Film Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

Street car named desire The street car name desire, is a play set in New Orleans after the second world war that is mainly based in a conflict between two strong people with certain different characters and culture who have different points of view about things. The first one is a masculine person with a well constructed body and impolite as well which is visible since the beginning of the play when he heaves the same of meat at Stella and has also a low and weak usage grammar which is noticeable when he talks to his friends or wife. On the other hand, Blanche, who is a female, is a highbrow class and a well educated person as we can see when she mentions famous people like Edgar allan Poe, she is daintily dressed with a fluffy bodice costume and is very self confident and has a high level of

Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” takes a different twist on sexual temptation and how it affects a woman, a man, a marriage, and on the wider scope of things, a culture. The story essentially centers on the sex lives of a woman, her husband, and her sister, and the plot is driven by how wanton is inevitably their downfall. One-third of this sexually tense trifecta is Blanche DuBois, the “lady” of the three individuals, who takes the ideas of innuendo to a completely different level.

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and Elia Kazan’s film adaptation of the play, are both perceived in different ways by the audience. Though Tennessee Williams advocated his visions for the film adaptation, Elia Kazan interprets this in his own way, and this is reflected in the choices made by his actors in their interpretation of their characters. Kazan and Brando’s choices emphasise Stanley Kowalski’s masculinity and downplay his aggression, and this unbalances the tension Williams envisaged between the “ravishment of the tender the sensitive, the delicate, by the savage and brutal forces of modern society”. Though, Williams’ idea of the decaying old world and the rising new world is evidently publicized in both.

In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores the internal conflict of illusion versus reality through the characters. Humans often use illusion to save us pain and it allows us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, as illusion clashes with reality, one can forget the difference between the two. When people are caught up in their illusions, eventually they must face reality even if it is harsh. In the play, Blanche suffers from the struggle of what is real and what is fake because of the difficult events of her past. Blanche comes to her sister Stella seeking aid because she has lost her home, her job, and her family. To deal with this terrible part of her life, she uses fantasy to escape her dreadful reality. Blanche’s embracement of a fantasy world can be categorized by her attempts to revive her youth, her relationship struggles, and attempts to escape her past.

In the classic fairytale of Cinderella, the main character is trapped in an abusive household. However, Cinderella’s self-perception of optimism and hope, enables her to believe that ultimately, her life will naturally improve with these attributes. True to her convictions, Cinderella gets her happily ever after by going to the ball where the prince falls in love with her. Cinderella is saved from her evil. On the other hand, Cinderella can be viewed as a victim who does nothing to enable herself to escape her abusive reality, insteads helplessly waits for fate to intervene. She does not confront the situation nor independently strive to improve her circumstances. Correspondingly, how individuals act when faced with conflict is strongly influenced by their self-perception. It is possible to become confused between reality and illusion, which is determined by their level of self-awareness. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character of Stella struggles between the control of her husband and sister. Throughout the play, this conflict is demonstrated as she struggles with becoming aware of her abusive household and the contrast to the fairytale illusion she desperately clings to. Ultimately, Stella’s choice to maintain her illusion, rather than confronting her reality, is due to the self-perception of her need to depend on others and desire for idealism, which overall controls her fate.

In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois is thrust into a series of unfortunate events and undergoes drastic changes in an effort to come to terms with her completely changed life. Through these events, Blanche happens to be the only remaining individual left to take care of the once valuable and prestigious family belongings, and her psychological mind spirals out of control in her attempts to restore the family’s honor. In addition to experiencing loneliness and feeling isolation from humans, Blanche faced many new challenges in stressful situations, which contributed to her poor decision making skills and inevitable negative outcomes in most of those situations. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois, Williams’ intends to display the power of significant experiences in one’s life, which serves as a warning of how the effects of significant experiences on individuals should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, in Blanche’s case, abandonment by her sister was the perfect example of an individual underestimating the result of their actions, as this action was the initiation point of the events that would eventually lead to her unfortunate fate. Specifically, Williams’ focuses on portraying the disastrous effects of human isolation, which is often the result of an individual’s mindless actions. Human isolation plays an important role in the outcome of the play, as Blanche is known to have been abandoned at a young age, and her

Stanley is portrayed in a negative light throughout the play, with his mind mainly focused on himself. Williams paints this impression of Stanley by emphasizing the importance of his possessions by describing, “his car, his radio, everything that’s his.” (25) At first glance, Stella and

In the opening two scenes of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the audience has its first and generally most important impressions formulated on characters, the plot and the mood and tone of the play overall.

A Streetcar Named Desire is very thought-provoking play. It brings up a wide variety of social issues that are still a problem today. These issues help make the play relatable to life outside of the theatre. From the directing to the costumes, this play was very intriguing.

In the film “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the producers do an excellent job of showing how the film plays with light and dark, illusion and reality, and brutality conflict. Blanche, Stella, Stanly and Mitch successfully portray the concepts of light vs dark, illusion vs reality, brutality conflict through various transitions of each.

Stanley raped Blanche while they were there by themselves at home. According to John S. Bak, “The answer, I believe, lies more in Blanche than it does in Stanley, and more in William’s esoteric understanding of the word “rape” than in his audience’s collectivist definition of it.” Bak accused Blanche of Stanley’s actions. The actions of Blanche and Stanley was leading up to this terrifying moment. “The preceding scenes foreshadow this moment in Blanche’s invitations to sexual violence and in Stanley’s brutal actions, gestures, words, and tone” (Tischler). Blanche is already going through things from her husband dying things to being taken away from her. “Stanley does destroy Blanche in many ways when he rapes her, but Streetcar’s controversial rape scene is more the thematic confluence of Blanche’s inability to sequester her own sexual attraction toward Stanley than it is the dramatic climax of their visceral attraction” (Bak). Blanche told her sister, Stella, that her husband, Stanley, had raped her. Stella believe her sister in this case. “At the end of the stage version of A Streetcar Named Desire, after Blanche is removed to a mental hospital for telling the truth, that Stanley has assaulted her sexually, Stella goes on living with Stanley. Stella chooses not to let belief take hold of her. She allows herself to live as if the truth were lie and a lie, the truth” (Heims). A

“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…” (Williams 80). Within this quotation from Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, a streetcar is not what is being referred to literally. Instead, the quote signifies the adulterous search for sexual “desires” and the inevitable social deconstruction of the focal character, Blanche. The play takes place in New Orleans, during post World War II, where men and women are not seen as equals. It follows Blanche, a woman who unfortunately loses everyone and everything, as she enters the life of her sister, Stella. Departing from her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi,

Elia Kazan directed the film A Streetcar Named Desire and produce by Warner Brothers in 1951. The novel was originally written by Tennessee Williams and promoted as a play in 1947 and turned into a film later through out its success . The awards received were the Pulitzer price award in 1948 and was nominated for best motion picture, best writing and screen play. The novel was basically about a former English school teacher named Blanche Dubois (played by Vivien Leigh), who decided to join her sister at her house, Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter) and her husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in New Orleans. During Blanche is at Stanley’s and Stella’s home, Blanche is trying to

The second scene happened at 6pm in Stella’s house. Stella kisses Stanley and tells him that she is going out for dinner and watching a show with Blanche tonight because he will play poker at the apartment. He is annoyed because of this. Stanley asks about Blanche and Stella tells him that Blanche needs time to peace because they have lost Belle Reve and she also asks Stanley to admire her dressing. However, Stanley wants to see some statements that can prove it and he talks about law of Napoleon which says that everything belonging to the wife also belongs to her husband. Stanley open Blanche’s case and find lots of luxury things and wants to know how can she get these as a teacher. Stella is trying to explain but Stanley does not care. Stella

In a streetcar named desire Tennessee Williams demonstrates how women were treated in the 20th century. Creating a social Gap between men and women. In a streetcar named desire Tennessee williams shows how big of a gap there is by making blanche feel like she's at the bottom of society meaning she's an outcast. The reason why she is at the bottom is because of her major drinking problem and really bad sexual behavior.  Tennessee williams makes Blanche look like a women that gave up on herself. The way he also portrays Stella is also weak because stella doesn't stand up for herself or even the fact that Stanley is really rude to her sister.