Disturbed Characters of 3 Authors
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Three authors present characters who are disturbed, whose disturbance has a particular effect on friends and family, and whose problems are addressed in different ways by the authors. Tennessee Williams creates a memorable character in Blanche DuBois, the genteel Southern lady whose sexual obsessions are followed by her in a world of illusions by which she maintains some sense of self. She comes up against harsh reality in the form of her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski. Lila Wingo is the mother of the suicidal patient in Pat Conroy's novel Prince of Tides, and she has her illusions as well. She is a source of distress not only for her daughter but for her son, Tom--daughter and son are twins. Beth Jarrett in Judith Guest's novel Ordinary People is a third woman who uses illusions to protect herself from the outside world and from the reality that would destroy her completely. She is a family woman, and her family becomes the center of her illusion. Each of these women is desperately unhappy. Blanche sees herself as a martyr and is always referring to the way life has treated her. The loss of her and Stella's childhood home is a key reference point. Blanche's character is revealed as it contrasts with that of Stanley. A key conflict in the play is the threat Blanche poses to the domesticity of Stanley and Stella, and from Stanley's point of view this is bound with his belief in reality as contrasted with Blanche's desire to live by illusion. Stanley is a charac
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hs, and crises, and each has failed to adapt to those crises and has instead withdrawn into an illusion that all is well, that the world is at fault for their problems, that they can indeed live by the illusions they have created and in effect incorporate other people into those illusions. Each finds that other people are not that malleable and do not conform to the illusion and may even be hostile to it. Blanche DuBois has withdrawn into the illusion of the genteel Southern lady, something she was raised to be but is not, something that may not really exist but that has served for generations as an ideal. Again and again in the course of the play we see Blanche trying to bring Stella into her view of the world and failing to see that Stella is sincere and happy in her domestic life. Stella tries to make this clear after poker night: "I said I'm not in anything that I have a desire to get out of" (Williams 65). Blanche believes in her illusion so that she can never admit to herself what her own life has been like. Stanley, however, can see through her and also investigates to learn the truth. For Stanley, truth is very important, which is why it is ironic at the end that he and Stella remain together in essence living a li
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Beth Jarrett, Stanley Lila, Nile Williams, Blanche DuBois, Lila Wingo, Ordinary People, Hey Stella, Blanche Mitch, Guest Beth, Stella Stanley's, lila wingo, happy domestic life, southern lady, lila revealed, withdrawn illusion, ordinary people, stanley cites, blanche dubois, prince tides, genteel southern lady, domestic life, beth jarrett,
Approximate Word count = 1727
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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