This essay deals with the notion of naturalism in Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. Through a realistic portrayal of characters and their suffering due to social issues which are out of their control, Williams managed to create deeply believable characters the audience can very easily connect to. Since the idea of naturalism in drama is exemplified in the notion of realness and truthful portrayal of a situation, this drama offers plenty of examples of naturalism, such as Blanche being a relic of the old South which is dying, and Stanley being the new, emerging, animalistic working class antagonist, prone to drinking who eventually destroys little that is left of Blanche’s sanity.
Keywords: naturalism, South, working class, alcohol, reality
Tennessee Williams’ renowned drama A Streetcar Named Desire is one that portrays an illusion of reality, where there exists a clash of old Southern values, as represented by Blanche Du Bois, and the young and robust Stanley Kowalski, who is a representative of the new, industrial, working class. Their social conditions, along with the language they utilize and the three-dimensional setting, all work in favor of naturalism in his play.
On Blanche’s arrival to her sister’s home, in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans, between the river and the train tracks, she is unable to appreciate the charm of Stella’s shabby home, which mirrors the image of her husband, who is a healthy, robust womanizer, with a soft spot for liquor, something he and Blanche share. The social elements of New Orleans differ vastly from Belle Reve, their old Southern home, because here, blacks and whites live together as equal neighbors, and different ethnicities can be found socializing at a poker table. It is the perfect setting of the time during which the play was created, because it offers a realistic image of how people of such social status lived: mingling together, not caring about the other’s skin color or ethnicity.
The naturalism of the characters is most notable with Blanche and Stanley. Blanche was forced to leave their estate Belle Reve, because the of “epic fornications” of their ancestors, which resulted in her drinking problems and the real reason she was visiting her sister, which was the incident at the school where she was working (Williams, 1986, p. 43). This social aspect of Blanche’s life is all too real to those familiar with the fall of Southern values and the emerging of a new society, which consisted of young, virile workers, who cursed, drank and chased after women, like Stanley does. The world they find themselves in is no longer the world of gentlemanly values from Blanche’s childhood, rather, it is a world which requires action, assertiveness and dominance, and it is exactly how Stanley behaves. Thus, the two of them are polar opposites, the clash of which will have devastating consequences for the poor deluded Blanche, but most importantly, it is an ingenious manner of portrayal of social changes that were evident in America in the time Williams was writing his play.
Critics would first and foremost, consider Williams a realist (Hale, 1997, p. 21). This naturalism and reality of Williams’ plays is almost palpable not only in this play, but in others as well. His characters are portrayed as real people, with real emotions and real suffering, which is why it is easy for the audience to connect with them. The reality of Blanche’s delusion and the natural feel of Stanley’s animalistic nature in the poor suburbs of New Orleans create the perfect illusion of authenticity, exemplifying true emotions and true human drama.
References:
Hale, A. (1997). Early Williams: The Making of a Playwright. In Roudané, M. C. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams (11-26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, Tennessee. (1986). A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Signet.
