Tennessee Williams Essay Example for Free

Tennessee Williams Essay Elia Kazan once said of Tennessee Williams that Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life. This statement could not possibly be more correct as every main character in A Street Car Named Desire whether it is their situation, physical description or personality traits can be linked to somebody who had played a role in Williams life. Firstly, the relationship between Stella and Stanley reflects that of Williams own parents. His family life was wracked with violent arguments and a tense atmosphere, which is clearly displayed in the play by Mr and Mrs Kowalski. Stellas attitude towards her marriage can be compared to that of Williams own mother Edwina. Stella says of Stanleys violent behaviour that people have got to tolerate each others habits, I feel that Williams depicted his own mother when creating Stella as he and his sister Rose often encouraged his mother to leave their abusive father but she was adamant to stay. It could be also said that the relationship between Stella and her sister Blanche is like the one Williams had with his sister Rose. Blanche is obviously mentally unbalanced and requires constant care and attention from Stella, however she is mortified when Blanche is committed to the asylum asking Eunice, What have I done to my sister? This is an event in the play that would certainly perturb Stella physiologically for the rest of her life. This echoes Williamss life because his sister had a full frontal lobotomy performed on her with the consent of her mother, this deeply disturbed Williams and I think there is a hint of this displayed in Blanches mentality and Stellas attitudes towards it. He also took care of his sister for the majority of her life as Stella did for Blanche before she left Belle Reve and also in the painful months before she was committed. Stella dotes on her sister and I think Williams felt the same way for his sister Rose. Blanche is the main character in the play but it can be difficult to define how Williams would feel close to her. I think however the issue of sexuality is what his empathy with Blanche is constructed of. Blanche is promiscuous and gives away her love freely but all of this is because of past rejection and heartache. Blanche was married when she was very young but she caught her husband in bed with another man and at the time when this was written, homosexuality was looked upon as disgusting, abnormal and considered a sin. Williams was a homosexual and perhaps this situation was his way of adding his personal feelings and issues that had affected him into Blanches persona. After consideration however, I actually feel that Williams feels closest to Stanley. Williams actually had a close friend named Stanley Kowalski when he was forced to work at the International Shoe Company for his father. Even though he is considered the villain of the play, I think Williams saw his father in Stanley. The violence he witnessed in his early years obviously affected him deeply and perhaps he felt that all marriages were in fact based on desire and sex as opposed to love. Perhaps this is why he was homosexual. Also, I think Stanley has some of the same traits as his creator, Stanley is a heavy drinker and gambler and these are problems that ailed Williams during the course of his life. It would appear that Williams never had the luxury of the truth about his familys issues being concealed from him I think this is why he made Stanley such a realist and allowed him to expose Blanche. It is clear that Williams was never expecting a happy ending both in the play and his life. My personal feelings are actually very different. Although I can understand why Williams would feel close to Stanley I have no empathy for the character myself. The person I feel closest to in the play is actually Mitch. I would like to think Mitch could be defined as the hero of the play; one of Blanches first observations of Mitch is that he seems different from the others. Mitch was Blanches ticket to happiness and if it werent for Stanley all of this could have been possible. I think the reason why I feel so close to Mitch is because of his touching behaviour in Scene eleven. When he realises what is happening to Blanche he threatens to kill Stanley for what he has done but his emotions and love for Blanche overcome him and he collapses at the table sobbing. Stanley may be the king but Mitch is a human being at least.

Jealousy in Ancient Greek Society :: Greek History Studies

Jealousy in Ancient Greek Society Jealousy is one of the harsher and more passionate faces of Love in Ancient Greek Society. Societal norms for love and relationships dictate that older men are the lovers who pursue women and young boys. Love infects the pursuer and causes him to have intense feelings about the object of his desire, but not always vice versa. Consequently jealousy is seen more as the active partner’s disease and is commonly associated as a male emotion. Women also experience jealousy but they are not supposed to be the pursuers in relationships according to societal norms. Since society only excuses the pursuer in the relationship acting on jealous impulses, a women doing so was improper because she was not supposed to be the active partner in the relationship. Hence jealousy was much more widely accepted as a ‘man’s’ disease. By examining the views of society in The Women of Trachis and the Legal Text VIII, Wounding with Intent to Kill: Quarrel over a boy, on love as a sickness, controlling jealousy, and how to win back a lost love, we can conclude that Love’s face of jealousy in Ancient Greek society appears to only be accepted as a predominately male emotion. Society excuses many of men’s jealous and irrational actions because of the widely held belief that Love effects men like a sickness. In The Women of Trachis, Deianira continually excuses her husbands actions, blaming his outrageous deeds on him being poisoned by Love. When Heracles attacked a city so that he could win his mistress, Deianira blames Love for rousing him to such violence. She thinks that it is "love alone which bewitched him into this violence"(355). She has also justified all his past affairs with this same theory. Deianira mentions that Heracles "is sick as he so often is with this same sickness"(543) of love. Society has allowed men to use Love as an excuse for their outrageous actions as well as the legitimate reasoning behind their deeds. Deianira also expresses society's view on Love’s power when she says, "For [Love] rules even the gods as he pleases"(443).

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 34

Letter #5-December 3, 2006 Dear Nikki, The night after the Tennessee Titans destroyed the Eagles on their home turf – a game in which Donovan McNabb tore his ACL, ending his season and maybe even his career – Andre Waters shot himself to death. I realize you don't care about any of this, but Waters was one of my favorite players back when I was a teenager. He was a big part of the Gang Green Defense. People called him Dirty Waters because he was fined so much for hitting too hard. And when I was a kid, Waters was a god to me. Jake says Waters probably killed himself after watching the Eagles play so poorly against the Titans, which was not a funny thing to say at all. My father is not talking to anyone, because he is upset about McNabb's injury, which will most likely ruin the Eagles' chances of making the play-offs. My new favorite player, Hank Baskett, is not getting many balls thrown to him anymore, but he actually threw an interception during a stupid trick play during the Indy Colts' win over the Birds just this past weekend. And of course, there was also your last letter. So I'm thinking this is the part of my movie where things appear as if nothing is going to work out. I have to remind myself that all movie characters go through this sort of dark period before they find their happy ending. It was hard to wait two weeks for your reply. Your letter made me very sad, and in the past twenty-four hours I have written my reply at least a hundred times. I don't know if Tiffany read you the part of my memoir where I described my therapist's office, but he has two leather recliners – one black, one brown. My therapist lets his patients choose which seat they want to sit in just so he can see what type of mood we are in. I've been picking the black one lately. I've read certain parts of your letters to Cliff – that's my therapist's name. He doesn't know about Tiffany's involvement, because I promised her that I would not tell anyone that she has agreed to act as our liaison. When Cliff asked how I was able to make contact with you, I refused to answer. I hope that you don't mind my reading some of your words to my therapist. It's funny. Cliff keeps hinting that I should pursue a relationship with Tiffany. And I know Tiffany is reading this letter to you, so this part will be awkward for everyone involved, but Tiffany will just have to deal with it because this is what being a liaison requires, and I already danced so well, fulfilling my end of the bargain. Cliff says that Tiffany and I have a lot in common at this point and that you and I have very little in common, because we are in very different places. I thought he meant that you were in Maryland and I was in New Jersey, but it turns out he means that I am still fighting to regain my mental health, and you are mentally stable. I asked Cliff why he would want me to pursue a relationship with someone who is as mentally unstable as me, and he said that you were not able to support me in the way I needed to be supported, which is why our marriage failed. I got very mad at Cliff when he said that, especially since I am the one to blame, but he insisted that you allowed me to become the person I was by enabling me – never putting me in my place and allowing me to emotionally abuse you for so long. He says that Tiffany will not allow me to do this and that our friendship is based on a mutual need and a commitment to bettering ourselves through physical fitness and dance. Tiffany and I are great friends, and I appreciate all that she is doing for me now. But she is not you. I still love you, Nikki. And you can't control or alter true love. Mom checked out The Catcher in the Rye from the Collingswood Public Library. I liked Holden Caulfield very much and felt a lot of sympathy for him because he really was a nice guy, always trying to do right by his sister Phoebe, yet always failing, like when he bought that record for Phoebe and broke it before he could give it to her. I also liked how he was always so worried about what the NYC ducks do in winter. Where do they go? But my favorite part was the ending, when Holden takes his sister to the carousel and she rides on the horse and tries to reach for the gold ring. Holden says, â€Å"I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddamn horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.† When I read this, I thought about your writing that I was in my second childhood and that I would have to â€Å"leave the basement† someday. But then I thought about how my improving myself and learning how to dance with Tiffany was like reaching for the gold ring, which is you. Nikki, you are my gold ring. So maybe I will fall off the goddamn carousel, but I have to reach for you, right? I want to see you. I want to talk to you face-to-face. Just once. Afterward, if you never want to see me again, I can live with that. Just give me one chance to show you how much I have changed. Just one chance. One face-to-face meeting. Please. Love, Pat

Comparing Shakespeares Hamlet and Marlowe of Conrads...

Comparing Shakespeares Hamlet and Marlowe of Conrads Heart of Darkness Prince Hamlet, of Shakespeares famed tragedy, and Marlowe of Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, are similarly situated characters. Despite superficially different settings and plots, there is a remarkably similar thematic element shared between both works. Prince Hamlet and Marlowe are brought to the very brink of insanity by their immersion in worlds gone mad, yet still succeed. At their roots, the similarities of the environments they are immersed in are remarkable. Whether their environment is a â€Å"too too sullied† (1057) Royal Danish court, or the dark madness of a murderous Congolese jungle, the relationship between a sane man’s mind, and†¦show more content†¦Not only are the natures and causes of the evil present in both Hamlet and Heart of Darkness remarkably similar, but also each character’s introduction to it. Interestingly, Prince Hamlet and Marlowe share a certain naà ¯vetà © when they first come upon their evils. Hamlet returns home after hearing of his father’s death from studies in Wittenberg, not yet knowing the cause of his death. Marlowe sets off from Brussels to explore â€Å"a blank space†¦a place of darkness† (1618), with an innocent childhood dream to explore the reaches of civilization. Neither man could have known the immense corruption and evil that awaited them at their destination, but both would quickly learn. Hamlet returns to Denmark to quickly find that a hasty â€Å"incestuous† marriage between his widowed mother and his uncle would all too quickly follow his own father’s funeral. Perhaps the most significant sign that all was not right in Denmark was the apparition of the slain former King. Hamlet’s father’s apparition is viewed by Hamlet and his company as an open sign that â€Å"something is rotten in the state of Denmark (1068). From this first revelation, Hamlet learns by degrees of the evil that attempts to hide itself behind the â€Å"legitimate† passing on of the throne. Hamlet gets a first glimpse of the evil in the appearance of the restless soul of his father, later, more so with that ghost’s revelation of the murderous truth to Hamlet, up until Hamlet’s own observation of Cladius’ unique