English:
The streetcar named desire is a play by Tennessee Williams, which he did in the year 1947. It is a play that is among the three of his best works and has earned various awards due to the fact that it has influenced many people and has been successful both critically where it had many positive reviews as well as commercially. The play involves three main characters that the playwright has effectively used to develop the plot and bring out major important themes. These characters include Stanley, Stella and the protagonist Blanche. The play has been developed mainly depicting the life of Blanche and her interactions with her sister, Stanley as well as the society. The play is set in New Orleans and mostly brings out the lives of the three characters as they live together in the house.
Blanche has come to stay with her sister after she encountered problems back home beginning with the loss of their plantations as a result of bankruptcy. Coupled with this, Blanche also had other problems that she did not disclose to her sister and so lived in pretence with her sister and her husband. However, Stanley, Stella’s husband is never in support of Blanche and always antagonises everything that she does. His relationship with Stella is one that cannot be influenced by anyone even Blanche herself and so Stanley uses this support from his wife against Blanche. This essay is, therefore, very important because it will try and analyse various important aspects of the play. It will bring out the various aspects of society as depicted in the play’s setting and how the characters have helped in bringing them out clearly (Schultz 2005, p. 122).
The streetcar named desire is set based on a lot of sexual tensions among the characters with sexual relationships forming a major aspect of the play. It was set in New Orleans in the 1940s (Schultz, 2005, p.122). This was a time where Blanche, Stanley and Stella had lots of financial problem. This is depicted by first of all the loss of the plantation as explained by blanch to her sister. This news greatly disturbed Stanley, who even thought that Blanche was lying and even accused her of selling the plantations for luxurious things. These instances show the financial background of the characters for which most of them clearly bring out in the play through their interactions with each other. The neighbourhood was Stella and Stanley live in is also seen as congested and of low standards. The aspect of congestion is seen where they live in the ground floor of the building they live in while their neighbours Eunice and Steve live in the first floor. Blanche is always asking Stella to leave the place for a better one because of the fact that they had been brought up in a wealthy background and it was hard for them because the wealth had faded away(Shmoop Editorial Team).
The setting of the play together with the dynamic nature of the characters helps in developing the overall plot and the themes of this play.The difference in character together with the interactions between them brings out a twist that is important for the plays success. The stories that Stanley receives from his friend who knew about blanche’s past fuels his antagonism towards her and thus takes advantage of the situation and use it to manipulate Blanche as much as possible even to the point of raping her without anyone lifting a finger at him just because of the influence he had on his wife as well as on blanche. The fact that Blanche had hidden secrets also worsens the situation by the fact that she had been living a pretentious life with her sister(Shmoop Editorial Team).
The change in setting from wealthy background from where blanche came from to the new and humble setting in new Orleans results to a change in perspective as seen in the life of Blanche in the new place as she lives with her Stella and Stanley. The depressions from her past life results to lots of regrets and has her drinking very often(Shmoop Editorial Team). The plays setting of the climax is very strategic by the fact that it brings out the heightened aspects of domestic, violence, male dominance, sexual exploitation through rape as well love. The true intentions for Blanche by Stanley are well depicted in the climax of the play where Stella is at the delivery and Stanley, and Blanche are left together. It is during this time that Stanley takes the opportunity and rapes Blanche using the excuse that she had been sleeping with other men in her past and is something she been used to (Schultz, 2005, p. 123).
Works Cited
Schultz, Ray. "A Streetcar Named Desire (review)." Theatre Journal 57.1 (2005): 122-125. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "A Streetcar Named Desire." Shmoop.com . Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
