A Streetcar Named Desire

Stepping off a streetcar run by the Desire line in New Orleans, the flighty Southern belle Blanche DuBois steps into the lives of her sister Stella and her primally masculine, roughneck husband Stanley, who live in a small, two-room apartment in an unpromising district of the city. What follows is a series of entertaining sparks from Tennessee Williams' carefully-crafted tinderbox.

There might not be any deeper theme to Williams' play, beyond the idea that people "needn't [be] cruel to someone alone" (pg. 81) – an irony brought home by the play's famous line, delivered by Blanche, that she has "always depended on the kindness of strangers" (pg. 107). Said by Blanche at a moment in the play when she has been treated cruelly – and show more needlessly so – it throws into tragically harsh light the idea that, with such a worldview, Blanche was always destined to be crushed by cold reality. Her old-fashioned idea of how people should interact (even if she doesn't follow it herself) comes up against the brute reality-check of Stanley Kowalski. And it's not that Stanley is particularly villainous. Blanche was always eventually going to cross paths with someone who would provide this reality-check.

There are things to discuss then, but less in theme and more in how the characters interact. I didn't find Blanche as sympathetic as many others appear to, and I thought the real victim of the story was Stella, caught between her overpowering and high-maintenance sister Blanche on one hand and her abusive husband Stanley on the other. I would have liked the play to focus more on the compromises Stella makes than the traps that Blanche wilfully falls into. The question of why women like Stella stay with men like Stanley is an interesting one, but one that the play does not take the opportunity to address – and one which hasn't, as far as I am aware, really been addressed in commentary on the play. Stanley has become rooted in popular culture as a smouldering and desirable bad boy, epitomised in his famous portrayal by Marlon Brando, and while this might be great for the play's popularity it distracts from the real implications of Stanley. Mostly, the orthodox ruling on the play has been that Stanley is a predatory male, a brute and a villain, and that Blanche and Stella are innocent birds caught in his trap – while simultaneously granting us licence to swoon over him when shirtless (a hypocrisy also found in modern depictions of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice). Such an orthodoxy denies the two women characters the agency they display on every page – it is a Blanche-like fiction obscuring the cold realism the man provides.

This, however, is a fault in how we have absorbed the play into our popular culture, not with Williams' play itself. Williams himself provides us with the nuance in how his characters interact, and it is up to us to choose how to interpret that. If a deeper theme isn't penetrated, Williams nevertheless provides greater scope and grandeur by staging his scenes evocatively, and in how naturally his dialogue comes across. My ultimate impression of A Streetcar Named Desire was as something of a high-class soap opera; too well-made to be dismissed as frivolous, and with a few trappings that make it appear grand, but not deep enough to provide a lasting fascination either. show less

Blanche is a southern belle whose youth is beginning to fade. She goes to visit her younger sister Stella in New Orleans and quickly finds herself out of her element in the city. Stella is married to a Polish brute named Stanley who is none too pleased to have his waifish sister-in-law in his home. He’s determined to expose Blanche’s true nature and the problems she seems to be hiding.

Blanche’s life fell apart when her young, sweet husband committed suicide. Since then she’s slowly lost control of things, but chooses to pretend that everything is going swimmingly; ignoring her problems in the hopes that they’ll disappear. She clings to her long absent aurora of virginal innocence in the hopes that ignorance really will show more provide bliss.
Williams had such a brilliant way of painting the most vivid, broken characters. He creates stories built around life’s disappointments and heart-breaks and pulls you into the characters’ dysfunctions.

Here’s the thing about reading plays, they’re not meant to be consumed that way so you really need to judge them by a different scale. Obviously you aren’t going to have three paragraphs describing the characters’ relationships and struggles; it’s all about the dialogue. You have to think about the way they would be staged and the emotions that would be conveyed when you saw it live. I’m especially reminded of this whenever I read Shakespeare. His work is brilliant, but so many innuendos or intense moments are missed when we skim a line of dialogue on the page.

That being said, I really enjoyed Streetcar. I watched the movie years ago, but I really wish I could see it performed. There’s something so visceral about that infamous scene when a drunk Stanley (Marlon Brando in the film), stands in the street screaming for his wife, “Stel-lahhhhh!”

BOTTOM LINE: I really liked it, but as it is with any play, I have no doubt that it’s better on stage than the page.

“Oh you can’t describe someone you’re in love with.” show less

“Physical beauty is passing - a transitory possession - but beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit, tenderness of the heart - I have all these things - aren't taken away but grow! Increase with the years!”

When Blanche DuBois comes to stay with her sister Stella and her working class husband Stanley Kowalski she seems just an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times but it soon becomes clear that it is more about the battle between imagination and reality. Blanche is clothed in fading pastel dresses bedecked with costume jewellery refusing to give her true age or be seen in full light, covering a lamp with a paper shade and declining to go outside in daylight. She has had a number of passing sexual flings including being run out show more of town for having an affair with a 17 year old boy as she tries to cling onto her fading youth. Stanley in contrast is rooted in the present,physically handsome with a sort of animal magnetism, preferring beer,bowling and poker with his friends. He doesn't believe in Blanche's tales and it is he who unravels her past. They constantly clash culminating in Stanley's rape of Blanche.(The rape is not actually stated but is more implied as he throws her to the bed while the background music reaches a crescendo).Stella who has always stood up for Blanche refuses to believe in the rape sending Blanche into the final spiral of madness. It is also interesting that Stanley is of Polish extraction suggesting there is a transition in America from a society based on whites supremacy to a more multi-cultural one. Blanche represents the past whilst Stanley and his friends are the future.

There is another statement on American society and women's dependence on men. Blanche and Mitch are alone which draws them together despite being different but whilst Mitch loves Blanche she is more pragmatic believing that a union will cement her future. Similarly in the very first scene Stanley throws some Stella some meat much to her and her neighbour Eunice's amusement it is suggestive of both sexual dominance and the old male hunter gatherer stereotype.

I can see why it is regarded by many as a modern classic and studied fairly widely in schools and colleges.Overall this was a very enjoyable especially as it is not something that I would normally pick up. show less

A formerly-rich Southern Belle spends a few weeks with her sister and her working-class husband. No-one can know she’s really poor and desperate, but her brother-in-law feels punched in the working class by her very presence and sets out to diminish her. Tensions simmer and are expressed through spite, violence and power games.

I liked this one a lot better than Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which I read earlier this month. At least the characters in this one seem human, can be empathized with, show some characterization. And not just a little: they’re fully fleshed out and do not really feel like made-up people in made-up circumstances. I enjoyed not enjoying spending time with them.

Very well done!

Must reading for the #MeToo generation. This play is rough; it makes The Yellow Wallpaper seem like a quaint weekend vacation. Tennessee Williams really nails the subjugation of women in a male-dominated culture, and how those women who attempt to stand-up against it or define their own roles are mercilessly destroyed. For those who think that the feminism movement is just about equal pay and workplace harassment, this play should be an eye-opener.

this is well written and interesting, with a story that keeps you moving forward and a lot of layers to peel away. i've never read a play before that was sectioned only by scenes and not acts, so that was new for me, and i kind of liked it.

the themes that i found most interesting were fantasy/illusion vs reality and mental illness (and its relation to fantasy/illusion vs reality). it's also interesting to me that williams pits the two main characters against each other, neither of whom are likable, which (sort of) causes a reader to choose a side when neither side is a natural choice. (for me, blanche is a much more sympathetic character than stanley, as she is ruining herself and has experienced a great deal of suffering, whereas he is show more sometimes violent and predatory to others, and often rude and sexist. but that doesn't make blanche a character that many people would probably like. as i type that i realize that blanche, though, is also responsible to some degree for her young husband's suicide as well as what today would be sexual assault of her student, although probably wasn't as "serious" a situation in 1947.)

it's hard for me to believe that i'd never read this and had no knowledge of the story at all. i didn't expect that there would be a gay theme and i'm a little disappointed in his handling of sex (and maybe an underlying statement about being true to yourself?) but overall found this a quick but layered read and i'm glad i finally got to it. show less

I don't normally enjoy reading plays, but Tennessee Williams is an exception, and this one did not disappoint; it was excellent, a true masterpiece. The plot takes place in early 20th century New Orleans and tells the painful story of aging Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella, and Stella's dominant husband Stanley. Williams examines socioeconomic differences, prejudices, and sexuality, while drawing the reader in to Blanche's world of desperation. This was heartbreaking and unforgettable, full of desire, shame, and disturbing revelations. "Streetcar" should be essential reading for anyone interested in drama as well as those interested in classic literature in general. Now off to rent the movie...