Chantal Valladares

Pd: 4
Ms. Trebtoske
English Hon

Street Car & Macbeth Essay

It is part of the human behavior that we have our dreams, our needs, our
weaknesses, and mistakes, but that is how humans learn in life. In Macbeth and
Streetcar, these behaviors affected the characters for the worse at the end. Both
Shakespeare and Williams illustrate that those who let their minds fall into their
weaknesses, will see the consequences of it and its ultimate fate.
The gender roles in both Macbeth and Streetcar each switched societal
expectations. In Macbeth, Macbeth didnt had the normal masculine dominant role
and he depended a lot on Lady Macbeth at the start. For example, how Lady
macbeth treated Macbeth, And live a coward in thine own esteem(1.7). Lady
Macbeth manipulates and mocks Macbeth by making him feel weak if he dosent kill
Duncan or if he makes it obvious during his act. She does this in order to complete
her desire to be queen, which Macbeth also desired. In the other hand in Streetcar,
Blanche the protagonist, depended mostly on men for her own self-esteem and her
insecurities. For example, Well, you do, honey lamb! Come here. I want to kiss you,
just once, softly and sweetly on your mouth! (5.84). This shows that her vanity and
sexual desires are what makes her feel good after knowing these are what she does
best. Stanley is the opposite of Macbeth, he dominates both Stella and Blanche
because he knows they are incapable of his strengths. This connects to the societal
beliefs that men are suppose to be strong, masculine, and dominate over women,
who are seen weak, soft, and dependable on men. Women shouldnt depend on
men for happiness or self desires, which many often do the mistake, and at the
end, it probably didnt work out and it could actually be doing harm to them.

Often people blame who or what did it, when in reality it could be the person
itself. In Streetcar, Blanche has lost her husband, her money,gets socially rejected,
and at the end gets sent into an mental asylum. But could she be responsible of this
fate? Maybe the answer is yes. She has been living her life as an illusion and not as
reality after her terrible husbands death, who she feels guilty for. She shouldve had
support at the time, so that she wouldnt had to be overwhelmed by her guilt. She
shouldnt had because it was her husband's decision and she only told her real
thought of him being gay. What Blanche did after this tragic and her decisions and
her life. There could've been better choices for her to follow, but she chose the dull
lighted life with the shadows behind her.
In Macbeth, there could of been many who lead Macbeth to make up his mind
and kill King Duncan. Ones choice is purely from the person itself, and the person
itself knows what he really wants. Others like Lady Macbeth and the three witches
couldve helped him make up his mind to actually commit murder, but it is him
himself who actually followed these. If he wasnt interested at all of doing this, he
wouldnt had listened and let these words overcome his mind. He chose to actually
let Lady Macbeth control him and let it just go with her thoughts. He could have
chose to not agree and leave her alone for her to make her own decisions. If she
truely cared for him, he shouldnt have been worried of his relationship with her, if
that's the case. He also chose to go to the witches in the beginning, When shall we
three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?...There to meet with
Macbeth...Fair is foul, and foul is fair(1.1). It seems like its not his first time
because the witches have mentioned his name before he met them again. At that
time era, witches are seen evil, related to the devil, doing dark deeds. Him going to
witches seems like he knows that he will be doing deeds related to the evil. Since he

listened to the witches, they leave him that temptation, which he lets himself
believe and fall into. It is up to him to actually make this into reality, which he
chose to.
Do dreams happen like they are expected? The human has desires, but
sometimes those desires can be greedy or not possible. In Macbeth, you can see
how these desires are greedy and didnt end well. Macbeth wanted to have be King,
have power. He desires to have the power he doesnt have. He knew the
consequences of him killing the King to become one, but he still listened to the
greed. Lady Macbeth had more greed and power over him, so she didnt really
notice the consequences and the downfall of it Throughout the play, he follows his
greed and his wifes greed for power, but at the end, it was not successful. Lady
Macbeth kills herself after she notices the reality and becomes overwhelmed of
guilt. Macbeth later doesnt care of the reality and keeps following his greed, which
ultimately ends up Macduff killing him and carrying his head of shame. In Streetcar,
Blanche also tries to ignore the reality. Like Macbeth, she kept on ignoring the
reality, and at the end it back-stabbed her. She followed her vanity and illusion,
instead of making the good choices for her desires. She wanted to get married with
the right person, leave that past, but it didnt work out. Living in illusions in the real
world wont take you anywhere, but instead, it will destroy the person just like
Macbeth and Blanche. The reality is harsh and they didnt really belong there.
In conclusion, these weakness that everyone has, shouldnt be followed
because they will destroy you at the end. Even if this world is an illusion, in order to
live in it, you must still follow its reality. It is really hard to break this worlds
reality, even I myself dont agree most of this reality. There could be a way to live

life how you want, but it is not by letting your weaknesses take over your mind to
make your choices.