A Streetcar Named Desire, assignment help

User Generated

bnvv1

Writing

Description

Length: 2.5-3 pages

MLA Format

Watch the movie along with reading the text of A Streetcar Named Desire. Discuss whether the movie version helps you to understand the characters's developments in the play and how the events unfold. Additionally, explain what is something you learned about this time period of the 1950s via this play that you didn't know otherwise (sexuality, violence in marriage, deceptive behavior, inappropriate relationships, homosexuality, mental illness etc.)

Include at least two properly cited quotes from the text or movie within your essay.

**As with the discussion, you can view online materials for information about this play, but I am interested in your own ideas.

User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Student’s name:
Instructor’s name:

Course name:

Date:

A Streetcar Named Desire.

The 1951 American drama film, A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan was
adapted from the 1947 Broadway play by Tennessee Williams.

1. Overview.
It displays a dramatic and intense account of a woman’s struggle with her own fragile
mental state and the effects of devastating loss. It narrates the story of a belle, Blanche Dubois,
who leaves her noble background and seeks refuge with her sister, Stella, in a tumbledown New
Orleans tenement after coming across a series of personal losses. Here she is criticized, raped,
and eventually sent away. Streetcar suggests a journey, and at the start and end of the play,
Blanche’s arrival and departure shows the stages of a journey that is both psychological and
physical. When she first arrived at her sister’s, Blanche says she rode a streetcar named Desire,
then moved to a streetcar named Cemeteries, that finally brought her to a street named Elysian
Fields

2. Movie version.

In my opinion, the movie version is lyrical and successfully reflects the general themes
and plot of the play. However, it is intense and starkly realistic, with contradictory and complex
characters. The events in the film unfold in a systematic manner but there are some minor
noticeable differences between the two versions. For example, in the characters and their
personalities, one difference is the change in cast, Jessica Tandy is replaced by Vivien Leigh.
Another difference is that the play was entirely set at the Kowalski apartment but the movie,
incorporates the change of settings that are non-existent in the play or are only briefly mentioned,
such as, the machine factory, the streets of the French Quarter, the train station, and the bowling
alley. The movie version however helps understand the development of characters in the play
and how the events unfold.

3. Lessons learnt from the play about the time period of the 1950s.
a) Sexuality
Blanche is driven to her destruction by desire, that is, sexual passion. In Scene 4, Blanche
uses the image of a streetcar for it, "that rattle-trap street-car", and Stella ripostes, "Haven't you
ever ridden on that street-car?”. Blanche is incapable of commitment to a permanent relationship.
Stanley is unable to contain his sexuality within the limits of moral (and legal) standards when he
assaults Blanche. We learn that in that era, some people helplessly became victims of sexuality
which is self-destructive. This destruction takes a variety of forms, including, financial ruin, the
sullying of a good reputation, physica...


Anonymous
Just what I needed. Studypool is a lifesaver!

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Content

Related Tags