Monday 16 January 2012

Poetry In Streetcar

Sonnets From The Portugese 43 is a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and details her undying love for her husband, Robert Browning. Through the sonnet, Browning mentions how she loves him, and lists a dozen different ways. She mentions that she loves him freely, and with undying passion. The love that she feels is un-inhibited by lies, and is honest. There is excessive repitition of the words, "I love thee", which helps to show the undying feelings that she feels towards her husband.

The poem lends itself to A Streetcar Named Desire in a couple of ways. First of all, Blanche. Blance had a fantastic love life, with a young man, who she married and loved to a massive degree. She thought he was sweet, handsome and caring, although slighlty effeminate. Up to this point, you can understand why Blanche thinks of Sonnet 43 as her favourite poem. It describes her love life perfectly. However, it takes a turn of the ironic once you see what she did to her husband. Upon finding out that her husband was a closet homosexual, she completely turned on her heel, and literally destroyed him emotionally. The irony of this is that the poem talks about unconditional love, where Blance does not have that trait.

Mitch, on the other hand, is a perfect mirror of who the poem is written for. He loves his dead girlfriend unconditionally. everything he does is either done for his mother, or his dead girlfriend. He still loves her, and carries a token from her, with a line from the poem engraved in it. This shows that Mitch is a pure character, who doesn't try to show his love, which makes him a genuine character. Blance, being an actress, is dramatic about this love, and uses it to make people like her, which shows the falseness of her character.

2 comments:

  1. We don't know much about Mitch's dead girl... but what about Stella?

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  2. that was me, btw. Ms. M

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