A programme of Music, Visual Arts and Drama education
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Summary A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Wiliams notes
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A programme of Music, Visual Arts and Drama education
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11th Grade
These comprehensive study notes offer a deep dive into Tennessee Williams' iconic play A Streetcar Named Desire, providing valuable insights for students, researchers, and theatre practitioners. Whether you're preparing for an exam, writing an essay, or refining your performance skills, these notes...
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DRAMA TERM 3 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
The American way of life:
→ key attitudes held by Americans throughout
the 20th century:
1. The American dream:
→ “perfect life”, white picket fence, etc.
→ everyone is equal and happy, perfect family.
Personal influences:
2. Frontier mentality: → Much of the pathos found in
→ pushing boundaries, always asking “what’s Williams' drama was taken
next?”. from the playwright's own life.
→ built on fear that traditions won’t support Alcoholism, depression,
them forever. thwarted desire, loneliness,
3. Materialism: and insanity were all part of
→ always have the best, new thing. Williams' world.
→ Williams' most memorable
Writinng style: characters, many of them
female, contain recognisable
elements of their author,
→ Williams became renowned for his unmistakable Edwina, and Rose.
characterisation, accomplished through impeccably observed
dialogue. Once his characters speak, they are completely → His vulgar, irresponsible
identifiable and unforgettable. The rhythms and patterns of male characters, such as
speech draw us into new and unfamiliar worlds. Stanley Kowalski and Big Daddy
in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, were
→ A second trait is his mixture of realism and fantasy. His work likely modeled on Williams' own
defies labelling and moves seamlessly from realism to surrealism, father and other males who
from truth to fantasy. tormented Williams during his
childhood.
→ Williams had a unique and individual voice, dramatically,
socially and politically. He was not afraid of showing profoundly → His experience as a known
personal themes in his writing, nor those which society might see homosexual in an era
as alarming. unfriendly to homosexuality
also informed his work.
Genre and style:
→ Theatrical Realism is a form of realism which highlights the psychological reality of the characters by
using images and symbols to emphasise their subconscious.
→ These images and symbols are used in both the writing (through richly poetic language and imagery)
and the visual and aural elements of the stage design (through symbols and motifs the audience sees
or hears throughout the play that are repeated).
→ The staging is less obviously realistic and more surrealistic, whilst retaining certain representational
features. This means that the set, props and costumes were depicted in a physically recognisable form,
but with a dream-like quality that represented the characters’ subconscious.
→ Thus, theatrical elements were used imaginatively – non-realistic devices such as symbolism,
fragmentary settings, musical motifs and the fluid use of time. The acting style was driven by the
actor’s portrayal of the inner psychological truth and complex motivations of the character.
Method acting:
→ This form of acting is one of the interpretations of Stanislavsky’s system, adapted specifically by Lee
Strasberg. There is particular emphasis on Stanislavsky’s emotional recall and sensory exercises as well
as an exercise designed by Strasberg called ‘the private moment’, where actors rehearsed being
private in front of the class. There was thus great emphasis on ‘the inner truth’ of the character.
→ Two of the main criticisms of the technique is that it encouraged self-indulgent / self-absorbed and
potentially psychologically damaging methods of acting as the actors were continuously recalling
emotional baggage to access the emotions of their characters. It also does not provide actors with the
technical skills needed to externalise feelings i.e. a solid vocal technique (actors would often
mumble rather than speak audibly and intelligibly). This has changed in recent years.
, DRAMA TERM 3 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Structure:
→ Whilst at Missouri University, Williams was
heavily influenced by his tutor, Robert Ramsay,
who used the ouroboros symbol – the snake with
tail in mouth – to describe the perfect plot, the
end being implicit in the beginning: opening
situation, complicating circumstances, apparent
success, flaw discovered, thickening clouds,
sudden catastrophe, and the aftermath. It
describes accurately the plotline of Streetcar.
Characters:
Blanche Dubois: Stella Dubois:
→ Blanche DuBois is Stella's older sister. She was a → Stella Kowalski is Blanche's younger sister, who is
high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi, about twenty-five years old and of a mild disposition
until she was forced to leave her post after having an that visibly sets her apart from her more vulgar
affair with a student, a fact which Blanche keeps neighbors. Stella possesses the same timeworn
from Stella until Stanley reveals the truth. aristocratic heritage as Blanche, but she jumped the
sinking ship in her late teens and left Mississippi for
→ Blanche is a talkative and fragile woman around New Orleans.
the age of thirty. After losing Belle Reve, the DuBois
family home and their inheritance, Blanche arrives in → There, Stella married lower-class Stanley, with
New Orleans at the Kowalski apartment and whom she shares a robust sexual relationship.
eventually reveals that she is completely destitute. Stella's union with Stanley is animal and spiritual,
violent but renewing.
→ Although she has strong sexual urges and has had
many lovers, she puts on the airs of a woman who → After Blanche's arrival, Stella is torn between her
has never known indignity. sister and her husband. Eventually, she stands by
Stanley, perhaps in part because she gives birth to
→ She avoids reality, preferring to live in her own his child near the play's end. While she loves and
imagination. As the play progresses, Blanche's pities Blanche, she cannot bring herself to believe
instability grows along with her misfortune. Stanley Blanche's accusations that Stanley dislikes Blanche,
sees through Blanche and finds out the details of her and she eventually dismisses Blanche's claim that
past, destroying her relationship with his friend Stanley raped her.
Mitch. Stanley also destroys what's left of Blanche by
raping her and then having her committed to an → Stella's denial of reality at the play's end shows
insane asylum. that she has more in common with her sister than
she thinks.
Stanley Kowalski:
→ Stanley Kowalski is the husband of Stella and is the epitome of vital force. He is loyal to his
friends, passionate to his wife, and heartlessly cruel to Blanche.
→ With his Polish ancestry, he represents the new, heterogeneous America. He sees himself as a
social leveler and wishes to destroy Blanche's social pretensions.
→ Around thirty years of age, Stanley, who fought in World War II, now works as an auto-parts
salesman. Practicality is his forte, and he has no patience for Blanche's distortions of the truth. He
lacks ideals and imagination. He is also animalistic is in nature, even Blanche likens him to an “ape”
or a man from the Stone Age.
→ By the play's end, he is a disturbing degenerate: he beats his wife and rapes his sister-in-law.
Horrifyingly, he shows no remorse. Yet, Blanche is outcast from society, while Stanley is the proud
family man.
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