To check out all my reviews: http://dancinginth3dark.blogspot.comI AM GOING TO SPOIL THE LIFE OUT OF THIS PLAY BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO READ IT! YOU ARE WARNED!!!This play has been on my shelf for a few years now and yet I am still trying to figure out why I haven't read it until now. It has only been recent that I have been fascinated by plays and for years I have heard about this play about a million times. If it wasn't mentioned in movies then somehow it was featured on tv and the only reason why I heard about this play and why I wanted to read it is because of one person and that is the only reason I kept persevering to finish this play:True Rating: 3.5 StarsSetting: New Orleans, 1947In the beginning, we are introduced to Blanche DuBois, who is traveling to New Orleans to visit her younger sister Stella. When she arrives at Stella's small hole-in-the-wall apartment, right off the bat we notice something is wrong with Blanche. Stella wasn't at home but the owner of the complex lets Blanche inside and immediately she starts snooping around and finds a liquor bottle in a closet and she pores herself a drink as if she is an alcoholic.Once Stella arrives back home from her husband bowling game, they are both excited to see each other at first and learn a little about one another since they haven't seen each other in years. Blanche is a teacher who has supposedly taken a break from teaching because of nerves and as they are getting along, I feel as though Blanche is showing her true colors and tries to put guilt on Stella especially how she abandoned her family at a moment of crisis. Blanche and Stella apparently were rich growing up in this plantation called Belle Reve and the moment when their parents both died, Blanche wasn't able to keep up with the house and in the end she mortgage the house and lost it to the bank. Immediately I do not like Blanche because she gives off this scent that she is a liar, superficial, and a woman who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. As they are having this discussion, here walks in Stanley Kowalski who is Stella's Husband. In the very beginning of this encounter, Blanche likes him with mixed feelings but the hatred that she will come to express begins when Stanley notices that his liquor bottle has been touched. He questions her and she lies to him and at that instant it becomes clear for Stanley that she is only going to bring trouble for his family.As the story progresses, Blanche becomes annoying and keeps telling Stella that Stanley is garbage because he is a Polack (not true), he is a common man, and that Stella has betrayed her morals because she lives in a sink hole and not to the standards for Blanche which is living in a mansion. Since nobody is practically getting along, Stanley takes it to his attention that something is off about Blanche and immediately searches through her stuff to find anything that can be worth of money, and tells her the secret news that Stella is pregnant.One night during poker night, the girls have gone to the movies while the men play their poker game. They drink and smoke excessively and when the girls come home only impending doom will be their fate. Blanche and Stella keep bothering Stanley either through incessant talking or music and it reaches the point of his drunkness that he turns into an animal and beats his wife in the face. I was shocked by the horror of this like Blanche but then again I forget that this takes place a long time ago where it was normal and acceptable to beat up with your wife (which is completely unacceptable regardless of time period). Blanche goes into a frenzy and both Stella and her go to the flat above to get away from Stanley and to let things cool off.It is interesting how the men try to stop Stanley after he punches his wife but at the same token they didn't flinch or did anything about it until the actual act of violence. Stanley feels awful about the whole thing and since this is normal behavior for everyone (minus Blanche), he begs for Stella to come back home and without a second glance she goes back and sleeps with him. The next day Blanche goes off on a rant to Stella telling her to leave her husband because he is no good, that she knows a wealthy man in Dallas who can take care of them, and that everything will be fine once they leave home. Stella refuses this notion and secretly Stanley was outside listening to the whole conversation. Instead of going mad and on a rampage at what Blanche said to his wife, he uses his fake ignorance to his advantage and decides to do a little research on Blanche and the reason why she arrived to New Orleans and haven't left.Getting off sidetrack we get a tiny bit of romance between Blanche and Mitch. Mitch is Stanley's best friend who they fought in the war together, work together now, and are practically blood brothers. Mitch has a dying mother who wishes that he could be married before she passes away and he becomes infatuated with Blanche. She believes he is perfect for husband material and the whole story sounds pleasant and positive until a gross act is committed. The paperboy who is a teenager comes to Stanley's place to receive his payment and there is no one around except for Blanche. He decides he will come later to get money from the Kowalski's and right before he leaves, Blanche forces herself on him and gives a kiss. At that moment I honestly believe that she is not mentally well if she's doing acts that would lead to child molestation.After months go by we finally get to Blanche's birthday in September and that is the day that everything will go incredibly wrong. Stanley as a loving surprise comes to Stella and reveals that her sister is full of crap telling lies to everyone. When Blanche lost the house, she kind of went off the deep end and had a sexual relationship with one of her students. When the boy reported it to his parents, they immediately spoke to the Superintendent and they got her fired. With no employment or home to go to, Blanche checks herself into a hotel that is known for prostitutes. She sleeps with practically every man of the town and gets labeled as the town's whore. She slept with so many men that even the military base nearby has a nickname for her called "Out of Bounds". The mayor of the city of Laurel practically banishes Blanche from town and telling her never to come back and that is why she came to New Orleans. With this reel of information, Stanley wants nothing to do with her and bought her a bus ticket to go back to Laurel. Stella is heartbroken by this information and cannot believe it is true and on top of that Stanley told Mitch so that wedding deal is now gone to the crapper.No one tells Blanche that they know the truth during dinner and she becomes frighten when Stanley gives her the bus ticket. Between the arguing and the intensity of the silence in the room, Stella goes into labor and Stanley takes her to the hospital. Blanche knows something is wrong with Mitch because he didn't show up to dinner and later on he does but it is only to confirm if she is whore. Interestingly enough she does tell him the truth in a weird psychotic way like as if she has woken up from a daze state and she tells him that all this drama started when she was a teenager in love with this boy who manipulated her and became the foundation for her mental breakdown.When Mitch leaves, Blanche goes off the deep end and starts drinking heavily, looking like garbage between the tears, the makeup, and the mess she has created and then here walks in Stanley. She starts to panic because she is home alone with him and he tells her that Stella is still in labor but the doctors do not need him for now and to just go home. He questions her about Mitch and ofcourse she lies about everything what has happen earlier and that is when Stanley shows his true colors. He is so sick and tire of Blanche and her lies and finally the moment of her breakdown arrives, Stanley rushes to the bedroom and gets a hold of Blanche and puts her on his bed and he rapes her.The final scene is weeks after that incident, Stella has a baby, the men are having a poker game, and Stella has called the mental institution for them to pick Blanche up since she has arrived at a psychotic state in which she believes this imaginary rich man she supposedly met will rescue her. We have this intense ending in which every one is in tears or a state of pity over Blanche and they live happily ever after. The End.My issue with this play was for the first half is utterly blah. I extremely dislike Blanche, I found her to be annoying and full of sh@t! I honestly believed this was going to be a love story between Blanche and Stanley and I was completely wrong. What I will admit is starting from the moment of Blanche's birthday to the end is what grab my fascination and made me change the ratings for this play. I was going to rate it 3 stars and call it a day but I am glad that I persevered and finished this play.When it comes to this play, I have this understanding of Tennessee Williams that he does not like to showcase good vs bad people. I believe he has this understanding that within all of us no matter how good we are there is evil within us and given with the certain situations and state of mind we can all fall off the deep end. What I find creepy within myself is that I loved Stanley the entire time up until the rape. I thought he was the hero of this story but I find him to be a troubled individual as well. Some may say that he was evil starting from punching his wife but I believe the evil is only that moment of rape. I do not believe anyone deserves to be raped regardless how shitty you are as a human being but I felt like in Stanley's mind it was justice to rape Blanche as a way to shut her up for the all the lies that she spews and since she was the town whore it wouldn't bother her to sleep with him. I honestly believe that I won't be reading this play anytime soon and I do not recommend this play for anyone unless you love these twisted dramas.What I did love was the dialogue towards the end of the play and especially the last scene I felt like I was physically in the apartment watching this drama ending and I actually almost cried when Stella kept calling Blanches name in tears and I admire that I could feel the intensity of those words and I applaud Williams for bring that emotion out of me but that is pretty much about it. P.S. If you enjoyed this play or want a modern loose adaptation of this play then you should watch Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen. Blanche reminded me so much of Jasmine and it made me realize that this play was not going to end happily ever after. I somewhat enjoyed Blue Jasmine and I would prefer watching that instead of reading this play again.
Ripping apart the veil of American society2 December 2014tMy previous review of this play (which for some reason I have decided to keep) was probably a little to harsh, particularly since I wrote it from memory as opposed to writing it with the play fresh in my mind. Having now finished reading this play for a third time I have been forced to lower its rating even further. Personally, despite wanting to, I cannot feel that I can give it any more that I have given it because I find this play to be incredibly painful to read. It is not that it is a badly constructed play – by no means; nor are the characters shallow – they are actually really well developed; nor is it because it does not have any deep themes. Rather it is because it comes across to me as if it were little more than a sophisticated soap opera (which is probably an unfair comparison, but that is what I thought as I was reading it).tIt is not that I don't like dark plays that are critical of society and the social norms, and it is not that I want to hide myself from the reality of what the play is talking about, but rather because Williams brings the play very, very close to home. To be honest, the scenes that you seen in this play you will encounter in the house of your next door neighbour. I personally cannot criticise Williams on the style that he uses, setting it in a working class district of New Orleans, and the fact that it is actually a really popular play (as can be seen through a quick glance over the other Goodreads reviews) goes to show that his style works. However, reading this play makes me feel as if somebody has cut my stomach open an is slowly removing my intestines.tOkay, that may be a simile that people use to describe really bad writing with really bad characters, and this is not the case with Street Car. However, one questions whether it would be possible for a person who has been subject to domestic violence to be able to appreciate this play themselves. However, I do sort of wonder whether this is the case. Below I am asking questions about why Stella remains in the relationship with Stan, but that question, having read this play again, is easily answered – she loves him. Wikipedia has an excellent synopsis of the play, where the writer describes the relationship has being a deeply passionate and primal sexual relationship. It is the fact that Stanley is brute that draws Stella to him, and it is the reason why she puts up with him. She does not see his intense masculinity as a flaw, but the part of him that she loves. tBlanche's character is very complex, to the point that you really know very little about her, and what you do find out is only through what others tell us. It is clear that we simply cannot trust a word that comes out of Blance's mouth. It is clear that she has created an illusion around the world, an illusion in which she lives, but in living this illusion she is destroys her own reality. She puts on the pretence of a Southern Belle, however as we find out she has made a reputation of being slut, which is why Williams uses the motif of the prostitute on the street robbing the drunk. tYet, as I have suggested below, Williams also uses this play to pierce the illusion that American society lives within. The play was produced a couple of years after the end of the war and people were looking ahead to a time of peace and prosperity. This was a time where the illusion of the happy family living in their house that they owned, with the two happy children was the ideal that was believed. However we are taken into the working class district of New Orleans to be shown a different world, a world that lies just under the skin of the illusion that is American society. It is a male dominated world where women are expected to submit. Yet this is not a feminist play, it is a play about illusions, about people living in a fantasy world and not being able to break out of it – in fact the more the world lashes out at them, the deeper into that world they dive, and when they are confronted with the truth, they lash out in anger.tCould William's have done this play another way? I'm not really sure, and while this may be substantially better than Days of Our Lives, with characters who are substantially deeper, and with much more complexity, I highly doubt that I would be able to bring myself to read it again (though I probably should reread A Glass Menagerie, just to also give it a fairer treatment).Another painful experience from Highschool26 December 2011tSometimes I wonder why it is that English teachers insist on forcing us to read such painful rubbish? Is it because they want to see how many of their students commit intellectual suicide, or is it a means of inflicting pain upon them so that at the end of the year they can emerge much stronger and more capable. I know this sounds a little extreme, but then again this play is also quite extreme.tThe first question that I ask about this play is 'what is the point?' In most books that I read there is a point. There is movement from beginning to the end, towards some definite point in the future where everything has been revealed and everything becomes clear. Further, there is also an aspect of learning and growing as one reads what I consider to be good literature. To be blatantly honest, there is none if this at all in this play (and I believe that this is a character trademark of William's plays).tI guess if one sits down at tries to look at this play objectively, analysing the characters, one could argue that it is tearing off the glazed covering of American Society and looking at the social decay within. Now, this play was written in post-war America, at the at the beginning of the so called 'Golden Age'. It was a time when many of the older generation would look back with fondness and desire to return to those 'good old days'. In a sense, this plays suggests that even then there was a dark and menacing undercurrent that the middle class preferred not to exist.tHowever, before I go down that road, let us consider the so called plot of this play. Blanche Dubois arrives in New Orleans to move in with her sister for a reason that is not really all that clear (it could be to get her life back on track, or it could be to escape from her past). However, we quickly come to realise that Blanche is living in some fantasy world were she has a lover who is a Texan oil baron. However, she discovers that her sister's household is not all that wonderful, being married a man that she sees as little more than a brute. The play then follows through to the eventual confrontation between Blanche and Stanley, after which Blance is escorted to a mental hospital, babbling about the kindness of strangers.tThere you go, that is pretty much it. Stan goes on being Stan, and Stella goes on loving him (though they do have a baby). Some have queried why Stella would put up with somebody like Stan, however this is post-war America, and couples simply did not walk out on each other (unlike today, in the era of the pre-nup). Even then, people still insist on living in abusive relationships (and it is usually the man being the abuser and the woman the abused, though I would argue that it is not necessarily always the case, but I will not dwell too much on this here, particularly with aspects of the nanny state intruding on so-called abusive relationships) even today. There have been lots of studies on this phenomena, one being that there is a belief that one day they will change, the fear of being alone, or simply being in a state of co-dependence. However, if we drift back to the days of A Streetcar Named Desire, there is also the social stigma attached to divorces and single mothers, particularly since society was still incredibly sexist in that they were unable to see fault in the husband.tMaybe Tennessee Williams was trying to make this point in his play, namely that society is rotten and decayed, and that we, like Blanche Dubois, live in a fantasy world were everything works well, and that we shut our minds to the possibility of abuse. Many of us still do this today, and it is not necessarily propaganda that is being pumped into us from above to keep us blinded and deceived, but we also do it to ourselves for fear of being confronted with a truth that has the possibility of shattering our worldview (or even forcing us to acknowledge that we, ourselves, are the instigators of this corruption).
What do You think about A Streetcar Named Desire (1952)?
I enjoyed the story... It really drew me in, which is saying something considering that I picked it to read on commercial breaks during the Olympics... and I ended up reading instead of watching. I liked this play because the characters seemed like real, flawed people. Granted, Blanche was a little over-the-top sometimes, but I imagine all southern-belle types are a little over-the-top from time to time. Blanche was an easily identifiable character... someone who deeply regrets a thoughtless act in her youth, and seeks forgetfulness, and another chance at happiness, in all the wrong places. In the end, you are left wondering if everything she said was real, considering that she is a self-proclaimed liar, "unless it is important", but who determines importance?I couldn't really identify with either Stella or Stanley as much... I couldn't really accept how someone could choose their abusive husband over their sister, especially given the accusation at the end. Stanley seemed like a husband jealous of his wife's relationship with her sister and determined to thwart their happiness at every turn... But worse than this, he is also careless with his own supposed best friend's feelings despite the fact that his friend seems very happy. These characters are not like-able, but they are human.
—Becky
Such a famous play, but it's brutal. Frailties are tested and battle lines are drawn from the outset between Blanche and Stanley, resulting in a tug of war until one gets overpowered and crushed. In the corner is Stella, Blanche's sister, neutral as Switzerland, who, not like Blanche, managed to find happiness after Belle Reve, although at a price.What I loved so much about this play was its setting: New Orleans. Also, the way that Blanche talked was what you would expect from an English schoolteacher character: her lines were the most stunning of all the cast. Favorite line from Blanche, among many: "Don't you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it?"Though it's a bit dated, this play is very readable because of the great lines from Blanche. The fights in this are memorable and cringe-worthy. This is alcohol-fueled drama at its finest from Tennessee Williams, and Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski have become immortal.
—Dexter
I've read many plays before and the thing with reading plays instead of seeing them is that you have to create the visuals yourself. This is why I'd rather see plays than read them. Yet, 'a streetcar named Desire' touched my nerves. It is well-written and provides the reader with the oppurtunity to visualise the symbolic utilage of light, sound and setting. The role of Blanche is a role I'd really like to play one day. Would be awesome. Concluding: this play is wonderful to read but I can imagine that people who are not used to reading plays miss out on a lot of symbolic visuals which are not explained thoroughly enough. Still 4 stars though!
—Lieve Brekelmans
