A Streetcar Named Desire: Play versus Film

I think that the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire, while operating on predominantly the same script as Tennessee Williams’ play version, left me with a very different impression than I had received from reading the play.

Though Stanley is certainly a disgusting character at times, eating brazenly with his fingers, his film depiction, to me, gave him some redeeming qualities. For example, in the movie, Stella and Stanley’s relationship’s only positive attribute was seemingly their sex life. Stella even says, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant” (657). This quote shows her view that sex makes up for any other shortcomings of a relationship, and her marriage was full of shortcomings. However, in the movie, I thought that Stanley was rather nice and sympathetic to Stella at times. Though his voice rises when talking about the Napoleonic code, when he realizes that he is overwhelming Stella, he calms down and speaks sweetly to her.

Stanley is not always yelling and does typically start out discussing matters calmly. It seems as though most incidents in which he starts yelling or fighting were provoked by Stella or Blanche. In Stella’s case, she physically fights back a couple of times, like when Stanley rummages through Blanche’s trunk, which riles him further. Moreover, when Stella hears that Stanley ruined Blanche’s chances of getting Mitch to marry her, she even starts a physical fight with him. This greatly contrasts from the play’s depiction of Stanley always being the aggressor who takes his misplaced anger out on his defenseless wife. There is no mention in scene seven, when Stanley reveals Blanche’s secrets, of Stella fighting Stanley. The movie shows that they have a two-sided physical relationship that is both violent and sexual by both participants.

In addition to Stella’s provocation, Blanche also antagonizes Stanley. The visual representation of Blanche makes her likeness to a moth come to life. She is seemingly constantly flitting about the room. For instance, consider Stanley and Blanche’s meeting. He is so calm and still, which makes her motion all the more noticeable and bizarre. She is nervous around him, trying to flirt and get some indication that her flirtation is requited. Blanche even clutches him when a cat startles her. However, he remains relaxed and confident until finally he can no longer stand her antics and yells at her in a later conversation to “cut the re-bop.”

The building up to the rape is much more evident in this version. Stanley seems like a very hot-and-cold person. He will be content, and then Blanche starts larking about irritatingly and he snaps. Then he calms later, but the issues have never truly been resolved. Blanche is still seemingly mentally unstable. Her roaming and seemingly growing eyes reveal that she is greatly distressed by her memories, and hearing the music that is only in her head works wonders to convince the audience that she needed psychiatric help even before the rape. When Stanley returns from the hospital to see Blanche talking to herself and wearing a tiara, it seems like she is no longer saving face (as we had assessed in class based on the play) by lying about Shep Huntleigh’s invitation. Instead, her mental instability is apparent.

To Stanley, not recognizing Blanche’s mental illness, all of her trickery, degrading remarks, and unwanted flirtation have culminated in her deserving the rape to end their conflicts and put her in her place. To the audience, we still obviously feel that Stanley was wrong to rape his wife’s sister. Thus, while I said he was depicted as a more redeeming character, this final act still does warrant his wife leaving him. I was very glad that the ending turned out this way because I think it changes the statement this version of A Streetcar Named Desire makes. The play, in my opinion, indicates that marriage is a false institution wrapped around social norms and sex but not love or respect. Another possible message from the play is that women are dependent on men, since Stella chooses to stay with Stanley because she seemingly cannot venture out on her own and adequately provide for herself. This film, however, empowers women and shows that domestic violence is wrong. Stella does not allow her baby or herself to be endangered any more.

Streetcar conclusions

In my first post on A Streetcar Named Desire, written when I had only read the first half of the play, I wrestled with Tennessee William’s feelings on domestic violence. I was uncertain as to whether he was against it, as he had Blanche vocalizing opposition to the violence, or whether he saw the romanticism to it and accepted it as a part of life typical of Streetcar’s setting and time period, since he portrayed Blanche as such an eccentric character throughout the play. Perhaps her hysteric reaction to Stanley’s violence towards Stella was supposed to be regarded as another example of her not understanding the modern, industrialized society of New Orleans and of her being a flighty character.

Now after completing the play, I have at least solidified my interpretation of William’s feelings regarding the subject, although I would like to hear other people’s interpretations. I think that for the most part Williams is showing how destructive violence can be. Stanley represents masculine power and animalistic desire, and, as we discussed in class, much of the play shows the competition between his ideals and those of Blanche’s. She cherishes illusion, romance, and culture. There are some victories for Blanche, such as the simple act of Stella allowing Blanche to remain in her home though it displeases Stanley, and some for Stanley, such as Stella returning to him after their domestic dispute following the poker game, and tensions build between Stanley and Blanche. As in any war, there needs to be a final showdown. This occurs when Stanley rapes Blanche the night Stella gives birth. I think that, as the final battle ends a war, this final monumental encounter between the two opponents reveals Williams’ line of thinking.

Stanley’s violent act crushes Blanche. She is clearly afraid of him after the incident. When she is exiting the bathroom, she asks, “Is the coast clear?” (686), peering around, because she does not want to have to walk by Stanley ever again. Blanche is also being taken to a mental institution. This outcome could be seen as Williams representing Stanley’s way of life dominating over Blanche’s, particularly because Stella deems Stanley the winner of their competition by choosing to stay with him and not believe Blanche’s story. However, I think that Blanche is supposed to be a sympathetic character, which I had overlooked in reading the first half of this play, rendering her destruction by Stanley a cruel and vicious act.

Though Blanche is flawed, as I pointed out in my first post, she is very desperate. She explains the trauma she went through to Mitch, watching each of her family members die. “Death—I used to sit here and she used to sit over there and death was as close as you are…” (680). She was driven to her sexual indecency by her experiences with death, including Allan’s, because Blanche views “desire” as the opposite of death (680). Readers can thus sense her desperation and need to feel alive. We can also see her emotional turmoil regarding Allan’s suicide through Williams’ use of expressionism through the polka music that runs through her head. This music signals that she is being haunted by remembrances of Allan since the same music played at the scene of his death.

Besides being desperate, Blanche is also a well-intentioned person. Though she lies about her past, she explains to Mitch that she “didn’t lie in [her] heart” (679). Readers can infer that the reason she did not explain her sexual past was because she feared being ostracized and not because she wanted to deceive him. Mitch’s declaration that she’s “not clean enough to bring in the house with [his] mother” upon finding out the truth shows that Blanche’s worries were justified. Blanche’s predicament is similar to Calixta’s in Kate Chopin’s At the ‘Cadian Ball in that both are the source of town gossip for their sexual affairs. Although Blanche is of a higher class, both are not accepted by mainstream society because their being sexually active out of wedlock went against codes of conduct for women.

Since Blanche is a sympathetic character, Stanley’s act is supposed to be viewed as horribly wrong. Stella, during Blanche’s departure, cries out, “What have I done to my sister?” (689), which I think indicates that deep down she knows Blanche was right about Stanley. This is why Stella is now plagued by a guilty conscience. Not only did Blanche not manifest the rape, but she, not Stella, had the right idea about violence. It is wrong in all cases because left unchecked it can escalate, as Stanley’s slapping around Stella turned into his rape of Blanche. Though Williams presents violence as having some romantic elements, particularly shown by Stella and Stanley’s sensual make-up scene after the poker game, I think the final scenes express his view that sexual violence is predominantly wrong and can easily escalate to completely unacceptable acts.

Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire

This play deals with many themes that we have seen before in other works of Southern literature. A few of them that I’d like to discuss are presentations of masculinity, female sexuality, interactions between the genders, and class conflict. Stanley is the epitome of what a male is supposed to be according to the prescribed gender roles we’ve discussed, “strongly, compactly built” (639), skilled at sexually pleasing women, and often described as having animal-like behaviors and intentions. His character reminded me of Faulkner’s character McLendon from Dry September. Both are described as strong and sweating and are supposed to be examples of masculinity, yet both achieve much of their power by keeping their wives submissive through force. By each of these characters being wife-beaters, the seemingly inherent nature of their male dominance is undermined. Since the hypocrisy of their power is revealed by the authors, it seems for Streetcar that Williams does not approve of the domestic violence that was occurring.

Yet Tennessee Williams’ depictions of women make me uncertain of his intentions with this work. His depiction of Blanche relates and intrigued me the most. She is clearly a flawed character, lying about her age and drinking. Blanche is also needy, constantly desiring male attention. For example, during the poker game in scene three she steps into the light between the two rooms in Stella and Stanley’s house so the men can see her shape as she undresses. Also, there is some uncertainty surrounding how Blanche lost Belle Reve, her presence at Hotel Flamingo, where she stayed the night of Stella and Stanley’s fight, and why she is no longer teaching. I think that her comment to the paper boy, whom she also inappropriately kisses, “I’ve got to be good—and keep my hands off children,” (663) may indicate that she has had some inappropriate relations with her high school students. Blanche also is very snobby, criticizing her sister’s living arrangements because they grew up on a plantation and are of a higher class of the dying Old South than Stanley and the others in this section of New Orleans. Each of these incidents and uncertainties add up to Blanche being a very troubled character. Yet she is the one expressing disapproval of the violent way Stanley treats his pregnant wife, Stella.

Stella, who is presented as the more level-headed woman who becomes disturbed by Blanche’s dramatic shrieking, is content with Stanley. She is a very sexual character who is “thrilled by” Stanley’s throwing things about (654). Her comments romanticize violence, and thus Williams’ portrayal of domestic violence is seemingly conflicting. As I explained before, a deeper look into Stanley’s presentation could indicate that Williams is criticizing his violence. Yet William’s choosing Blanche, who is erratic and unmarried, to be the one who disapproves of the rough treatment and Stella, who is nurturing and married, to be the one who does not mind it indicates a diverging perspective, in my opinion. This choice makes it seem like women who have a healthy sexual appetite will not mind being physically abused by their husbands because “things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark…make everything else seem—unimportant” (657), according to Stella. I hope that as the rest of the play unfolds, Williams portrayal of gender roles will more definitively show that domestic violence is something that needs to stop and that the way this town proceeds, with men hitting their wives and the wives easily forgiving them, is unacceptable.

Race Relations

Though Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston were writing in similar time periods as black residents of the South, their accounts differed greatly. Wright wrote to advocate change. He detailed the horrific effects of the Jim Crow laws on the lives of African Americans. Not only were blacks often abused, but they were internalizing the laws and becoming submissive to whites. His style in The Ethics of Living Jim Crow is to include short reports of black mistreatment, each followed by the reaction of other blacks that the mistreated were “lucky” (552) because they were not raped or killed. Wright is trying to prod others to realize that the Jim Crow laws are wrong, should not be accepted, and instead should be fought.

His presentation of whites as abusers and the biting irony at the end of most of the short stories reveals that he resents most whites for their treatment of blacks. Hurston, on the contrary, does not show hostility towards blacks or a lack of black pride in How It Feels to Be Colored Me. I think this is because she has many identities and is not consumed by notions of race. She is “the eternal feminine” (418), “an American citizen” (418), “Zora of Eatoniville” (417), and “colored” (417), but she also says that sometimes she has “no race” (418) and is just her. I think the possession of a multitude of identities is a healthy way for Zora to look at herself. Also, the last paragraph of this piece reveals that she views all people as essentially the same inside through her bag analogy. Thus she does not look at blacks and whites as fully separate entities, although jazz certainly seems to affect her much more potently than it affects whites.

I think that the reason behind the disparity of Wright’s and Hurston’s feelings is because of their childhood. Wright grew up fearing whites because of an experience where white children threw broken bottles at him and some other black children. He began regarding “white folks” and their green, well-kempt neighborhoods as a “symbol of fear” (549). However, Hurston lived in town populated almost entirely by blacks, Eatonville, Florida. Whites would only occasionally pass through the town, and she would joyfully entertain them. She did not recognize the condescending nature with which the whites tossed “small silver” to her in order for her to “dance the parse-me-la” (416), and by the time she went to school in Jacksonville at age thirteen, much of her identity must have already been firmly planted. Although she then became “a little colored girl” for the first time (416), Hurston clearly retained a great spirit because this piece is uplifting and presents the issue of race open-mindedly. Though she addresses race, it is not to instigate change or point out racial problems, as Wright’s intention is. Her piece is not the work of someone beaten down. She must not have encountered such brutality as Wright or at least certainly did not let it affect her sense of self.

I thought it was interesting that some of Zora is reflected in Janie, the storyteller in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie, too, did not realize that she was black right away. It took her until she was only six, though, to see a picture of herself and make the connection. Also, Janie is frequently described as a beautiful female with long black hair, and Zora felt femininity was an important part of her identity.

I also found it interesting how many similar occurrences took place in the first fifty pages of this book about black characters as in other works that were about white characters that we have read. The town members gather to as Janie comes home and in the flashback where Joe is at the store in Eatonville. This gossiping took place in Faulkner’s works too. Also, the women disapprove of Janie wearing overalls, just as the women in Porter’s stories disapprove of Miranda wearing pants. Janie’s grandmother also tries to control her life by marrying her off to Logan, much like the grandmother presented by Porter tries to control each of her children and grandchildren’s lives. Finally, this story also deals with coming of age, like Faulkner’s Barn Burning, his An Odor of Verbena, and several of Porter’s short stories. Here Janie explores her sensuality through nature under a pear tree, watching bees pollinate flowers, much like Porter’s character Miranda learned something about sex by seeing the gutted, pregnant rabbit. Right after, Janie experiences her first kiss and is soon thereafter married. She is a woman. I am interested to see how many other similar events will occur as the story unfolds further.