Tennessee Williams was America´s most controversial playwright. He was proclaimed by his troubled private life and was constantly struggling with his own self-doubts. Nevertheless he was the dramatist, who produced some of the most powerful works for the American theater. In 1947 Tennessee Williams placed new expectations for American dilemma with his masterpiece A Streetcar Known as Desire. The play opened on December 3, 1947, and was received with great acclaim. Neither the theater audience at the premiere evening, nor the viewers at the other 844 performances, that your play offered on Broadway, were disappointed and made A Streetcar Known as Desire Williams´ second success on Broadway after his triumph together with the A glass Menagerie.
Down for this day A Streetcar Named Desire hasn't lost its substantial fame and fascination. A reason for the perpetual attractiveness of the play is probably the fact that Williams is the sole American playwright, who's able to examine "women with such subtlety and compassion". Hence, critics such as Felicia Hardison Londré denote Tennessee Williams´ A Streetcar Named Desire also as "a lyrical drama about the decrease and show up of Blanche DuBois". With this statement Londré stresses that both, the type as well as the internal development of Blanche Dubois, are the target of attention in Williams´ play. However, in my thought process, it is not only crucial to analyze the Blanche´s personality in detail, but also to study the character of the play´s second girl protagonist Stella, Blanche´s sister, more closely.
Hence, the purpose of this seminar newspaper is to compare and contrast the characters of the two sisters. At the beginning of the newspaper the author´s biographical framework. . . and the bibliographical record of A Streetcar Named Desire are talked about. In order to lay down the foundations for an in depth characterization of both female protagonists, chapter two contains a short conclusion of the play´s story, focussing on the inner advancements of Blanche and Stella. After, a detailed evaluation of Blanche´s and Stella´s persona follows. Finally, the most important findings are briefly summed up in the final outcome.
2. Tennessee Williams and his masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire
In order to have the ability to fully grasp the meaning of Tennessee Williams celebrated play A Streetcar Named Desire, it is completely necessary to take the publisher´s biographical context as well as the work´s bibliographical record into consideration.
Biographical context
Like in several of his other plays, also the plot of your Streetcar Named Desire was strongly affected by Williams´ own biographical background. Tennessee Williams himself explained once a Streetcar Named Desire was his favorite play since it "said everything I had formed to say".
Williams never hidden that his works represent his own background and even welcomed comparisons between his own life and the characters in A Streetcar Called Desire. Inside a questionable interview with Robert Jennings he explicitly compared himself along with his identity Blanche DuBois: "I can completely identify with Blanche [â] we are both hysterics. " Many critics, such as Nancy Tischler, Roger Asselineau, or Kenneth Holditch, asserted that there are several other links between Blanche and Williams. In the letter to his agent Audrey Hardwood he wrote the next sentence, which again stresses his strong id with the dramatis personae of his play: "I used to be but still am Blanche [â] [but] I have a Stanley in me, too. " Nevertheless, the associations between Blanche and Tennessee Williams aren't always uncomplicated.
In compare to Tischler, Asselineau and Holditsch, other critics respect the partnership between Blanche and Stanley as a reflection of the contours of William´s life. They declare that Blanche and Stanley represent divisions of Williams´ own complex life and personality. Yet studies conducted by John Clum, Mark Lilly and David Savran reach another bottom line. All three see Blanche and Stanley as a projection of Tennessee Williams´ homoerotic needs. Clum, for case, says that the actions of his heterosexual female character Blanche cover a homosexual subtext.
Bibliographical history
Similar to other of Williams´ performs the plot of an Streetcar Named Desire progressed over many years. Tennessee Williams drew, for example, much of his creativity from his life in the French 1 / 4 of New Orleans. During his amount of time in New Orleans he resided on Royal Street. Two streetcars where operating outside. Among the two streetcars was named Desire. Consequently the name of Williams´ play is among other activities an illusion to this particular streetcar.
In the first 1940s he specified the story lines as well as his idea for a film version in a letter to his agent Audrey Hardwood. With this first draft of A Streetcar Called Desire, the play was a one-act play. The story lines was mainly established upon a world which he previously written earlier.
"The story was murky, but I seem to be to see a woman sitting down in a couch, waiting in vain for something. Maybe love. Moon rays were loading through the windows and that advised lunacy. I composed the scene and titled it 'Blache´s Seat in the Moon'. "
In the finish, Tennessee Williams wrote twelve different drafts for your Streetcar Named Desire. Each of his drafts got a different subject, such as The Poker Nighttime or The Moth, and was first occur Chicago, then in Atlanta and lastly in New Orleans.
Due to the influence of Elia Kazan, an important Greek-American director, who staged the play and directed the film version of the Streetcar called Desire, Williams modified his work several times through and following its production, which got a considerable effect on the script of the Streetcar Named Desire. By changing the personas´ nationality as well as their "conception and inspiration" he changed the play from "a relationship to a tragedy". While writing, Williams was required to grapple two major problems: first of all, the partnership between Blanche and Stanley, and second of all, the varying diplomas and onset of Blache´s madness.
Furthermore, four early one-act plays, which were written around 1945, acquired an impact on A Streetcar named Desire. The first one of the has is "This Property is Condemned", a play focusing on a young gal´s desires to be like her dead sister, who was a prostitute. The second play, entitled "Portrait of your Madonna", chronicles the storyplot of an old maid sent to an asylum after hallucinating. As opposed to the first two plays, "The Lady of Larkspur Lotion" targets a faded southern belle, who experienced turn into a prostitute. Additionally, parallels can be within "Hello from Bertha", a play dealing with a dying prostitute begging her ex-lover to save her.
In addition to the many different drafts of A Streetcar Called Desire, a number of different editions of the play have been printed out up to the present day. For instance, there are substantial differences between your reading and the acting editions. Some distinctions can also be identified between your American and the English version. In the American version, for occasion, the homosexuality of Blanche´s hubby was censored. Another difference is the composition of the play. In the British model the play is divided into three works, whereas the play consists of eleven successive moments in other editions.
The assignments of Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowalski in the storyline of your Streetcar Known as Desire
In order to place the foundations for the characterization of Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowalski, I would like to give a short brief summary of the material of Tennessee Williams´ play. Since the goal of this newspaper is to compare the character types of both feminine protagonists, special attention has hereby been paid to the inner development of Blanche and Stella.
In landscape one Blanche, a faded southern belle, finds the house of her younger sister Stella in a reasonably run-down area of New Orleans. She actually is surprised about the circumstances in which Stella and her partner live and makes no key of her disapproval. After having a warm reunion of both sisters, Blanche clarifies that she's taken periods from institution, where she actually is teaching British, because of her upset mental state. Later she further admits that she's lost 'Belle Reve', their family estate in Mississippi. Although Belle Reve slipped through Blanche´s fingers, she reproaches Stella for not time for her home to help her with the troubles. When Stanley comes back along with his friends from the bowling alley, he allows Blanche´s occurrence; however, the atmosphere between Blanche and Stanley is tense from the beginning.
While Blanche is bathing the very next day, Stella explains to Stanley about the loss of Belle Reve. He immediately suspects Blanche of experiencing swindled them about the reasons for the loss of the family house. As a result of Stanley´s mistrust the relationship between Stanley and Blanche becomes more problematic. The situation even becomes worse when Stanley begins inquiring Blanche about the circumstances for the loss of Belle Reve and by it he discovers a lot of money of old love characters, which reveal Blanche´s matrimony to a man, who finally died. Also Stanley discloses a top secret and tells Blanche about Stella´s being pregnant.
In the next scene Stanley and his friends are playing texas holdem, when Blanche and Stella go back from an nighttime out together. One of these, Mitch, is very politely to Blanche and will pay her compliments. Also Blanche notices that he is "more advanced than others". In contrast to Mitch, Stanley, who has had already one way too many, is not delighted about the looks of both women. The situation gets out of hand and Stanley beats pregnant better half. Blanche protectively rushes Stella upstairs, but Stanley begs his wife to come back to him. In the long run Stella, who's somehow drawn by his dog behavior, forgives her hubby and spends the night time with him.
As arena four opens, it's the following morning hours and Stella and Blanche are experiencing a private debate about Stanley. Blanche can certainly not understand why Stella was "insane enough to come back in here after what [acquired] occurred" and tries to persuade her sister to leave him. She tells her of any millionaire, a former admirer of hers, who surely would provide them with money to begin a new life. Yet Stella makes clear that she actually is not willing to leave her man and embraces Stanley passionately in front of Blanche, when he sees him come in, to demonstrate her commitment to him. However, both women have no idea that Stanley overheard a great deal of what they stated before.
Over the course of the summer (scene five and six) it becomes clear that Blanche and Mitch have a deep affection for every single other. Blanche event entrusts him with details about her brief marriage, which was overshadowed by her partner´s homosexuality and his suicide after she experienced discovered him in bed with another man. In the meantime, Stanley makes inquiries about Blanche´s former and unmasks her distinguished behaviour as hypocrisy. He discovers about her numerous one nighttime stands and her affair with a seventeen-year-old guy, which led to her dismissal.
Scene seven takes place at Blanche´s Birthday. Stanley, who is craving to get rid of his sister-in-law, moves the compiled information on to Mitch, would you not longer wish to marry her since she is not "clean enough to bring in the home with [his] mother". Unlike Mitch, Stella is not impressed by her spouse´s story. At the beginning she is denying his reproaches but, as the list lengthens, she defends her sister by referring to her tragic relationship. The ambiance at Blanche´s birthday dinner (scene eight) is anxious and unpleasant, because Mitch does not show up. The situation grows to its climax when Stanley reveals Blanche with a bus ticket back to Laurel. Blanche is insulted and rushes out. At this moment Stella feels her first labour aches and pains and requests to be studied to medical center.
Later the same night (scene nine), Mitch drops by to confront Blanche with the rumours of her past. Finally, she admits her failures but immediately justifies her behavior by explaining that her loneliness after her husband´s death pressured her to seek physical love. After her confession Mitch, who is drunk, tries to rape her, but Blanche handles to kick him from the apartment.
In the subsequent scene Stanley returns reasonably cheerful, but drunk, from clinic where Stella is still in labour. In the home, he fulfills Blanche, who is drunk too. Her lay claim, that she has received a telegram from an essential oil magnate appealing her on the luxury cruise, is her last attempt to avoid into her world of illusions. First Stanley will take the problem with humour until she is to him about what has occurred between her and Mitch. Stanley becomes intense and rapes her. This function of violence leads to Blanche´s absolute anxious malfunction. Although Blanche informs Stella that her man has determined a criminal offense, she decides not to leave him since she "couldn´t believe that her history and continue coping with Stanley". At Stanley´s demand Blanche is admitted to a mental medical center some weeks later (scene eleven). The fact that she is convinced until the end that she actually is going on holiday with an admirer (who's actually the physician) again emphasizes her bad mental condition. Even though Stella is not completely convinced that it was the right decision to admit her sister to a mental home, she makes no attempt to prevent it.
