How Are Othello and Blanche Dubois Alienated in Their Societies? Essay

Comp atomic number 18 the ways in which alienation of individuals from their societies is presented in the cardinal texts you induce studied.George Bernard Shaw once said that conflict is the essence of drama, and if that is true, therefore the plays Othello and A Streetcar Named Desire would thus be rife with drama, as conflict in inexorably presented by the both rateive playwrights, Shakespeare and Williams, through and through the alienation of individuals from their societies. This creates constant conflict and friction within the plays as the dispirited efforts of their outlanders is invariably pushed back by an even greater force that rejects them from creation a part of society. In each of these plays, there are common come forth literary blinds that each playwright uses to bring round this alienation, with the to the highest degree axiomatic of them being the apposition of the characters to other characters and to their newfound homelands, as well as the imager y and words that the other characters use against them or to describe them (with verbiage and its various forms also being an overarching factor that achieves this effect of alienation).In the re solelyy first scene of the play, Iago already plays on Othellos otherness towards Brabantio, purposefully making jabs at Othellos race, giving him a reason to judge of his daughters new marriage by painting a vile picture of what Othello allow for do to his daughter in youll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse. The bestial imagery invoked by Iago is only(prenominal) further propagated throughout the play in which he constantly uses Othellos scrape-colour to give others a reason to distrust him.The most transparent way in which the alienation of individuals is presented in the two plays are the juxtaposition of the outsider to their new surroundings, namely Othello the Moor from Othello and Blanche Dubois from Streetcar. For Othello, the Moor general is considered an outsi der to everyone in Venice, where the play is set, simply because he is of African descent whereas everyone else is a fair-skinned Venetian. Thus, every single character that he interacts with paints an almost immediate business as he does not share the same heritage as them. The most crucial contrasts that are portrayed through Othello are that mingled with his wife, Desdemona and his counterpart and adversary, Iago.Similarly, in Streetcar, the alienation of Blanche Dubois, an upper-class woman who comes from a affluent background (Belle Reve) is presented through her sister Stella, and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski as they are futile to judge the changes that comes with her moving into their lives. Stanley, whom Blanche considers to be a Polish immigrant (derogatively referring to him as a Polack) has already established an extremely comfortable lifestyle with his wife and the intromission of Blanche threatens all of this, and so he ultimately decides to eliminate her from the picture. This is presented in the contrast amidst these two polar opposites. Where Stanley is proud to be in his own skin and confident of his physical attractiveness, My clothesre stickin to me. Do you mind if I make myself more comfortable?, Blanche is shown to always be covered up and shielded from graphic light, as she is afraid that the people and company in her life (what she needs the most) will resent her when they see her real and natural looks. The extent to their differences run further than that though, as Stanley (along with the other characters who lives in the cut Quarter) is used to being outspoken and blunt, speaking his mind towards whatever he sees fit, whereas Blanche is constantly hiding behind lies and falsifications, and it is fundamentally, in these conflicts of inte liberalisations and behaviors that society as a whole is generally uneffective to occupy Blanche into their lives, because she is so different from them and is futile to adapt wholly to them.As an offspring from the characters being unable to accept these individuals into their respective societies, it can be seen that the desktop itself is another melodramatic device in which the playwrights use to highlight the alienation of an individual from its society. In Othello, Shakespeare uses the fit of Venice in Act 1 and then later on, Cyprus in the succour of the play to again, show how Othello (at the time of the play) would never be accepted into overmuch(prenominal) cultures. Firstly in Venice, there is an inherent xenophobia within the society that is unable to accept Othello into their personal lives, thus showing that Othellos value in society is nothing more than a tool, and that the respect that he is accorded with is only due to his contributions to the state, without which he is nothing. This can be seen from the treatment he receives from others, most notably the First Senator and the Duke in Here comes Othello and the valiant Moorand undaunted Othe llo, we must straight employ you respectively. Even though the noblemen speak to him with respect and dignity, it is shown that they treat his otherness as an intrinsic part of his character that they cannot end from addressing him with, therefore showing that Othello had always been considered an outsider that only has a place in the Venetian society as someone who can spree service.In Act 2 onwards, the introduction of a new setting Cyprus shows Othellos further alienation from his society. Ironically, Cyprus is a somewhat more impertinent environment in which most of his travelling companions are unused to regain self-conscious in as it is much more rough than kind Venice. It is in Cyprus which Othello feels more at home at, unleashing his innate behavior much(prenominal) as the rage he unleashes in Act 3 and the ferocity he commits onto Desdemona in Act 4, showing the contrast that he is much more comfortable in this foreign environment than the rest of his Venetians. Th us, the dramatic setting is another device that Shakespeare uses to present the alienation of the individual Othello from the rest of his society.Again, this is true for A Streetcar Named Desire as the main setting, divine Fields is basically a cramped apartment that Blanche is completely unable to adapt to, given her background living in a considerable plantation in the Southwest for most of her life. In Elysian Fields, Blanche is not only forced into a small two-room compound shared with what she feels are foreigners above her but also, to share it with the very person she is most uncomfortable with, Stanley, and it is her constant efforts to change this environment to better suit her that so enrages Stanley in the first place, as it threatens his very way of life. In the very introduction of Blanche in scene 1, She touches her forehead shakily. Stella, theres only two rooms? she already expresses her disappointment and disdain in putting up in such an environment, and thus it shows that from the start, Williams had already shown that Elysian Fields is a place that Blanche definitely does not belong in. Furthermore, Blanche constantly revels (or shows off) to the other characters about her old home in Belle Reve, which literally means beautiful day-dream, juxtaposes heavily with the cramped and obviously uncomfortable Elysian Fields in which she currently resides in, and this inability to let go of the past thus shows that Blanche will neverbe able to fit into society, which is what Stanley will inevitably exact her out from. Therefore, the use of dramatic setting is also used in Streetcar to alienate Blanche from the society.