Desire Drives

Desire drives people to live the life in which they would like to lead. Tennessee Williams highlights the importance of desire for individuals in his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” by presenting each character with different desires. Blanche, for example, is a woman who desires to hold onto her perception that she is still a young and genteel southern belle. She holds onto this illusion and creates an imaginary world to shield herself from the harsh reality she refuses to face. Ever since the tragic death of her husband, Allan, her life spirals downwards. She loses the financial stability and moral support of a man she worshiped, and even loses the only home and most of family she has known. Thus, she resorts to having sexual relations with men in Laurel to feel as if she is loved and has some sort of support, even if on just a physical level, with a man. Through men, she ultimately seeks stability, security, and acceptance. Her scandal with having an affair with a seventeen-year-old, however, only demonstrates her inability to accept that her body ages even if her mind does not. In other words, she still refuses to let go of the idea that she is still a beautiful and desirable young woman by pursuing a young boy. Even in Laurel when she pursues Mitch, she makes an effort to avoid any harsh lighting to maintain this illusion of hers. Aware of this conscious effort, she turns to alcoholic beverages as an escape to blur the illusions, which she creates, and reality. Yet, when Blanche speaks with Stella about the streetcar that brings her to Elysian Fields as a metaphor for desire, she claims that “[i]t brought me here.—Where I’m not wanted and where I’m ashamed to be…” (1567). This reveals that, despite the illusions Blanche creates she is fully aware of her actions and the events that occur in her life. As a result, she feels that her desires may have lead her to become a woman with no other place to go. After all, if she resisted her desire to have sexual relations with that seventeen-year-old student of her, she would not have been involved in such a big scandal and be driven out of her town, becoming both homeless and unemployed. Furthermore, her very presence in Elysian Fields, rather than in Laurel, is a constant reminder of the consequences of her desires. That is a possibility that explains why she is ashamed and no longer as comfortable with sexual desires as she used to be in Laurel.

Her feelings towards sexual desires becomes more evident during the play when Mitch pursues her and makes advances on Blanche, while she acts innocent as if she is not used to such behavior. As a woman, Blanche hopes that Mitch will marry her so that he can provide her the stability she needs to continue to live in her delusions. So, she acts like a proper, respectable woman. Mitch, on the other hand, would like to marry a decent woman to comply with his mother’s wishes before she passes away. He loves his mother dearly, and definitely puts his mother before himself. This is demonstrated in the beginning of the play when Mitch, Stanley, and their friends are playing poker. Mitch leaves early to return home and attend to his sick mother. Thus, this desire to obey his mother’s wishes ultimately becomes Mitch’s drive in the play. So, out of both obligation and filial pity, Mitch desires to pursue Blanche to please his mother. After Stanley reveals the truth about Blanche to Mitch, however, Mitch no longer wants to marry because she is “not clean enough to bring in the house with my [his] mother” (1592). He pursues Blanche because of his mother, and ceases this pursuit also because of his mother. Regardless as to whether he develops feelings for her during his pursuit, he leaves Blanche because his desire to please his mother overrides any of his own personal desires.

There's more than meets the eye.. with the color white.

In the play, Tennesse Williams presents Blanche as more than a delusional character. There are instances, for example, when Blanche rationalizes her behavior and explains the reasons behind her illusions, especially when she believes that “I don’t tell [the] truth, I tell what ought to be [the] truth” (1590). In other words, if she were delusional, rather than saying that she tells the truth, affirming that she cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy—making her truly delusional—she demonstrates her ability to tell the difference. Moreover, she even admits that she “fib[s] a good deal” because she also believes that “a woman’s charm is fifty per cent illusion” (1553). Again, her awareness of her actions, illusions, and delusions ultimately displays that she is not, as of yet at least, completely consumed by the illusions she creates.

Furthermore, her desire to marry Mitch illustrates her understanding of the futility in holding onto her illusions of an imaginary world without a stability of some kind, such as marriage, in reality because she recognizes that her fantasies and lies can only allow her to survive in the real world for so long. Thus, after Blanche’s and Mitch’s date, even though Blanche creates a little fantasy of her own and says, “We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists’ café on the Left Bank in Paris!” the reality that Mitch is courting her and the possibility for marriage for the two remains the same. She only creates this fantasy to enhance her date with Mitch to make it more exciting, to her anyway, which demonstrates her enthusiasm for their future together. Thus, even though her delusions may not agree with reality, her fantasies do hold some truth in them.

Most importantly, despite the illusions she creates, she appears to hold onto to universal truths people experience in life, such as her understanding for sorrow. During one of her conversations with Mitch, for example, she reveals her understanding that “[s]ick people have such deep, sincere attachments,” and that “[s]orrow makes for sincerity” (1559). These thoughts of Blanche's are products of Blanche's personal experience before she arrives in Elysian Fields. This way, Williams is implicitly revealing to the audience that despite her illusions and imaginary world, Blanche has also experienced pain and sorrow as any other human.

If Williams only presents Blanche as a delusional character, he would be able to use Blanche to exemplify the stark contrast that exists between one’s fantasy, with Blanche, and reality, with Stanley.

Idleness leads to Revelations -- Who Knew?

When an individual idles, his/her thoughts wander and eventually lead to a realization that emerges. Thus, a paralysis, the inability to act, is often followed by an epiphany, a revelation. In Joyce's "Eveline," the protagonist, Eveline, experiences the effect of both a paralysis and epiphany twice to determine whether she should leave her home. Her first paralysis consists of a stream of consciousness that takes over the first four pages of the short story. Here, she sits at the window thinking aimlessly on whether or not she should leave with her lover, Frank. Joyce signals the beginning and end of this paralysis by providing the image of the Eveline sitting by the window and smelling "the odour of dusty cretonne" (36, 39). She is waiting for the time in which she can leave with Frank. Until that time comes, however, she is beginning to doubt whether she is making the correct decision. Joyce signals the epiphany that follows by illustrating how Eveline stands up with "a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! [...] Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her" (40). This "sudden" thought demonstrates the suddenness a revelation unfolds for an individual. The exclamation mark isolates the word escape, and emphasizes that the protagonist presently believes that she should leave her home. As a result of this paralysis and epiphany, Evelines realizes that by leaving with Frank, there is a possibility that she can begin a new life filled with both love and happiness. Her second experience occurs when she is about to board the ship but is incapable of speaking. As Frank speaks to her and holds her hand, leading her, "[s]he answered nothing" (40). She is unable to speak because her mind is wandering once again. In fact, she expresses that she enters "a maze of distress" because she is, once again, doubtful of her decision on whether she should leave her home (40). Once Frank yells, "Come!" however, she experiences her second epiphany and realizes that she does not want to leave after all (41). Now, instead of saving her, she feels as if "he [Frank] would drown her" (41). As he leaves, she only stares at him "passive[ly], like a helpless animal" (41). As a consequence to her second and most crucial epiphany, because of the time in which is occurs, she does not leave with Frank. This comes full circle to the beginning of the story, where Eveline reminisces about the past and how she is not very fond of change. Eloping with a lover and leaving her family, one that needs her dearly, behind proves to be too much of a drastic change for her to make. Thus, she stays. She does not look at her lover, however with "love or farewell or recognition" for at that moment he is no longer her lover but a man who gives her the opportunity to have a new life that she rejects(41). In addition, a crucial detail that foreshadows Eveline's decision is that she first isolates "Home!" before "Escape!" (37, 40). This demonstrates that her home and her family are placed first and foremost in her life, even above her lover and herself.

Arguably, perhaps the most crucial epiphany occurs when an individual is facing the reality of their decision in question. For example, in Joyce’s “Araby,” when the protagonist abruptly experience his epiphany, he realizes that he is “a creature driven and derided by vanity” for admiring a girl who he is not familiar with and only adores her for her beauty (35). Moreover, in attempts to woo and impress her by proving his worth, he throws a childish fit demanding to go to the bizarre at an hour in which most stalls are closed. Finally recognizing his foolishness, his “eyes burned with anguish and anger” as he leaves the bizarre because he does not see it earlier.

Lucy's Voice Through a Glimpse of Her Diary

Dear Diary,

The inevitable has occured. A part of me knew that it would happen sooner or later, I just didn't know that David would be present at that time. Now that it has happened, it is much harder to cope with than I have imagined... But I didn't know that they could do it with such hatred. It was shocking yet terrifying at the same time. I am just glad that David and I are both still alive. After what happened though, I feel as if they have killed me. I just feel... hollow, empty. Lately, I would simply wake up and live my life as if I was dead. And yet, a part of me is very much afraid that they will come back and do it again, and again, and again...

David keeps insisting that I should call the police. He just doesn't understand. I know that he is concerned, but it is simply a price I have to pay to live on this land. He is naive to think that a white woman could live peacefully in Africa among its people. He also thinks that I should return to Holland. But if I do, then that would make me a coward. To them, it would appear as if I am fleeing. I just hope that David will let me handle this on my own, my way. It is afterall my problem, my home, my life.

-*-

Not knowing who to confide her most personal thoughts and feelings, I decided to give Lucy a voice through a diary entry. Her diary entry confirms everything she tells her father in the novel. The diary entry confirms of her fear of their return, her inistence that her father doesn't understand because "you [he] can't," that she feels as if she is "a dead person," and that she believes that "they will come back for" her because she things that "[t]hey see themselves as debt collectors" or something of the sort for she needs to pay a certain price in order to live in Africa (157, 161, 158). The diary also provides how Lucy is highly aware of her position as a woman of European decent living in Africa. She understands her situation perfectly and knows what she needs to do to in order to carry on with the life she has created for herself in Africa. If she follows her father's suggestion to return to Holland, then the efforts she has put into the life that she has created will all be for nothing. Moreover, she understands that if she leaves, then that is exactly what the men would have wanted: to drive her away because it was their territory. Near the end, I used the possessive word "my" to emphasize how Lucy feels that the incident is something which she must deal with on her own, especially due to his lack of understanding the situation fully. Simultaneously, it also emphasized Lucy's indepenedence and maturity that David does not acknowledge in the story. As a father, he shall forever see Lucy as his daughter that he should protect. This can easily skew the story for the reader. Thus, I also made an effort to find a balance between giving Lucy the maturity of a woman but also a lack of vocabulary as an individual who lives in the countryside--for a range of vocabulary is useless and unneccessary for her.

David Lurie's Like ..

Lurie's stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise or comply with those around him demonstrates that he has the characteristics of a difficult, old man, especially when his actions conflict with the standards set by society. Thus, Lurie's character can be perceived as disagreeable. During his trial, for example, he refuses to apologize for his affair with Melanie in front his peers who form the inquiry committee. The committee explicitly informs him that if he apologizes, by giving them a statement that contains an admission of his crime, and is willing to go to counseling, then he would be given time off to reflect on his actions before returning to his post. Rather than apologizing, however, he only states that he is, "'Guilty as charged,'" and in his defense claims that, "'I was not myself. I was no longer a fifty-year-old divorce at a loose end. I became a servant of Eros'" (51, 52). Unbeknownst to the committee, here he justifies his acts of sexual fulfillment, not limited to Melanie, to himself by proclaiming that he is a servant of the god of love and sexual desire. In truth, however, having sexual relations with a prostitute, his secretary, and a young woman, whom he is old enough to be the father of, simply portrays him as a lecherous and promiscuous fifty-year-old man. For his age, his actions and relationships with women are inappropriate to society. Hence, Lurie can easily be interpreted as distasteful.

Because Lurie refuses to apologize, the university forces him to resign as a professor. Immediately afterwards, Lurie flees to the country to take refuge in his daughter’s home. Compared to the complexity in city life, where his relationships with women are limited to only sexual relations, he is able to establish real, honest relationships with Lucy and Bev Shaw in the countryside. He becomes more concerned and protective of his daughter, Lucy, and learns to confide in Bev Shaw while they had sexual relations, demonstrating that he is intimate and is willing to connect with these women more so than any of the women he comes in contact with when he was a professor in the city.

Facebook | Emily Grierson

Emily Grierson

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Yohnapatawpha County

Birthday

...

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3 friends

Homer-your-HOMMIE
tobe
Colonel Sartoris

Wall-to-Wall with Homer-your-HOMMIE

Emily Grierson: ... okay.

Homer-your-HOMMIE: Let's hang out sometime.

Emily Grierson: Hello, Homer.

Homer-your-HOMMIE: Hey, Emily. What's up?


--


Description of Emily Grierson's Facebook

Her facebook, for the most part, is bare. She doesn't take useless, pointless personality tests, nor does she download a number of applications because she finds them ridiculous and a complete waste of her time. She refuses to fill out her personal information for she does not want others to know more about her than she would like. Thus, she does not post any pictures of herself or give updates on her daily activities either.

More importantly, she sets her facebook on private and has only three friends. "Homer-your-HOMMIE" is Homer. His name demonstrates how he is modern and social with other people; at the same time, it also illustrates his outgoing personality. Tobe's name is all in lowercase because the only purpose in him creating a facebook account is for Miss Emily to be able to contact him when she is in need of his services. He is her servant; there is no need for any formalities whatsoever. And finally, Miss Emily added Colonel Sartoris as a friend to reach him whenever she needs him to takes care of her taxes.

I only posted the Wall-to-Wall with Homer because I think that that would be the only Wall in which Emily would look at and/or check if she is ever on facebook. Here, Homer asks Miss Emily if they can spend time together. Homer's replies look relatively the same, while Emily's responses changed from somewhat formal to completely informal. With the ellipse, she is illustrating her hesitance to spend time with him. Nevertheless, she agrees with a period, which illustrates her final stance on the issue. This, however, can be viewed as a turning point for Miss Emily because she rarely steps outside of her house. In order to spend time with Homer, however, she is willing to take this step.

Thesis Formulated for the Thesis Worksheet

In Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," she uses an extended metaphor to convey her interpretation of hope in contrast to pain.

The True Image Behind Digging

In Seamus Heaney's "Digging," he begins the poem by describing how "the squat pen rests; snug as a gun." In other words, a pen, to him, is equivalent to a weapon, which can be interpreted as representation of power. Thus, the simile is used as a comparison to emphasize the power of language. I chose the image above to illustrate and emphasize how, to Heaney, the pen was no different than a gun. The image above is a pen in the shape of a gun to demonstrate this point.

Throughout the rest of the poem, Heaney sheds light on the purpose of the title of the poem, "Digging." He describes in great detail how both his father and grandfather dug for a living, while he shall dig with his pen. the image above only provides the literal physical labor the poet's father and grandfather had done. So, in a sense, the image is limiting. One cannot, however, the poet himself included, cannot dig literally (or properly for that matter) with a pen. It is a metaphor that he uses to explain how he shall dig into his imagination and mind in order to write for a living. To be more specific, he will use his pen to write poetry as his occupation. Simultaneously, through the Anglo-Saxon style he uses to write, where he emphasizes on the use of alliteration and the repetition of sounds, he is able to "dig" (in a sense) through history by using a style that existed when his father and grandfather were still alive. Since Heaney is able to effectively use "digging" in a variety of ways, both explicitly and implicitly, he makes it clear that he is able use take one simple concept and show the reader a number of ways in which it can be interpreted.

I Choose To Look At Pound(s)!

The first line of Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" is written very effectively. It states, "The apparition of these faces in the crowd" (1); he uses the synectoche of faces in a crowd to better illustrate the imagery in the poem. This way, the reader can easily see how the faces are only a part of the crowd similar to the "petals" of a flower or, in this case, a bough. Moreover, choosing to use the would "apparition," which is similar to the word "appear," Pound is able to demonstrate that the reflections of the crowd appear before him in the puddle (as the title explains) "In a Station of the Metro."

The Definition of Form

Form plays a significant role in poetry because if the form of a poem is changed, then so can its meaning. In other words, if a section of a poem is translated into modern day English and written in prose, then the meaning and essence of the original poem would be lost. William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73," for example, can be interpreted differently if its form is changed. The original version of the second quatrain states, "In me though see'st the twilight of such day / As after sunset fadeth in the west, / Which by-and-by black night doth take away, / Death's second self that seals up all in rest" (5-8). If this quatrain is paraphrased, translated into modern day English, and written in prose, however, it can change into the following: "In me you see the light that remains after the sun sets in the west, which eventually fades into the darkness of the night. Another form of death everyone experiences is through sleep." After the second quatrain is paraphrased, it appears more straightforward and simple in its meaning. Thus, it can be easily understood. By doing so, however, the essence of the original version of this quatrain is lost. Words that were originally used for a purpose were replaced by words who conveyed a similar meaning but no longer do the poem justice. The word "twilight," for example, has the word "light" inside. Thus, it illustrates how light is only a part of the sky that is setting. If the poem simply uses "light," then the imagery would be different. Instead, the reader could imagine a bright light emitting from the sun before he reads on only to find out that the sun is beginning to set. Moreover the "black night" is a deep contrast compared to the "darkness of the night." By using the color "black," Shakespeare is able to also convey that the night is so dark that is seems black. Simultaneously, he can also use this color to represent death. If Shakespeare simply illustrates the night by how the sunset eventually fades into the darkness, then the reader would only see how the sky slowly darkens. And by saying how rest is "Death's second self," Shakespear implies that sleep is another form of death. Stating it this way, however, allows Shakespeare to use alliteration and to prolong the imagery of death to the reader. In addition, by using the word "seal" instead of "experience" gives the reader a sense that people are forced to sleep rather than choosing to rest because they are tired. In relation to the rest of the sonnet, this quatrain illustrates how Shakespeare is comparing his dying self to a day that is beginning to end, and as the night ends he shall retire for the day and sleep, perhaps even forever. Thus, this is the quatrain that reveals the poet's current condition and how he is about to leave the world and his lover through death.