A STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE
by
Tennessee Williams
An A level English Student Guide
by
Steve Croft
~ Wessex Publications ~
CONTENTS
page
1
1.
Using the Workbook
2.
A Brief History of American Theatre
2
3.
Biographical Notes on Tennessee Williams
5
4.
An Intimate Memoir
13
5.
The Play - scene by scene
17
6.
Characterisation
63
7.
Themes and Ideas
64
8.
Structure and Setting
Use of Special Effects
65
67
9.
Language, Imagery and Style
70
10.
Essay and Revision Questions
73
Acknowledgements to Gerry Ellis for sections 2, 3 and 4.
A Streetcar Named Desire
1.
Using the Workbook
USING THE WORKBOOK
The workbook examines various aspects of A Streetcar Named Desire
and you will be asked to complete tasks on each of these areas as you
progress through the different sections. All the tasks are designed to
help you look carefully at the text and to come to an appreciation of its
meaning and significance as a piece of drama and literature. In addition
to work in the Workbook itself it is advisable to keep your own, fuller
notes, in a notebook or ring binder. These will be an important revision
aid if you are going to answer on this text in an examination.
Some of the tasks require quite short answers and where this is the case
a box is provided in the workbook where you can write down your
responses if you wish.
Some questions may require a fuller response and it would be best if
you wrote your comments or answers in your own notebook or file.
At the end of the Workbook you will find a number of specimen essay
questions of the kind that you might find set for A level English. These
titles and questions would also be suitable for coursework assignments
on this text. If you are going to answer on this text in an examination it
would be very useful to you to practise writing answers to several of
these and have some idea of how you would tackle any of them.
Good luck and happy studying.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
2.
A Brief History of American Theatre
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN THEATRE
th
19 Century
American drama a
bastard art-form
Actor and producer
counted for more
than the playwright
American drama in
thrall to Europe
Audiences liked
melodrama lavishly
staged
American theatre
lagged Europe’s
New Theatre in
Chicago 1906
World War I triggers
break with the
theatrical past
The American drama of the 19th century was a bastard art form. Its
popular manifestations - the Negro minstrel show, the burlesque and
vaudeville had a good deal of vitality but the legitimate, serious theatre
produced very few plays of permanent interest. It was an age when the
actor and producer counted for more than the playwright.
The play itself was not the thing. Frequently, what was performed on
stage was, in fact, imported from Europe during this century when
America remained in thrall to Europe. Failing this, successful plays
were sometimes adapted from novels such as 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'
The audiences of the time demanded melodrama lavishly staged. It
liked large casts, romantic plots, and spectacular effects. (This was also
the case on the stages of Europe until the Norwegian dramatist, Henrik
Ibsen, towards the end of the century, showed how powerful drama
could be when stripped of effects for their own sake. His drama dealt
with 'real' people in 'real' situations using 'real' dialogue.)
American theatre, then, lagged behind that of Europe. In 1900 or
thereabouts there was little indication that the United States would
make important contributions to world theatre.
However, the opening of the New Theatre at Chicago in 1906, and of a
similarly named venture in New York in 1909, marked a welcome
though abortive attempt to encourage experimental drama. Also, the
poet-dramatist William Vaughan Moody was beginning, in 'The Great
Divide' (1906), and 'The Faith Healer' (1909), to feel his way towards
adult theatre.
But the awakening of American Theatre was not accomplished through
verse drama, first, there had to be a decisive break with the theatrical
conventions of the commercial theatre. By the start of World War I, in
1914, the necessary conditions for such a break were present. Here, as
in so many areas in life, World War 1 was to herald a significant break
with the past.
In 1915 a number of artists and writers who made up a summer colony
at Provincetown, Massachusetts banded together as the Provincetown
Players
Eugene O’Neill
becomes one of the
leaders of
Provincetown
Players 1916
‘Bound East for
Cardiff’ performed
1916
In 1916 the young playwright Eugene O'Neill became one of the
leaders of this group. Born into the theatre, O'Neill had abandoned
Princeton University to explore the wider world. He had spells
prospecting, as a seaman, as a beachcomber and as a newspaper
reporter, before having his first play 'Bound East for Cardiff’
performed in 1916.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
1925 Guild Theatre
Brecht (1898-1956)
Influential German
expressionist
dramatist.
O’Neill’s realism
A Brief History of American Theatre
Now American Theatre, centred on New York, flourished. Free from
box-office pressures, players and playwrights could, and did,
experiment. In 1925 the Theatre Guild members were able to build
their own theatre. It was the Guild which performed O'Neill's plays
'Marco Millions' (1928), 'Mourning Becomes Electra' (1931), and 'Ah,
Wilderness' (1933).
As America's foremost playwright O'Neill did a great deal to establish
the model of this modern theatre in the United States. One its most
striking features was the combination of deliberately drab prose
realism and of a boldly inventive expressionist technique. It was as if
the work and ideas of Henrik Ibsen, the realist, and the German
expressionist, dramatist, Bertolt Brecht, had come together in the same
person. Bertolt Brecht (1898 to 1956) was a German dramatist who
departed from the conventions of realistic theatre to develop
expressionist drama for left wing purposes. He wrote 'Mother Courage'
and 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui' based on Hitler's rise to power.
Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not
objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that
objects and events arouse in him. In one step American drama had
caught up with the work being produced for the European stage.
•
•
•
Instead of elaborate drawing room or scenic sets O'Neill substituted
the deck of a tramp steamer in 'Bound East for Cardiff’ for
example.
Instead of complicated plots full of coincidence O'Neill offered a
seaman dying unheroically in his bunk.
Instead of stilted dialogue and melodramatic 'asides' his rough
characters spoke in the authentic idiom of their situation.
He said that he lacked 'great language' but that he did not think 'great
language is possible for anyone living in the discordant, broken,
faithless rhythm of our time. The best one can do is to be pathetically
eloquent by one's moving, dramatic inarticulateness'.
O’Neill’s
expressionist
experiments
O’Neill dies 1953
His stage directions are immensely detailed and add a new dimension
to his drama. So do his expressionistic tendencies, when, in 'The Moon
of the Caribbees’ (1918), for example, he incorporates offstage native
chanting, and in 'The Emperor Jones' when he has tom-toms beating in
the background almost throughout the play. In 'Lazarus Laughed'
(1927) there are choruses masked to represent seven stages of life and
seven different types of person each type clad in a distinctive colour.
For twenty years O'Neill wrote with inexhaustible energy but in 1934
retired to his study. 'The Ice Man Cometh' was performed in 1946 and
'A Moon for the Misbegotten' in 1947 but he was then faced by serious
illness, culminating with his death in 1953.
His plays show a constant attempt to suggest deeper meanings that
underlie 'the discordant, broken, faithless rhythm of our time'. He said
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A Streetcar Named Desire
A Brief History of American Theatre
he was only interested in the relation between man and God. By 'God'
he appears to have meant various things. In general, he was concerned
with humanity's craving for fulfilment and with humanity's
frustrations.
He did more than anyone else to transform the American theatre, and
his influence, which has spread throughout Europe, will be clearly seen
when you study the work of Tennessee Williams.
1930’s –
Depression years
Clifford Odets
Odets’ command of
American spoken
language
Arthur Miller.
Famous American
dramatist
contemporary of T
Williams. Wrote
‘The Crucible’,
‘Death of a
Salesman’ and ‘A
View from the
Bridge’.
T Williams and
Miller carry on and
extend O’Neill’s
theatrical ideas
The Depression of the 1930s, which followed the Wall Street crash in
1929, saw American drama changing with the times. For the spiritual
liberty of the individual, authors substituted the theme of economic
justice. Moreover, there was an increased interest in specifically
American dramatic material as seen in Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town'
(1938).
In the unmistakably Marxist production of New York's Theatre Union,
and in the Group Theatre that grew out of the Theatre Guild at the end
of the 1920s, the clash between God and the Devil of the medieval
morality plays was supplanted by the clash between the classes. The
Group Theatre discovered Clifford 0dets, the most forceful American
playwright since O'Neill. His 'Waiting for Lefty' and 'Awake and Sing'
both produced in 1935 are proletarian morality plays, powerful because
they avoid 'stageyness' and show a perfect command of American
spoken language. This mastery of the common idiom first shown by
O'Neill and perfected by Odets has been one of the main assets of
American theatre.
The two most discussed American dramatists since World War II have
been Tennessee Williams and his near contemporary Arthur Miller.
Tennessee Williams you will, of course, study in detail later, Arthur
Miller established his reputation with 'Death of a Salesman' (1949),
'The Crucible' (1953) and 'A View from the Bridge' (1955). These
plays portray characters who are almost commonplace, caught up in
contemporary American ‘problems’. He, like Tennessee Williams,
moves out of the prosaic towards the poetic. They both with their
ambitiously experimental sets and their intermittently 'fine' utterances
trust that their characters mean more than they say. In their successful
handling of the American idiom in speech, combined with their
experimentation with expressionist or poetic settings they show clearly
their links with the founder of modern American drama, Eugene
O'Neill.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
3.
Biographical Notes
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Introduction
Few playwrights wrote as much of their lives into their work as
Tennessee Williams and few had lives that were so obviously
theatrical.
He produced plays in which ‘violence exploded into rape, castration
and even cannibalism projecting dramatic personal traumas’. The
heroes of the three major plays, ' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', 'The Glass
Menagerie' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' are, in fact, portraits of the
artist, Williams himself, as a very troubled man,. One who found it as
hard to grow roots into a relationship as into a place.
Elia Kazan b1909.
Famous American
director, particularly
of plays by
Tennessee
Williams and Arthur
Miller. Directed
Marlon Brando in
the film version of
‘A Streetcar
Named Desire’ in
1951
Although he exposed a great deal of himself in his plays, he used his
characters as masks. Elia Kazan wrote, 'Everything in his life is in his
plays, and everything in his plays is in his life. He is so naked in his
plays'.
Kazan continued, 'The centres of civilisation that he found agreeable
were those populated by his own kind: artists, romantics, freaks of one
kind or another, cast-offs, those rejected by respectable society’.
It has to be accepted that in his plays the exorbitant violence
sometimes camouflages sentimentality and melodrama. What is also
undeniable is the fact that what gives his best plays their resonance is
his ability to suggest social and cultural disintegration through personal
breakdown.
His Life
Born 1911
His early years
were extremely
happy
Particularly close to
his black maid
Ozzie and to his
maternal
grandparents
He was born Tom (he adopted the
name Tennessee later) March 26th,
1911, in Columbus, Mississippi, in
the rectory of his grandfather's
Episcopal Church. He lived for the
first eight years in Mississippi,
eight years that hallowed the Deep South in his imagination and made
it 'the home and refuge of his fugitive heart'. He remembered these
years as extremely happy and innocent.
He was also close to his black maid Ozzie who, ‘as warm and black as
a moonless Mississippi night, would lean above our beds telling in a
low, rich voice her amazing tales about foxes and bears and rabbits
and wolves that behaved like human beings’, and to his maternal
grandparents.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Remembered his
father, Cornelius,
as a hated figure
1916, aged 5, he
was seriously ill
1918 happiness
ended with family’s
move to St Louis
Biographical Notes
At five the family moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi with his
grandparents, but without his shoe salesman father Cornelius, who was
one of those men 'defeated by life before they begin'. Tennessee
Williams remembered him as a hated figure. Cornelius came from a
pretty illustrious family in the South but his own father was a waster
and womaniser like Cornelius. Cornelius himself went through life
secretly knowing he was a loser. He never measured up to his
ancestors. Nagged by his wife, he turned to drink and ‘easy women’
that he met while travelling.
In 1916, at the age of five, Tom (Tennessee Williams’ proper name)
nearly died from diphtheria. He was left with badly damaged kidneys
and eyesight. Previously physically active he became ‘a recluse in an
imaginary world’. He felt his childhood illnesses changed his
personality. Previously an aggressive tomboy he became a 'shut-in',
playing solitary games. 'I began to live an intensely imaginative life'.
In 1918 Cornelius became a sales manager in St Louis. Tennessee
Williams’ happiness came to an end with the move the family had to
make. After he was to write, 'I always feel that I bore people and that
I'm too ugly. I don't like myself. I've always been mad'.
The family, in fact, moved to an apartment that was ‘long, narrow and
so dark that lights were left on throughout most of the day’. They felt
like aliens. The parents quarrelled incessantly.
1919 Dakin born
1919 His brother Dakin was born.
1928 Abroad for the
first time, has a
psychotic crisis.
1928 Tom went abroad for the first time – he had 'a nearly psychotic
crisis', when he started thinking about the thinking process.
1929 University of
Missouri
1929 He was accepted at the University of Missouri at Columbia (150
miles west of St Louis).
Fell in love with his
room mate
1930 He fell in love with his male room-mate - but the relationship
was never consummated. He got low grades.
1931 Forced to
work as a
temporary clerk by
Cornelius
1932 Pulled out of
college by
Cornelius
1935 Wrote first
play
1931 Cornelius made him work as a temporary clerk in the Company's
Continental Shoe Division. He couldn't communicate with his father he blamed Miss Edwina, his mother, because 'she held him so fiercely
close to her'.
1932 He was pulled out of college by Cornelius. Rose's situation
deteriorated.
1935 He thought he had a heart attack, (he was a hypochondriac
throughout his life) and went to Memphis to recuperate with his
grandparents. He wrote first play Cairo/Shanghai/Bombay'.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
1935 Returned to
university in St
Louis
1937 Studied
drama at University
of Iowa
Biographical Notes
1935 He resumed his university career at Washington University, St
Louis, and formed a writing circle with two fellow students Clark Mills
and William Jay Smith. Smith said of Tennessee Williams' writing 'It
was Dionysian, demoniac...... He wrote because it was a fatal need'.
1937 He studied drama at University of Iowa. He had a heterosexual
experience with Bette Reitz.
Rose, whose mental state had always been fragile, was getting worse she said girls at her college had abused themselves with altar candles.
She was also threatening to avenge herself for the incestuous assault
she claimed Cornelius had made on her by launching a physical attack
on him. Her psychiatrist recommended the new operation, a lobotomy,
in which the skull is opened and the nerve fibres severed between the
thalamus and the frontal lobes. Miss Edwina, his mother, leaves it
unclear as to whether his father, Cornelius, took part in the decision to
go ahead but he would certainly have been influenced by the fact that
the surgeon in question was going to operate for no fee on 30 selected
patients. Tom might have had some notion of what was to happen but
he felt that Rose's problems were no more than frustrated sexual desire.
He never forgave Miss Edwina, his mother, for her decision that the
operation should be carried out. It had a profound effect on his life.
1938 He graduated
1939 In New
Orleans
In touch with
Audrey Wood who
played an important
part in his life
He met Frieda
Lawrence, D H
Lawrence’s wife
1940 ‘Battle of the
Angels’ dedicated
to D H Lawrence
Finally, in 1938 he acquired a degree in English Literature. He was 27.
Back in St Louis nothing distracted him from the façade of ‘genteel
refinement’ Miss Edwina had erected like a barricade against
Cornelius's crudity and miserliness. So he left.
In 1939 he left for New Orleans to work for the Writers' Project. (He
probably had his first homosexual relationship there). He felt as if he
were 'a migratory bird going to a more
congenial climate'. He found it 'the cheapest and
most comfortable place in America for fugitives
from economic struggle'. He found the kind of
freedom he always needed. However, he left and
worked on chicken farms and won a prize from
the Group Theatre, and was put in touch with
Audrey Wood, an agent, who was to play a very
prominent part in his life.
He met Frieda Lawrence in Taos, New Mexico.
In 1940, 'Battle of the Angels' was staged in Boston - it was dedicated
to the memory of D. H. Lawrence. It is reminiscent of his
(Lawrence’s) work in both its symbolism and its glorification of
rudimentary sexual drives. (In Williams’ plays, characters are
penalised for rejecting the Lawrentian gospel and refusing to celebrate
the body. In pursuing this Tennessee Williams is vicariously portraying
himself. He went on to abuse the theme of sexuality, writing as if all
problems could be solved by casting aside sexual abstinence.)
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A Streetcar Named Desire
1943 He worked in
Hollywood
Biographical Notes
Audrey Wood got him a six-month job at M G M in Hollywood for
which he was paid $250 a week.
His maternal grandmother died on January 3rd, 1944.
In April 1944 he settled in Provincetown to work on 'The Gentleman
Caller' now entitled 'The Glass Menagerie'. The edgy rhetoric and
throbbing pathos of the play derive some of their energy from the
irrational guilt he still felt about Rose.
Grandmother
died1944
th
December 26
1944 ‘The Glass
Menagerie’ first
performed
The play opened on 26th December in Chicago, and was, initially, only
moderately well received but the critic, Ashton Stevens, said in the
'Herald America' the play had 'the courage of true poetry couched in
colloquial prose' and Claudia Cassidy in the ‘Chicago Daily Tribune',
said the play ‘holds in its shadowed fragility the stamina of
success....... If it is your play, as it is mine, it reaches out'. Together
their praise ensured it was, eventually, a huge success.
1945 Started on
‘Streetcar’
1945 While the production was moving to Broadway he started on 'A
Streetcar named Desire'.
Moved restlessly
from place to place
The transition from obscurity to favour did nothing to make him less
restless. He visited Mexico, New York, New Orleans and St Louis.
This endless movement continued throughout his life.
1947 ‘Streetcar’
performed in New
York
In 1947 ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ was performed in New York. In
the play Blanche, like Amanda Wingfield in ‘The Glass Menagerie’
(who is based upon his mother, Miss Edwina) is a faded beauty who
affects a greater gentility than she has ever had. Also, like Laura in
‘The Glass Menagerie’, who in turn is based upon Miss Rose, his
sister, she is crushed by the force of brutality. (Tennessee Williams
returned constantly to telling and retelling the story of Cornelius's
brutality, Edwina's delusions of refinement, and their brutal destruction
of Rose. In the squalid setting of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Blanche's
language seems no less fragile than Laura's glass animals in ‘The Glass
Menagerie’.)
Like Ibsen he often contrived tension that can be released only through
narrative explanation of past actions. Blanche is brutal when
discovering her husband is bisexual - in punishing her for this
Tennessee is also punishing himself for his ambivalence towards
homosexuality. The moralist
rubs shoulders with the
masochist.
The violence of the play also
refers to Rose. The role of the
victim is divided between the
two sisters Blanche and Stella.
Stella, the survivor, will have
to go on putting up with the
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House in the St Louis neighbourhood that
Williams lived in
A Streetcar Named Desire
Biographical Notes
eruptions of domestic violence (like Edwina with Cornelius) but
Blanche will lose everything she once enjoyed, spending the rest of her
life in an asylum. Blanche represents the pretensions of the old South,
while Stella represents Young America, torn between its loyalty to
antiquated idealism and the brutal reality of the present. The play is
deeply imbued with the South. After 'The Streetcar Named Desire'
Tennessee Williams tried to make himself stop writing about it though
he was in love with it. 'I don't write about the North because I feel
nothing for it but an eagerness to get out of it......... I don't write about
the North because - so far as I know - they never had anything to lose
culturally. But the South once had a way of life that I'm just old enough
to remember - a culture that had grace, elegance.... . an inbred
culture.....not a society based on money, as in the North, I write out of
regret for that'.
Elia Kazan, who was to produce 'A Streetcar Named Desire' said:
'I saw Blanche as Williams, an ambivalent figure who is attracted to
the harshness and vulgarity around him at the same time as he fears it,
because it threatens his life'.
When it appeared in New York, Howard Barnes in the 'Herald-Tribune'
declared, 'Williams is certainly the Eugene O'Neill of the present
period'.
‘Summer Smoke’
1947
1948 Frank Merlo
moved in with him
Cornelius finally left
the family home
1950 ‘Glass
Menagerie’ filmed
1950 ‘Rose Tattoo’
1952 ‘Camino Real’
In 1947 'Summer Smoke' also opened. Brooks Atkinson in the ‘New
York Times’ described it as 'a tone poem with the same mystic
frustration and the same languid doom' as 'The Glass Menagerie' and
'A Streetcar Named Desire' .’ (But many critics commented on its
'insufficient exertion of intellect’).
In 1948 he travelled to Paris, Naples, Calabria, Sicily, Rome and
Tangier. Frank Merlo, his lover, accompanied him on most of these
travels.
Cornelius moved out of the house in St Louis. Tennessee Williams said
of his father, ‘He had probably suffered as much as anyone, possibly
even more, and I'm afraid it will be a lonely and bitter end to his blind
and selfish life'.
He disliked the sentimentalising screenplay of 'Glass Menagerie'
(filmed in 1950).
'Rose Tattoo' is yet another celebration of robust sexuality; he was
returning to the Lawrentian theme of sexual awakening, as in ' The
Glass Menagerie' and 'Summer Smoke'. (Seraphina is yet another of
the Tennessee Williams’ characters who needs to be pressured into
giving up the habit of abstinence).
He described what 'Camino Real’ is about as follows:- 'It's the story of
everyone's life after he has gone through the razzle-dazzle of his youth.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Biographical Notes
Time is short baby, it betrays us as we betray each other. Work that's
all there is...... There is terror and mystery on one side, honour and
tenderness on the other'. He was always conscious of the passage of
time.
1955 ‘Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof’
In 1955, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'', the third of his most famous plays
for which he received the Pulitzer Prize, was performed. The title
derived from a saying of Cornelius's. Sexually frustrated Maggie is the
cat. Like 'Streetcar' both plays contain long narrative speeches about
past actions involving love between two men. Tennessee Williams
seems to be no less interested in past action than in any of the onstage
action. By goading Skipper about his homosexuality Maggie provokes
Skipper's suicide. The rivalry between Stella and Blanche in ‘A
Streetcar Named Desire’ is paralleled by the clash between the two
brothers Brick and Gooper; the old chivalry, represented by Brick and
the new, selfish and materialistic brashness by Gooper. Maggie, also
parallels the new opportunism, represented by Gooper and his wife.
The second act results from Cornelius having had a sudden lurch into
intimacy with the son he had never loved - hence Brick’s intense
conversation with his father, Big Daddy. Big Daddy, in this act, makes
a supreme effort to break the habit of emotional evasion.
Tennessee Williams explained in a stage direction 'The Bird that I
hope to catch in the net of this play is not the solution of one of man's
psychological problems. I'm trying to catch the true quality of
experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent fiercely charged - interplay of live human beings being in a
thundercloud of a common crisis'. A play he insists should be a 'snare
for the truth of human experience'.
The play opened to great success. Brookes Atkinson wrote, 'It is the
quintessence of life... a delicately wrought exercise in human
communications'.
But it was melodramatic storytelling of a kind well calculated to please
the audience. Crucial questions were only skirted. Do Brick's
alcoholism and his indifference to Maggie derive from disgust at ‘the
endemic mendacity’ that makes it impossible to come out into the open
about homosexual love?
His self -hatred
increased
1956 ‘Sweet Bird of
Youth’
He became more dependent on drugs. From 'Glass Menagerie' on selfcriticism and self-hatred had bulked large in Tennessee Williams’
nature.
In 1956 'Sweet Bird of Youth' contained two hostile portraits one male,
one female. The characters are all close to stereotypes, all ravaged by
time. Tennessee Williams said, 'I was Alexandro del Lago from start to
finish' – the movie actress who has lost her looks and pays for sex. The
English critic, Kenneth Tynan, said of 'Sweet Bird of Youth', 'I
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Biographical Notes
suspect 'Sweet Bird' will be of more interest to Mr Williams’
biographers than to lovers of the theatre'.
1957 ‘Orpheus
Descending’
In the Forties and Fifties Tennessee Williams had enjoyed more
success than any other playwright in the history of American theatre
but he still saw himself as a failure, and indeed, 'Orpheus Descending'
was a failure. But, like all his best plays it is a potent mixture of
violence, sweetness, anguish and desire. As so often it dealt with
people who were outlawed, even if by their own choosing. He
respected their wish to be fugitives from life and its ordinary miseries,
but he knew that ‘wild’ and 'free' do not mean the same thing.
1957 Started
psycho-analysis
and Cornelius died.
In June 1957 he started psycho-analysis. Cornelius died.
1958 ‘Cat’ filmed
In 1958 the film 'Cat on Hot Tin Roof'' opened with Paul Newman and
Elizabeth Taylor.
1958 ‘Suddenly
Last Summer’
He returned to his obsession with Rose in ‘Suddenly Last Summer’.
Having told part of her story in ' Glass Menagerie'; created a variation
of his family's betrayal of her in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'; and paid
heavy-handed symbolic tribute to her in 'The Rose Tattoo', he returned
to her story in 'Suddenly Last Summer' . Rose had alleged her father
had sexually assaulted her. In 'Suddenly Last Summer', Mrs Venables
wanted brain surgery to silence a woman who was telling the truth just
as Miss Edwina 'silenced' Rose - however, this is undoubtedly unfair
on his mother.
Images of flesh eating and cannibalism dominate the play. The writing
is as if his own predatory homosexuality had come to nauseate him. In
this play ‘cannibalism is the correlative of homosexuality’. He viewed
sex and death as intimately related.
1959 ‘Night of the
Iguana’
1959 ‘Orpheus
Descending’ filmed
During the 60’s he
relied more and
more heavily on
drugs
In 1959 in 'Night of the Iguana' Edith comes from a family described
with unmistakable resemblances to Tennessee Williams' own. It is a
historical Southern family of a great but now moribund vitality. ‘In it
there had been an efflorescence of nervous talents and sickness; of
drunkards and poets; gifted artists and sexual degenerates; together
with fanatically proper and squeamish old ladies of both sexes who
were condemned to live beneath the same roof with relatives whom
they could only regard as monsters’.
1959 'Orpheus Descending' was filmed with Anna Magnani and
Marlon Brando.
In 1973 Tennessee Williams said his professional decline began after
'Iguana'. It was his last unqualified success and ran for 316
performances on Broadway in 1961. 'I was broken as much by
repeated failures in the theatre as by Frank's death in 1963’. For most
of the sixties he relied on amphetamines and barbiturates.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Less and less
successful as an
artist
1969 Took an
overdose
Audrey Wood
quarrel
Biographical Notes
He always felt that writers 'spend their lives dancing on a high wire
without any protective net beneath and when they fall it is sudden and
final’. Only his end wasn't sudden. It was protracted and painful.
1969 He was lonely and terribly depressed He took an overdose of
sleeping pills. His brother, Dakin, had him hospitalised in an asylum.
He never forgave him for this. He had suffered too much sorrow in
Key West where he lived for a lot of his later life. He said, 'I felt like a
sleepwalker in a nightmare unable to wake up' Dakin had had him
first baptised as a Roman Catholic.
1971 Quarrelled with his agent Audrey Wood.
1973 Still restlessly travelled - Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand.
1976 Initiated as life member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters.
1979 Honoured at the Kennedy Centre by President Carter.
Mother died
He died in 1983
1980 Miss Edwina, his mother, died.
1983 Died in New York.
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
4.
An Intimate Memoir
AN INTIMATE MEMOIR
Dotson Rader, his friend, paints a very illuminating picture of
Tennessee Williams, his core beliefs and values, in 'An Intimate
Memoir'. Studying what follows will flesh out the bare bones of his life
which you will have read in Part 2.
Constant fear of
madness
Always thought of
himself as a radical
His sister, Miss
Rose, ‘The purest
abiding passion of
his life’.
Obsessed with the
‘outlawed’ including
prostitutes
Anti-Vietnam
He lived permanently with panic that he was going mad, 'this was as
much part of him as his poetic gifts or his sexual craving or his aching
loneliness'. ‘My monkey' he termed it, 'the monkey on my back, the one
friend who never walks away'. He was to say 'I'm happy I never had
children. There have been too many instances of extreme eccentricity
and even lunacy in my family on all four sides for me to want to have
children'.
Tennessee Williams always thought himself a radical ‘he liked to
identify with the outcast, the loser, those always up against it'. He had
a hatred of the rich, for the fact of their wealth, but still needed them to
invest in his plays. He claimed to be a socialist desiring the abolition of
the capitalist state even while he had become one of the world's richest
writers. In the 70's his hatred of the rich was exacerbated by the failure
of his later plays. This drove him further to the political left.
He always drew to himself those who needed his compassion. Chief
among these, 'the purest abiding passion of his life’, was his sister,
Miss Rose. After her prefrontal lobotomy in the 1930s she was left
with a mental age of about six. But to Tennessee Williams she was 'the
most beautiful creature on God's green earth'. With the exception of
his late maternal grandparents, the Dakins, Rose was the only member
of his family he ever loved. Before their mother had Rose's mind cut
away, she had loved clothes and much of life, after she was left
'forever sealed in a kind of mental amber, a perpetual debutante of the
Old South locked in timelessness'. She was gentility itself. According
to Tennessee Williams, ‘Rose believes she's the Queen of England'.
As part of his obsession with those who are 'outlawed', Tennessee
Williams had a lifetime fascination with prostitutes. He felt for them
and championed their right to be just as they were. 'He viewed
American society as an unjust and unequal arrangement that compelled
most people to be whores of one sort or another, selling their virtues to
the rich'.
True to his radicalism Tennessee Williams was anti-Vietnam. What led
Tennessee Williams to take part in the opposition movement was a
romantic conception of the young and of history itself, the sense that
there was an imperative for direct active participation in the struggles
of the left if you were to maintain any credibility among the rising
generations. Young people made him feel alive and in connection with
history. As always he felt a sense of deep, almost irrational solidarity
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A Streetcar Named Desire
An Intimate Memoir
with what he saw as victims of oppression. ‘He loved the beaten, the
lost, the put-upon, the disregarded, the outsider, the revolutionary'.
Pro-Castro and
Cuba
Christian symbols
in his work
Always true to his
art
An itinerant soul
Required the
constant exercising
of his emotions
Eugene O’Neill
praised ‘The Glass
Menagerie’
His homosexuality
He was pro-Castro and Cuba. 'Castro was a gentleman..... an educated
man'. He believed Castro would have remained a friend of the USA if
it hadn't been for John Foster Dulles, who had this phobia about
anything revolutionary. He was very popular in Russia because the
Russians liked to believe that his plays ‘literally depicted the lives of
everyday Americans debauched by the capitalist system’.
He records Tennessee Williams saying 'My work is full of Christian
symbols. Deeply, deeply Christian. But it's the image of Christ, His
beauty and purity..... And his teachings...... I've never subscribed to the
idea that life as we know it, what we're living now, is resumed after our
death'.
In many areas he was self-indulgent and undisciplined but in his
writing he was sure and true. Nothing ever kept him away from his art.
He was a terrific critic of writing because he had an instinctive sense of
the natural structure of a work, like an architect. And, of course, he
was a genius at plot and character and the poetics of language with an
absolutely perfect ear for speech. He said 'Don't write how people talk.
Write how we think they talk. It is what we think we hear, not what they
actually say, that sounds true'.
Ironically, in his final years, Tennessee Williams was more like his
hated father than anyone else, at least in the way he lived - 'an
itinerant soul' who couldn't stay in one place for long. He could not
settle down, 'he required drama, self-drama'.
He also required the constant exercising of his emotions, taking them
to the breaking point and then coming back and writing what he
experienced. His very creativity depended upon the emotional
instability that would undo him in the end.
After 'The Glass Menagerie' was produced in New York, Eugene
O'Neill wrote to Tennessee Williams praising the play. But the letter
also warned of the ‘treachery of Broadway producers, the disloyalty of
the audience and the egotism and callousness of reviewers'. He
worried about the ‘destructiveness’ that lay ahead for the young
playwright and of the terrible loneliness he felt, which Tennessee
Williams would also come to know. Tennessee Williams thought that
O'Neill was, after him, the nation's greatest playwright. Although he
was jealous of O'Neill he never disparaged his work, in fact, his
admiration for O'Neill's work was never diminished.
He knew he never would receive the Nobel Prize in spite of his world
fame. 'I don't think I will ever get a Nobel Prize. I'm homosexual and
they know I am and they never give it to writers who are homosexual.
I've not hidden the fact that I'm gay - but I've never found it necessary
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A Streetcar Named Desire
Received the
Presidential Medal
of Freedom
He felt the sixties
were ‘intensively
alive’
Influenced
by
Chekhov and
D H Lawrence
His central belief
An Intimate Memoir
to deal with it in my work'. However, 'In my work I've had a great
affinity with the female psyche. Her personality, her emotions, what
she suffers and feels -. Personally, I like women more than men'.
However, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian award in spite of the fact he felt ‘there is something in
America that seemed to be resent beauty, art and the people who
create it’.
He spoke of the sixties which to him were ‘intensely alive' and
compared that period with the late seventies, a period when the young
no longer cared. He saw it as a ‘me-me-me generation’ with Mr
Reagan, the President, as 'a sleepwalker' of a President.
He was influenced by Chekhov and D.H. Lawrence. ‘When I write I
don't aim to shock - but I don't think that anything that occurs in life
should be omitted from art, though the art should present it in a
fashion that is artistic and not ugly. - I'm a poet. And then I put the
poetry in the drama..... When I write everything is visual, as brilliantly
as if it were on a lit stage...... I don't have an audience in mind when I
write. I'm writing mainly for myself..... I have a good inner ear..... I
write to satisfy this inner ear. My work is emotionally
autobiographical...... It has no relationship to the actual events of my
life, (but, in fact, no dramatist has ever been more ‘autobiographical’)
but it reflects the emotional currents of my life. I try to work every day
because you have no refuge but writing.'
‘There are very few acts of volition. I don't believe in individual guilt.
And yet I do believe that the intelligent person, the moral individual,
must avoid evil and cruelty and dishonesty. I once wrote that the only
crime is deliberate cruelty. I still believe that. And I believe that one
can try to pursue a path of virtue’.
‘All my life of I have cared about the sufferings of people. Maybe that's
all that really matters’.
He affected every
dramatist who
followed him
Every writer who came after him was affected by his work. He had
changed the way writing was done. He married poetry to naturalism
and offered drama to subject matter never before touched upon in
American theatre: incest, homosexuality, cannibalism, impotency, drug
addiction, cancer, madness, sexual frenzy, ineffable loss and longing.
‘He ended the puritan sensibility in American theatre and liberated it,
poetically and thematically from the moralism and falseness and
middle-brow smugness that held it bound. He forced America to accept
truths she did not want to confront’.
Make notes on:
1.
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The influence his mother and his sister, Rose, played in
Tennessee Williams' life and work.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
An Intimate Memoir
2.
‘Tennessee Williams lived a life full of rented rooms’......
‘He found it as hard to grow roots into a relationship as into a
place’...... ‘He always found it easier to deal with strangers’.
3.
List the points which provide evidence of the truthfulness of the
above descriptions of Tennessee Williams, the man.
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
5.1 THE PLAY - SCENE 1
TASK 1.1
Look carefully at the stage directions that you are given at the
beginning of Scene One and make a list of the key points that emerge
from these directions.
TASK 1.2
Now look carefully at the description of the characters. Again, make
notes on what you notice.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
TASK 1.3
What impression, then, have you formed of this place so far?
TASK 1.4
What do you think is the purpose of this opening to the play?
TASK 1.5
At this point, two men come round the corner. They are Stanley
Kowalski and his friend, Mitch. What kind of impression do you get
of them from the stage directions?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
TASK 1.6
What kind of impression does this image give you?
TASK 1.7
The dialogue opens between the two men. What do they seem to be
talking about?
TASK 1.8
What significant feature about Stella do you notice from the stage
directions?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 1.9
The Play – Scene 1
At this point, Blanche, Stella’s sister, comes round the corner carrying
a case. She is looking at a slip of paper and at the building and then
again at the slip of paper and then again at the building. She is clearly
looking for the house where Stella lives. What does this, and her
expression of shocked disbelief when she realises that she is in the
right place tell you?
TASK 1.10
Look at this description of the way she is dressed. What kind of
impression does it give you?
TASK 1.11
Another important feature about Blanche emerges from this
description. We are told that she is more than five years older than
Stella but, more importantly, that her delicate beauty must avoid a
strong light. What does this tell you about her?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
TASK 1.12
Now look at Blanche’s exchange with Eunice on pages 4-6. What
does this further tell you about her character?
TASK 1.13
What do you think the significance of this is?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
Now look back over pages 2-6 and make up a table or chart to record a
summary of the first impressions that you have of Stanley, Stella and
Blanche. Use the headings: Age, Appearance and Behaviour to record
your comments.
Here are some examples to start you off:
Character
Age
Stanley
28-30
Stella
About 25
Blanche
At least
30
Appearance
Dressed in working, blue denim
carrying a bowling jacket and a
package of raw meat
Of a different background than
Stanley – more ‘upper-class’.
Quiet, gentle
Smartly dressed – emphasis on
white colour, ornate jewellery,
white gloves.
Behaviour
Loud and masculine
Friendly, relaxed, lively and
tolerant
Unsure of herself, nervous,
slightly aloof, perhaps standoffish
No one is home so Blanche enters the flat.
TASK 1.14
Now look at the stage directions describing Blanche’s movements on
page 6. What do you learn from these?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 1.15
The Play – Scene 1
Now look at the section from when Stella returns to the point where
Blanche tells Stella that Belle Reeve has been lost, near the bottom of
page thirteen. In this section Blanche and Stella are meeting again
after they haven’t seen each other for quite some time. Make notes on
what you learn from this part of the scene about the two sisters.
Organise your notes in the following three sections:
a) their characters
b) their lives
c) their relationship with each other
BLANCHE
(a) Character
(b) Her life
(c) Relationship with Stella
STELLA
(a) Character
(b)
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
c) Relationship with Blanche
TASK 1.16
TASK 1.17
Stella then goes into the bathroom in tears and outside there’s the
sound of Stanley with his friend Steve and Mitch arriving home from
the bowling. What are they discussing as they arrive?
Steve’s wife Eunice calls for him to come up telling him that she has
already made his meal and she has eaten it herself. What do you think
is the purpose of this short exchange between Eunice and Steve?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play – Scene 1
TASK 1.18
Now look at the stage directions at the top of page 16 which describe
Stanley. What does this confirm for you about the character?
TASK 1.19
He asks Blanche if she would like a shot. What do you make of her
response?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 1.20
The Play – Scene 1
What else do you note from this closing section?
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 2
5.2 THE PLAY - SCENE 2
It is six o’clock the following evening. Blanche is taking a bath and
Stella is putting on her make-up etc. Blanche’s dress, a flowered print,
is laid out on Stella’s bed. Stanley enters the kitchen whilst outside the
sound of blue piano can be heard.
TASK 2.1
TASK 2.2
Now look at the section from the beginning of Act Two on page 19 to
the point where Blanche comes out of the bathroom, near the bottom of
page 23. From this section, what do you learn about Stanley and
Stella’s relationship from their conversation?
Stella tells Stanley that Blanche, has lost Belle Reve. How does he
respond to this and why?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 2
TASK 2.3
How has his attitude towards Blanche changed?
TASK 2.4
Now look at the section from the bottom of page 23 from the stage
direction ‘Stella goes out onto the porch’, to page 26: ‘she goes around
the corner of the building’. Blanche comes out of the bathroom in a
red satin robe. What do you note about Blanche’s behaviour in
comparison to the previous scene?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 2.5
TASK 2.6
The Play - Scene 2
Look at her comments beginning: ‘yes – yes – cards on the table’, at
the bottom of page 25. What is your response to what she has to say
here? Why do you think she says this to Stanley?
Meanwhile Blanche and Stanley continue their little talk. Look at this
final part of the scene from page 26, where Blanche says: ‘the poor
thing was out there listening to us’, to the end of the scene. What new
light does this cast on Blanche, her past and on her current situation
and behaviour?
continue over
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 2
What brought about the loss of the estate?
TASK 2.7
TASK 2.8
What does Blanche have to tell her?
continue over
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 2.9
The Play - Scene 2
What does this reveal and reinforce to us at the end of the scene?
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 3
5.3 THE PLAY - SCENE 3
TASK 3.1
TASK 3.2
It is some hours later at poker night. The men are playing cards,
drinking, telling jokes, Stanley dominating the group. Look at the
stage directions at the opening of the scene. What do you learn from
these?
Now look at the opening dialogue of the scene from page 31 to the
bottom of page 32. What impression do you get of the men here?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 3.3
TASK 3.4
The Play - Scene 3
What do you note about this section?
Now look at the first conversation between Blanche and Mitch which
begins on page 37 when Blanche says to him: ‘Hello! The little boys’
room is busy right now’, to the point where Blanche turns on the radio
again, at the bottom of page 40. Compare the way that she reacts to
Mitch, here, with the way that she behaved with Stanley in the
previous scene.
continue over
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 3
TASK 3.5
What do you learn, then, from this comparison?
TASK 3.6
Why do you think that Mitch responds to Blanche’s behaviour and
advances much more positively than Stanley?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 3.7
TASK 3.8
The Play - Scene 3
What do you notice about the description of Mitch and Stanley in the
stage directions at the bottom of page 40?
What are the effects of Stanley’s violent actions at the end of the
scene? From the bottom of page 40 where Stella says ‘Drunk – drunk animal thing you!’ to the end of the scene.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 3.9
TASK 3.10
TASK 3.11
The Play - Scene 3
What effect does this have on the drama?
What does the violence add to your impression of Stanley?
What is at the heart of this relationship that he has with Stella?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 3.12
The Play - Scene 3
Look carefully at the stage directions where Stanley is calling for
Stella to come back to him, from the bottom of page 43: ‘the low-tone
clarinet moans’ to ‘and slips fearfully down the steps’ on page 44.
What do you notice from these stage directions?
TASK 3.13
How does Blanche react to this?
TASK 3.14
What do you note about Mitch’s reaction to the violence at the very
end of the scene?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 3
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 4
5.4 THE PLAY - SCENE 4
TASK 4.1
TASK 4.2
It is the following morning. Look at the stage directions at the opening
of this scene. What impression do you get?
Now look at the section from the beginning of the scene to the point
where Blanche tries to ring Shep Huntleigh, (p.50). What attitude does
Blanche adopt towards Stella?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 4
TASK 4.3
What does Stella herself have to say about it?
TASK 4.4
What idea does Blanche come up with and why does she want to ring
Shep Huntleigh?
TASK 4.5
What does this plan show about Blanche?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 4
TASK 4.6
Now look at the final section of the scene. Make notes on what
Blanche and Stella have to say here.
TASK 4.7
What is the significance of the stage directions at the bottom of page
53? (‘Outside, a train approaches’)
TASK 4.8
The scene ends with Stanley overhearing Blanche’s plain speaking
about him. What does she have to say and what is your response to it?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 4
It is worth noting the change in Blanche’s attitude here. Immediately
after the news of Stella’s pregnancy, Blanche recognised that Stanley
and the DuBois family were different kinds of people and said that
‘maybe he’s what we need to mix our blood with now we’ve lost Belle
Reve and have to go on without Belle Reve to protect us’. Here,
though, she speaks much more crudely and harshly.
TASK 4.9
What is the dramatic effect of this ending to the scene?
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 5
5.5 THE PLAY - SCENE 5
At the opening of this scene it is two months later. We know this
because Blanche refers to her birthday ‘next month’, (page 58), and she
was born on the fifteenth of September. She arrived at Stella’s house
early in May. Blanche is seated in the bedroom reading a letter she has
just written. Stella comes in as Blanche is laughing.
TASK 5.1
TASK 5.2
TASK 5.3
What is Blanche laughing at?
Blanche is interrupted by the sounds of an argument going on upstairs.
Steve and Eunice are having a violent argument. What do you think
the purpose of this interruption is?
Stanley comes in – note the strong bright colours of his bowling shirt.
Blanche becomes nervous at his appearance and her nervousness is
increased by her conversation with him on pages 58-59. Stanley’s
comments here are calculated to upset Blanche. Look at the exchange
carefully and make a list of the points Stanley makes and what he is
implying through making them.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 5.4
TASK 5.5
The Play - Scene 5
How does Blanche react to Stanley’s hints?
What contributes to Blanche’s feelings of nervousness?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 5
What do you learn about Blanche’s techniques for attracting men?
TASK 5.6
TASK 5.7
TASK 5.8
Now look at the ending of the scene, (pages 64-66). The scene ends
with Blanche’s exchange with the young newspaperman. The young
man is a complete stranger to her and the meeting comes just before
her meeting with Mitch. What do you think is the dramatic function of
this episode?
What is the effect of Mitch’s arrival at the end of the scene?
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 6
5.6 THE PLAY - SCENE 6
It is two a.m. on the same night. Blanche and Mitch enter and both are
depressed after their night out together. Look at their conversation
from the opening of the scene to where Blanche says: ‘I have never
known anyone like you’ on page 69.
TASK 6.1
What seems to have gone wrong with their evening?
When they enter, Blanche realises the Stanley and Stella are still out so
she invites Mitch in for a ‘night-cap’.
TASK 6.2
TASK 6.3
Now look at their conversation from the point where Blanche invites
Mitch in (‘The other room’s more comfortable – go on in.’ page 69) to
the point where Blanche pours herself another drink on page 75. How
does this scene contribute further to you knowledge of Mitch’s
character?
What is the significance of this?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 6.4
TASK 6.5
The Play - Scene 6
Now look at he way the conversation develops up to page 75 where
Blanche begins to talk about her husband’s death. Make a list of the
key points of the conversation here.
Now look carefully at Blanche’s speech about her husband’s death
beginning: ‘He was a boy…’ to the end of the scene, (pages 75-77).
She has made reference to her marriage and her husband’s death before
and has clearly been upset by her memories and has not elaborated on
her comments. Here, though, she gives a full account of what
happened. Make a list of the key points of her speech.
continued over
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 6
Note how the emotional intensity of this scene is increased through
Blanche’s poetic language and use of imagery.
TASK 6.6
TASK 6.7
This speech presents a particularly emotionally intense ending to the
scene. Look at the stage directions in this section. How does Williams
use effects to increase this sense of tension?
The scene ends with Blanche breaking down and Mitch taking her in
his arms, gently kissing her forehead. What is the effect of this
ending?
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 7
5.7 THE PLAY - SCENE 7
It is late afternoon on 15th September, Blanche’s birthday, and so
several weeks have passed since the previous scene. The table is set
for a birthday supper and Stella is completing the decorations as
Stanley enters.
TASK 7.1
What is Stanley’s attitude towards Blanche at the beginning of the
scene?
TASK 7.2
What does Stella reveal about Stanley’s attitude and behaviour towards
Blanche over the past few weeks?
TASK 7.3
It seems, though, that Stanley has found out some important things
about Blanche. Examine carefully the section beginning: ‘…I’ve got
th’dope on your big sister, Stella’, (page 78), to ‘’It’s not my soul I’m
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 7
worried about’, (page 82). Make a note of the things that Stanley has
discovered about Blanche.
TASK 7.4
How does Stella respond to these revelations?
He then gently takes Stella by the shoulders realising how upset she is
but she pulls away from him.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
TASK 7.5
The Play - Scene 7
Now look at the section beginning: ‘How many candles are you putting
on that cake?’ (bottom of page 83), to the end of the scene. What does
Stanley tell Stella he has done which may help to contribute to
Blanche’s deteriorating psychological state and why do you think they
are likely to affect her badly?
At the end of the scene Stanley shouts for Blanche to get out of the
bathroom. Although she comes out with ‘a gay peal of laughter’ as
Stanley passes her she has a ‘frightened look…almost a look of panic’
on her face.
TASK 7.6
What impression do you get at the close of the scene?
******
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 8
5.8 THE PLAY - SCENE 8
TASK 8.1
It is the same evening, three quarters of an hour later, Stanley, Stella
and Blanche are: ‘…completing a dismal birthday supper.’ From the
stage directions what is the mood of the birthday ‘celebrations’?
TASK 8.2
What adds to the hostile atmosphere of the scene?
TASK 8.3
Now look at Stanley’s speech on page 90 beginning: ‘Stell, it’s gonna
be all right’ and on page 93 beginning: ‘When we first met…’ What
does he have to say there and why is it important?
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TASK 8.4
TASK 8.5
The Play - Scene 8
Blanche returns having failed to get Mitch on the telephone and the
friction between her and Stanley is once again in evidence. What does
Stanley object to, here?
The ‘phone rings and Blanche is sure it is for her but Stanley answers
it. It is one of his friends and when he hangs up he tells Blanche that
he has a little present for her. What is this present and how does
Blanche respond to it?
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The Play - Scene 8
At the end of this scene Stella is clearly upset by Stanley’s actions but
suddenly she clutches the back of the chair and Stanley realises that
something is wrong. Stella asks him to take her to the hospital.
The scene ends with Blanche left entirely alone, repeating over and
over again the meaningless words of a Mexican song, suggesting,
perhaps that she is losing her grip and she is very close to the edge.
The polka tune ‘Varsouviana’ rises ‘with sinister rapidity reflecting the
growing tension of the situation’.
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A Streetcar Named Desire
The Play - Scene 9
5.9 THE PLAY - SCENE 9
TASK 9.1
Later that evening Blanche is seated in a ‘tense hunched position’.
What do you learn from the stage directions?
TASK 9.2
Look at the section from the opening of the scene to the point where
Mitch says: ‘it’s dark in here’. (page 98) How does Williams build up
the sense of impending disaster here?
TASK 9.3
When Mitch comments about the darkness of the room Blanche tells
him that she likes the dark, she finds it comforting. This prompts
Mitch to say that he has never seen her in the light. What is the
significance of these references to the light?
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The Play - Scene 9
TASK 9.4
How does Blanche respond when he switches on the light?
TASK 9.5
Now look at the section beginning: ‘I don’t mind you being older than
what I thought’ to the end of the scene. What do you learn about the
way Mitch feels about Blanche here?
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TASK 9.6
The Play - Scene 9
How does Blanche respond to this?
Notice how throughout this exchange, the sound of the Mexican
woman calls can be heard from outside calling ‘Flores para los
muertos, flores – flores…’ (flowers for the dead). This repeated
reference to ‘the dead’ echoes Blanche’s own references to death and
creates an ominous tone.
TASK 9.7
Thinking about this scene from Blanche’s point of view, what do you
think motivated her to deceive Mitch?
The scene ends with Mitch leaving and Blanche staggering back from
the window and falling to her knees.
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5.10
TASK 10.1
The Play - Scene 10
THE PLAY - SCENE 10
The scene is a few hours later the same night. Look carefully at the
stage directions at the beginning of the scene. What kind of
impression is created of Blanche here?
The overall impression is of a woman who is close to a breakdown.
TASK 10.2
How do her opening words and the further stage directions that follow
confirm this impression?
TASK 10.3
Stanley enters. What is your impression of his mood here?
continue over
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TASK 10.4
The Play - Scene 10
How does this provoke a change in Stanley’s mood here?
Now look at the section from where Stanley says: ‘Was this before or
after the telegram came…’ (page 108) to the end of the scene. How
does Williams develop dramatic tension in this section? Think about
this question under the following three headings:
•
•
•
Blanche’s words and actions
Stanley’s words and actions
The stage directions.
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5.11
The Play - Scene 11
THE PLAY - SCENE 11
TASK 11.1
It is some weeks later and at the opening of this scene Stella is packing
Blanche’s things. What impression do you get from the opening of
this scene?
TASK 11.2
How does Blanche’s behaviour in this scene fit in with that we have
already seen of her and how far does it reveal the extent of her mental
breakdown?
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TASK 11.3
The Play - Scene 11
What is Stella’s response to what has happened to Blanche?
Now think about the roles of
a) Stella
b) Stanley and
c) Mitch in this scene.
TASK 11.4
Make a note of the key points about how they behave here.
(a) STELLA
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The Play - Scene 11
(b) STANLEY
(c) MITCH
The scene ends with Blanche in a state of complete mental collapse
and her removal to an institution. For Stanley or Stella, life appears to
have returned to what it was before Blanche arrived.
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6.
Characterisation
CHARACTERISATION
Now you have completed your initial study of the play think back
about the ways in which Williams creates and presents his characters.
BLANCHE
Start with a consideration of the character of Blanche and make notes
under the following headings:
a)
b)
c)
d)
her past
her illusions
her loneliness and isolation
her relationships with others
STANLEY
Now make notes on the ways in which the character of Stanley is
presented to us.
STELLA
Now produce notes on Stella.
MITCH
Think about Mitch and make notes on his presentation too.
MINOR CHARACTERS
Having examined the main characters in the play it is also worth thinking
about the role of the minor characters in the play. Here are some ideas on
them:
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7.
Themes and Ideas
THEMES AND IDEAS
There are different ways of categorising the themes in the play but here
are some ideas on issues it seems to be concerned with.
Make notes on each one and find appropriate quotations to support
your points.
(a) THE PAST
(b) DEATH
(c) HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AND SEXUALITY
(d) SURVIVAL
(e) IMAGES OF AMERICA
Remember, though, that you must not view these themes in isolation.
Williams presents them to us as an integrated whole and that they are
highlighted and reinforced not only through the dialogue of the play
but also through the symbolism and imagery Williams uses.
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8.
Structure and Setting
STRUCTURE AND SETTING
TASK SS.1
The play is unusual in its structure because instead of being divided
into, perhaps three acts, Williams presents it in the form of eleven
scenes. What do you notice about the play’s structure?
TASK SS.2
Think about ways in which Williams creates a structure and continuity
from the eleven scenes.
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Structure and Setting
THE SETTING
TASK SS.3
Williams is in direct line from the Norwegian playwright Ibsen, in the
symbolic use of stage setting - even the smallest isolated incident on
stage may have significance in the revelation of character or theme.
Write down as many points as you can think of about the setting of the
play.
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Structure and Setting
USE OF SPECIAL EFFECTS
A close examination of the stage directions gives us a clear idea of the
ways in which Williams uses special effects of various kinds in order
to add to the impact of the drama.
TASK SS.4
Make a note of the different kinds of special effects that you have
noted from your study of the play.
The key to why Williams uses particular effects lies in the action of the
play. Where a particular effect is used look carefully at the text to see
what is actually happening on stage at that point. This will give you
important clues as to the purpose of the effect.
TASK SS.5
Look back on the play and make a note of where Williams uses sound
effects and what he achieves by using them at these points.
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TASK SS.6
Structure and Setting
Now look at the way in which Williams uses visual effects and make
notes on this.
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Structure and Setting
The play, then, although apparently straightforward in structure,
becomes a more complex drama through William’s use of a range of
dramatic effects that work together and combine to create an overall
impact on the audience.
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9.
Language, Imagery and Style
LANGUAGE, STRUCTURE AND STYLE
THE LANGUAGE OF THE PLAY
Williams himself once described his style of writing as ‘lyrical’ and he
has been described by others as being a ‘poetic playwright’.
TASK LSS.1
Think about these descriptions in the context of the play itself. What
do you think these descriptions indicate about the ways in which
Williams uses language?
IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM
In many ways the term ‘lyrical’ describes Williams’s play very well
because, like poetry, it works on a number of levels, and, also like
poetry, these levels are created through a series of images and symbols.
Earlier, we looked at the ways in which Williams creates images,
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Language, Imagery and Style
sound and lighting etc. Now we will think about how he does exactly
the same through the language of the play itself.
TASK LSS.2
Make a list of as many images as you can that are created through the
language and note the effects that they create.
TASK LSS.3
One final point that may be worth considering is why Williams called
his play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Think about this and write down
your ideas.
continue over
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Language, Imagery and Style
******
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Essay and Revision Questions
10. ESSAY AND REVISION QUESTIONS
1. Examine the ways in which Williams presents characters in ‘A
Streetcar Named Desire’. You should focus on TWO characters in
your answer.
2. In what ways and why does Blanche change throughout the course
of the play? In your answer you should discuss:
• Your initial impressions of her
• The causes of her breakdown
• Your response to the ending of the play.
3. How does Williams use special effects to create atmosphere and
dramatic tension in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
4. How important is Mitch to the development of both theme and plot
in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
5. Williams’s play has been called ‘a work of great humanity and
technical brilliance’. Do you agree with this view? Support your
ideas with detailed reference to the text.
6. In what ways is ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ a play about
‘survival’?
7. With close reference to the text examine the importance of imagery
and symbolism in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.
8. The playwright Arthur Miller described the struggle of the tragic
hero as ‘…that of an individual attempting to gain his rightful
place in society…ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure
one thing – his sense of personal dignity’. How far does this
definition apply to Blanche and do you see her as a ‘tragic hero’?
9. How does the past influence the present in ‘A Streetcar Named
Desire’?
10. Examine the ways in which Williams presents the characters of
Stanley through the language and imagery of the play.
11. In what ways are the ideas of illusion and reality important in the
play?
12. ‘Essentially this is a play about Desire and Death and the effect
that these have on the human soul’. Do you think this is an
accurate summary of the play?
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