Paula

            Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is well composed with elements such as symbolism and unique characters that bring the story together and alive. The characters, both primary and secondary, cannot be alive without the other gracefully pushing from behind. The symbolism in this play like the blue piano the curtains, are present throughout. With a careful eye, you can easily uncover these simple everyday items their true reason in this play and what deeper meaning they give to the play.

            Plot wise, this play doesn’t have anything too complex or too complicated to figure out for it’s very straightforward: Blanche goes down to New Orleans to visit her sister Stella but experiences her downfall by the hands of Stanley Kowalski. The story was just story about someone walking in deep waters and not knowing how to swim out of it. It was the characters that were more detailed and thought out rather than the plot, in my opinion. They were complex with their variety of talents and their different relationships with others that they contributed to the tension and problems of the story. The style of the play is very modern and closely reflects to the time period in which the whole play is placed.

The main and secondary characters really bring the play to life, by stringing everything together. With many characters being opposites from each other in personalities and thinking, they all come together to create a wonderful piece. Blanche DuBois, the example of the Southern belle at the time and the central character, could be described as being the modern day of Shakespeare’s Ofelia. Being more entangled with her own “dream world”, she turns away from the reality surrounding her, which ultimately paves her path down to her downfall. She’s a very disillusioned girl and very idealistic, trying to avoid problems or anything bad around her; much like people did in the 1920s. She’s also very enthusiastic, causing you to either like her or hate her. She could be easily identified as being a drama queen when you first meet her, for the way she acts and treats everyone around her with her princess attitude. However, as the play progresses and her past are revealed, you almost start to feel sorry for her, for experiencing such terrible things in her life. It almost outweighs her snotty attitude that she accidentally gives off without giving a second thought. Then, Stanley Kowalski, the common working class man who is very barbaric, rough, dirty, and a monster, sparks most of the drama presented in this story. He is just one of these characters that without him the story would fall apart and break down like a car: he is the fuel that helps keep the tensions high. He is also the ‘villain’ responsible for causing Blanche’s downfall, the main highlight of the play. A good play or story always needs a character that enjoys nothing more than causing trouble for others.

            The secondary characters of Stella Kowalski and Mitch act like the helping hands toward the primary characters that help them get more emphasis. Stella, Blanche’s sister, is the typical modern woman who is the example of the average stay at home wife. She is a clear juxtaposition of Blanche: different point of views, style, personalities, you name it. She’s idealistic just like Blanche, but her idealism is almost realistic, wanting to believe Stanley, her husband, over her sister that he did nothing so vulgar to Blanche, but she knows that it’s true. This tares her apart when she has to decide between a family member she hasn’t seen in years and her husband who she sees everyday. She contributes to Blanche’s downfall probably just as must as Stanley does. Mitch, the gentleman who goes with Blanche for dinner dates, is a typical average Joe, in which his character does nothing more but enhances our knowledge about Blanche that were hidden from us before. Without him, Blanche would possibly still be like a mystery to us.

            Despite of the play being very simple, the characters are very complex and are great attention grabbers, especially ones that seem out of place with the others. The play itself is a great fast drama for anyone to read within a day and is just one of those plays you can easily see being turned into a soap opera on television. I recommend this play for anyone who is looking for something fast to read, a simple plot, but has some juicy elements that make you want to know what will happen.