The Streetcar named Desire - Tennessee Williams

The Street Car Named Desire... Written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, set in the backdrop of the New Orleans quarter. The story depicts the conflict between a fading Southern Belle from an old well to do family and the lower class family her sister has married into. The Main Characters Blanche Dubois (The upper class sister) Stella Kowalski ( The lower class sister) Stanley Kowalski (Stella's drunken husband) Harold Mitchell (Blanche's fling) Steve Hubbel (One of Stanley's friends) The Play Itself A Streetcar Named Desire is based around a old fashioned woman named Blanche Dubois. She was brought ...  Read the complete review

Ok, first of all, I have to put my hands up and confess that yes, I have studied this play. And no, I would not have read it otherwise. But before you write me off, bear two things in mind: 1) I really do like this play and I'm very glad I was introduced to it; and 2) I only studied it for GCSE, so it doesn't really count... The action centres around the Kowalski household in New Orleans, where Stanley, a Polish immigrant, lives with his upper-class wife, Stella. When Stella's sister, Blanche, arrives in town (leaving a seedy past behind her, with references to an incestuous family, alcoholism and prostitution), she immediately provokes conflict. She ...  Read the complete review

If you don't happen to be a literature student, you may find this a little difficult going. This is the story of Blanche Dubois, with her airs and graces, fragile of mind and body, who leaves the peace of the countryside and a dark past for the noise, choking heat, raw passion and unrefinement of her sister Stella's apartment in the city. Riding the streetcar named Desire is both a part of the directions Blanche follows to reach Stella's home and the path she finally, reluctantly takes in life... only to find even greater unhappiness than before. Slowly, Williams ekes out of Blanche, the story of why she is there and what she is running ...  Read the complete review

It is hard to find words to decribe the powerfulness of "A Streetcar Named Desire," although it can be tough to read due to the subject matter at time, it is a very good read. As it is a play it is easy to involved oneself in the action, as a bystander and within a few scenes the audience becomes able to predict the outcomes for the different characters. However, there are many twists and turns in the plot. Blanche comes to stay with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley in New Orleans and is shocked to see the conditions they live in. Their family owned a large country house called Belle Reve which Blanche tells Stella she lost, due to the lack ...  Read the complete review

Being a literature student, I have studied this play in some depth. It is cear that this play is original, with genuine exoticism submersing a very deep plot. A complicated play calling on the use of music and lighting with devastating effect, as the stage directions have startling clarity about them with William's descibing everything to the smallest detail possible. The scene is set in a quite poor quarter in the middle of New Orleans, conviniently the 'home' of jazz, making the use of music all the more believable. The main characters are effectively Stanley and Stella Kowalski, Harrold 'Mitch' Mitchell and, as the blurb on the book says, ...  Read the complete review