the far flung orient. Specifically, for me it has been so with the array of oriental martial arts forged from the sweat of the brow and inhuman discipline. The mastery of such arts can allow men to throw opponents twice their size across rooms, face several opponents at once, and develop spiritualistic resistances to such weaknesses as pain. The western world has assimilated this most vibrant characteristic of the oriental culture and is as passionate for it as its creators. I find that when the word samurai is uttered,

2nd Draft of Dissertation

so this is my new, hopefully improved version of my dissertation…

****

An examination of the literary presentation of the fears of corruption of social order in Dracula (Bram Stoker 1897) and The Vampire Lestat (Anne Rice 1985).

Vampires. Mythical monsters which instill fear in most everyone. Created to corrupt and destroy the precarious balance of justice held by society. Fear plays a large in the corruption that takes place within society. Society feras the different and sinful, such as madness, homosexuality and sexuality. Women are supressed and their sexuality banned except for the express or reproduction. Mainly the fears are that of, the unknown and uncovered corruption which creeps and consumes society until all the goodness and light is destroyed. This is shown through the novels Dracula (Bram Stoker 1987) and The vampire Lestat (Anne Rice 1985) and their protagonist vampire, Count Dracula and Lestat de Lioncourt.

The writers create this sense of fear through the use of many techniques such as narrative voice, characterisation, setting and symbolism.

In Dracula there are many different narrative voices as the novel is told from many different characters perspectives. In my opinion the character who portrays the fears of society most effectively through their narrative voice is Jonathon Harker.

Jonathon Harker is of middle class and we know this through his narrative voice. This is effective because the audience, whom the novel is directed at, can relate to Stoker’s character and his fears, which in turn symbolise the audience’s fears, presented in the form of a fictional character, Count Dracula. We know that Jonathon is working class through the dialect that he uses throughout the course of his diary entries. An example of this is:

[1]“The castle is a Veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!”

In this quote, the word “veritable” shows that Jonathon is well educated. The importance of conveying that he is middle class is that the most susceptible and vulnerable part of the society is middle class. They are the ones who live in fear of scandal and evil and suppress their sexuality. So the importance of this within Dracula is that the character of Count Dracula has easily lured in this middle class man and captured him without any hassle. Also shown through the quote is the fact that the character of Harker is unable to contain his fear and panic at being held captive any longer which is shown by the exclamation mark at the end of the quote.

1ST EVER DRAFT OF DISSERTATION… :s

A/N:  I’m aware that this isn’t the best of my work and that it’s too short but i just wanted a rough idea that i’m going in the right direction with this and that it’s not all complete rubbish im saying. I plan on expanding this and adding in more detailed analysis and more quotes when I’ve had the chance to look back through the books and find them, but for the time being this is what i have, Enjoy, on not

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An examination of the constrains of society displayed primarily through the protagonist vampires Count Dracula in Dracula (Bram Stoker 1897) and Lestat de Lioncourt in The Vampire Lestat (Anne Rice 1985) as a result of fear.

Vampires. Mythical monsters which are feared by most. Created to convey and instil the society’s fears and constraints. The fears being that of, the unknown and uncovered darkness which creeps and consumes society until all is feared. This is shown through the novels Dracula (Bram Stoker 1987) and The vampire Lestat (Anne Rice 1985) and their protagonist vampire, Count Dracula and Lestat de Lioncourt.

The writers create the sense of fear through the use of many techniques such as narrative voice, characterisation, setting, symbolism and climax.

Wishing You Were Here…

A/N: Hey guys, so i thought i’d try my hand at poetry and see how it went. THis was written in like 5 minutes when some inspiration came to me. Not sure how technically sound it is so maybe you could give me some pointers. As usual it’s not exactly the brightest of pieces. As always thanks

                                                                       *****

Wishing You Were Here

Placated and full,
The joys of being away from home,
Even for a little while,
Chatter, Clatter, rumble,
The signs of content.

A glance at a watch,
A movement of lips,
“Phone home,
your Dad will be waiting.”
Was she talking to me?

For a second confusion sets in,
Has It really been a dream?
A nightmare more likely,
Adamant to fool me,
To twist the knife deeper.

Eyes glaze over,
Blinking back the haze,
Of course it wasn’t meant for me,
Why would it be?
I know there’s no-one there.

dissertation

An examination of the literary presentation of the state of alienation and spiritual exhaustion of the central characters in The Trial by Franz Kafka and The Outsider by Albert Camus:

 At every turn in the pocked and multifarious road that is mans quondam history, we, the masses, have never been free from the ever present rod of social conformity. As the great civilisations of our earth progress and expand some say our people are being almost sub-consciously and indeterminably moulded into a select set of social archetypes, a situation  leaving little or no room for those who do not exactly fit these expected models. Our entire world is governed by unspoken laws of morality and expectation, system and hierarchy, and although me may not consciously agree, it is an unequivocal truth that we as a society have very definite notions of what is right and wrong and that we merely reject and renounce what we do not understand or comprehend.

In the novels The Trial by Franz Kafka and The Outsider by Frenchman Albert Camus both the salient characters experience to their eventual misfortune that their lives are intrinsically governed by these such principles and that to try and extrapolate oneself from this global system of moral constraints is an ultimately futile and fruitless task. Each subtly interspersed with perspicacious existentialist philosophies, gripping narrative involvement and notably insightful social conclusions, it is my aim to explore and ascertain the literary techniques used by the authors to actualize the tortuous emotions of spiritual exhaustion and alienation experienced by the central characters of Josef  K. and Mersault respectively.

On first examination the ideas of alienation, isolation and confusion seem not to inspire particular feelings of sympathy or compassion however it was on standing back and considering these simple feelings within our modern environment that I came to realise how crucially devastating such situations can be.

“Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.” ^[1]

Alienation breeds isolation. It is among man’s basic human right to communicate with others, to be given the liberty of understanding his own situation and to simply belong. To be left stranded and alone and to be shunned and rejected by society is an unenviable notion and although some, Camus himself among them, put this situation upon themselves willingly what of those who are thrust into such a situation? We have devised labels for such people:- hermits, recluses, vagabonds, vagrants and reprobates but is it not us ourselves who push these people to the edges of society, nay insanity, through confusion and fear? Who are we to condemn a mans simplistic yet non-conformist lifestyle simply because we do not understand his mind? It is the feeling of alienation in ones own homeland that leads to degradation and exhaustion and it is society’s conformist and unfeeling rod that deals the crucial blow.

*   *   *   *   *

Dissertation 2nd draft.

How does the soldier’s status in society differ with culture and how do narrative voice, imagery, dialogue and symbolism help to convey this?

War. To attempt to fathom it is a most courageous endeavour, for it is both noble and often highly unnecessary. It is an unwavering constant, weaving a savage and sanguinary tapestry on the canvas of humanity. It has claimed a myriad of lives and souls since the very first rapacious blade of jagged steel was forged.

If the annals of history are analysed, the soldier as an entity has always had a changing status in society. This seems to be due to a perpetual equilibrium between three key variables; the given era, the given nation (and therefore culture) and the importance of war and what it represents to that given nation.

When analysed comparatively, the two novels I have chosen act as conduits for two rich, highly distinct status. Set in the year 1600, firmly in the midst of medieval Japan, James Cavell’s established and classic epic ‘Shogun’, heartily encaptures the honourable and mighty spirit of the legendary ‘Samurai’ warrior and exemplifies their fearless and utterly “male” attitude to war by the use of symbolism imagery, and dialogue, and the hiss of their venerated killing sword, and by the proverbial spray of blood. Warriors holding fast the test of time are evidenced by their intrinsic place in a culture over a millennium old. Literally, they made up a middle class, below their liege lords but above ‘eta’, merchants, and peasants. Yet I believe their status in society is far richer and deeper than this, and certainly far more satisfying than so brief a summary. I turn now to Bobbie Ann Masons’ novel ‘In Country’, a novel set in a sleepy 1980’s American town but with constant references back to the war in Viet-nam. This book was written to expose the immaturity of the young American soldier during the Vietnam war and the disastrous effects war can have on those who are not prepared to run its gauntlet, by using imagery, symbolism and narrative voice. The American soldiers in this novel are not short of courage (for indeed they were soldiers), and are as stereotypically belligerent as one might expect. However their place in society is, far less desirable than that of the Samurai, and indeed harder to ascertain. I believe, that to those who still remember it at least, it remains in the dense humidity of the baleful Vietnam. Banished to reside there with their failure.

 

A New Poem for a New Year

Monday Morning (Perfect)

Blinking, unfolding;
I’m overdrawn to the Bank of Sleep -
New bodies have that effect on me
Dreams reel from naked realisms.
A rolling apathy strikes, pins
Down my limbs.
Five minutes longer…
The Voice of Reason chimes in,
Alright. Get going.
And She stirs.

I turn to face Her
I’m drawn to Her eyes
Makeupless, they flicker like pale butterflies.
And I’m shocked.
She’s more perfect than
When she
Bleaches her hair
And Stains her skin.
And
Carves lines like contours
Not afraid: not now.
More perfect than anyone.
Like a jar of trapped light, I’m
Scared I’ll let it go;
So fleeting and bright…

Then gone.
I brush a strand of red away,
It falls back in place.
The corner of Her mouth twitches,
A smile, perhaps. 
Maybe I should tell her?
Wake her up and tell her.
A tear strikes the pillow.

Bloody hell – I’m embarrassed now.
Swipe away the evidence,
The Voice comes to my rescue.
You’ll be late for work.

Callum J O’Dwyer

The Williams MegaUber Essay.

“For Williams, Time is the enemy: things go; things fade; things end. And yet, in the face of these certainties, there emerges a sense of nobility in his characters.”

Discuss A Streetcar Named Desire and Sweet Bird of Youth in the light of this statement.

Chinese Whispers – Part 11

 So this is the last installment of the Chinese Whispers essay, hope you enjoy.

  A final technique employed by Tennessee Williams when displaying that time is the ultimate enemy to us all is dialogue. Throughout both “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” Williams manipulates dialogue between his characters to convey his necessary themes and create the drama of his plays. To begin with, in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Williams constantly uses the dialogue of Blanche to portray to the audience that her character is one with a façade and is desperately clinging to that façade as a sense of security. For example, when Stella is shown lighting candles for Blanche’s birthday, Williams shows her to protest, not wanting Stella to illuminate her true age – “Oh, those pretty, pretty little candles! Oh, don’t burn them Stella.” In addition to this, when Williams portrays Blanche with Mitch whilst she is staring at the stars, she is depicted very strongly as the gracious, Southern school mistress as she is pretending to be knowledgeable and interested in astronomy when she is only really displaying the façade for Mitch. However on the other hand, Williams uses Blanche’s dialogue to symbolise the death of the Old South when she is discussing staying at Belle Reve and watching the Old Southern families die out with no money to help her survive, the brutal reality of her situation – “Death is expensive, Miss Stella! And old Cousin Jessie’s, right after Margaret’s, hers! Why the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep…which of them left us a fortune? Which of them left a cent of insurance even?”

  Despite depicted as the old gracious Southern lady, Williams does present Blanche in a different sense, where she temporarily lets the façade of the Old South die and embraces reality, becoming the brazen whore and lusting after younger men. This is shown through the dialogue between Blanche and the character of the young collector when she flagrantly flirts with the young collector to remind her of the happier times she had with Alan Gray – “Come on over here like I told you! I want to kiss you – just once – softly and sweetly on your mouth.” However, the character of Blanche truly believes that her life as a prostitute was a necessity and therefore was in no way wrong, revealing Williams theme of illusion versus reality – “-make a little – temporary magic just in order to pay for – one night’s shelter!” Ultimately, after Blanche is brutally raped by Stanley, she becomes emotionally devastated and descends into madness, another key theme of Williams. He conveys the symbolic death of the façade within the household through Stanley’s ripping down the lampshade, Blanche’s protection from light and her ultimate exposure – “-unless it’s the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern?” By doing this, although he is a thoroughly loathsome character, Williams depicts a warped sense of nobility through Stanley’s action as he is symbolically bringing an end to the façade within New Orleans but is giving Blanche her protection so she is able to take her façade with her.

  Williams extensively uses dialogue in “Sweet Bird of Youth” to convey his chosen themes and convey the symbolic enemy of time. In the case of Princess, she, like Blanche, uses younger men to try and recapture her youth that time has taken from her. Williams uses the character of Chance Wayne as the current source of Princess’ needs and wants as it is he that makes her feel young again – “Now get a little sweet music on the radio and come here to me and make me almost believe that we are a pair of young lovers without any shame.” This conveys the ravages of time upon both Princess and Chance, as she must indulge in young men to rekindle her youth and he has been reduced to a gigolo in a vain attempt to make it into Hollywood. However, the character of Chance realises his fate in due course and accepts that time is indeed against him and there is no hope of his achieving his dreams – “I don’t ask for you pity, but just for your understanding – not even that – no. Just for your recognition of me in you, and the enemy, time, in us all.” In a sense, this displays nobility in the character of Chance as he has accepted his destiny and will stop trying to bring back his youth.

  Williams also uses dialogue in the character of Boss Finley to convey the façade of the town of St Cloud. When in public and around other people, Williams portrays Boss as a kindly Southern gentleman who is perfectly respectable – “Go on, smile for the birdie! Ain’t she Heavenly, ain’t that the right name for her!” However, behind closed doors, he is shown as a truly corrupt character, only maintaining the façade to further his reputation within the town, even using his own daughter to his advantage – “And you’re gonna wear a proud happy smile on your face, you’re gonna stare straight out at the crowd in the ballroom with pride and joy in your eyes. Lookin’ at you, all in white like a virgin, nobody would dare to speak or believe the ugly stories about you. I’m relying a great deal on this campaign to bring in young voters for the crusade I’m leading”.

  Overall, throughout the plays “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” Tennessee Williams, to great effect, manipulates various literary techniques – narrative voice, setting, stage direction, symbolism and dialogue – in order to convey his chosen themes. Furthermore, Williams can also portray time as being the enemy and how everything has its time and everything must die.     

Chinese Whispers – Part 10?

Hey there, sorry about the delay, my internet went down, so this is my poor attempt at squeezing something onto paper in my free today, aplologies,

Although the plays, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” are set in – on the surface – very different circumstances, they are laced with a multitude of parallel themes.

Symbolism is used strongly in Williams’ plays to crucially create a depth of character and meaning throughout. Clothes, for example, serve as an unavoidable mechanism in illustrating the significance of Williams’ characters, how he uses them to explicitly illustrate their true feelings and natures.

In “A Sweetbird of Youth”, written prior to “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the plays main protagonist, Chance Wayne, is described as having “a body born to wear suits”. The implication by the playwright suggests his character is the epitome of youth and stereotypical beauty, a man who exudes a sexual air. This is intrinsically linked to the main characters central obsession; the importance of youth and the physical world. In comparison to the sophisticated sexuality of Chance, in “A Streetcar named Desire”, the main male character Stanley Kowalski oozes ashamedly the scent of pure sexual domination. His “red-silk pyjamas” are used as a warning symbol whenever there is a hint of sexual tension in the scenes and act as a beacon of brash sexual feeling. Throughout each play Williams’ use of clothes gives us an invaluable insight into the nature and motives of each of his male characters, Chance and Stanley respectively, and aids us – the reader- in understanding the central themes of the two works. In Sweet Bird of Youth the emphasis of the play is on the false cult of physical beauty and how looks are ultimately inconsequential in the real world. In Streetcar, it is shown that the sexual beast in Stanley and his unashamed, unabashed openness is what the then current social climate is leaning towards and that although it is not something we like to acknowledge – as Stanley in the end brutally rapes the female main female character – it is an attitude which is the new face of the then New South.

My Greatest Apologies: Part 9

Sorry Pete and everyone, last night when I put up my part of the essay I clicked the wrong blog to put it to, putting it on one of my random other blogs my accident. Sorry for the delay, I’m an idiot.

It was once written “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet”. However, in the plays “Sweet Bird of Youth” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams this is not the case. The playwright has put a strong emphasis on the symbolism of names to convey meaning and create characterisation.

In “Sweet Bird of Youth”, this symbolism can be quite blunt and apparent. With the character of Chance Wayne, his name reveals his life hitherto: a boy once brimming with potential and good luck (Chance) has been ravaged by reality and this good luck is beginning to wane (Wayne). Disillusioned by the lifestyle he has led – at first a promising actor, later a glorified gigolo – and the detrimental effect it has on him, he returns to the shining beacon of hope in his misspent youth Heavenly Finlay. “Heavenly” denotes a purity to this character and, in the eyes of Chance, is the antithesis to the corruption and filth which has poisoned his youth – however, there is a cruel irony by Williams here as the connotations of chastity from “Heavenly” are torn away with the knowledge that Chance gave Heavenly a venereal disease from the many women he’s slept with, causing her to be “gutted” from within and removing her ability to bear children. This knowledge of this barren, hollow women contradicts the positive attributes of “Heavenly” and mirrors Chance’s ignorance of the damage he has done to her.

From this, is it arguable that Chance’s actions are noble. Despite numerous warnings and threats throughout, he still pursues Heavenly with the hope he can recapture the purity and joy she brought him in his youth. He also attempts to create a secure future for the two of them by trying to manipulate Princess, however there are strong reasons why he is not a noble character. His pursuit of Heavenly is mostly for himself: he is trying to claw back some of the youth and beauty which used to define him, as well as his past actions as a male prostitute for older women. He sold himself for money for no-one’s gain but his own. He is often a very narcissistic character, fixated with himself and how he looks.

Additionally the town name of St Cloud gives hints to the makeup of the town. A cloud, from a distance on the surface looks graceful and beautiful. However, what is a cloud made of? Water vapour: it’s vacuous, empty, lifeless. This is a metaphor for the town itself, it appears to epitomise the gracious lifestyle of the Southern states of America but behind the veneer it is rotten with corruption. Williams illustrates this with the behaviour of Boss Finley; he comes across as friendly, earnest politician on his televised speech however he has laundered large amounts of money from the oil fund as well as injuring the his mistress in vengeance for her loose tongue.

In “Streetcar Named Desire” the naming is somewhat more subtle. Stanley Kowalski is the primary male character, a working class man who is steeped in reality. “Stanley” means stony meadow in Old English, reflecting his no-nonsense approach to life, and “Kowalski” is a Polish surname equivalent to “Smith” in English: a very common last name showing Stanley is just as ‘common‘. It also shows the audience his practical, hard working background and his decadency from Polish immigrants. This is important in the play as Stanley represents the ‘New South’: the fresh face of post-war America brushing away the pretence of grace and manners of the ‘Old South’, represented by Blanche DuBois or “White Woods” in French. The symbolic meaning of “Blanche” is to create an impression of a white, almost virginal, innocent Southern Belle. However, this is how Blanche is presented initially. The audience soon learn however that there is more to her than this first image; there’s more than just the first line of trees in a forest. As you look in deeper, there is a darker side to Blanche hidden beneath the surface, the façade she tries to create.

The tendency of Stanley to unearth the brutal truth could be considered a noble act: he tries to convince Stella of the true nature of Blanche so Stella isn’t fooled by her but Stanley’s final action to rid Blanche’s façade is grave and despicable. By raping her, he as a character loses any nobility he had for his cause as it is revealed he has done it for self-gain — similar to Chance, he acted out of self-satisfaction.

Part 9- but more like part 8!

Williams’ use of stage directions are very important at the beginning of both plays with in-depth detail of the façade that Blanche represents in “Streetcar Named Desire” and hints of slipping youth and beauty in “Sweet Bird of Youth”. Williams creates a feeling that either the Princess and Blanche cannot be touched by harsh light or their demise will be unveiled.

“The sleeping woman’s face is partly covered…to protect her from morning glare”, similarly Williams, when describing Blanch, writes, “Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”, and it can therefore be seen the beauty, which was everything to these women, is slipping.

Dialogue is an important technique when analysing Williams’ belief of “time is the enemy” due to the fact he uses the characters speech to convey his feelings. In “Sweet Bird of Youth” the princess is a character who realises this and therefore she is use heavily to convey the “enemy”. “At some point in your life, the thing that you lived for is lost or abandoned, and then…you die”, although the quote may be with reference to the Princess’ acting career this is directly linked with her youth and now that she no longer has that youth she has nothing to live for.