For me, "A
streetcar named desire" was an excellent play, I found it so
interesting that I saw the movie, in order to develop my own thoughts about it;
the movie involves you into the play, you can see clearly what Williams wanted
to say and describe, it gives you a new vision in order to explore Williams'
ideas about the south, the female role and the importance of different places
and things.
Williams, following the
southern gothic genre (as Faulkner did), the city has an important role in this
play because he wanted to make a differentiation between Mississippi with New
Orleans, we can see The South in which Belle Reve is involved, where Stella and
Blanche grow up. Similarly, we can see New Orleans, a place which is
represented by working class people, hit by the Civil War, and also Stanley’s
house, both of them are a completely different view of life for Blanche.
This new house has a
huge impact in Blanche’s life, she thinks she is still in Mississippi where she
has baths, she uses perfumes, fine clothing and jewelry, here we may notice
that she is not in her best health, and she is not in Belle Reve anymore.
What called my
attention, was the last scene, where Blanche says "Whoever
you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”, this kind of speech,
means that she is in Belle Reve again, this part is important because, but on
the contrary she is un New Orleans yet, she does not know anyone in that place,
and she feels reliable with people who are kind and soft with her, that in
Stella’s home anyone was cute enough with her.
To conclude, I can say that this
play is now one of my favorites; it has a lot of drama, all the characters have
a certain role, for instance Stanley represents the animal instinct in which a
man does not want to be away from his woman, for him sex is compulsory; Stella
in the play is a kind of prize, Blanche and Stanley tries to dominate her in
order to show superiority, she is very naïve and I personally believe sometimes
she is a kind of silly person because she allows Stanley hit her and
immediately she forgives him, talking about Blanche, sex is a tool for survival,
also is the necessity of being protected, she
hides the truth (her age and past), she embellishes it with a lot of lies, you
do not know if she is talking about reality, fiction or illusion, she has a
past, but I am certain that she does not notice that she is leaving in her own
world, under her rules and dreams, for me she is just a woman with a lot of
issues, troubles, traumas and illnesses, she is just a victim of her own life,
her wish of being forever young and desired.
I have in mind two questions for you:
1) Do you think locations play an important role?
2) What do you think about Blanche's hallucinations?
I have in mind two questions for you:
1) Do you think locations play an important role?
2) What do you think about Blanche's hallucinations?
Answering only the first question, I strongly believe that locations are extremely important in the novel, although it sounds kind of obvious, I think in this play the fact of marking so much the division into south and north implies that the characters are the "human representation" of all this, and in that sense it is also something that creates conflict and at the same time creates a certain type of tension that gives excitement when reading or watching the play
ResponderEliminarI concur with your ideas Camila, once you saw the movie, you realize that the tension that you mentioned before, starts to create a new atmosphere, a new way to understand the play.
ResponderEliminarI couldn't agree with you more, Paulina! Even though I am not very much into reading, A Streetcar Named Desire was definitely a pleasure to read.
ResponderEliminarI find interesting what you mentioned about the great importance of places within Williams's play. It is blatantly obvious that between Mississippi and New Orleans there is a yawning gap as well as between the main characters.
As far as I remember, in a class it was said that in the first act of the play, the characters are introduced through symbols, for instance, the streetcar which gives the name of the play. so, in the case of the contrasting places, what came to my mind first when I started to read the play was the relation between the places and the characters.
In my opinion, Mississippi represents Blanche and New Orleans represents Stanley. mississippi has historically been dominated by farms and small towns, and dependent on agriculture and livestock. New orleans, on the other side, New Orleans has historically known for its multiculturalism due to the arrival of immigrants.
If we go beyond, we can think about the difference between Belle Reve and Stanley's house which are also polar opposite as well. Belle Reve was full of facilities such as "the bath" whereas stanley's house was all the way around, it had merely two rooms to name a feature.
.
All in all, the play is full of symbols in which places are just an example of it, however, an important one.