A Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare - 817 Words

An Individual can make a Difference A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare is the story of a group of workmen preparing a play for the Duke, fairies in the forest and four Athenian lovers. This different groups of characters’ lives become entwined from the magic of the fairies. The characters of Puck, Peter Quince and Helena are characters used in a Midsummer Night’s Dream that show an individual can make a difference. These characters successfully show that an individual can make a difference. Puck is one character in a Midsummer Night’s Dream that makes a difference. Puck makes a big difference as he separates the fairy monarch, he weakens the relationship between the Athenian lovers and he causes chaos to the workers. In the play Puck retrieves a flower for Oberon. The liquid inside this flower makes people fall in love with the first person they see. As a result of Puck doing this he made a difference as Oberon used that flower to make the fairy queen Titania fall in love with Nick Bottom. Puck also used the love flower’s juices on Lysander instead of Demetrius. This split all the Athenian lovers apart as Lysander fell in love with Helena. This shows that an individual can make a difference as Puck weakens the relationship of the Athenian lovers. Puck also causes chaos to the workers as he changes Nick Bottom into a donkey which scared the rest of the workers. This again shows an individual can make a difference as Puck makes a difference to the group ofSh ow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1339 Words   |  6 PagesHonors For A Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare 1. Title of the book - The title of the book is called A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare. 2. Author s name - The author of the book A Midsummer Night s Dream is William Shakespeare. 3. The year the piece was written - A Midsummer Night s Dream by William Shakespeare was believed to have been written between 1590-1596. 4. Major Characters - There are three major characters in the book A Midsummer Night s Dream by WilliamRead MoreA Midsummer Night s Dream By William Shakespeare1882 Words   |  8 PagesWritten during the Elizabethan era where gender roles played an important part in society and relationships, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare portrays the interaction between both sexes, and the women’s response to the expectation of such norms. Although the characters: Hippolyta, Hermia, Helena, and Titania, are portrayed as objects (both sexual and material) contingent upon their male lovers, they are also given empowerment. During the Elizabethan Era, and present throughout MNDRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1474 Words   |  6 Pagesinstance, one could look at the movies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare in Love. The latter follows the life of William Shakespeare himself, everything from his love affair with Viola de Lesseps to his creation of Romeo and Juliet. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of the most famous plays of Shakespeare’s, revolving around the tumultuous relationships of four lovers, aided, and sometimes thwarted by the mischief of fairies. Although Shakespeare in Love outlines a few of the characteristicsRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1548 Words   |  7 Pagesspoken by Helena in Act 1 Scene 1 line 234, explains that it matters not what the eyes see but what the mind thinks it sees. In the play, A Midsummer Night s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, there are several instances where the act of seeing is being portrayed. The definition of vision is the ability to see, something you imagine or something you dream. This proves that even though one has the ability to see; the mind tends to interfere and sometimes presents a different picture. VariousRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream867 Words   |  4 Pagesspecifically how they will benefit that other person, you’re in love.† In A Midsummer Night s Dream, William Shakespeare intertwined each individual characters. Through the concept of true love and presented to the audiences a twisted yet romantic love story. The love stories of Renaissance are richly colorful, so Shakespeare used multiple literary techniques to present to the readers a vivid image of true love. Shakespeare applied metaphor in the lines of Lysander. In Act 1, scene 1, Lysander saysRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream990 Words   |  4 PagesSymbols in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Symbols help to play an important part in giving a deeper meaning to a story. William Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream and by using these symbols he offers some insight onto why certain events take place in the play. Symbols are sometimes hard to decipher but as the reader continues to read the symbol’s meaning might become more clear. Shakespeare uses a variety of symbols in A Midsummer Night’s DreamRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1397 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeare’s comedies, like those of most Renaissance playwrights, involve love and its obstacles. Much of the comedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream derives from the attempt of Lysander and Hermia to remain together while overcoming the adult authority figure who attempts to hinder the love of a young couple. The overcoming of an obstacle functions as a common motif in Renaissance comedy. The audience must wonder, however, whether Lysander and Hermia, as well as Demetrius and Helena, actually loveRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1207 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been categorized as a comedy play because of all the characters being passionately in love to the point of being foolish. It’s a play all about love, and the characters that are in love are only young adults, so they are still naive when it comes to love. Their naivety and foolishness regarding love is what allows them to be taken advantage of by mischievous fairies when they all run away into the woods. By critiquing the love affairs and numerousRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1277 Words   |  6 Pagestogether. Nor will love ever be a controllable compulsion. Maybe we are fools for going into the perilous, eccentric universe of love; yet what fun would life be without it? William Shakespeare s play A Midsummer Night s Dream investigates the unconventional, unreasonable and unpredictable nature of love during his time. Shakespeare conveys this through the main plot of the play, which is composed of the relationships between three couples. The three couples show examples of three different types ofRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1442 Words   |  6 Pages William Shakespeare is estimated to have lived from 1564 to about 1616. He is often recognized as great English poet, actor, and playwright, and paved the way for many on all of those categories. Over that span he wrote many pieces that are still relevant today such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. I would like to take a deeper look into one on his pieces â€Å"A Midsummers Night’s Dream.† This piece is estimated to have first been preformed in about 1595 and then later published in 1600. Many

Feminism Final Exam Feminist Theory - 1851 Words

Alonia Lewis Prof Barnes Feminism Final Exam May 4, 2016 In feminist theory there are two ways to study and research epistemology. There is the Essentialist (standpoint) theory and there is the Social constructivist (post structuralist). The essentialist epistemology is to view certain roles as being the way they are because that is the way that nature has intended it to be. While the post structuralist standpoint is viewing knowledge as if it is all man made. It is to say that everything is nurture and there is nothing outside of what we construct socially as human beings. The debate over the methods that knowledge is produced, many times creates controversial conversation about race and gender. The argument is whether we only see the differences of races and gender because we are socially constructed to under a patriarchal white dominated society. Or, if human beings are naturally different because of race and gender, and that difference has been exploited. In the Feminist theory reader, feminist theorists like Lice Irigaray , Lucille Clifton, and Patricia Collins create conversation about epistemology based on the topics of difference in gender, race, and sexuality by explaining their contribution to women’s experiences. One of the most prevalent arguments in feminist discourse is over gender theory. Feminists believe that gender is socially constructed and outside of nurture all people are the same. The difference and inferiority of women only exists under theShow MoreRelatedUsing Material from Item a and Elsewhere, Assess the Claim That Gender Differences in Educational Achievement Are Primarily the Result of Changes in Society1188 Words   |  5 Pages The impact of feminist ideas and changing employment opportunities (as stated in Item A). However, this could also be an outcome of internal factors such as the education system becoming feminised, which could have impacted the performance of girls achievement, as it has risen at a faster rate at some levels and in some subjects. Some sociolog ists also argue that the media have exaggerated the extent and nature of any problem. External factors such as the impact of feminism and girls changingRead MoreThe Different Ways Of Which Freedom Can Be Compatible With Determinism1334 Words   |  6 Pages FINAL EXAM 1-Discuss the different ways in which freedom can be compatible with determinism. Answer: According to (Consider Ethics text book on page 224), Freedom and determinism can be compatible with Simple Compatibilism, which according to David Hume, he claimed that ‘’all the puzzles and disputes about free will result from sloppy and confused use of language. Therefore, if we think carefully, and avoid verbal entanglements, thenRead MoreCritically evaluate the contribution made by sociologists to our understanding of health and illness2889 Words   |  12 Pagesenvironment could be changed to decrease illness. This essay will outline four key perspectives within sociology; these are Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism and Symbolic Interactionism. It will also discuss the views these perspectives have of health and illness. The first perspective I will discuss is Functionalism, which is a macro-structural consensus theory, norms and roles are learnt through primary and secondary socialisation maintaining order and keep to expectations agreed amongst the membersRead MoreFreud s Theory On Character, Personality, And How They Relate Regarding War2170 Words   |  9 PagesFinal Take-Home Exam | PHI 104 Question One – Freud’s Theory on Character, Personality, and How They Relate Regarding War Determined to find out the origins of our sexuality and how they develop over the course of human life, Sigmund Freud came up with his psychoanalytic theory in an attempt to explain how a person’s character or personality is formed. He believed that the first five years of a person’s life were essential in shaping one’s personality, and the way that the parent chooses to raiseRead MoreQuestions On Feminist And Empowerment Theory2050 Words   |  9 Pages Assignment 1: Take Home Exam: Feminist and Empowerment Theory University of Southern California SOWK 505 Professor: Diana Cheng In Robbins, Chatterjee and Canda (2012) Feminist theory is a mode of analysis that involves specific ways of thinking and acting, that are formed to achieve women’s liberation and by the oppression of women from our society. NASW (2008) code 6.04 Social and Political Action (d). Social Workers should act to prevent and eliminate dominationRead Morecrime and deviance4817 Words   |  20 Pagesï » ¿ SCLY4 Crime and Deviance with Theories Methods Past Papers Use the following past papers to practise your exam writing techniques and aid your revision. Make sure you look at the mark scheme for each question to assess your answer. Also check the ‘model answers’ from students to see where good AO1 and AO2 marks were scored. Crime and Deviance Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control. The social distribution of crime and deviance by ageRead MorePHL 612: Philosophy of Law5882 Words   |  24 Pagescompeting theories of law, such as natural law and positivism, and touch on crucial debates over civil disobedience, purposes of punishment, and interpretation of legal texts. It will deal with contemporary controversies over the legal regulation of human behaviour, for instance in matters of sexual morality. Grading Scheme: Course Evaluation: Grades will be determined in the following manner: Task Value Date Midterm Test 25% Week 7 Essay Assignment* 30% Week 11 (March 28) Final Exam 45% TBARead MoreSociology A2 Revision 2012 34479 Words   |  18 PagesUnit 3 exam: Wednesday 13th June, am Unit 4 exam: Tuesday 19th June, pm Easter Revision: tbc A2 Syllabus: AQA Sociology GCE (new specification) Unit 3: Mass Media (SCLY3) Worth 20% of your final A Level Written paper, 1 hour 30 minutes 60 marks available Unit 4: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods (SCLY4) Worth 30% of your final A Level Written paper, 2 hours 90 marks available Timetable Use your revision checklists to draw up a timetable for revision leading up to the exam. Make sureRead More Shifting the Medical Gaze: Towards a Feminist Ethic of Childbirth4167 Words   |  17 PagesShifting the Medical Gaze: Towards a Feminist Ethic of Childbirth The term reproductive rights has become synonymous with abortion rights, birth control access, and issues surrounding reproductive technologies, yet the struggle for a womans right to choose when and how to become pregnant often overshadows a womans right to choose where and how to give birth. The lack of feminist discourse and activism surrounding issues of childbirth may attest to the hegemony in the modern American birthRead More Contemporary Societys Crisis of Masculinity Essay2671 Words   |  11 Pagesfollows that men can be resocialised into gentler and more sensitive roles. Seidler believes it is misleading to regard human behaviour as completely flexible, as if bad characteristics can be totally eliminated. He suggests Freudian theory is useful in encouraging men (and woman) to confront the darker side of their natures. Seidler believes this side needs to be recognised if more realistic ways of controlling it are to be developed. According to the social construction

Teenagers Struggling with their Mental Health-Samples for Students

Question: You are a Systems Analyst that is part of a project that is being currently being proposed. Your task is to develop a Vision Document for this project. Answer: Overview Grown-ups are not just the individuals who encounter emotional wellness issues. Young people and youngsters additionally experience the ill effects of the same. Truth be told, the greater part of the cases saw that mental problem begin creating in the early age. In the year 2006, the Government of Australia took up an activity to offer help for those matured 12 to 25. The Department of Health and Aging assets Headspace for taking care of the adolescent psychological well-being programs (Rickwood et al., 2014). Youngsters and youthful grown-ups experiencing issues including nervousness, dejection, family problems and sexual well-being or social harassing get bolster 24x7. Headspace likewise gives administrations internet utilising its E-stage. Notwithstanding, in inquire about, it is discovered that patients experiencing their emotional wellness need to disclose their stories to the therapists or the specialist each time they attempt to look for treatment for another master. People gr oups with maladjustment are more averse to impart their sentiments to others. Consequently, essential data about the patient remains some of the time untold and those innovative imperfections in the treatment (Walsh et al., 2017). In this way, another activity is required to manage this circumstance. Issues with the present framework The greater part of the circumstances youthful grown-ups who have emotional sickness does not get the answer for their problems from the expert they reached (McGorry, Bates and Birchwood, 2013). In this way, they take a stab at getting assistance from numerous different experts to pick in the middle of them the one whose treatment suits the patient. Be that as it may, they need to have similar stories to every one of them to make them comprehend the issues of the patient better. Then again, it is a test for patients experiencing uneasiness issue to share their sentiments, and they share next to no data about them and confine themselves (Moore et al., 2015). It diminishes the endeavours of the treatment, and the patients meander around with no better arrangement. Potentiality of the proposed framework At present, the well-being bureau of the administration of Australia is taking a shot at the venture to manufacture another framework named "My Health Record" (Rickwood et al., 2015). The new proposed structure will give a coordinated interface a database in the backend containing all the data about the patient at whatever point the first occasion when he or she settles on help concerning their medical problems. The database will store data about the patient and all the present and restorative issues. In this way, it will turn out to be anything but difficult to bring the medicinal data of a patient from the national database at whatever point a patient visits any expert surprisingly (Lawrence et al., 2015). What's more, the framework will likewise be fit for refreshing more subtle elements to the therapeutic issues or the disease and the stories of the patient. Advantages of the proposed framework The activity of recording medicinal histories will help in numerous situations as talked about effect underneath. The therapeutic services framework is at a stage where there are multiple open doors, which will change the technique for clinical medications including Psychiatry. Instant access to data: The social insurance information put away online will be effectively open by approved healing centres, specialists. The protection of the data will be on the patients' hand (Inagaki, Morii and Numata, 2015). Access to the gateway will be all through the world; it will just require a web association. Patient's accommodation: The framework will give the client an interface where the patient will have the capacity to put every one of the insights about self and store data about medical problems, therapeutic histories, data about current meds (Hemsley et al., 2016). Those will enable the specialist or healing facility to get all the data, too regardless of the possibility that the patient recalls every one of those occurrences or not. Information Security: The human services history will contain a considerable measure of data about the patient in regards to the patient's close to home points of interest, family matters that may affect the patient unwillingly to impart to whatever other (Coates and Howe, 2014). Hence, the client will have the control to check and allot which data is to be imparted to whom. Safety Level: Last however not a minimal advantage of My Health Record framework is that on account of the crisis, therapeutic services administrations will be given ideal medications by recovering the data or therapeutic histories from the My Health Record (Rickwood, Van Dyke and Telford, 2015). Subsequently, drugs in crisis can be given in like manner as indicated by the well-being history. Conclusion There is the dependable likelihood of bargain of information when information is put away on the web. Be that as it may, the open door for this framework is significantly higher in contrast with dangers it faces. The most critical thing concerning this context is that patients experiencing uneasiness issue feel more calmed to share their inclination in writing in contrast with informing the masters regarding the issues. The report concludes that the new framework will start an upheaval in furnishing the patients with most ideal ever medications. References Coates, D., Howe, D. (2014). The importance and benefits of youth participation in mental health settings from the perspective of the headspace Gosford Youth Alliance in Australia.Children and Youth Services Review,46, 294-299. Hemsley, B., Georgiou, A., Carter, R., Hill, S., Higgins, I., van Vliet, P., Balandin, S. (2016). Use of the My Health Record by people with communication disability in Australia: A review to inform the design and direction of future research.Health Information Management Journal,45(3), 107-115. Inagaki, S., Morii, N., Numata, M. (2015). Development of a reliable method to determine water content by headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with the standard addition technique.Analytical Methods,7(11), 4816-4820. Lawrence, D., Johnson, S., Hafekost, J., Boterhoven de Haan, K., Sawyer, M., Ainley, J., Zubrick, S. R. (2015). The mental health of children and adolescents: Report on the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. McGorry, P., Bates, T., Birchwood, M. (2013). Designing youth mental health services for the 21st century: examples from Australia, Ireland and the UK.The British Journal of Psychiatry,202(s54), s30-s35. Moore, S. E., Scott, J. G., Ferrari, A. J., Mills, R., Dunne, M. P., Erskine, H. E., ... McCarthy, M. (2015). Burden attributable to child maltreatment in Australia.Child abuse neglect,48, 208-220. Rickwood, D. J., Telford, N. R., Mazzer, K. R., Parker, A. G., Tanti, C. J., McGorry, P. D. (2015). The services provided to young people through the headspace centres across Australia.The Medical Journal of Australia,202(10), 533-536. Rickwood, D. J., Telford, N. R., Parker, A. G., Tanti, C. J., McGorry, P. D. (2014). Reply headspace-Australia's innovation in youth mental health: who are the clients and why are they presenting?.The Medical journal of Australia,200(8), 454. Rickwood, D., Van Dyke, N., Telford, N. (2015). Innovation in youth mental health services in Australia: common characteristics across the first headspace centres.Early intervention in psychiatry,9(1), 29-37. Walsh, L., Hill, S., Allan, M., Balandin, S., Georgiou, A., Higgins, I., ... Hemsley, B. (2017). A content analysis of the consumer-facing online information about My Health Record: Implications for increasing knowledge and awareness to facilitate uptake and use.Health Information Management Journal, 1833358317712200.

Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle Essay Example For Students

Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle Essay Mary Ellen P. EvansDana SmithTHEA 39311/23/99Tennessee Williams and the Southern BelleAnd such girls! . . . more grace, more elegance, more refinement, more guileless purity, were never found in the whole world over, in any age, not even that of the halcyon . . . so happy was our peculiar social system- there was about these country girls . . . mischief . . . spirit . . . fire . . . archness, coquetry, and bright winsomeness- tendrils these of a stock that was strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in strong and true as heart could wish or nature frame; for in the essentials their character was based upon confiding, trusting, loving, unselfish devotion- a complete, immaculate world of womanly virtue and home piety was their, the like of what . . . was . . . never excelled, since the Almighty made man in his own image . . . young gentleman, hold of, . . . lay not so much as a finger-tip lightly upon her, for she is sacred. (qtd. Bernhard, Southern Women 4) She did no t move. Her eyes began to grow darker and darker, lifting into her skull above a half moon of white, without focus, with the blank rigidity of a statues eyes. She began to say Ah-ah-ah-ah in an expiring voice, her body arching slowly backward as though faced by an exquisite torture. When he touched her she sprang like a bow, hurling herself upon him, her mouth gaped and ugly like that of a dying fish as she writhed her loins against him. (Faulkner 126) The quotation from George W. Bagbys The Old Virginia Gentleman (1885) presents the southern belle on her pedestal in a typical nineteenth-century description. The second quotation from Williams Faulkners Sanctuary (1931) describes the lurid nymphomania of Temple Drake, a more extreme example of the fate of the modern southern belle. The metamorphosis began abruptly around 1914, and since then, Tennessee Williams has presented three southern belles: Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois and Alma Winemiller in the plays respectively The Glas s Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke (Abbott 20). Early on, writers saw the belle as their ideal South, pure and noble. However, more self-conscious and critical modern writers like Mr. Williams use the darker side of the belle- to symbolize the indictment the Old South or to describe the new. Characteristics that will be examined to exemplify the new belle and consequently the South are narcissism, illusion/memory and rape. We will write a custom essay on Tennessee Williams And The Southern Belle specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now First, what exactly is a southern belle, and why did she change to the present southern belles of Williams? The belle is a young, unmarried daughter of a landed (and thus aristocratic) family, who lives on a great plantation. She is an ideal woman who would be sanctioned by Victorian morality and by the southerners image of the home as a constant standard of order and decency (Dillman 17). The notions of their aristocratic origins assured that the belle would be protected from reality, championed, and wooed. In addition, the realities of plantation life were well suited to the idealization of women, since women were kept isolated from the world by the nature of their life. The lucky, young girl had few tasks except to be pretty and charming. After marriage, she was expected to become a hard-working matron who supervised, nursed and mothered (Avia, WebRing). The reasons for the changes from this proper Victorian belle to the southern belle of Tennessee Williams are both cultural and psychological. When the traditional southern myths clashed with the forces set loose by World War I, the Souths fantasies about itself no longer provided the sanctuary of values that had been sufficient for sixty years after the Civil War. World War I unleashed a chasm of industry, anxiety, death and doubt (Roudane 49). Artists, always the creators of order, had to begin to reorder the world and break up the idles of the old world. Thus the myth disintegration began in poetry, in fiction, in histories, in scholarship, and in the drama (Bynum 5). The beauty ethic of the South prefers its lovely women to be charming and flirtatious, coquettes who never yield their purity, can create impossible tension for the belle: she is asked to exhibit herself as sexually desirable to the appropriate men, yet she must not herself respond sexually. According to Mr. Roudane,s he must be as alluring as the Dark Lady, yet as pure as the White Maiden (18). The drama in which the belle appears reveals that carrying two such extremes is too much for some of the modern belles to bear. Nineteenth-century belles, whose Victorian surroundings and upbringing reinforced the dictated southern behavior, are more successful. After World War I, the basic conflicts within the personality of the belle become the central emphasis in the drama that depicts the belle and ultimately that depicts the South (Bloom 45). The belles of Tennessee Williams could be accurately described as narcissists needing attention, people without a sense of worth, those who settle on an impossible goal to provide their life with meaning. Accordingly, Amanda, Blanche and Alma, are trained to seek the attention of men, and develop the means in how to do so (Kolin 121). And as a result, skills and traits such as assertiveness, intelligence, logic, confidence are ignored and suppressed. Their sense of worth is achieved only through the attention of others (Bernhard, Southern Women 55). This grim recognition of the belles narcissism is a consequence of the beauty ethic of the South. Amanda portrays the narcissistic mother in The Glass Menagerie and has a constant preoccupation with her physical attributes and appearances (including those surrounding her) for All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be (Jacobus 129). Amandas hair is set in girlish ringlets in an attempt to retain the past, her youth, which has long since diminished. The prospect of losing her physical attributes of youth and beauty terrifies her. Every movement is done carefully and methodically as if she were being put on display. Williams stage directions coach the actor that She lets the hat and gloves fall on the floor- a bit of acting. . . Amanda slowly opens her purse and removes a dainty white handkerchief which she shakes out delicately and delicately touches her lips and nostrils (133). Therefore, Amanda still believes she is on that nineteenth century pedestal in the twentieth century modern world. Amanda also obsesses on how her tenement may look on the outset of the gentleman caller. For some simple workman to drop down for dinner, she dictates a long list orders that need to be done: I want things nice, not sloppy! All my wedding silver has to be polished, the monogrammed table linen ought to be laundered! The windows have to be washed . . . And how about clothes? We have to wear something, dont we? (145). At the onset of an actual man coming to the house, Amanda goes overboard in pleasing him, because that is what the South has trained her to do. The stage directions again point out that Amanda has worked like a Turk in preparation for the gentleman caller. The results are astonishing. The new floor lamp with its rose-silk shade is in place, a colored paper lantern . . .(146). The new materialism continues to hover over their lives as well as the new South. Less concerned with materials and more concerned with herself, Alma resents the need to care for her senile and selfish mother, and self-pitying father. She feels she has had certain difficulties and disadvantages to cope with which may be partly the cause of these peculiarities of mine . . .(Williams, The Theatre 152). She believes her youth is passing and knows that people . . .think of me as an old maid (169). Alma also uses over-elaborate vocabulary, for example using the term pyrotechnical display for fireworks, to display her proper upbringing and impress men. Sadly, Alma is trapped by a code that has created her narcissism and prevented her from accepting her own sexual passion. As a result, she cannot have John Buchanan Jr. Torn between her passion and repression, she is fated to follow a pattern of relationships and a lost love. Alma is attracted to John Buchanan Jr.s rebelliousness and sexual appeal, but their relationship is always thwarted by the part of her that wishes t o be a lady; and so Alma fears Johns intensity and passion, which ironically are like her own (Jackson 14). The treatment of the theme of the narcissist southern belle suggests that as long as men cling to their myth of women, women remain essentially abstractions, objects, and a thing to be used. Similarly, John uses women in Summer and Smoke. Until the myth is abandoned, neither men nor women will achieve self-identity (Stokes 99). The South had lost its identity after the Civil War and in the same respect; it looked to itself as an object of attraction. Likewise, Blanche often asks, How do I look? (Williams, Streetcar 37). The self-identity of the South had been destroyed by the Civil War and began to look towards the home to give itself meaning. .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .postImageUrl , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:visited , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:active { border:0!important; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:active , .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u0ad742deb848126105911cb6904e060c:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Paul's Case EssayAmanda, Alma and Blanche are products of a society that has programmed them to conform to the feminine stereotype of the coquette, and her resulting narcissism impels her inevitable behavior. The child who is treated as a beautiful object begins to define herself as a beautiful object. When a womans self-image is that of an object, not a person, she can expect others to treat her accordingly (Bernhard, Hidden Histories 66). They have been reared in accordance with her societys emphasis on feminine beauty. In one situation, Blanches sister Stella orders Stanley to be sure to say something nice about her appearance . . .Tell her shes looking wonderful (Willi ams, Streetcar 28). A narcissist needing attention, a person without a sense of worth, she settles on an impossible goal to provide her life with meaning. Blanche begins to lose self-worth unless someone says a word about my appearance (Williams, Streetcar 21). She is depicted as a perfect product of southern culture, which had long enjoined upper-class women, taught to be unconcerned with fleshly matters. Unfortunately, the role of the narcissist is played at the expense of reality; a woman infatuated with her ego loses all hold on the actual world, she has no concern to establish with real relation with others (Jackson 285). Thus Blanche loses all of reality at the end of Streetcar Named Desire. The former belle and the aging belle nurture illusions about their youthful allure. This remnant of their youthful narcissism leads them to regale their family stories, adorn themselves in old jewelry, or repress old crushes. This results in illusion stemming from a narcissistic world. The heyday of the belle is short-lived; from a debut at sixteen or seventeen to the threat of spinsterhood by nineteen, her career lasts for a few short years (Dillman 28). The excitement of those years is intense: a belle is the center of male and female attention; all her actions are designed to attain the end for which her childhood has prepared her and on which her future depends. Indeed, the courtship phase of her life is the only phase over which she has at least some control, when her decisions might be based on preference. A belle may well remember these days, and cling to them as a brief moment of a time they had freedom (Bernhard, Southern Women 85). Amanda, Blanche and Alma proclaim themselves to be ladies. They carry an air of grandeur, maintaining elegant gestures and speech in situations that render those traits incongruous. Amanda persists in clutching the fragments of dreams, the flashes of memory, for psychological sustenance. Enthusiastically recollecting the battalions of gentlemen who formerly called on her at Blue Mountains, she retells the story over and over again (Bloom 187). She sees the world through a veil of fantasy and illusion. Amanda fancies herself a former Delta belle, an illusion into which she attempts to escape from the confinement of a tenement house in St. Louis. Rooted in a tradition of the genteel Southerner, she can have no social position, no financial security, apart from her husband. With no career plans, she devotes her pride to her husband and children. In her struggle for survival, she uses the DAR to sell magazines, while her daughter runs up the grocery bills and son ropes in potential providers. The myth is that a southern belle is the symbol of youth, beauty and wealth (Kolin 143). She attempts to force the southern belle on Laura, which contributes to the disintegration of Lauras personality as well Amanda refuses to acknowledge this myth has past, so she escapes into her memories:Sometimes they come when they are least expected! Why, I remember one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain . . . your mother received- seventeen! gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there werent chairs enough to accommodate them all . . . Among my callers were some of the most prominent young planters of the Mississippi Delta- planters and sons of planters! There was young Champ Laughlin who later became Vice President of the Delta Planters Bank. Hadley Stevenson who was drowned in Moon Lake and left his widow one hundred and fifty thousand in Government bonds . . . (Jacobus 129)Within this world of memory and illusion, Amanda tries to hold the family together, economically and spiritually. Her husbands desertion of her and the family was the shock that sends her back into the golden days of her girlhood (Bloom 156). Since Amanda cannot face the reality that she was unable to hold her husbands love, she indulges in memories of that one supreme moment of her youth, the day when she might have chosen from seventeen gentlemen callers, all rich and successful and caring for their wives. Williams describes Amanda as, A little woman of great but confused vitality clinging frantically to another t ime and place, who having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions (Kolin 98). Removed into her past and needing to fortify an endangered sense of self-worth, Amanda assumes an archaic form of southern behavior, gentility for What is there left but dependency all out lives? (Jacobus 128). In the early American South a genteel code developed, giving the white southern woman homage both to safeguard her purity from the manhood of black slaves and to symbolize a civilizing influence on the decadent ways of the white landed gentry (Abbott 52). So gentlemen callers represent a time when men were chivalrous and women were respected, admired, and pampered. The gentlemen callers in turn represent a Glorious Hill, a past that the South once had and is still trying to hold on to. Blanche resembles Amanda in her reactions to the harsh world. Her attempt to hold the crumbling world of the family plantation together is similar to Amandas attempt to keep her family together. Blanche pleads with her sister Stella you cant forget your past (Williams, Streetcar 25). Also like Amanda she refuses to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion. She has a false sense of gentility, which is contradicted, by an equally false sense of promiscuity. The conflict between these two modes of behavior leads her to her destruction (Roudane 173). Blanche is, like Amanda, an aristocrat who has lost her social status and is unable to break from her past. Unlike Amanda, she attempts to escape from, not into, the past, with its sordid reality. Stanleys revelations about her many deceptions both prevent her escape and show her more complex entanglement (Bloom 69). She retreats into the prison of madness, where finally she takes refuge from both past and present. As representative of the Old South, Blanche dissipates her power; far from failing to recognize her cultural (and personal) past, she is bound to it. Caught in a neurotic limbo, she combines in herself the opposites of Johns exaggerated physical urges and Almas culture, pretense and affectation; Blanche cannot reconcile them, nymphomania and prudery, love of the past and hatred of the past, genuine culture and pretensions fakery exist at the same time (Dillman 155). She remains frozen in a time that stands still for women of culture and breed and intelligence can enrich . . . and time cant take them away (Williams, Streetcar 53). Blanche represents one way the South could take: unable to face the contrast between the romantic past and realistic present, Blanche violently betrays her code while desperately trying to maintain it. Ironically, the escape of these characters becomes a prison, confining and degrading the prisoner and sometimes others with her. Blanche DuBois sense of propr iety clashes with her repressed sexual drives when she confronts Stanley who lives outside the code of southern chivalry. He is a man whose overt sexuality is simultaneously desirable and repulsive to her. Unfortunately, her narcissistic coquetry induces her to entice the one man who can destroy her. She cannot reconcile her divided personality in the face of the violent passions of the modern world; consequently, she withdraws into a world of illusions and madness (Jackson 126). While representing the South further, the modern world after World War I cannot carry the conflicting idles of the past and the present reality of war. .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .postImageUrl , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:visited , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:active { border:0!important; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:active , .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5 .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud22f175f7ed58971ae9ac8e803f24fb5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Blah blah blah EssayEven though Stella, the star married to the brute, offers Blanche an example of synthesis, and even though Blanche herself is considerably more free than Alma, Blanche is like Alma is succumbing to the sensual at the expense of her ideals and her own well-being (Kolin 84). Alma and Blanche are a movement toward sensuality representing mental if not physical destruction. And a spiritual person in a physical world is impossible. The idealism is illusionary; Alma is unable to translate it into positive action. Her mother leads her to self-pity. She is bitter because she has not gotten anything for her self-sacrifice, not even recognition. Her life tied to duty; Alma has a dream about what she would do if things were different (Bernhard, Southern Women 74). She says to John, Most of us have no choice but to lead useless lives! But you . . . have a chance to serve humanity. Not just to go on enduring for the sake of indurance, but to serve a noble, humanitarian cause, to relieve human suffering (Williams, The Theatre 154). This need of escape branches from Almas ancestry is Cavalier and Puritan- her mother wears a plumed hat; her father is a preacher. She cultivates social graces, romanticizes sex, and in a manner dictated by her genteel code immediately sets out to satisfy her desire for John. At the same time, she admires Gothic cathedrals, has faith in the everlasting struggle and aspiration for more than our human limits have placed in our reach (Williams, The Theatre 197). Culture and power in both traditions have produced Alma- and the South. At the end of the play she has not so much tempered beautiful illusion with mundane reality as she has shown herself ignorant of any historical perspective. Her decision to take what gratification this earth has to offer- giving little though to the consequences- is a playback of the Souths history (Kolin 184). So long as the soul of the South refused to face reality, it had no future. Illusion may be a world of reality these southern belles are forced to live in, but this illusion can come from or grow more intense as a result of rape or conquest. Rape stood for ultimate domination and subordination. It is a symbol of power encompassing that onto the belle and onto the South. In a male-dominate society, women were a weaker class. After the Civil War, however, plantation owners had to adjust to an economic order no longer based on slavery (Stokes 23). The patriarchal South had made white men the dominant group in terms of their superior status, their access to lucrative economic roles, their autocracy in sexual roles, and their aggressive temperament. Women and blacks, on the other hand, were deemed subordinate in status, role, and temperament. A womans status depended upon her father or husband, her economic role was that of a marriageable alliance maker before marriage and a homemaker after marriage, her sexual role was that of a chaste maiden or faithful wife (s o that the legitimacy of the males line could be preserved (Bernhard, Hidden Histories 65). Rape as the ultimate act of domination results when the male feels denied the privileges he assumes are his right. The right to copulate whomever he pleased was long assumed; restrictions placed on him by societal taboos or laws were in no way as severe as those placed upon white women. During and after World War I, the North began to dominate the South, imposing industry and materialism as well as greed, inflicting an emphasis on money. It is reminiscent of the not-forgotten Civil War (Abbott 34). To no avail, Blanche (the Old South) threatens Stanley (the North) and screams, So I could twist the broken end in your face! (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 130). After proclaiming lets have some rough-house! He springs toward her, overturning the table. She cries out and strikes at him with the bottle top but he catches her wrist . . .Weve had this date with each other from the beginning! She moans. The bottle falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed (130). It is implied and not directly stated that she is raped. If it is assumed that Blanche is representative of the Old South, she is being conquered metaphorically by the North as they did in the Civil War and again in the Industrial Revolution. The belle herself is presented as the repository of the southern values; the rapist is an outsider who represents the antithesis of these values. The rape of Blanche and other southern belles is a symbolic action that represents the violent disordering of a harmonious society (Kolin 137). Obviously, Alma was not raped, but conquered by John Buchanan Jr. After the tables have turned, yes, the tables have turned with a vengeance, Alma has compromised her spiritual side, her soul, for the sensual side of John (Williams The Theatre 247). She has to an extent faced reality, but at a price. His sensual side conquers Alma who died last summer- suffocated in smoke from something on fire inside her (243). Buchanan, despite his upper-mi ddleclass status, is another Stanley, a man who believes in the fundamental morality of a primitive existence. Like Stanley, he expresses contempt for the abstractions of the historical, cultural, and traditional past. Later though, John finds love and hope through Nellie (Bloom 67). Alma is forced to begin to turn her head away from her windows that lead to the Buchanan house, and towards other men, so we are able to keep on going? (Williams, The Theatre 254). Friction evolved from two opposing clusters of images. One of rural, semi-rural life enriched by tradition, religion, stable and predictable social behavior, and feeling of individual worth. And the other a chaotic, frenzy of industrial way of life. This is the atmosphere of the South following World War I. The violence and exploitation existed side by side with the genteel refinement of the South. According to Ms. Abbott, southern myth disintegrated for several reasons whether it be the failure of individuals to pursue their ideas or the inability of southerners to resist contamination by materialists who do not believe in the southern code of behavior, the southern belles, the South, lost. (77). Amanda, Blanche and Alma are vehicles for views of Tennessee Williams of the South. Common themes exercised through not only Tennessee Williams plays, but through much of southern literature are narcissism, memory/illusion and rape. They illuminate the reader of common themes of the Souths history and present state. From George Bagby to William Faulkner, the belle represents a human ideal, now regarded as antique while eliciting a paradox between living in the past and present congruently. Although, this way of life should not be encouraged in the real world, as a literary figure, her day is not over. BibliographyEvans 14Works CitedAbbott, Shirley. Womenfolk: Growing Up Down South. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1983. Avia. Southern Belles WebRing. 1997. 1 Nov 1999. Bernhard, Virginia Eds. Hidden Histories of Women in the New South. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994. Bernhard, Virginia Eds. Southern Women. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992. Bloom, Harold Ed. Modern Critical Views: Tennessee Williams. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Bynum, Victoria E. Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South. Chaphill Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Dillman, Caroline Matheny Ed. Southern Women. New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1988. Jackson, Esther Merle. The Broken World of Tennessee Williams. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965. Jacobus, Lee A. Ed. The Bedford Introduction to Drama Third Edition. Boston: Bedford Book, 1997. Kolin, Philip C. Tennessee Williams: A Guide to Research and Performance. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. Roudane, Matthew C. The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Signet Book, 1947. Evans 15Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams Volume Two. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1971. Theater