What are the contrasts between Blanche and Stanley in A streetcar named desire Essays

What are the contrasts between Blanche and Stanley in A streetcar named desire Essays What are the contrasts between Blanche and Stanley in A streetcar named desire Paper What are the contrasts between Blanche and Stanley in A streetcar named desire Paper Essay Topic: A Streetcar Named Desire Literature Blanche and Stanley are at juxtaposition towards each other, there is a conflict between them that goes beyond simply disliking one another. One of the explanations for this is that Blanche comes from a very different world to Stanley. In many ways Stanleys represents new America whereas Blanche represents the old, America. This contrast of hard working, manual labour against well mannered, chivalrous and delicate is one of the very first conflicts of culture. In a way Blanche represents the old south, which in history supported slavery. We can see Blanche representing the confederacy, the posh upper class slave owners and Stanley as the would-be slave, resentful of his treatment from the South and by Blanche. Another contrast is the animalistic natures of the two characters. In many ways Blanche is like a moth. Her delicate nature and fragility invoke images of the cover of the book. Stanley is more like a bear, a heavily territorial creature that will fiercely protect its mate. Further evidence that Blanche is like a moth can be seen in her behaviour. Moths never really stay in one place; they flit from place to place, and in Blanches case from one danger to another. The cover shows a harsh light bulb, which is the harsh reality of the world in a sense. Blanche often seeks out the light because of what she lost, even though it hurts her. The flamingo hotel is one example of this; the young man is another. She seeks to find that spotlight that will light up her world again and risk herself in the process. Stanley on the other hand does not have the capacity for those feelings. He wears bold, primary colours such as red and green and purple, which convey his animalistic passion whereas Blanche is not motivated in this way. Relying often on the ethereal illusions of the mind. This is perhaps what frustrates Stanley; Blanche is nothing substantial, she is almost devoid of reason. This goes against Stanleys perceptions about the world, that everything is black and white and that you are either friend or foe. Much like in nature. In many ways Blanches character is something of a contradiction, she seeks out new love in order to find what was lost, and yet she has not looked inwards at herself to question her own actions much. She regrets telling Alan that he disgusted her and she defends her picture of him in an act of defiance against Stanley. This contradicts my point earlier about her only believing in the ethereal. Because in order to counter Stanleys passion you have to fight fire with fire and be passionate yourself. So perhaps deep down Blanche is more like Stanley. She is heavily territorial regarding Alan and protective of his memory. Something which reflects in the name of the book A streetcar named desire Blanche in effect believes the world is illusionary, but her desire forces her to accept some things are real and like a streetcar she has no choice abut changing course. The things she accepts as real [IE Her love for Alan] she will defend fiercely. Stanley on the other hand has formed a very hunter-gatherer relationship with Stella. She is like a trophy, a symbol of something he has conquered with his passionate tendencies. They fall out and fight it seems on a regular basis, but they are inexplicably attracted back to each other. The contrast then can be seen in Stella as well as Blanche. Stella is more down-to-earth, more like Stanley than her sister. She accepts certain facts whereas Blanche fabricates ways around them. Stanley also resents Blanche because of her reliance of the imaginary. His perception of the world puts him as the alpha male, women should be attracted to him and in return he can control them through force. Blanche seems to be immune to this, looking down her nose at him and not succumbing to lust. I imagine Stanley has not encountered this from women before. Stanley not only believes in reality, he is reality. He is the hard knuckled, nature driven man and Blanche is the white, ethereal spectre, which fades in and out of reality. In that respect the characters are very much in two different worlds with two different beliefs. Going back to the moth idea, Blanche moves from place to place on impulse. Impulse can be described as the single track, single path nature of a streetcar carriage. She talks about fabricating lies to attract men she has had previous relations with, she does not wish to lose face despite already having lost most of it in her hometown of Laurel. Quite clearly Blanche has not got quite a sound mind, because it seems to fabricate reality to what suits her. She still believes she is a lady of upper-class nature, but she has essentially tainted herself through her activities at the flamingo. She bathes a lot, and this frustrates Stanley. He works in the grease and muck and does not see it necessary to clean himself as often as Blanche, and yet she washes herself constantly. Blanche characteristically dresses in white, the purest form of light. When she bathes she is cleansing herself. I think that she might be trying to cleanse the blood of her dead husband from herself. Stanley does not seem to have been through the emotional trauma that she has, and so cannot understand how she feels. When you murder someone, directly or otherwise, it sticks in your mind and Blanche has convinced herself of her responsibility towards his death. In summer then, Blanche shares a few passionate similarities with Stanley. Her perception of reality is similar to Stanleys when it comes to love. However she surrounds herself with the false and the fake, to comfort herself and to try and cleanse her body of the taint that surrounds it.

Stress and Accent Marks in Spanish

Stress and Accent Marks in Spanish Knowing how letters are pronounced is only one aspect of learning Spanish pronunciation. Another key aspect is knowing which syllable should be stressed, that is, the one that gets the most vocal emphasis. Fortunately, Spanish has only three basic rules of stress, and there are very few exceptions. Rules for Spanish Stress and Accent Marks Spanish uses the acute accent mark (one that rises from left to right) to indicate stress in certain words. The grave and circumflex accent marks are not used. Essentially, the accent mark is used if following the first two rules below dont correctly indicate which syllable is getting the stress: If a word without an accent mark ends in a vowel, n, or s, the stress is on the penultimate (next to last) syllable. For example, toro, computadora, joven. and zapatos all have their accent on the next-to-last syllable. Most words fit this category.A word without an accent mark that ends in other letters has the stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, matador, and virtud all have the accent on the final syllable.If a word isnt pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example, comà ºn, lpiz, mà ©dico, inglà ©s, and ojal all have the stress on the indicated syllable. The only exceptions to the above are some words of foreign origin, generally, words adopted from English, that retain their original spelling and often their pronunciation. For example, sandwich is usually spelled without an accent over the initial a, even though the stress is as in English. Similarly, personal names and place names of foreign origin usually are written without accents (unless accents are used in the originating language). Note also that some publications and signs do not use accent marks over capital letters, although for clarity it is better to use them when possible. How Making a Word Plural Can Change the Accent Mark Because words ending in s or n have an accent on the next-to-last syllable, and an -es sometimes is used to make singular words plural, making a word singular or plural can affect the accent mark. This can affect both nouns and adjectives. If a word with two or more syllables and without an accent mark ends in an n, adding -es to the word will require an accent mark to be added. (Nouns and adjective ending in an unstressed vowel followed by s have identical singular and plural forms.) Words in this category are infrequent. joven (singular, youth or young), jà ³venes (plural)crimen (singular, crime), crà ­menes (plural)canon (singular, rule), canà ³nes (rules)aborigen (singular, indigenous), aborà ­genes (plural) More common are singular words that end in n or s and have an accent on the final syllable. When such words or two or more syllables are made plural by adding -es, the accent mark is no longer needed. almacà ©n (singular, warehouse), almacenes (plural)talismn (singular, lucky charm), talismanes (plural)afiliacià ³n (singular, affiliation), afiliciones (plural)comà ºn (singular, common), comunes (plural) Orthographic Accent Marks Sometimes accent marks are used only to distinguish two similar words, and they dont affect pronunciation because the marks are already on a syllable that is being stressed. For example, el (the) and à ©l (he) are both pronounced the same way, even though they have quite different meanings. Similarly, some words, quien or quià ©n, use accent marks when they appear in questions, but usually not otherwise. Accents that dont affect pronunciation are known as orthographic accents. Here are some of the common words that are affected by an orthographic accent: aun (including), aà ºn (still, yet)como (as, I eat), cà ³mo (how)de (of), dà © (form of dar)que (that), quà © (what)se (reflexive pronoun), sà © (form of saber)si (if), sà ­ (yes) Key Takeaways Spanish words without written accent marks have the stress on the last syllable unless the word ends in s or n, in which case the accent goes on the next-to-last syllable.An accent mark is used to indicate that the stress goes on that syllable where the pattern above isnt followed.Sometimes, an accent mark is used to distinguish meanings between two words that are otherwise spelled alike.