Loneliness and isolation are themes explored in different ways throughout Tennessee William's play "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947) and the novel "Brooklyn" by Colm Toibin (2009), mainly through the way their protagonists are presented and developed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In “Brooklyn” and “A Streetcar Named Desire,” loneliness is caused by the changes in culture and location that each protagonist faces. In “Brooklyn,” Toibin describes how Eilis is propelled from her quaint life in Ireland to the bustling, alien world of Brooklyn, New York. Toibin himself, a writer of Irish descent, suffered from homesickness during his long stay in America, which gives the reader insight into the part of himself that Toibin wrote into Eilis. Toibin comments: "I found America a strange, foreign and hostile place." He shares these feelings with his character, Eilis. Ireland did not prosper during the post-war boom like many other Western European economies - they were still suffering in the 1950s, when this book was written - and there was a mass exodus of young men and women to England and North America during the 1970s. search for work. Not only have Eilis' three brothers immigrated to England, but it is evident that there is little work available for someone with Eilis's potential. So she is encouraged to look for a better job in America. However, this change comes very suddenly for Eilis, leaving her struggling to catch up on the events unfolding around her. However, before leaving her home in Ireland, in the first part of the novel, she realizes that "she already felt that she would need to remember this room, her sister, this scene, as if she was at a distance. This reveals that even before undergoing this cultural change and environmental displacement, Eilis is already separated from her family and her life in Ireland. “As if at a distance” reinforces the idea that she is already mentally distant from where her body is. Similarly, in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Williams illustrates how Blanche had a rather traumatic experience when she moved to New Orleans to live with her sister. Even though it wasn't technically a foreign country, it felt like it was to Blanche - she was, like Eilis, a complete foreigner. Blanche was the only one in her class and her environment, apart from her sister. While Eilis was referred to as a "ghost" in her setting, in the first scene Blanche's appearance is described as "incongruous to this setting". The adjective "incongruous" means "strange" and "incompatible", and while it may not have the sharp sting that accompanies the imagery of the noun "ghost", it certainly foreshadows what will be one reasons for Blanche's fall. - his alienation and isolation in an unknown setting. For Eilis and Blanche, they are strangers immersed in an unknown world, and this harms them psychologically. This damage manifests itself in different ways for each protagonist. In the novel, as Eilis attempts to adjust to life in Brooklyn, isolation becomes even more apparent, manifesting in the form of homesickness, while in the play Blanche's loneliness leads to alcohol dependence and a near nervous breakdown. In “Brooklyn,” as critic Christopher Taylor of the Guardian puts it, “Tóibín patiently dramatizes Eilis’s homesickness” – referring to the fact that it is a gradual process; Eilis tries to act firstnormally going to work and chatting with the others in his boarding house, but his actions are hollow, like stones skimming the surface of a pond. The idea of ​​separation and being ghostly reappears; as Toibin states in part two: “She was nobody here. It wasn't just that she had no friends or family; it was more of a ghost in this room, in the streets on the way to work, in the stores. Nothing meant anything. The name "ghost" is a deceased being who still wonders about the earth, a fragment of himself, unable to leave this realm of his own accord. The fact that Eilis considers herself a ghost shows the devastating psychological impact that homesickness can have; she is trapped in the nothingness of her own existence. “Nothing Meant Nothing” is somewhat existential, separating Eilis from reality and claiming her as a victim of depression due to her seemingly endless loneliness. In "A Streetcar Named Desire", Blanche also suffers from depression and, as this feeling of isolation accumulates, she finds herself on the verge of a nervous breakdown and quickly develops an addiction to alcohol. Williams shows the audience how Blanche makes herself dependent on others, and when they abandon her (or she pushes them away), she is forced to resort to alcohol as a substitute to keep herself together. So, in scene 9, Williams notes that she “drinks to escape.” In this context, the verb "escape" refers to how she wants to escape the "fast, feverish polka" that is overwhelming her mind. Saying that the melody is "feverish" means that it is "frantic", "maniacal", and "overwrought", a collection of adjectives that demonstrate how the melody gradually drives Blanche crazy. As Brooks Atkinson, drama critic for The New York Times at the time of Streetcar's Broadway premiere, commented, "Through nothing more esoteric than his interest in human beings, Mr. Williams has addressed himself consistently and entirely to the private agony of a lost person. [White] person. "But what Blanche really longs to escape is her lonely existence. It's the same thing that Eilis wants to escape. So for both protagonists in both texts, they find a coping mechanism for their loneliness in the form of male companionship and fulfilling love In the novel "Brooklyn", Eilis eventually meets Tony, an Italian-American who quickly fills her lonely life with kindness and love once she falls in love with Tony. , her feelings of isolation and homesickness begin to deepen. However, when she is forced to return to Ireland, life interferes with her established coping mechanism. Tony, as back home in Ireland, in Part Four, Toibin says that "all [Eilis] could do was count the days until she goes home." that Williams presents her as going about it with much more desperation than Eilis, resorting to intimate encounters with strangers in The Tarantula Arms, as they were, "all that she seemed capable of doing". fill [her] empty heart with,” as scene 9 remarks. The use of the adjective “empty” evokes “hollow” and “abandoned,” and arouses sympathy for the tragic character of Blanche whose heart – the vessel of love - is empty. . She's a protagonist wrapped up in the fantastical and romantic ideals of a bygone era, but in the harsh reality of being widowed and stuck in New Orleans, her true loneliness is truly accentuated. Critic Melanie Skiba called Blanch “the embodiment of human loneliness,” and the admission of her past only confirms that assertion. As she turns towardsbrief sexual encounters to keep her loneliness and depression at bay, Blanche's primary coping mechanism appears to be her efforts to find a romantic partner in hopes of wiping out the loneliness within her. This comes in the form of Mitch. Mitch comforts Blanche by confiding that he too is alone and suggests that if they are together, neither of them will be alone anymore, commenting to Blanche in scene 6: "You need someone. And I need someone too. Could it be... you and me, Blanche? Here, Williams implies that Blanche and Mitch's relationship is built out of necessity and mutual benefit, rather than true love, which is reaffirmed when Stella asks Blanche in scene 5 if she wants Mitch, which in to which Blanche replies: “I want to rest. ”, not answering decisively one way or the other. Therefore, such a tenuous relationship broke down very easily after Mitch discovered the extent of Blanche's deception. When Mitch breaks up with Blanch in scene 9, she is pushed back into solitude. In "A Streetcar Named Desire," Williams presents an accurate portrait of the restrictions placed on women's lives in postwar America of the 1940s. Written in 1947, the attitudes present in the play were present at the time of the Williams' writing. His use of Blanche and Stella's dependence on men exposes the treatment of women during this era in American history. Blanche and Stella view male companionship as their only means of achieving security and happiness. This is why Blanche is so desperate to find a partner, and so lonely and depressed when she doesn't. Blanche puts obstacles in her way to find a partner. Williams shows that she builds walls for herself, while Toibin's Eilis, on the other hand, builds bridges. In the novel "Brooklyn", Toibin shows this with Eilis's commitment to moving forward in life, despite the effects of her isolation in Brooklyn. Her strength manifests in her adaptation, while Blanche wallows in weakness. Regarding how to cope with her homesickness, Eilis knew that “no matter how bad she felt, she had no choice, she knew, but to forget everything quickly. She would have to continue her work if it was during the day and go back to sleep if it was during the night. It would be like covering a table with a tablecloth or closing the curtains on a window. In part of this metaphor from the second part of the novel, Eilis is the table to be covered with a tablecloth. We use a tablecloth to protect what is underneath or to hide possible damage; Eilis wants to hide her damage so that she can continue her daily life, hoping that the pain will go away on its own if she "puts it all out of her mind quickly." Unfortunately, Eilis' facade proves just as damaging as Blanche's, as it only paints the cracks of a crumbling foundation - the underlying problem of homesickness and loneliness doesn't go away. So it's a relief for Eilis when she finally finds a crutch in Tony and Jim to help her combat her isolation and resulting depression. While Toibin comparing Eilis to a tablecloth seems like a simple metaphor on the surface, it adds layers to Eilis' character in a subtle but effective way. Toibin's literary devices are often subtle and written with great ambiguity, which John Mullan of The Guardian comments on by saying: "the author's stylistic restraint mimics the restraint of his protagonist". This suggests that he believes Eilis and Toibin are one and the same in terms of discretion. The fact that “Brooklyn” is written in the third person.