March 10, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized
Kayla Libuda
March 10, 2009
English Honors III
A Streetcar Named Desire
In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois is portrayed to be both the victim and victimizer of the play depending on how you sympathize with her. After reading the play though, it is clear that she is the victim. She is a bizarre, fragile, and polarizing character who came to New Orleans to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley, after having nowhere else to turn to. Some may view her in a negative way saying she is the victimizer because of the lies she tells to Stella, Stanley and Mitch throughout the play and her actions towards them, but after analyzing her past and physiological problems you can prove she is the victim.
Blanche grew up in a middle-class family but she lives her life filled with luxuries and fancy looking clothes. She prefers to live through magic rather than reality. This way she doesn’t have to face her problems or past. Her physiological problems all started when Blanche witnessed the suicide of her husband very young. After catching him in bed with another man and calling him “disgusting”, her husband shot himself in the head one evening at a club. After the event of his death Blanche refused help and turned to promiscuity instead. Ever since Blanche has had many “friends” and comes onto every guy she is alone with. Losing a loved one to not only another man but to death is a tragic event in a person’s life. So by blaming her actions in New Orleans on the death is completely acceptable because if you were in her shoes many would act the same and try to hide from the past like Blanche does.
Blanche also comes across as a victim because of her deception. Throughout the play she tells lies to everyone around her like Stella, Stanley, and Mitch. This makes not only the others but herself believe she lives in a fantasy world and not reality. By telling lies, Blanche doesn’t have to face her brutal present or past life events. When Blanche told her first lie, that she was taking a leave of absence from her teaching job back in Laurel, instead of being fired for having relations with a student, it began to lead to lie after lie and never ended until Stanley and the others caught onto her forcing Blanche to see through her dreams and face the harsh realities of life.
Thirdly, Blanche uses her sexuality to get through situations that she feels uncomfortable in and would rather not face. When Blanche is alone with another man she turns on her promiscuity and becomes quiet flirtatious to feel wanted and beautiful like when the young paper boy stops by or when alone with Stanley. From the beginning of the play, Blanche flirts with almost every man and by the end; it resulted in Stanley raping her because there was so much sexual tension between the two.
In the end Blanche is admitted to a Mental Institution because her family and friends did not believe she was raped or that she was sane for she would only live in her own fantasy world. Blanche went through many hard times in her life from losing her job, her family estate Bell Reve, her husband’s death and receiving a shameful reputation from it all. Due to those events from her past Blanche became a victim quickly in the play and it is just that she is portrayed as one. Her living in her own little world and being the liar and conniving, story-telling women that she grew to be, is no reason to say she is the victimizer and deserved what she got in the end.
October 2, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged The Crucible
Kayla Libuda
Ms. Bazinet
English III Honors
October 3, 2008
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, identity, apology, and forgiveness are three very important concepts to the text. They all affect the characters and events that take place in this piece of literature along with the play’s outcome.
Identity is the first of the three concepts mentioned. In means of The Crucible identity stands for who the people really are and what they hold in their name. Abigail Williams is one of the several characters whose identity is talked about. She is known as Reverend Samuel Paris’s niece but by the end of the story she’s known as a liar and a murderer showing her beginning identity was false. Abigail’s identity shapes the events of the story highly and changes the outcome of the play. Another example relating to identity is John Proctor. Towards the end of the play John Proctor admits to being a witch. His identity is affected when Danforth tells him the paper stating his confession will be posted for the public, Proctor then denies it. He says “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on my feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” This quote taken from the play shows how important a person’s identity can be to them and how their identities truly affected the stories conclusion.
Apology is another concept mentioned. In the story many characters are faced with the crime of witchery. When the truth is, everyone accused is innocent. Because of one character, Abigail Williams, these characters such as Tituba, John and Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren, Martha Corey and several others, are forced to confess to being a witch and apologize to the town and court. If they do not do this they are to be hanged. Another example of apology affecting the story’s ending is the fact that in the beginning Abigail Williams was caught dancing with several other girls. If all they did was apologize none of these cases would’ve occurred and no one would’ve been accused and murdered for being a “witch.”
The last concept relating to The Crucible is forgiveness. This is the biggest and most important concept of this three because it effected the events and outcome of the story the greatest. First off if they townspeople would’ve just told Abigail and the other girls they would be given forgiveness for dancing in the forest instead of getting a whipping the girls wouldn’t of been forced into the lies they told and accusing of the innocent. Forgiveness also relates to when John Proctor confesses to being a witch. If Danforth would’ve just forgave him and believed him he wouldn’t have been hanged. Lastly, everyone else who was accused of witchery in Salem begged for forgiveness but they had no choice but to confess to being a witch because they were to be hanged if not.
These three concepts identity, apology and forgiveness all shaped the outcome of this story. If they weren’t part of it the conclusion would’ve been completely different and the characters wouldn’t have been the same either because the story was effected notably by all three of them.
September 29, 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged about me
Hey I’m Kayla! I’m seventeen years old and a junior at Auburn High. I play field hockey in the fall and do track in the spring. I work at Park n’ Shop. I have one brother, Ben and we’re really close. I love to hang out with my friends; I’m pretty much always with them. Summer and the beach are my favorites. I love the Celtics and music. In the future i want to go to college in the city and eventually become a teacher. Well I’m just tryna blog for my English class and that’s pretty much it. Peace!
