A Streetcar Named Desire

Rating:
Summary: *A Streetcar named Desire*
Review: "A Streetcar named Desire" is one of Tennessee Williams' masterpieces,
published in 1947.
The play is about the Southern Belle Blanche duBois who comes to live with
her sister Stella in New Orleans. There she is confronted with her sister's
husband Stanley who wants to destroy Blanche's life. The conflict between
Stanley and Blanche gets worse and it comes to a rape.
In the following scenes Stella has to decide whether she believes in her
sister or in Stanley.
The play gets more and more exciting and your interest will b e caught by
the development of the plot.
In his book Williams tries to assimilate his own life which was dominated by
his brutal father. Also the autobiographical aspect makes the play worth
reading.
Further I would recommend you to read the book because it contains numerous
themes which are still relavant today. So love, lonliness and cruelty play an
important role. Moreover easy and colloquial language is used.
All in all the play "A Streetcar named Desire" is really recommendable.

Rating:
Summary: Poignant.
Review: "A Streetcar Named Desire" is such a raw and captivating play. With luxurious characters full of rage, lust, and refutation, you'll be transported into the realm of Stanley, Stella, and Blanche, and you'll never look back. It's interesting to see Tennessee Williams' writing in this play and "The Glass Menagerie." I recommend.

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Summary: Strugles of the South
Review: A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a story of gender discrimination, insanity, and rape. When Blanch Dubois is forced to move in with her sister in New Orleans, she is in a very fragile state. Even so, she keeps an appearance of a strong woman by living in her own world. She fools most people into believing that there is nothing wrong with her. But the one person she is unable to hide the truth from is Stella's husband Stanley. Determined to reveal the true Blanch to the rest of the world Stanley searches her past. He finds out things that end the relationship she was having with his friend Mitch, and then finally drives her over the edge when he rapes her. But the story isn't just about the struggles of Blanch. The story is about the change from the old south to the new south. Blanch, representing the way things used to be, picked apart by Stanley, who is the perfect symbol of the changing times. She, like the old south, is unable to survive in the new south and eventually just fades away.

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Summary: Character Complexity in Streetcar
Review: Tennessee Williams creates a strong sense of reality in A Streetcar Named Desire through the complexity of his characters; none emerge as truly good or truly bad, leaving only the contrast of strong and weak. For example, Blanche, the closest character to a heroine, literally falls apart through the course of the play, her weaknesses intensified by desire and exploited by Stanley. Although one may feel moved to pity Blanche, her collapse counters a basic character flaw of not being able to cope with reality, of preferring "a moonlight swim at the old rock quarry" to the dark house on Elysian Fields where all her problems dwell. Thus it is inevitable that Blanche should meet with tragedy. For some, it is also a just end: Blanche has led a life not deserving of much admiration, tempting young and sexually inexperienced boys, conducting notorious affairs ("everybody else in the town of Laurel knows all about her"), and at the same time still maintaining her pretensions and self-superiority. Equally complex and opposing Blanche on all fronts is Stanley, who represents the raw, survivalist animal Williams saw in people. The honest man Stanley, a poor Pole simply trying to make ends meet to support his wife and new family, senses the weakness and dependence in Blanche and recognizes it as a force completely in contrast with his own brute strength. Stanley scorns her frailties and simultaneously scorns her claims that she has been "the strong one," upholding her duty to the family by caring for her dying relatives, whereas her sister Stella fled to New Orleans with her husband. The honest man Stanley, who beats his wife almost recreationally and brings about the final destruction of Blanche, represents, then, not a true villain, but an archetype: Stanley is the survivor, the top dog in a dog-eat-dog world, stopping at nothing to preserve his own interests. His tremendous strength both complements and counters his brutality as he maneuvers (to his liking) the streetcar named Desire, whose course, for all but the uncannily strong, ends in ultimate destruction. Lastly, one must consider Stella, somewhat of a foil to Blanche, and also the least clear-cut of the main characters. For the most part, the audience knows little of Stella; most of what one can say about her is deduced. She is the closest to virtuous out of the three; she accepts her duty first as wife, hoping that her duty as sister will not interfere. Until around scene eight, she always gives those she loves the benefit of the doubt. Thus a conflict exists within her, a conflict unlike that within Stanley and Blanche. Rather than the desire versus destruction dichotomy, Stella suffers from being torn between her husband and her sister. And there is such a thing as being too trusting. In the end, Stella makes her decision not so much based on her sense of morality or even ethics, but instead on the blind faith she instills in the person closest her. Stella's greatest fault lies in her inability to trust herself and in her complete willingness to submit to those forces greater than her without the slightest hint of a fight. The final image of the play, in fact, leaves Stella weeping in her brutal husband's arms, "in [a] complete surrender to crying." Stella gives up. Her strength, though somewhat greater than Blanche's, fails her in Stanley's shadow, and certainly does not serve as a particular virtue. Rather, it keeps her going just long enough to thrust her little world into an inescapable mess. Had she been as weak as Blanche, the conflict between the doomed Blanche and the destructive Stanley would have been resolved much sooner, and with less incident. Had she been as strong as Stanley, the conflict may not have existed on such a level. Thus Stella represents a final human pattern: the regret for what might have been. Williams's characters simply reflect the different types of people he observed in what he believed was a grim life. In writing so much of these universal paradigms into his work, he lends to it a sense of reality unmatched by those seeking to portray the melodramatic conflict of good versus evil.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece by Williams
Review: Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire" came to Broadway in 1947, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and was made into an award-winning film. But you don't have to wait to see a stage or video version of the play. "Streetcar" is one of those theatrical triumphs which also succeeds in book form as a compelling read.

Taking place in New Orleans, "Streetcar" tells the painful story of aging southern belle Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella, Stella's brutish husband Stanley, and the circle of people who frequent Stella's home. Williams creates an incisive examination of human sexuality and socioeconomic difference. His characters come to life with powerful dialogue; this play is a heartbreaking read.

A compelling companion text for "Streetcar" would be Eugene O'Neill's classic play "Anna Christie," which won the Pulitzer for the 1921-22 theater season. Like "Streetcar," "Anna" deals with male expectations of female sexuality in a powerful way.

Willams' Blanche is truly one of the most memorable female characters in United States literature. "Streetcar" is an unforgettable tapestry of desire, shame, and disturbing revelations. An essential text for anybody with an interest in 20th century drama.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is an intense play, with poetic dialogue. If you can't comprehend marginal characters, you're going to just be turned off by the characters in this play. But they are desperate characters, and unforgettable characters. Tennesee Williams' big flaw for me, was that he wasn't really able to comprehend affection in romantic relationships, but only lust. When Stanley talks about getting "them colored lights going" again when Blanche moves out, Williams reveals that he can't comprehend three-dimensional romances. But that is the only flaw in the play, and the rest of it is truly brilliant. You do need an attention span to read this, since plays are basically made up of long speeches. I once rented the Brando-film video to watch with a friend, and he looked at me like I'd forced him to eat sawdust. His idea of drama was a Jon Claude Van Damme film. So, if your idea of entertainment is mainly dopey action films and MTV, stay away. But if you have patience, and a love of intense literature, you'll take an emotional journey when you experience this play. (The Brando movie has a relatively happy ending, but the written play, that Brando starred in on Broadway, has an unhappy ending. They both have their strengths, so I'd recommend you see/read both endings).