Drama Paper #1

Kelsey Larin

Professor J. Mignano-Brady

Literature

February 7, 2017

Desire Over Reality

One common aspect of life is having a strong want for something and in some instances that can be interpreted as something one desperately needs, otherwise known as desire. In the play Antigone by Sophocles Creon, one of the main characters, has portrayed himself as someone with a quenching thirst for power. Blanche, along with many of the other characters, also shows a strong desire, for acceptance, or always wanting to be right in Stanley’s case. This is show in the play A Streetcar Name Desire by Tennessee Williams. Although both plays take place in completely different time periods and have very different storylines, they both have a connection with a similar theme of desire in their characters.

Power was something that Creon had and wanted more of as King of Thebes. He wanted to have that power and assert it over his people to send a message that he was the highest above everyone. The way he could gain power was to have people obey him out of fear, and speaking in dramatic tone exerting laws over them. He told the people, “I here proclaim to the city that this man shall no one honor with a grave and none shall mourn. You shall leave him without burial; you shall watch him chewed up by birds and dogs and violated” (Sophocles 1135). This is Creon making it clear to the people that he is the one with the power and they must obey him, or there will be consequences. The way he exaggerates the treatment of Polyneices’ body is to create fear, which will amount in obedience giving Creon more power as the people obey him.  He did not have to go to this extent to shame Polyneices, but his craving for power and desire to show his power is too strong for him to contain.

Creon later asserts is power as King over Antigone narrowing in on one person to gain power and show the other people what he is capable of. He cannot fathom that she committed the crime knowing what she was getting herself into an that there would be consequences for going against the Kings orders. This angers him to the point where he wants her to suffer in the worst way possible. Creon tells the chorus, “I will bring her where the path is loneliest, and hide her alive in a rocky cavern there. I’ll give just enough of food as shall suffice for a bare expiation, that the city may avoid pollution, in that place she shall call of Hades, god of death in her prayers. That god only she reveres. Perhaps she will win from him escape from death or at least in that last moment will recognize her honoring of the dead is a labor lost “ (Sophocles 1150); and with no regret in his mouth he is firm in everything he says. He want everyone to know what he is doing to make it clear that he is the one with the ability to do anything he pleases and that he is not ashamed of his actions.

            Desire can be dissected is many ways and one way it can be seen as is having inherent desires or desires that were created. It is human to naturally want certain things in life for one to be content or to simply have a goal to strive for. For example, people want to survive in the world, that is why they eat, dress themselves and find a place to sleep. There is also wanting to have friendships, communicating and acceptance. Acceptance could be argued as an inherent desire or a created one. It can be something that occurs naturally or something someone would want in order to fit into society and its “norm.” Blanche constantly makes up stories and presents herself in a way so that people will view her as delicate and perfect. For example when she does not want Stanley to think she has no where to go she lies to him saying, “ I received a telegram from an old admirer of mine…An invitation…a cruise of the Caribbean on a yacht!” (Sophocles 1227) and of course Stanley does not believe her, but she is still entertained that someone else “wants” her. All she wants is for people to think she can never do wrong and for people to want her back. Blanche has little to offer others let alone for herself, so she likes to make believe she is a certain way to get people to like her and have that same desire she has for their acceptance. She hides the truth about what happened back home at the school she worked in. Blanche told people that they had given her time off when in reality she allowed herself to ruin her own reputation by intimately being with a student, which concluded in her being fired from her teaching position. Once she meets Mitch, she realizes it is her only way out of her situation she is in at the moment, and that she could eventually marry him. She tries to win him over and get Mitch to like her by telling lies and hiding from the light to never show her true age. This is the only way she thinks he will want to make his wife is if she becomes someone she thinks he would want. One of her first lies when they are getting acquainted is when she tells him, “Marries? No, no. I’m an old maid schoolteacher…I teach high school in Laurel” (Booth 1191). She never really intended on being completely honest with him until later on in the story when she was becoming more vulnerable than ever.

            Stanley and Blanche had a rocky relationship since the very second she walked into their home. He listened to her lies and stories she made up, and he could not understand why she was that way. He wanted so badly for Blanche to tell the truth and end the make belief life she does not live. He has such a strong desire to be the head of the household, to be the one says how things go and everyone must listen to him because he is always right. He lets Blanche know how he feels when he explodes and says, “ I’ve been on to you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over the boy’s eyes! You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned in Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile! Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor” (Booth 1229). He has come to a final stance where he cannot take anymore of Blanche in his home being the way she is, and he has no shame in being upfront with her about it. Stanley’s desire to be the empowered one in the room is so strong that he cannot control it and acts on his feelings.

            Desire is a strong word and it fits to describe characters in Antigone by Sophocles and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, because most plays are very dramatic and that is shown through people like Creon, Blanche and Stanley. Creon was driven by the desire to gain more power through his actions as a ruthless King. Nothing or no one could get in his way because that is something he was set on and would not stop until he had all the power. Blanche was so ruined by her past; all she had was her looks and lies to make herself someone she was not to be accepted by others. She had nothing and she wanted so badly to be accepted by someone who could take care of her because she could not do so herself. The example in both plays shows the reader that there are many kinds of desire and it is a different feeling for each person. That feeling overtakes the person and that desire becomes their entire life.

          

                                                                       Works Cited

Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. W.W. Norton   & Company, Inc., 2011.