[WARNING: This
contains MAJOR spoilers]
Hello, dear, faithful readers! I’m here with another
analytical article—this time, I’m going to talk about A Streetcar Named Desire,
one of Tennessee William’s most well-known and critically acclaimed plays. The
play was opened on Broadway on December 3rd, 1947. The protagonist
is a fallen Southern belle [a typical character trope in several of Williams’
plays] called Blanche DuBois; she runs into a series of grave losses and leaves
her aristocratic background in order to settle down with her sister and
brother-in-law in a worn-down New Orleans flat. Blanche is undoubtedly
Williams’ most graphic character, and while it’s difficult for the audience to
sympathise with her, the end of the play left me with deep sadness—and anger. I
hope you like my article!
First, I’ll just explain the significance of the title [as
I’m sure you’re all wondering what “A Streetcar Named Desire” means]. The title
is important as it indicates that Blanche’s life is driven by desire; her
entire existence is centred around it. From the beginning of the play itself,
she weaves lie upon flimsy lie, is terribly insecure about her appearance and
age, has wild mood swings, and is obviously very emotionally fragile; she is
not able to separate lies from her existence. The title refers to the vicious
circle that is entwined throughout the play; Blanche finds herself caught up in
it, unable to extricate herself, and the play does not end well for her.
Like The Glass Menagerie, this play deals with the fragility
of human nature, as well as the thin, tacit line between fantasy and brutal
realism. Blanche has become a compulsive liar in order to shield herself from
what her life actually is; she is battered and bruised and struggles with
herself all through the play. Beneath her flippant and flighty exterior is a
frail, worn-down, frightened woman, unable to find a place in the world for
herself anymore. She refuses to accept her harsh “fate”, and deals with it by
creating a make-believe world and living in it as happily as possible—until it
is completely shattered toward the end of the play. Stanley Kowalski, Blanche’s
brother-in-law, is a brutal, crude, animalistic man who is firmly grounded in
the physical [or “real” world]; he sees through Blanche’s lies immediately and
does everything possible to expose her. The antagonistic relationship between
Blanche and Stanley, which forms the major plot of the play, represents the battle
between fabrications and reality. Meanwhile, Blanche’s sister, Stella, is
unintentionally caught up in this struggle. [I used to like Stella. A lot, in
fact]. As a woman from a wealthy background [both sisters are daughters of a
plantation owner], Blanche obviously finds it difficult to digest Stanley’s
irrationally violent behaviour, especially toward Stella; she even rants about
him being ‘primitive’ and an ‘animal’. Saving Stella from a life with Stanley
becomes Blanche’s main objective during her stay—however, as expected, she
fails.
The setting of the play is extremely significant as well. The
set of the play consists of the Kowalskis’ small, two-room apartment and the
surrounding street. The apartment and the street are seen at the same time;
this indicates that the apartment is not the refuge Blanche wants it to be- the
house is constantly in the public eye. It is not impervious to reality.
Besides, characters enter and leave the house with inner struggles of their
own, leaving a bit of their “essence” behind. The gloomy and dark aspects of
the set are further clarified when Blanche and Stanley’s power struggle comes
to a head with the former being violently raped [something which is implied]. I
did tell you that the play doesn’t end in any sort of sunshine or happiness for
Blanche—but the play isn’t over yet.
As we have seen, reality emerges victorious and inflicts a
crushing defeat on illusion… in real life, too, the struggle between the two is
just as painful, sudden, and violent. The play is indeed an extremely accurate
depiction of life. However, it has been suggested by critics [and I agree] that
Williams suggests that living in an illusionary world has its own importance; after
Blanche is assaulted, she temporarily retreats into herself, and succeeds in
partially evading the reality she must now face. She has an extremely warped
view of that which is physical, and having been through an extremely shocking
and traumatic experience, she descends into insanity; she has a complete mental
break-down. Stella has been told about Stanley’s assault, but cannot bring
herself to believe her sister’s story; she states that she couldn’t go on
living with Stanley if she believed Blanche’s story. She goes into hysterics
when a doctor and a matron arrive to escort Blanche away. As expected, Blanche
resists them at first and sinks to the floor in confusion, but stops struggling
when the doctor helps her up and strives to comfort her. She tells him:
“Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” [Just…
just how sad is that? My heart swelled with such sadness when I read that. I do
not like Blanche, but she’s a tragic and wronged character. No doubt about
that].
All right, let me give you some background information on
Blanche, as it’s crucial to the play. As I mentioned earlier, she is extremely
insecure about her looks and age, refusing to let anyone see her in the light.
She is also afraid of death, and seems to delude herself into believing that by
portraying herself as a sexual being, especially to men younger than herself,
she can quell her fear and enter a world of bliss. Unsurprisingly, this tactic
doesn’t work. In the course of the play, it is revealed that she was married
when she was sixteen; her husband killed himself when she told him she was
disgusted by his homosexuality. After this incident, it seems that Blanche
views sex with morbid fascination—to her, it is the ultimate form of pleasure
before death. She used to work as an English teacher at a high school in the
town of Laurel before coming to New Orleans; though she tells Stella that she
resigned on account of her “nerves”, she was, in fact, ostracised by the
townspeople after it came to light that she was involved with an under-aged
student and that she lived at The Flamingo, a hotel known for prostitution. She
was trying to fill up her empty life with these actions; she is completely
excluded by society, and even her sister finds it difficult to believe her.
While it hasn’t been stated what will happen to Blanche
after she’s taken to the asylum, her fate is extremely—and very painfully—clear
to the audience. She will be subjected to a lobotomy. Lobotomy is a horrific
and inhuman procedure… Williams, whose sister Rose was subjected to a messy
lobotomy in 1943 while under his mother’s care, was vehemently against
lobotomies [and the procedure was banned by the erstwhile USSR in 1950].
Doesn’t this play leave you with lingering sadness? Doesn’t
it make you think? Why must women always suffer?
If you haven’t read this play, I suggest you do so ASAP! I
know it’s very depressing, but it’s very, very well-written.
Thank you! See you next time!
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