A streetcar named desire #1
The book started with a brief description of a plain and not too fancy neighborhood in New Orleans. Stella seems to be used to her home even though she used to live on a large fancy estate. When Blanche comes into the neighborhood looking for her sister, the play becomes more interesting because it makes you wonder how a fancy and really dramatic woman like her, used with living on a large estate , owning fancy dresses , expensive jewelry, many perfumes is going to fit into such a simple and small apartment. Blanch comes out looking like a high class lady who enjoys being complimented, being courted by men and who wants to have a fancy lifestyle. Its oblivious that she dislikes the place she saw her sister living in. Blanche looks out of her environment. Stella seems to be bothered by her sister’s comments, but instead of getting angry, she stays quiet and tries to bring up the good things present in her life. The relationship between Stella and Blanch in the beginning is friendly, but uncomfortable and it is clear they have different opinions. Blanch also dislikes Stanley and Stella tries whenever she can to show her that he has many good sides. Blanch ignores her explanations calling Stanley a brute, an animal a Polack.
The relationship between Stanley and Blanche is not a really good one. First Stanley is friendly and welcoming to her, but after he found out the estate his wife owned is lost he becomes suspicious and rude with Blanch. He goes through her chest when she’s in the bathroom, talks rudely about her to his wife and when he’s alone with Blanche goes right to the subject of his suspicions without any sugarcoating or complimenting like his wife advised him. His impression of her does not seem too fine. Blanch is not too found of him either but in front of him she does not show it. Whenever they are together she gives another impression. It feels like there is some attraction or curiosity she has for him. Stanley does some curious things also. Why did he need to take out his shirt right when he meet with Blanche? But all that is going on looks like small flirts and nothing more.
What delighted me was the instant connection Blanche had with Mitch. He started talking to her during poker night and unlike Stanley, he really seems to like her. I don’t know how much Blanche likes him though. Since she is naturally flirting with most men she meets and likes to be courted, it seems normal that she responded to his interest. We know she likes to flirt, but she clearly has some secrets that are to be discovered. Why did Blanch cover the light when talking to Mitch? Why does she refer to her lost lover as “dead boy” but does not give him a name or talk more about him? I hope to find those details in later scenes. But until now, it was extremely enjoyable and really humorous to reenact the scene in which Stanley tries to get Stella back by calling her “Stell-lahhhhhh” like a lonely wolf hauling for his mate.
A streetcar named desire #2
Things are starting to get more complicated and stressful for Blanche. In the beginning she looked really happy and confident with herself, but as we read on she seems more and more insecure every minute. When Stanley asks her is she knows a man from Laurel, she nervously denies it, she does not want people to know her real age, she does not want to look easy in front of Mitch. But she is contradicting all these insecurities when she jumps on the paper boy, flirts with him and kisses him on the mouth. Why is she trying to be respectable in front of Mitch and Stanley but acts like an easy woman in front of a stranger who could tell anybody about their encounter? Blanche is really curious from that point of view. She seems to be trying to hide a dark past from the people dear to her and look like a lady. I’m starting to wonder is she really is such a respectable lady like she is trying to portray.
From Blanche’s date with Mitch it seems that he really is in love with her and has serious intentions. He talks to her about his mother, does all her pleasures and seems to be really impressed by Blanche’s artistic personality. In front of him Blanch even talks about her dead boy in detail meaning that she trusts him enough in order to tell him personal events from her life. There seems a strong connection between the two and it looks like they would both be interested in the idea of spending the rest of their lives together. Mitch can’t keep his hands off her and enjoys Blanche’s old fashioned ideas about dating. But it really looks like she is holding back. Why is Blanche not being herself with Mitch? Is she trying to be someone else because she is ashamed of her past? Whatever is the answer, the way she is acting makes her look really suspicious.
A sad thing that I noticed in the story is the hatred that Stanley has for Blanche. All the suspicions I had about a secret attraction are out of the question. He dislikes the way she talks about him. He blames for the change in the relationship between him and his wife. He even ridicules the fact that Blanche takes long baths in the afternoon. It seems like his strong hatred lead him to go on searching about Blanche in hotel Flamingo located in Laurel. The meanest thing he could have done was tell Mitch about the information he found out. The ticket Stanley gave on her birthday was the last drop, hoping to get rid of her. The curious thing is why does Stanley believe what other people say about his wives’ sister? Because he wants her about of their life as soon as possible and he is willing to do anything in order to get his plan accomplished. Luckily, his wife does not believe, but it is clear she is starting to doubt her sister. No matter if Blanche is not the lady she wishes to portray, I don’t think he deserves such a bad treatment. I hope she’s going to end out well, but if things are going in such a direction, I predict it is only going to get worse.
A streetcar named desire#3
What a terrible ending ! I already anticipated that things were going to get worse; the events that happened to Blanche were more than I expected. Why did she have to come to Belle Reve? Maybe she was going to have a brighter future if she did not come to her sister’s house and had the encounter with a hateful monster like Stanley who from the moment he meet her planned to destroy her life. It was possibly just faith. Some people are lucky, and others are not. Or maybe is the fact that Blanche always wanted to have a magical life, instead of accepting a dull, boring life like her sister Stella had. Blanche was older in age, but in my view she was as innocent as a ten year old girl dreaming to become a princes and looking everywhere for her prince charming who is going to save her and make her dream come true. I really feel pity for Blanche.
Ever since the previous scene, things went downhill for her. It started with Stanley’s cruel actions. Then Mitch came along treating her coldly and shattering all her dreams. How could he? After hearing about her troublesome life in which she lost Belle Reve, lost a dear relative and lost her lover. All the hard hits of life brought Blanche to the ground. From there, she was strong enough to get up and try again to find happiness in life. So what she has been with more men trying to find happiness? She did not know that there are few good people in the world, so she tried and tried to find some shelter. If I were Mitch, I would have gone to her, gave her a big hug and told her everything was going to be alright. He dared to tell her that she was not pure enough to become the mother of his child…. I am simply repulsed by his actions and changed my view of him. He is as bad as all the other men who could not see that she were a sad, naïve girl in need of affection. In the end, when the doctor was taking Blanch away, Mitch was just standing there like an uncaring pig. I bet he possesed no real love for her otherwise he could not have stayed there like an emotionless robot.
What about Stanley? He saw that she was in such a terrible situation and he continued to ridicule her. It broke my heart to see how desperate Blanche was trying making things look better. Instead of feeling bad for her, Stanley accused Blanche of lying. It is understandable why she was doing everything. Poor Blanche was trying to make him and herself believe that she still had some hope and something good happened to her. More despicable, Stanley went on and raped Blanche in the bad state of mind she was in.
“We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning”? He is a monster with no conscience, because the next day he could look in her eyes and even mocks her without any shame. In the end, all the people in the story are not good. Stella allowed her sister to be taken away. The Negro Woman allowed Blanche to be taken away…Everybody stayed there, watching her give up on all her dignity, hope and leaving with the doctor to an unknown place. Really dramatic end! I think the idea that the writer wished to convey to his readers is that in this mean world you have to accept the reality, no matter how harsh it. You have to become tough and realize that there is no magic in life…just a house, food, a companion and that is all. There is no prince going to take you on his horse and take you to a better world. Also, the weak people will perish first. It was a great play with a great moral about the world that we live in.
Crime and Punishment #1
My first impression of the book was a not as great. The first couple of pages did not really steal my attention, but as I moved on it got more and more intense. In the beginning I did not know what was going on with Raskolnikov. He simply seemed a really depressed man living in a small room and having a need of isolation. Even if I did not know anything about him, it was clear that he was a really intelligent individual thinking and analyzing everything to the deepest meanings. He did not look to me like a brainless man.
The first part started to relate to me because it shows how hard it is to make money in this world and how in some places people live from one day to the other. The people living in the book are working hard, starving, suffering and doing all they can in order to get food for the next day and pay rent every month. That relates to me because I’ve been in Romania, and the economic situation is almost as bad as described in the book. People work too much for little money and they are happy that they managed to get that. So that made me wonder what kind of world are we living in if some places have people starving and others where people have excesses? Moving along in the chapter, it almost made me cry, seeing what efforts Marmeladov, his wife, daughter were doing in order to continue their existence. He lost his job, his wife was being beaten, and his daughter started prostitution in order to help the family. Raskolnikov and his family were in the same situation. His sister was willing to marry with a man she did not love in hoping to bring him a better future. Another way, in which I could relate with the story, is the distance from the loved ones. When Raskolnikov received the letter from his mother, it broke my heart because I know from experience how hard it is to be away from loved ones (family, relatives, friends). How hard it is not to be close to your loved ones for three years and simply hope that you will see them again someday, but have no assurance the reunion will really happen. All of the pain, lack of money, and news from his family, loneliness brought Raskolnikov to the conclusion that he had to get up and get some money. However, like Marmeladov mentioned,” You need to have somebody to go to “. How Raskolnikov did not have that person who could take him out of his well of problems, he was pushed into doing the odious crime. The story shows how too many problems could make you do desperate things. However, it seems to me that it was meant to happen since all the events occurring to Raskolnikov contributed to his decision. He was hesitant at the beginning. Why did he overhear the conversation about murdering the old widow? Why did Marmeladov come to him and brought ideas in his head? Why did Raskolnikov passed on the street right when Lizaveta was talking to the merchants and learned she was not going to be home at 7? Why was the door to the yard keeper open with an axe inside? And finally, why did he escape even thou he was trapped in the apartment like a rat in a trap?
In part two, things did not go as I expected. I imagined he was going to be tormented by his actions and do something crazy or get caught immediately like it happened in MacBeth. However it did not happened that way. We know that after doing a crime, a punishment is going to come. In Raskolnikov’s life, it did not happen as fast as I imagined it would happen. He got sick and delirious for a while and he started doing some crazy things (like talking too much and showing too much interest in the murder, making him look suspicious). But it looks like a good time in his life. All the people are caring for him and worry about him. Razumikhin is by his side like a guardian angel and most important he is not alone. He was not left alone to die out of illness in some pit. He was cared for and that shows there is still hope for him as long as he has a good friend by his side t. The ending of the chapter brings some brightness in his life. He gets close to Marmeladov family and his mother and sister come along. It brings out the question whether it was really wrong to kill the old woman who was ripping off many people with her little business. Another question that appeared in my mind was if Raskolnikov did not want to get caught? Why was he not subtle, and mentioned the murder case so much? Was he just desperate to confess or was it just a smart plan to keep people from ever suspecting him? By confessing everything in such a common way to people and giving small hints, it made them think he’s joking since a really guilty man would try to be as quiet as possible. His actions confuse me. But knowing he is a really intelligent person, it would not surprise me if he were to
Crime and punishment #2
Getting into the third part of the book, I expected things to become better. Raskolnikov’s mother and sister came into the picture, Razumikhin is helping around and I would be happy to be in Raskolnikov’s position. He however is not doing that. He tells his mother and sister to leave him alone and acts cold to them when they first meet and starts tormenting him with the crime he has done, even if he already realized that the old widow’s death is not going to end his life. All the things he talks with the people around his, including his family and friends are not that crazy. His advices are intelligently made but all the people around them keep looking funny at him and blame his illness for his “crazy ideas”. It seems to me that the people viewing his as crazy are not as intelligent as him is if they are not viewing seeing his point of view.
Other things that start to aggravate the situation are the actions of Raskolnikov, new people popping up in the worst moments and the way the police investigator (Porfity) is treating Raskolnikov. I already got to the conclusion that Raskolnikov is a really intelligent man. So that must be the reason that he’s telling the police that he was a customer of the old widow, talked about what he pawned with her and went to her apartment asking the workers where the blood disappeared. It lets to be assumed that he is trying to confuse the investigator into believing he did not do it otherwise, he would not go to the crime scene again and get attention to himself. However, that could bring more attention to him and make him looks suspicious. The scary thing is that the Porfity seems to have noticed that and try to use his own intelligence (since he obviously is not stupid) to torture Raskolnikov into confessing. He gives certain hints that he is suspicious, but if he is being asked changes the subjects and says he is not. The way he disputed Raskolnikov’s article that for some reason seemed to be perfectly incriminating and tormenting him at the station tells me he has a plan in his head, but it is to be discovered later in the book. But why would Raskolnikov write such an article saying that the people having a new idea the “special “ people have the right to destroy in order to make his idea come true? His view of things is impressive and breathe taking, but why would he share his thoughts with the rest of the world who is clearly not as wise as him? A lot strange things occur, like the merchant looking for him and calling him murderer and new people coming along unexpected who seem to have no use in his life (like Svidrigailov). The suspense is keeping me on my toes. One moment things seem to change in better and the next moment things turn bad and the fear Raskolnikov comes back in my mind. After the terrible investigation that occurred and things looking bad, there comes the merchant, telling his story and easing Raskolnikov mind again.
Some nice things that occurred in the two parts were the fact that Razumikhin is clearly in love with Raskolnikov’s sister, Raskolnikov’s sister and mother have figured out that Petrovich is a really selfish man who doesn’t respect his future wife and the connection to has appeared between Sonya and Raskolnikov. The reading was really good, seemed to wanted to convey the idea that once you do a crime, the punishment is not going to come right away. It seems just like in Macbeth, Razumikhin is going to torment himself until getting the punishment. I don’t think Raskolnikov will go crazy, but he’s going to have hard time thinking about the situation. The only thing that creeps in my mind is what will Sonya say when Raskolnikov tells her who the murderer was .He is not a villain or a mad man in my view!
Hope things will be alright in the end. He is not a villain or a mad man in my view!
Crime and punishment #3
The last three parts have been extremely suspenseful. The ending was surprising and really rewarding. In the beginning of part five things were starting to get out of control. Right when Raskolnikov was starting to relax all the problems coming to him. Porfity comes along telling him straight that he knows he is the killer but is expecting him to come and confess. That has answerer the previous questions that I had whether Porfity believed Raskolnikov was the killer or he was just tormenting him for no reason. However the main character had to make a big decision whether to confess his blame or run away. But what was the purpose of Porfity’s visit? Did he intend to make his suspect confess? Was he a good man warning his friend of what is about to happen and intended to offer him a better road? Or was he simply trying to add pressure on Raskolnikov? He seemed to be caring about his suspect’s welfare, yet I don’t see why he would care about that. Porfity still looks like a sneaky character until the end that can’t be trusted completely.
Petrovich also seemed to have two faces in the story. The first one was evil and selfish. The first face is the face that Raskolnikov discovered, his sister was lucky to discover until she made the mistake of marrying him. After he was defeated, a completely different person seemed to come out when he was by himself in his home. He seemed to be really hurt, insecure, desperate, and maybe even loving. It seemed like he loved Avdotya Romanovna in his own way. But all that defenseless and sad character disappeared as he turned into a desperate evil devil accusing Sonya of stealing one hundred rubles right in the middle of the funeral banquette of her father. In conclusion, he showed everybody that he was a ruthless, lying and evil little man capable of doing anything in order to make himself look better and have revenge. Sonia was lucky that two people protected her otherwise she would have been sent to jail. It conveys the message that if you are an honest person people will be on your side and things will be okay, while if you are pretending lying scum, when you have a problem you are on your own.
Some other impressing things occurring was the pride Kathertina possessed. Even if she had a small amount of money for the funeral of her husband, that did not strop her for having a banquette in order to honor her husband and allow people to see that he was a great man who deserved respect. Although things did not go the way she wanted to and in the end she started acting crazy finding herself evicted from her house and dying on the street, she still gained my respect for dealing with so much suffering but trying to show people that she can handle it. She was a fighter until the end of her life. It was shocking that Svidrigailov committed suicide even though he was afraid of death. The question why he helped Sonya so much is still hunting me. Maybe he was trying to help her financially in order to help her get rid of some of her suffering, hoping that he will gain some peace of mind from doing a good deed.
Some happy incidents were present too. The fact that Sonya found out about Raskolnikov’s crime but remained by his side brought a ray of sunshine in all the pain and suffering present in the book. The fact that Raskolnikov’s sister continued to respect him was again delightful. The most beautiful thing of all was the transformation that occurred in Raskolnikov while in jail. All his life he felt alone, superior to the rest and with not much love for life and future. He allowed his brain control his life and that made him a sad puppet that went trough life filled with pain, anger, hatred and despairs and with no hope that things will get better. Even for Sonia he wasn’t feeling love, but a connection and a companion who would give him her tears and made him feel better in harsh times. However, after the moment in jail when he started crying grabbing Sonya‘s knees, everything changed. He allowed his heart to lead him in life. Once he gave himself in, doing the right thing God gave him love, salvation, happiness and a new view in life. His sin was cleared. His crime was forgotten and finally, in his life he seemed to start experiencing happiness. The miracle that Sonya told him was going to happen if he does the right thing, actually happened. That gave him perspective, patience and hope for the future. The point the author was trying to get to the readers is that faith in God and love are the most important things in life that can help you get through any tough situation.
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