# Reading > Write a Book Review >  A Streetcar Named Desire

## Gladys

I've just read Tennessee William's play 'A Streetcar Named Desire', dated 1947, describing a few weeks in the lives of a group of working class friends living in New Orleans. 

The play begins with the arrival of Stella's big sister, Blanche, supposedly from the elegant family home, Belle Reve. We later learn that her mother has died, her has marriage collapsed, Belle Reve is lost, and Blanche has moved to the town of Laurel and reportedly lived in a disreputable way. She has lost her job as a high school English teacher through a sexual liaison with a 17-year-old student, and has been run out of town. 

With the rough poker-playing, hard-drinking men who associate with her sister, Blanche consistently maintains and believes the illusion that she is the respectable, educated and privileged woman who grew up at Belle Reve. But truth will out, and her sister and newly made acquaintances at New Orleans prove less than kind. 

The genius of the play is shown as our sympathies drift steadily towards Blanche in an awful climax. She is a convincing, well meaning but pathetic character, surrounded by flawed 'friends'. At the end, these friends gain unpleasant insight into their expedient intolerance, although most of the problems Blanche presents are not of her making. 

The play seems to say something about the nature of mild 'mental illness' and the unkindness of those affected who come into contact with the mentally ill. Perhaps Blanche, _whose mindset has changed little over the years_, isn't mentally ill. More than likely, mild mental illness says more about our intolerance than illness.

----------


## kelby_lake

I love this play!
I think Blanche is stuck in the past, and she has great delusions of grandeur. She wants to be young and innocent again, I think.
It's a lot to do with men- take a look at the imagery of light (Blanche means white, Stella means star). Stella's light has been taken by Stanley and later so will Blanche's whiteness be spoilt.

Symoblism abound- Belle Reve is French for 'beautiful dream'.

----------


## optimisticnad

I also love this play! Studied it for A Levels. Have you seen the film adaptation? Marlon Brando was flawless. I don't think Blanche is entirely innocent, she doesn't deserve what happens to her but she does create some of the problems she encounters. 
I think the play is more about a woman's sexuality, e.g Blanche's, than about men stealing women's innocence/light. Even Stella herself is sexually expressive - and she did marry Stanley - mind you, I probably would have too!

----------


## kelby_lake

I think Brando exploded my tv screen  :Biggrin:  Wow...
'HEY STELLA!'

----------


## amalia1985

I think that this play is an excellent exploration of the souls of females and males, of classes, of present and past, and how they both influnce a person's future. An extraordinary depiction of conflicts, whether they derive from gender, different social classes, or different manners. In my opinion, it is a gemstone in the history of Theatre, coming from an extraordinary playwright.

----------


## Virgil

That was a good play Gladys. And yes the Marlon Brando movie was great.  :Smile:

----------


## kelby_lake

What do you think of his other plays?

----------


## Virgil

> What do you think of his other plays?


I've read a few, but I'm drawing a blank on them right now. I remember the movie of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. I enjoyed it. I must admit though plays are not my expertise.

----------


## kelby_lake

Cat on A Hot Tin Roof is brilliant. I like the film but it's not as raunchy and troubled as the play.
Maybe you've read/seen The Glass Menagerie? That's an perfect one.

----------


## Virgil

> Cat on A Hot Tin Roof is brilliant. I like the film but it's not as raunchy and troubled as the play.
> Maybe you've read/seen The Glass Menagerie? That's an perfect one.


I think I have read The Glass Mangerie. I just don't remember it. One of the problems of getting older is the distance between reads grows.  :Wink:

----------


## Emil Miller

> I think I have read The Glass Mangerie. I just don't remember it. One of the problems of getting older is the distance between reads grows.


I have discussed the Glass Menagerie with Kelby Lake on an earlier thread.
There was a film version of it in 1978 but I find it hard to believe that it could better the original film made in 1950 with Jane Wyman and Kirk Douglas, both of whom gave brilliant performances, and which had Tennessee Williams co-writing the script.

----------


## kelby_lake

Never seen the 50's one.

How could I get hold of it?Anyway, I heard they had a happy ending on it- although maybe there is some sort of hope there.

I cried when the unicorn got broken  :Frown:

----------


## Emil Miller

> Never seen the 50's one.
> 
> How could I get hold of it?Anyway, I heard they had a happy ending on it- although maybe there is some sort of hope there.
> 
> I cried when the unicorn got broken


Yes, but the happy ending was more or less hinted at rather than explicitly presented. I guess a lot of people cried when the unicorn was broken and I was in love with Jayne Wyman by the end of the film. I never forgave Ronald Reagan for marrying her in real life.
I don't know how you can get hold of it, but you might try Googling it for possible information

----------


## Gladys

> I think that this play is an excellent exploration of the souls of females and males, of classes, of present and past, and how they both influence a person's future. An extraordinary depiction of conflicts, whether they derive from gender, different social classes, or different manners.


 Well said. I've since read 'Sweet Bird of Youth' and 'The Glass Menagerie', both inferior to 'Streetcar' with its thunderous ending enveloping all the characters. 

Blanche is rash, fanciful and oppressive, while the others are more level headed and agreeable. Tennessee Williams works miracles in making us sympathetic to Blanche. At the end, Pablo's 'This is a very bad thing' and Blanche's remark to the shrink, 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers', _resound backwards_ through the play with tragic irony. We look upon Stella, formerly the most likeable character, with horror!

----------


## kelby_lake

It's brilliant how Williams can write the most unlikeable characters and yet we can still sympathise.
Sweet Bird of Youth is good, but it doesn't have the passionate conflict of Streetcar- it's more inward and regretful.

Never really liked Stella. She betrays her sister, who has been abused by Stanley. I watched the 2-disc dvd of the film and it still packs a punch, 50 years later.

----------


## amalia1985

Yes, Stella is really irritating. I'm happy that you all agree, I always thought I was the only one who had the same opinion, I thought I had some kind of a weird dislikeness. Perhaps, she understands Blanche's influence, the way Stanley is attracted to her, and she acts completely out of jealousy. Furthermore, she is so so different from Blanche that there's really no point of communication between them.

----------


## Gladys

> Perhaps, she [Stella] understands Blanche's influence, the way Stanley is attracted to her, and she acts completely out of jealousy.


 Jealousy may play a small part in Stella's betrayal, but surely the whole play pivots around Stella's words: 

EUNICE: What else could you do?

STELLA: I *couldn't* believe her [Blanche's] story and go on living with Stanley [the rapist] .

EUNICE: Don't ever believe it. Life has got to go on. ...
Stella's "couldn't" boggles the mind. No wonder Mitch is infuriated: "I'll kill you!" 

Poor Blanche!

----------


## kelby_lake

Stella chooses lust over her own sister.

----------


## Virgil

> Stella chooses lust over her own sister.


I don't think it's that simple. After all Stanly is her husband. She does love him beyond the sex.

----------


## Gladys

> After all Stanley is her husband. She [Stella] does love him beyond the sex.


As Stella would like to understand the situation at the arrival of the shrink, Blanche, her disreputable and neurotic sister, has slandered beloved Stanley by accusing him of rape. A convincing accusation? Mitch and Pablo don't think so, nor interestingly does Stella herself.

----------


## kelby_lake

I know she loves him beyond the sex, but it's a destructive love. Stella should have helped poor Blanche, even though Blanche turned out to be a nymphomaniac.

----------


## Nossa

I loved Williams' style in writing. I'm not too fond of Stanley (though Marlon Brando did do a hell of a job...I love that man  :Biggrin: ). I really pitied Blanche by the end of the play. The reading of this play gave me the feeling that I'm reading a thriller book, don't know why though. It's a good read (though not the best play I've ever read)

----------


## Janine

I never read the play but the film is amazing. Brando pegged it perfectly. All the actors were superb; first rate production. I loved it. My library owns it so I should watch it again soon. I was totally engrossed the entire time.

----------


## Gladys

> I really pitied Blanche by the end of the play.


 Few would read the play and not pity Blanche. For me, the genius of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' lies in its _temptation_ to evoke our pity for Stella, a truly horrific yet desperately pathetic character by the end. Yet isn't Stella more culpable than Stanley?

----------


## kelby_lake

It's amazing how Williams manages to get sympathy for potentially unlikeable characters.

----------


## MissScarlett

I think it's a great play. Loved Marlon Brando in the movie version. I did not like Stella, but I did like Blanche. Felt very bad for her. Brilliant writing.

----------


## kelby_lake

That bit where Brando calls out 'Hey Stella!' in that ripped t-shirt...that has to be the best moment in film history.

----------


## Gladys

> I did not like Stella, but I did like Blanche.


 Should we like Stella?

STANLEY [bellowing]: Hey, there! Stella, Baby! Emotionally little sister Stella is still a baby. She _has been raised_ to shirk responsibility.
BLANCHE: Oh, my baby! Stella! Stella for Star! The mediocre Stella lacks Blanche's pride, arrogance, independence and euphoria. 
STELLA: And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby... Stella, _even more than Blanche_, lives in a fantasy world. 
BLANCHE: Oh, Stella, Stella, you're crying! Confronted with Belle Reve or any other matter, Stella cannot face anguish or death.
STELLA: I'm sorry he did that to you. Stella is impotent to protect her sister from Stanley's brutish attack concerning the fate of Belle Reve. Stella uses Stanley to _insulate_ her from the world. 
MITCH: About the same, thanks. She [mother] appreciated your sending over that custard.--Excuse me, please. Stella goes to family funerals and sends custards, but is terrified of deeper involvement.
STELLA [slowly and emphatically]: I'm not in anything I want to get out of. Stella is addicted to Stanley, so much so that she eventually allows her only sister to be carted away to a mad-house. 
STELLA: I hope you're pleased with your doings. I never had so much trouble swallowing food in my life, looking at that girl's face and the empty chair! Stella is distraught that Blanche has been stood up by Mitch, but _as always_ recovers rather too quickly. 
STELLA: She is. She was. You didn't know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change. Stella is tender-hearted but shallow.
STELLA: I don't know if I did the right thing. A naive but traitorous Stella voices the understatement of the play.
EUNICE [whispering to Stella]: That must be them. [Stella presses her fists to her lips.] Stella has the moral backbone of a toddler.  Stella closes her eyes and clenches her hands.
STELLA: Oh, my God, Eunice help me! Don't let them do that to her, don't let them hurt her! Oh, God, oh, please God, don't hurt her! As Blanche is committed, Stella's naivete is stark: she runs away as she once did from Belle Reve. Blanche, now relying on a shrink, is about to be _hurt_ in many ways for many years to come.
 STANLEY [a bit uncertainly]: Stella? [She sobs with inhuman abandon...] Stella reacts like the baby she is given to hold.

----------


## Nossa

> I don't think it's that simple. After all Stanly is her husband. She does love him beyond the sex.


I'm not sure I agree with that. I mean, when Blanche saw Stanley hitting Stella, and lateron she confronted her, Stella simple said "But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark-that sort of make everything else seem unimportant". It doesn't seem like a healthy relationship, and it sure doesn't seem like pure love to me. It's the same story with Steve and Eunice, he beats her, she runs away then she comes back to him for the same reasons.

----------


## Gladys

> ...Stella simply said "But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark-that sort of make everything else seem unimportant". It doesn't seem like a healthy relationship, and it sure doesn't seem like pure love to me.


And tellingly the play continues:

[Pause.]

BLANCHE:
What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--*Desire*!--the *name* of that rattle-trap *streetcar* that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another....
Blanche speaks from experience. Earlier in the same exchange are words which foreshadow Stella's plight at the end: 

BLANCHE:
In my opinion? You're married to a madman!

STELLA:
No!

BLANCHE:
Yes, you are, *your fix is worse than mine is*! Only you're not being sensible about it. I'm going to do something. Get hold of myself and make myself a new life!

STELLA:
Yes?

BLANCHE:
But you've given in. And that isn't right, you're not old! You can get out.

STELLA [slowly and emphatically]:
*I'm not in anything I want to get out of.*

BLANCHE [incredulously]:
What--Stella?

----------


## Gladys

STELLA:
But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark--that sort of make everything else seem--unimportant

[Pause.]

BLANCHE:
What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the name of that *rattle-trap streetcar* that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another....

STELLA:
Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?

BLANCHE:
It brought me here.--Where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be....

----------


## kelby_lake

I love the film...WOW

----------


## AmericanEagle

^ I agree. I haven't read the play but I loved the movie. I thought that Vivien Leigh did a great job.

----------


## kelby_lake

Brando was totally great as Stanley.

----------


## Gladys

On re-reading the play, I'm struck by Blanche's progressive retreat from a chaotic and cruel world to a safer and better internal world of imagination, as her life choices are narrowed to nothing. She retains hope by imaginative flights of fancy, the most outrageous and poignant being her ludicrous reliance on a shrink for protection.




> BLANCHE [holding tight to his arm]:
> Whoever you are--I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.



Meanwhile Stella clings to a heartless and brutal rapist for protection, and Mitch is left with nothing better than guilt.

Strangely, Blanche's final optimism verges on the heroic.

----------


## LMK

My vote in the poll was cast according to the wording of each option; as if it were a book.

And as a piece of literature to read like one would a book, _Streetcar_, like most of Tennessee Williams’ plays, are OK to pretty good but they are not books to be read to one's self. They are actors' plays. By that I mean, the content, the message, the tenor may or may not entertain or enlighten audiences; although, there are moments of both. These plays, and _Streetcar_ among the lead is all about the spoken word, monologues, dialogues and character unpacking. Actors covet playing these rolls (especially Blanche and Stanley) because it is in the recreation of the story that the story is understood, more than witnessing it as an audience member or reading it.

When I read a play, I try to read it as an actor might and I gain so much more, because as an actor one needs to get into the underpinnings of a moment, a line, an action, a facial expression and yes, in my opinion, all of this is part of the story because it is written to be a play.

~L

----------


## Gladys

> And as a piece of literature to read like one would a book, Streetcar, like most of Tennessee Williams plays, are OK to pretty good but they are not books to be read to one's self. They are actors' plays.


_Streetcar_ seems to me superior to the few plays of Tennessee Williams I have read. If _actors' plays_, can't a discerning reader's imagination fill the gaps better than many an actor?

I love Ibsen, and _Streetcar_ compares well.

----------


## kelby_lake

Tennessee Williams did say that the words on the page were 'a shadow of the play, and not a clear one at that'

----------


## LMK

I imagine a decerning reader could handle the challenge admirably.

I was just sharing my opinion.

----------


## beroq

The name of the play is quite original and striking. This is part of the reason of its success.

----------


## kelby_lake

> I imagine a decerning reader could handle the challenge admirably.
> 
> I was just sharing my opinion.


There are easier Tennessee Williams plays to read than Streetcar, I agree.

----------


## Gladys

> There are easier Tennessee Williams plays to read than Streetcar, I agree.


I read _Streetcar_ soon after reading a dozen Ibsen and a few Chekhov plays. _Streetcar_ seemed if anything, easier reading, and thoroughly held my attention. I've since heard that Tennessee Williams owed much to Chekhov, but I perceive a debt to Ibsen as well.

The way our sympathy for Blanche, and our horror at Stella, builds throughout the play is masterly.

----------

