A Streetcar Named Desire
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In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the characters are extremely well defined. In fact, they are so well defined obtuse critics have characterized them as two-dimensional, but Williams drew them that way intentionally so as to underscore the flaws that make their characters so memorable. Blanche is an aging single Southern woman whose best days are in the past. Blanche has not been able to make the adjustment from when she was the belle of the county at Belle Reeve, her family’s southern home, to the harsh realities of her present situation, one in which she has always “depended on the kindness of strangers” (142). All of her attempts at living in reality involve her trying to keep up appearances to match the fantasy “self” she sees in her mind. Stella adjusted to the loss of Belle Reeve better than Blanche, but she cannot resist being submissive to her brutish husband, her way of maintaining an identity. Stanley is all animal passion and male hormones. He works, eats, drinks, plays poker with the guys and has sex. If he has to slap his wife around once in a while to maintain order that’s alright by him. Mitch is the perfect mama’s boy and he cannot help being at the mercy of his illusions regarding women. He is used to being mothered and he is a middle-aged bachelor who carries around a cigarette case given to him by a formed love interest who died. He is no more in reality where his idealization of women is
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owever, he is more real than anyone because he is himself, but his “self” is a human being with no development of their higher capacity for love, culture and humanity. The theme of the play that overrides the others is that an individual can have a nervous breakdown and perhaps even go insane if they are unable to reconcile their real self with reality.
The comedy is a tragedy because it is tragic that Blanche is too sensitive to tolerate reality because she cannot face the fact that her impressions of herself are a false reality. It is tragic that Stanley will never develop the higher aspects which humans can develop through education, culture and humanity. Stella is unable to have an identity of her own and cannot face life economically or emotionally without Stanley, even though he abuses her. Mitch needs a woman to take care of him but he is unable to face the reality that women are not as pure, pristine and/or virtuous as his illusions of them. He wants a mother not a wife. The play should be staged with the front of the apartment building and a street from New Orleans being visible to stage left. A staircase should lead to Stella and Stanley’s apartment a few steps above the stage which is suspended and broken into t
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Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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