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Loading... A Streetcar Named Desireby Tennessee Williams
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. another disappointing classic. I like the WAY this is written--so much, in fact, that by the middle of the book, I was ready to list it as one of my favorites. But then Blanche got dragged to the crazy house, and the story officially got me depressed. I don't generally love depressing books, and this one's no exception. (  )KendraRenee | Mar 9, 2009 |   I'm not generally impressed with plays and movies of this era, as they portray a time when it was considered acceptable for men to treat women as property. Women endured physical as well as emotional and psychological violence, without a inkling that something may be wrong about that. When Blanche encourages Stella to leave Stanley after he hits her after the poker game, I agreed very firmly with her. I was amazed that Stella returns, and that she still stays with him after what he does to Blanche near the end of the play. Blanche is written as flighty and slutty and her final fate is galling because I believe she's the only character in the play with a lick of sense. I found myself reading this quite quickly because I just wanted it over with. The whole thing repulsed me. (  )lilyfyrestorm | Jul 12, 2008 | 2  This beautiful play is as wonderful to see as to read. It is interesting to have the staging descriptions as they are very detailed and sometimes abstract which is unusual for drama. (  )janepriceestrada | Jul 10, 2008 | One of my favorite plays ever. I originally read it my sophomore year of high school. Now, five years later, I re-read it and still love it just the same. ( )vivalavibs | Jun 22, 2008 | In Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning drama A Streetcar Named Desire, a triangular relationship between Blanche Dubois, her sister Stella, and Stella's husband Stanley takes center stage. Blanche and Stella came from a refined breeding on a southern plantation, Belle Reve, in Mississippi; Stanley and his friends, however, come from a lower class upbringing. Throughout the story Blanche and Stanley are posed as competing opposites: the educated vs. street smarts; refinement vs. vulgarity; charm vs. rudeness; civility vs. brutality. The strengths of the play are the well drawn characters, a riveting plot, and compelling symbols (a lantern representing "magic") and ironies (a birthday "gift"--a bus ticket out of town!). Some critics claim Williams' main weakness as an author was his constant reference to his own household with an alcoholic father, abused sister, and weak mother. Students can be drawn in to many interesting discussions about the nature of the truth, for example, and the ever increasing harshness in society. ( )cmckee | Apr 17, 2008 | 0.012 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0451167783, Paperback)The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award winning play—reissued with an introduction by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams' essay "The World I Live In."It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the '40s and '50s. Who better than America's elder statesman of the theater, Williams' contemporary Arthur Miller, to write as a witness to the lightning that struck American culture in the form of A Streetcar Named Desire? Miller's rich perspective on Williams' singular style of poetic dialogue, sensitive characters, and dramatic violence makes this a unique and valuable new edition of A Streetcar Named Desire. This definitive new edition will also include Williams' essay "The World I Live In," and a brief chronology of the author's life. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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