Roof Beam Reader
Adam Burgess
Thoughts: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Final Verdict: 4.0 out of 4.0
YTD: 24
A Streetcar Named Desire is my first experience with Tennessee Williams. Going into this work, I knew very little about it and I knew very little about the writer. As it turns out, I may have just discovered a new favorite. Williams was a semi-openly gay man (at the time of this publication – he did come out publicly in the 1970s) whose works, though certainly rife with queer elements, did not deal directly with gay characters or situations. A Streetcar Named Desire, though, like The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, is a perfect example of how Williams subverts heteronormative literary traditions in order to queer his text. The play is about two sisters: Blanche, a mild, hypersensitive, and mentally disturbed/delusional middle-aged woman; and Stella, subordinate, sexual, and a symbol of the “New South.” It is also about Stella’s husband, Stanley. He is disturbingly sympathetic – an evil man who one can’t help but identify with. Not since reading Lolita and encountering Mr. Humbert Humbert have I felt so simultaneously enthralled by and repulsed by a literary character.
Blanche, who has suffered two major traumas, comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister and brother-in-law for a short time, until she can get back on her feet. It is soon discovered that these traumas have been the impetus for certain scandals which have forced Blanche out of her hometown and her career. These secrets are revealed to Stanley through informants (he is a man of “connections” – likely due to his time in the Army and his lingering camaraderie with GI Vets), but Blanche continues to lie and tell stories right up to the end; the end being one of the most disturbing imaginable. Stanley, in all his pure heterosexuality and machismo is the source of the play’s sexual gaze. This is a revelation for the time period and is in fact, ironically, one of the two major sources of queerness in the play. Blanche and her history explain the second and more obvious queering. The most interesting element of this play, and there are many, is that these two queer representations are battling each other for supremacy over the heteronormative element, which is to say – Stella.
What is particularly powerful and unique about the play, and I hear this is common for most of Williams’s plays, is that it is much more about language and character than it is about story (though that is there too, obviously). The nature, the structure, of plays typically do not lend themselves well to story-through-language or through characterization, due to their sparseness; however, Williams tells quite a bit of his story in the stage direction, so it is easy to see why this play would be so difficult to stage successfully (and, to my knowledge, it has only been done perfectly well in one instance – with is that of the first staging, including Marlon Brando). Williams comments on the changing nature of gender roles and sexual politics, post-World War II; he adeptly, brilliantly, exposes the new American male – the romantic but tragic and dangerous hero-come-home. Women, who had taken up work and head-of-household positions were suddenly forced back into their homes, back into submission, and the power dynamics, social confusion, and family disruption this caused is clearly explored and sensitively, if shockingly, delivered.
He also comments on elements such as “New South versus Old South,” mental health, pederasty, post-traumatic stress disorder, class, race, gender, power, and control. This short play packs a wallop – it is loaded with themes, yet so delicately crafted that the characters and their stories still manage to come first. While Tennessee Williams is largely considered to be a “New Realist” or “Expressionist,” and this certainly shows in the themes of this play and in its construction, I would argue that this play is a work of Modern Tragedy, particularly due to the absence of religion/morality and the inability of any character to gain redemption or find peace. The film, though perfectly cast and lovingly produced, unfortunately changes the ending and one of the most important dialogic moments, which eliminates the modern and tragic elements of the play. This is a great disappointment, as the play itself is perhaps perfect – which is simultaneously why it is one of the most often produced, most sought out by high-profile actors, and most disappointingly delivered.
This is one of the most moving, enjoyable, disturbing, and surprising works that I have read this year. I am eager to read more from Tennessee Williams, hopefully in the very near future (I’m considering pursuing him as a project, after finishing with John Steinbeck).
Notable Quotes:
“They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!”
“When I was sixteen, I made the discovery – love. All at once and much, much too completely.”
“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.”
“I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And it that’s sinful, then let me be damned for it!”
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
Roof Beam Reader 
I’ve seen this play, and I loved it. I’m planning on reading it at some point, but haven’t got around to it yet.
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Have you seen this on screen? Vivien Leigh’s performance truly transformed this work for me. (I favor The Glass Menagerie.) 🙂
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I loved this one too. The film version is fantastic!
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The casting in the film was great and the movie was very good overall, but they destroyed the ending and I was bummed that they backed away from the real Allan issue during Blanche’s speech to Mitch.
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These were my two issues with the movie too. I can understand the Allan issue choice but I really hated the changed ending. It took something away from the overall story.
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Absolutely! The play is meant to be a tragedy and much of its point is wrapped-up in the fact that Stella stays with Stanley. The movie completely changes that, which in turn makes the whole story much less effective, in my opinion. But this review is about the play, which I loved. 😉
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Adam, you brought back memories of my college days when I read Williams for the first time. He immediately became a favourite. Because of reading them around the same time: Williams, Miller, and O’Neil, I tend to club them together. Of late, there has been a revolt against the canon and these brilliant writers have really suffered.
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This is one of my favourite works ever. I think Blanche is such a complex and rich character. I once heard actor Rachel Weisz – who won a Lawrence Olivier award for her portrayal of Blanche – say of her “she’s an angel, she’s a monster, she’s everything!” And I agree. One can go from one extreme to another with her. I also must admit I felt identified with her, especially when she tries to wash away the day with “a hot bath and a cold drink”. So much for catharsis and extremes! But it works 😉
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I never read this play (or any of Williams’s other works), but I definitely want to now.
Great review.
I have also been poking around your blog and really enjoy it.
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