Phantom

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

A sure way to bring about -

This ruin, is one word

By leaders;

War.

Armies march, ever closer, higher

I gaze with staring eyes

Cities blazing, in the fire;

The armies fall, the lustre dies.

Rearing flames tell me true,

Where are those men marching to?

Homes of their brothers, theirs too

Is that justifiable to you?

Then once again the glow returns;

Down the red-hot valley blow

Again the phantom city burns;

Again the phantom armies go!

Reality

‘Owen’s intent is to confront the reader with as much reality as he is able to create’ - How Owen achieves his purpose

Owen used poetry as a means of communicating the realities of trench warfare to the masses, contrasting the propaganda of the time.  Through Owen’s use of visceral imagery, sensory language, personas and various rhetorical and literary devices, he is able to confront the reader with a variety of realities related to the war. This is also done by his naming the poems in a particular way.

By using ellipses in his poetry, Owen allows the reader to continue imagining the different forms of realities he talks about and to develop their own responses to them. In ‘Exposure’ for example; “The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…”; the ellipses add a sense of foreboding and creating a pause so the reader can reflect upon the how the soldiers must have felt at the start of each day; and; "Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent..."; Usually silence is a beautiful tranquil state of mind. Yet, here it is something that creates "nervous" and "curious" soldiers. This truly creates pathos for the soldiers- do they ever have a chance to relax?  This technique is also used in other poems, such as ‘Disabled’; “He thought he’d better join. He wonders why...” This line causes the reader to reflect on what is being said and they begin to think of reasons why soldiers would sign up, which is the effect Owen wanted to create, putting the readers in the position of the soldiers.

The title of ‘Exposure’ indicates that Owen will be ‘exposing’ the truth to us and that there is no form of physical protection for the soldiers, they are ‘exposed’. It also introduces a sense of nakedness and vulnerability. This implied agenda lets the reader know what to expect from the content of the poem. All of his poems are named in order to convey the reality of war to those reading them. For example, ‘Insensibility’ is rightly named to describe the feelings or indeed lack of, that the soldiers have to deal with while fighting in the war. ‘Mental Cases’ and ‘Disabled’ are further examples where Owen tells the reader of the harsh realities; the ones no one at the time would have talked about; that he will go on to talk about in his poems.

‘Exposure’ is a war poem, written from a soldier’s point of view. From the first line, personification is used effectively to introduce us to the harsh weather conditions the soldiers faced “merciless iced east winds”; as such the feeling is created that everyone and everything is against them. This is continued throughout the poem, becoming pathetic fallacy as “the rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy” reflects the seemingly hopeless nature of their situation. “the wind’s nonchalance” is another implication of uncaring austerity from nature. The unceasing actuality of war and the harsh weather conditions is repeatedly referred to through phrases such as “successive” “incessantly” “war lasts” and “pause and renew” . This idea of never-ending hardship contrasts the shortness of the soldier’s lives, made evident by allusions to “dying”. Owen appeals to humanity and makes the shortness of the soldiers’ lives more poignant as we are reminded that they are people, like us, who “lie out here; therefore were born” and are not unfeeling killing machines. The use of pathetic fallacy and personification is also present in poems such as ‘Miners’, ‘Futility’ and ‘The Last Laugh’. Owen uses pathetic fallacy to recreate the harsh elemental conditions of war and reflect the mood of the soldiers. Personification is used to address the reality of a crisis of faith in most of the soldiers and to expose to the reader the inner turmoil most of them had to face during the war.

“Our brains ache” helps us imagine what it felt like for the men; a reassuring sense of solidarity is conveyed by “our”. The cold, noise, exhaustion or feeling generally overwhelmed that could have caused the soldier’s brains to “ache” means the line conveys more of the harsh reality of war than the patriotic image “our” may have. This links with feelings of disorientation later in the poem when they “drowse, sun-dozed” and dissociate themselves from “a dull rumour of some other war” as it all gets too much for the soldiers.

Owen builds tension throughout the poem, using interrogatives “What are we doing here?” and “Is it that we are dying?” so the reader considers the poem more deeply and searches for an answer. He has opted to use repetition to reinforce the feeling of anticipation. The more we are told that “nothing happens” the more we expect something to occur. This mirrors the soldiers’ feelings as they anticipate going over the top.

We are brought back to Owen’s aim (“Exposure”) to convey the reality of war when “The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…”. The light revealing reality in the same way Owen is ‘exposing’ the truth. “Misery of dawn” is a very effective oxymoron, as it inverts our expectation of dawn being a new start, bringing hope. Owen continues to describe the effects of war on men “All their eyes are ice”, showing the truth of the emotional turmoil the soldiers went through as well as earlier references to the physical hazards “men among its brambles”. We empathise further as it has now been illustrated how like us the soldiers were and how much they suffered.

In the poem ‘Insensibility’, Owen uses an inverted sentence structure along with biblical references as well as using Horace’s poetry, using it ironically to portray his differing viewpoint on the war. “Happy the lad whose mind was never trained”. It is clear that Owen believes that the ‘lads’ who have never been mentally trained are better off than the older soldiers perhaps because their natural instincts are to shut down and stop feeling. Using ‘lad’ makes the reader think of a young boy at war rather than a fit older soldier. This plays on the reader’s sympathies as it reminds them that many of the soldiers are only young boys. He also does this in ‘Arms and the Boy’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ where he describes the soldiers as children. This conveys the reality that many young boys lied about their ages and snuck into the armed forces hoping for glory and victory.

The Bloody Chamber - Recreative w/ Analysis

This is my own recreative writing, based on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and below, an analysis of my own work.

I fumbled for the matches in my pocket; what a dim, lugubrious light they gave! And yet, enough, oh, more than enough to see a room designed for desecration and some dark night of unimaginable lovers whose embraces were annihilation.

Perhaps this was the result of near comatose exhaustion; a delirious state of half-sleep in which ludicrous scenes draped over my eyes, each a little more preposterous than the other. Nay, my husband had gone to deal with monetary matters that allowed me to recline so comfortably upon the cushion of his wealth. He shall return imminently, bringing with him an atmosphere of apprehension; compelling my slim, lithe form to hold taut; the atmosphere which had all but disappeared after his departure.

Having seen the first ever mistress of this mansion during her performance of Isolde; that opulently draped diva, trepidation had tingled to my toes, knowing that I may never compare to such a grace. But what an euphoric feeling it had been, being held in the same light as so fine a woman, in the same light as all these women; knowing that to the Marquis, I was as coveted a treasure as any of them.  It may simply have been to feed his fiendish desire to watch, while his vulnerable lady; attractive for her form or indeed in my own case, innocence; lay writhing on a bed of stone. He had surprised me with many a treat. A box of the finest marrons glacés, a bouquet of hot-house flowers or even his frequently desired, solitary lily.

Raising my shy gaze heaven-ward, my eyes made out large, bulky shapes of yet another set of gargoyles through the dim light, backs arched as though waiting for me to make my escape. Their stiff, solid posture and smooth, glossy marble texture causing an involuntary shiver down my spine, not unrelated to the bitter blue breeze penetrating in through some fissure in the walls.

I was alone, standing in an unknown place where nothing made sense, save for my grey mind and its newly accumulated thoughts; the mad ravings of a mousey pianist.

The walls of this stark torture chamber were the naked rock; they gleamed as if they were sweating with fright.

-

Analysis of my writing;

The writings of Angela Carter are unique, in the way of style, themes, symbols and motifs. The stories written by Carter are not those of cheerfulness and happy endings, they are different in a most spectacular way. Carter's rewritten fairy tales are a frightening look at the true reality of what fairy tales really are.

I have chosen this story as it is a familiar fairy tale story, combined with the unfamiliarity of a young girl going to her marital home. I have used this particular gap in the narrative as it is in this moment that the lead character is about to discover her husband’s deep dark secret. This gap made it possible to explore her anxiety of realising that she does not know the man she has married, her reluctance to accept the truth, and perhaps the emotions she feels on being left alone in such a way. Carter had only hinted at her character being a conventional heroine of fairy tales; passive and meek. I wanted to explore why she would feel this way, how she would react, and whether I could alter this view so that she is more concerned with her relationship with the Marquis rather than screaming bloody murder.

Unlike a traditional fairy-tale narrator, generally an impartial third person, this narrator is the heroine herself. By giving the heroine a voice, Carter challenged the fairy-tale tradition of our seeing, from the outside, events befall an innocent girl. Letting the distressed heroine tell her story empowers the figure of woman by putting her in the traditionally male-dominated roles of storyteller and survivor instead of relegating her to the role of helpless princess. In The Bloody Chamber, the heroine tells us personally about how her suffering became the source of her enlightenment.

I wanted to replicate the way in which Carter empowers her character by making her a poor pianist that marries primarily for money. I did this by continuing her interior monologue into how she feels about her husband and their marriage and whether she could believe what she was about to see. I included his past, such as “the first ever mistress of this mansion during her performance of Isolde; that opulently draped diva”, in order to reflect upon the character’s own inexperience and wonder whether this was the reason he had left her alone to find such a scene.

I have kept the setting of my narrative the same as it is before and after the gap in the narrative; the chamber she has wandered into. I wanted to focus on the underlying feeling of her being trapped, in this case, literally in a stone dungeon, to symbolise being trapped in the marriage. Keeping with the narrative, the atmosphere was one of tension within the character’s own mind, emphasised by the gargoyle statues in the room, watching her every move, as though the Marquis had never left, leaving her unable to relax.

Carter uses a variety of syntax in her work, ranging from two short words to whole paragraphs without a full stop. Instead, she uses semi-colons. I have tried to re-capture this style in my work. It is most evident during the second paragraph, in which there are three long sentences and one short one. I have also used certain phallic symbols such as; ‘stiff, solid posture and smooth, glossy marble texture’ to describe the gargoyles, and ‘recline so comfortably upon the cushion of his wealth’, ‘feed his fiendish desire’  ‘lay writhing on a bed of stone’ and ‘penetrating’ to interweave sexual ambiguity into the narrative. She raises her eyes ‘heaven-ward’, symbolising a religious undercurrent within the text, since gargoyles are typically seen to ‘guard’ churches.

When the Marquis is present, he dominates the relationship, able to make her do as he wishes. The colour used to symbolise their relationship is mostly red, symbolising male dominance and their sexual relationship. This is also used in other stories, such as “The Company of Wolves” to symbolise virginity and hormonal urges. In this extract however, I have used the colour blue to describe the ‘bitter blue breeze penetrating in’. This is because the character is worried and apprehensive, and the colour blue would feel chilly, bringing out goose-bumps in such a situation. I have also described her as having a dim ‘grey mind’ to emphasise the numbness of her brain after learning of her husband keeping something from her, of not knowing him at all, of the knowledge that she had married such a man and will have to spend the rest of her life there.

To the reader, this passage between the original narrative implies that the character knows the truth about her husband but refuses to believe it at first, insisting that “ludicrous scenes” are a part of her “delirious state of half-sleep” although the truth slowly scrapes away at the back of her mind.

I believe this piece, while fitting well into the narrative, lacks Angela Carter’s unique style and depth in the characters. On reflection, I would have concentrated the character’s thoughts into a rational sense of fear and explored this emotion.

First Impressions and their role in Pride & Prejudice

First impressions take up a major role in the plot of Pride and Prejudice as they form the main basis of how the characters interact with each other within most of the story, as is conveyed below:

Pride and Prejudice is a novel about overcoming obstacles and achieving romantic success. For the protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, one of the main obstacles they need to overcome is what the novel was originally named; First Impressions. These first impressions begin at the ball in which Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley are initially introduced to the rest of the characters. Without the two main leads even interacting with each other, each has their mind made up about the other.

Darcy, the proud noblewoman’s nephew must break free from his original dismissal of Elizabeth as ‘not handsome enough to tempt me,’ and from his class – based prejudice against her lack of wealth and family connections. However, Elizabeth’s first impressions register Darcy as arrogant and self-satisfied; as a result, she later accepts malicious accusations against him as true.

Both Elizabeth and Darcy are forced to come to grips with their own initial mistakes. The first half of the novel outlines Darcy's progression to the point at which he is able to admit his love in spite of his prejudice. In the second half, Elizabeth's mistaken impressions are displaced by realizations about Darcy's true character.

Darcy's two proposals to Elizabeth chart the mature development of their relationship. He delivers the first at the mid-point of the novel, when he has realized his love for Elizabeth but has not yet escaped his prejudices against her family, and when she is still in the grip of her first, negative impression of him.

The second proposal—in which Darcy humbly restates his love for her and Elizabeth, now with full knowledge of Mr. Darcy's good character, happily accepts—marks the arrival of the two characters, each finally achieving the ability to view the other through unprejudiced eyes.

The marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth reveals the characteristics that constitute a successful marriage. One of these characteristics is that the feeling cannot be brought on by appearances, and must gradually develop between the two people as they get to know one another.

In the beginning, Elizabeth and Darcy were distant from each other because of their prejudice. The series of events which they both experienced gave them the opportunity to understand one another and the time to reconcile their feelings for each other. Thus, their mutual understanding is the foundation of their relationship and will lead them to a peaceful and lasting marriage. This relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy reveals the importance of getting to know one’s partner before marrying and not judging them from first impressions.

Owen's portrayal of Memory & the Physiological effects of War - The Sentry

"I try not to remember these things now" (THE SENTRY)

 

The poem The Sentry is an accurate and detailed account of an actual event that occurred while Owen’s company were occupying a German dugout on the front line. This can be seen in his letters to his mother. Within the poem, Owen describes the conditions of the waterlogged dugout as it is hammered by explosions, until a sentry he had posted was blasted into the dugout by an explosion. He then goes on to describe the soldier himself, and how his appearance and sobbing haunted Owen in his dreams.

The language throughout the poem is simple, which lends its defining trait of gritty texture and onomatopoeia to the poem to great effect. ‘Hammered on top’, referring to the shelling, gives a powerful impression of the relentless assault on the aural sense the soldiers suffered, and this is further depicted later on in the poem with the phrase ‘shrieking air’, which likens the sounds of war to an almost inhuman and banshee-like scream. ‘What murk of air remained stank old, and sour’ focuses on the sensation of smell, and along with the visual description of the ‘guttering’ rain compared to slime, and the dugout steps ‘too thick with clay to climb’ paint the scene in the full spectrum of human sensation. It is not just horrific scenes that are recalled, but sounds and smells too. Like in Dulce et decorum est, as much as the narrator tries to forget, he cannot.  “In all my dreams before my helpless sight / He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” The memories become stronger the more he tries to forget, even the smallest details aren’t left out. These vivid, visceral and disorienting memories almost mock the narrator’s attempt to not remember. The use of harsh, violent, progressive verbs makes the physiological damage the soldiers suffer even more violent.

The sounds of the words are a main tool of Wilfred Owen’s poems, and this poem is no exception. In the opening lines, he uses a combination of repetition and rhyme in ‘…hell, for shell on frantic shell’ and ‘hour by hour…sour’ to establish the cadence, and this, along with the heavy dull sounds of ‘thud! flump! thud!’ later in the poem all reinforce the reference to an endless hammering, and the continuity strengthens the impression of the ceaseless barrage. To describe the shells as frantic gives a sense of the terror and confusion they inspired, but also blurs the distinction between objects and humans, in a similar way in which he insinuated that soldiers had been dehumanized and ‘die as cattle’ in Anthem for Doomed Youth. These repetitive sounds give the impression that these memories are recurring, they go through the soldier’s mind often and he is unable to stop this repetitive loop. The alliteration of the ‘t’ sound in ‘wild chattering of his broken teeth’ emphasises what is already an unpleasant image, through the rattling of the consonant, and this again displays how Owen ensured that his poetry was effective not only through the power and horror of his topic, but through the sounds and rhythm the words create.

The sentry himself is introduced as being distinct from his physical being, with ‘The sentry’s body’, making him seem like nothing more than an object possessed by life rather than a living human being. One of the most effective similes Wilfred Owen employs in the poem is comparing the sentry’s ‘huge-bulged’ eyes to those of a squid, as the grotesque and slimy sea creature being related to a person’s eyes, which have associations of beauty and innocence, is powerfully incongruous. The other soldiers are later described as ‘Those other wretches’, continuing the theme of war’s dehumanizing effect.  This is not dissimilar to the line “Treading blood from lungs that had once loved laughter.” from the poem Mental Cases. The grotesque images of the soldiers’ deformities are echoed here and by putting a negative image of blood with the positive image of laughter, Owen once again builds another incongruous image whereby the stark morbidity of blood is compared to the innocence of laughter. By doing this, Owen puts together bizarre images that ensure the reader does not forget such appalling memories and the physiological pain of the soldiers, just as he cannot. It also shows how the war must have looked to the soldiers who had never before experienced anything of the sort, and the tumultuous emotions they must have felt while trying to cope.

Pathetic fallacy presents nature as a theme of ‘The Sentry’. “Rain guttering down in waterfalls of slime / Kept slush waist-high and rising hour by hour”. These two lines explore the idea that nature has become the British Armies’ enemy and that the Germans have become less of a threat in comparison. The use of pathetic fallacy gives the poem an aura of inevitability and the rain seems to give the poem a sinister tone. In this sense, Owen presents the experience of war as a regrettable, dark one. This idea links in with the poem ‘Futility’ where pathetic fallacy is also used. The use of the technique on the words ‘sun’ and ‘snow’ gives the poem different contrasting ideas of hope and despair, similar to the words “lights” and “died out” in the last line.

Owen’s recollection of the memories of war and its physiological effects, as described in The Sentry are very similar to those in Disabled. Both poems describe the persona in the poem forlornly remembering the days he was at war and how they affected him. The lines “Now he will never feel again how slim / Girls’ waists are” show not only the pain in the physical loss of his arm, but also the psychological scars, as the soldier knows he will be shunned for it. Owen sees memory as neither good nor bad, but describes the role it plays in helping the soldiers get through the war, as well as taking them back to it well after they are freed from it. ‘Although memories are not necessarily a bad thing, they may tie you down to a past you wish to escape’ seems to be his message across his poems.

The Snow Child

This is my own re-creative, based on Angela Carter's 'The Snow Child'

The Count lifted her up and sat her in front of him on his saddle but the Countess had only one thought: how shall I be rid of her?

This child, created only moments ago, was clothed in my finest garments and I had been overlooked by my dear Count. Were these clothes only what mattered? It seemed as though the best-dressed female was the only one deserving of any attention.

As the Count settled his gaze on me, I stared back defiantly, refusing to become the meek female he usually dominated. I was the Countess, not one of his befouled whores. The child watched his every move, unconsciously mirroring it all. It was true; she was the child of his dreams, radiating innocence and youth, as yet untouched by the imperfections of the world we belonged to. And I hated her for it.

Yet being able to call myself Countess was an achievement in itself, no other woman had gotten this far. I was above the rest of them, displaying elegance and grace. None of the women had gotten so far; until now. This one child, a Child I say! has become the Count’s favourite in a matter of a few minutes.

Even now his eyes followed her, raking in her appearance, admiring her form. The edges of my teeth pushed themselves into the soft flesh of my lips, pushing further, until they split the skin and it bled; red drops forming on the surface. This had been my downfall, this infernal bleeding. If I could somehow be trapped within the folds of time for eternity, unchanging, I would gladly do so; keeping my body as it once was, that of a young virgin, newly married to a Count, the joy shining on my face.

It matters not now. It is better to let the Count have his fun now, in the lost land of snow. I shall be the one returning to his castle tonight. We rode on.

Pain & Pleasure of Human Relationships - A comparison between Enduring Love and A Streetcar Named Desire

Most people stay in a relationship where pain outweighs pleasure because they perceive the possible separation as being more painful than being together, and so they choose the less painful option of staying. We will obviously try to choose something that will cause us the most pleasure. If all choices are perceived to be result in pain, then we will either choose to make no choice at all, or that which gives us the least amount of pain. Similar choices are made in the two texts that will be explored in this essay; Enduring Love and A Streetcar Named Desire. These two pieces are modern drama and modern prose, set fifty years apart, set in different places, dealing with the human condition – what unites us is stronger than what differentiates us. We will also be looking at how pain and pleasure are two binary oppositions but looking deeper into the texts, these two seem interchangeable and so it is possible to get both pain and pleasure in certain circumstances. 

One interpretation of Enduring Love looks beyond the plot to the overall effect the author is trying to achieve, to the novel’s central theme, that ‘unreliability is an ineradicable part of who we are,’ according to Adam Mars-Jones. The novel can be seen as a philosophical argument that looks at the ideas that fascinate the post-modern world. The ideas involving the concept of truth are explored in the novel, what is truth? How can the truth ever be known and how can it ever be objective? It is with this base idea that the lead characters of the novel have trouble and so begins the breakdown of relationships. This idea of the truth is also portrayed in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Streetcar is a story of damaged people. Blanche DuBois, a repressed and sexually warped Southern belle, seeks either atonement or reassurance; she wants someone to help lift the burden of her guilt for her twisted sexuality. Through this character’s introduction to the play, the story changes immensely and we learn that she does not tell the truth, but ‘what ought to be the truth’. The slow unraveling of her illusions is what makes up the foundation of the play. The theme of truth in both these texts determines how the characters act around each other. And with each action, comes an opposite and equal reaction from someone else. Joe, for example, has an extremely scientific mind and is able to remember details with uncanny precision, as is Blanche. Whether they divulge these details to the people around them depends on what they believe the truth is, or in Blanche’s case, what the truth should be. 

Both texts focus on and analyze heavily the intricate web of relationships between their characters, in a variety of situations. Some of the relationships are painful, others pleasurable. Most, however, cannot distinguish the fine line between the two. There are two sides to every relationship and no matter how pleasurable they are, there is always the potential for pain. In Enduring Love, Jed begins to fall in love with Joe after the balloon accident and starts to stalk him, which we later realize is due to an illness. The formation of this one new relationship slowly but surely picks at the other relationships in Joe’s life and weakens them significantly. While this gives Jed varying amounts of pain and pleasure according to Joe’s reactions, it causes Joe only pain, ‘It was as if I had fallen through a crack in my own existence’. In the same way, when Blanche comes to Stella’s home in Streetcar, she must accept her sister’s relations and make them her own. Even though she loves her sister, Blanch is unable to get any pleasure from the other relationships. She seeks comfort from Mitch for some time but it does not last long and causes Blanche a significant amount of heartache, ‘But I have been foolish – casting my pearls before swine!’. 

A recurring theme that can be found in A Streetcar Named Desire is the constant conflict between reality and fantasy, actual and ideal. This theme is read most strongly in Williams' characterization of Blanche DuBois and the physical tropes that she employs in her pursuit of what is magical and idealized, such as her letters and phone calls to Shep Huntleigh. Blanche says "I don't want realism, I want magic." As one critic writes, "Blanche spins a cocoon linguistically for protection." Blanche creates her own fantasy world through the characters she plays, such as the damsel, southern belle or school teacher. She wears her costumes to create a façade to hide behind, concealing her secrets and attempting to reach her former glory. Her character is not so different from McEwan’s Jed. He also creates his own world where he believes that Joe is in love with him. His belief is so strong that he constantly tries to meet Joe and tells him “ 'I just wanted you to know, I understand what you're feeling. I feel it too. I love you'...". This suggests that both Blanch and Jed are unsatisfied with their relationships and so have a desire to formulate ones that do not exist, pretending to get pleasure from them and hoping that if they believe hard enough, it may become a reality. 

Havelock Ellis, in Studies in the Psychology of Sex, argued that there is no clear distinction between the aspects of sadism and masochism, and that they may be regarded as complementary emotional states. He also made the important point that sadomasochism generally desires that the pain be inflicted or received in love, not in abuse, for the pleasure of either one or both participants. This is most clearly seen in the relationship between Stanley and Stella in Streetcar. Scene three underscores the primal nature of their relationship. After Stanley throws out the radio, Stella shouts at him, inciting his attack on her. Later in the night, Stanley shouts to her and their reunion is described in terms of animal noises. Stanley cruelly abuses his wife yet she sides with him and later tells Blanche that he ‘didn’t mean it’. This compares to when Jed sent out gunmen to kill Joe, although changing his mind later, and the pleasure he felt causing Joe pain, receiving pleasure from Joe rejecting his advances and thinking he was doing God’s divine work. He writes in his letter to Joe ‘What were you trying to do to me? Hurt me? Insult me? Test me? I hated you for it, but I never forgot that I loved you too, and that was why I kept going.’ Jed is similar to both Stanley and Stanley as he receives pleasure from causing pain as well as inflicting it on Joe. 

In some ways, Blanche and Clarissa aren’t so different from each other. Neither is able to have children for their own reasons. Blanche as she is unmarried, and Clarissa because she biologically cannot mother a child. This can cause a significant amount of pain to them, as is evident. Blanche comes to visit her sister while Stella is pregnant, and when she hears the news about the baby, is unsure what to do with herself. It is just after she and Stanley have had an argument about Belle Reve and so Blanche says she was ‘flirting with your husband’ to Stella, perhaps trying to make herself feel better. Clarissa’s pain is a little more overt, as we are told about her pain from Joe’s point of view and so he must be able to see it in order to tell the reader about it. This also affects her relationship with Joe near the end of the book. Perhaps if they had a child, or were capable of having one, they would have a last reason to stay together or it would make them work harder at their relationship. Instead, they have to even cover up the subject with talk of something else all together. As Joe says; ‘What we were really talking about this time was the absence of babies from our lives’. A child would make their relationship more pleasurable and less painful. 

Joe and Jed's bond, forged in the masculine homo-social activity of a physical rescue, leads to a doubling whereby Joe is under increased anxiety to distinguish his heterosexual identity from Jed's homosexual one. When Clarissa hears Joe's first reports on Parry's phone calls and letters, she jokes, "A secret gay love affair with a Jesus freak! I can't wait to tell your science friends" and asks whether the two men are getting married. While a traditional psychoanalytic reading would say that her joke expresses the unconscious truth of Joe's latent homosexual desire, a Sedgwickian reading would claim, with somewhat different emphasis, that Clarissa indicates the shifting terrain on which male homo-social relations must always be enacted. This determination to prove himself as a heterosexual and worthy of Clarissa ends up isolating Joe from her instead and brings grief to both, although Clarissa is the first to realize this while Joe puzzles over her behaviour. In Streetcar, Stanley is equally determined to prove his masculinity, whether it be through sexual innuendoes and anecdotes, physical strength, teasing those less masculine than him or through rape. Where in most of his relationships this causes anguish to others, such as Blanche, he is almost revered by others for his blatant display of manliness, such as his friends and his wife Stella, to whom such things are painful to the point of being pleasurable or even pleasurable to the point of being painful. As the stage directions at the end of scene three tell us, Stella is ‘blind with tenderness’. 

Blanche’s neurotic symptoms emerge as she represses the instance of discovering the true sexual nature of her husband. This painful rejection of her sexual love for him leads her into extreme promiscuity. This speaks of her need to control her sexuality with men and receive sexual validity through their desire for her. The ultimate testament of this is her relationship with a 17 year old. By engaging in this relationship, Blanche can be secure in her desirability to men. Blanche’s impossible desires to have the man she loved, her husband, find her sexually desirable leads her into this. The paradox of this relationship is that by trying to control men’s desire for her she gets swept up in promiscuous behaviour, through which she makes herself undesirable to the one man she wants to marry her, Mitch. She goes through tremendous pain with the death of her husband and no other relationships offer her the shelter that she needs. Even before she meets Mitch however, she begins to flirt with Stanley, perhaps hoping she could pull it off and he would let her stay as long as she liked. She obviously has no qualms about sabotaging her sister’s home, even though she cares deeply about her. The same intensity of emotion is reflected in Jed Parry. He is very manipulative in the way he attempts to get closer to Joe, he makes Joe curious about what he wants and uses this as a chance to try and persuade Joe to love him. He also uses Clarissa. When talking about his and Joe’s future he mentions Clarissa; ‘Clarissa. It’s best to deal with this head on.’ He knows he has the power to jeopardise their relationship and uses this to his advantage. He causes pain to Joe and Clarissa to receive pleasure for himself. 

Relationships that we form with other people will always have both pain and pleasure, whether they are caused by that person or not. It is not possible for it to be a healthy relationship otherwise. As we are shown, both texts explore such relationships and each character receives a certain amount of both. McEwan and Williams balance these out with other characters, giving some more pain and others more pleasure. They are able to express such emotions through showing us the effects of positive and negative relationships and the toll they take on people.