Conflicts between the values of the old world and the newThere’s a Free Essay Example

Conflicts between the values of the old world and the new.

There’s a continuous display of conflict between the old and new America throughout the first three scenes , primarily through the characters of Stanley and Blanche. Blanche embodies the image and ideals of the Old America, while Stanley a Polish immigrant’s son, born in America, represents the new image and values of current America. In the middle is Stella , Blanche’s sister and Stanley’s wife, who was raised in the same setting as Blanche but took to the changing times and married Stanley despite his lower social rank.

This play is very much about the symbolic clash between old versus new and past versus present. In all of these examples, Blanche and Stanley act as representatives of their respective sides. Blanche is all about the past. We learn about her past, the fake version and then the real. Stanley has no past. He is always in the moment, consistently present. Everything we know is what we see in front of us.

Blanche lives almost in retrospect at all times, at first she was unable to come to grip with this ‘new America’ her sister had embraced. Blanche somewhat resents Stella for denying their heritage and wedding someone beneath their station, despite the fact that he represents the future. But blache is too naive in some forms, and this is where the conflicts stems from in the play. Although Blanche is perceived in a bad light from Tennessee Williams in the opening scenes, Stanley also receives equal treatment in regards to why there is conflict between him and Blanche.

Stanley’ character is used as a tool to expose all of Blanche’s secrets and delusions as his blunt and primal nature does not allow him to be controlled or manipulated like Stella is. They’re constantly at loggerheads, Blanche often uses the derogatory term ‘Pollack’ for describing Stanley to refer to him as common or inferior. ‘We are French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were French’ , Blanche seems to think her ethnic origins make her better than others, and uses it as a point of pride almost in retaliation and a way to get one over on Stanley.

Her looks, family name, manners, and the other elements of the Old South image that would have formerly given her social standing are irrelevant now, and this realization dawns on her as the story progresses. She continuously tries to remind Stella of their past in Belle Reve, almost trying to win her back from Stanley, as in the first scenes Stella is in a way resenting Blanche. This could be her trying to evolve into the New America with Stanley. This theme is the driving force of the old vs new , as Blanche and Stanley are conflicting over Stella and their modern or old views of America and life in general. As much as the play’ postwar America appears to be moving forward for some, the story highlights that restrictions on women are as evident as they’ve ever been. Blanche and Stella are both forced to depend on men and marriage for their survival, while Stanley’s insistence that he be recognized as the undisputed master of the house reflects the mentality of men during the Old to New South transition. We see clear examples of this during the poker scene, explicitly with Stanley and his fixation with being in control. We see the contrast with Blanche’ description of the men in Belle Reve with them being elegant with grace and decorum, and the animalistic description of Stanley and his friends. This again could be seen as conflict with Blanche consistently putting Stanley down because of his heritage, which has an underlying conflict with this New America Stanley is proposing.

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