A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

Plot:
Blanche DuBois comes to visit her sister Stella in New Orleans. The two of them come from a family of plantation owners who have been slowly but steadily going bankrupt. Now their plantation (Belle Reve) is gone and Blanche, who has always been a nervous type, is falling apart due to her alcoholism and the fact that she can’t really deal with her growing age and fading looks. Stella is happy to see Blanche, but Stella’s husband Stanley, a factory worker, doesn’t trust Blanche or her story about how Belle Reve was lost. Blanche herself is shocked about the circumstances Stella lives in. As Blanche’s and Stanley’s worlds collide, something has got to give.

A Streetcar Named Desire is one of my absolute favorite plays. I must have read it five times already, at least. It’s been a while since I read/saw it (and I actually never read/saw it in English before now) and I’m going to see it shortly, so it was the perfect time for a re-read. And it is still absolutely awesome.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2012/06/29/re-read-a-streetcar-named-desire-tennessee-will... ( )

little, but spiky and painful. it's a book that hurts for a reason, to illustrate what happens to those who are tender (their softness is blown out, of course). ( )

There's a reason why this is a classic. It blew me away. WOW!!

There's a reason why this is a classic. It blew me away. WOW!!

In the forward to the 2004 edition of A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller wrote that he vividly remembered the first time he saw the play on stage, before it opened to the public on Broadway in December 1947. How could one forget when the original production featured all the players we have come to so strongly identify with the movie roles of popular culture (except that Jessica Tandy , rather than Vivien Leigh, played Blanch DuBois)?

And yet, it wasn’t the players or their acting skills that Miller commented on, but the writing itself. “On first hearing Streetcar . . . the impression was . . . of language flowing from the soul . . . but remarkably, each character’s speech seemed at the same time uncannily his own.” Miller adds that, “What Streetcar’s first production did was to plant the flag of beauty on the shores of commercial theatre.”

If you know A Streetcar Named Desire only from snatched clips or even just your friends’ impersonation of Brando’s “STELLL- AHHHHH!”, as I had, then you’ve missed the quality of this writing. But even if you can’t attend a live production of Streetcar, you can still access the beauty of this play in the written word – a slim 179-page volume that reads quickly and easily and, thanks to many school curricula, continues to be in print.

But while the reading is quick and easy, the story that unfolds is anything but. Williams’ classic play begins with Blanche DuBois’s arrival in New Orleans to stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche puts on airs of gentility and seems shocked and shaken by Stanley’s frequently aggressive behavior. But Blanche has a secret past that is catching up with her, and the knowledge of it in the hands of her brother-in-law wrecks her last chance at happiness. Not satisfied with that, Stanley also physically assaults Blanche, driving her over the edge of sanity.

Look at the original cast list. Find photos of Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Jessica Tandy and Karl Malden in the 1940s. Then read the play and enjoy the language. You owe it to yourself. ( )

I definitely should have read this in high school, because it seemed like I was the only one who didn't. I really liked this, especially Blanche. A short and sweet play that can be read pretty quickly. I don't have much to say other than I would really like the opportunity to see this play on stage. ( )

I picked this one up because it's on the Rory Gilmore Book List. It's one of the many books Rory reads in "Gilmore Girls". I didn't know whether or not I would like it. I kind of did... but I can't really say why. It was frustrating because of the abusive relationships, but... it was interesting. ( )