A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Streetcar Named Desire
Book Review: Death and Desire
Summary: 5 Stars
Tennessee Williams conveys the true spirit of 1940's New Orleans in A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams has captivated a large audience through his provocative plays, showing the tragic lives of character such as Blanche Dubois. He enhances the magnificent play with ingenious foreshadowing and symbolisms.
Tennessee emphasizes the importance of our desires and the effects they have on our lives. Blanche says "The opposite of death is desire", she fills her life with desires to keep her from death but they ultimately destroy her. Blanche moves in with her sister Stella and brother in law Stanley because her life was a miserable wreck in her former residence. "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields". During the journey, from her old home to the Elysian Fields, Blanche takes "Desire" which then leads to "cemetery" or death. This foreshadows how Blanches fantasy's lead to self-destruction.
Blanche admits, at one point in the story, that "after the death of Allan (her husband) intimacies with strangers were all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with". She had sexual relations with anyone who would agree to it in order to satisfy her loneliness. Sex is her most obvious weakness and desire, Stanley uses that against her and rapes her. After he has sex with her, she is taken away to a psychiatric hospital. Which again starts the cycle, "Desire" has sent her off to "Cemeteries".
This play has taught me the importance of choosing the right dreams to pursue, and keeping them in perspective. Life is not always beautiful and poetic but is often dirty and uncouth. To create a balance would be ideal, embracing the good along with the bad aspects of life. Blanche failed to see the reality of life and was unable to feel successful unless she achieved all she dreamed.
Streetcar is a play unlike any other, highly respected by many audiences for its unusual story line and beautiful use of literary elements. The characters are riveting and controversial, allowing the audience to discuss the characters actions and personality. I highly recommend this play; it covers many issues that are still relevant today.
Book Review: Melissa Henning
Summary: 4 Stars
A Streetcar Named Desire...was a very interesting book, it was well written and I would have to agree on that Tennesse Williams is truly a genius but, this book wasnt something at first that would seem like I would just pick it up and start reading it to be honest with you. Tennesse Williams did an awesome job,the points that he was trying to get is the fact that we all have desires but, soon we wont have those desires for long, because they will soon fade away and die, there are always going to be new desires and some dont last very long. Blanche had this big desire of living in this fake world but, eventually it took her to the point where, everyone found out about her life, that desire was gone she couldnt have that desire anymore no matter how bad she wanted it.
I learned that you can go through life having as many desires as you want but, they wont last long and you cant hold on to desire just like you cant hold on to a person when they die, no matter how bad you want to. They book shows you all the characters desires and feelings and how they didnt want to let go of those no matter how hard they tired to keep them they would just die and new desires would come up again. I would recommand this book because it shows you that you need to let go at some point and that we cant just live in a fake life, because sooner are later we will be found out. I think Tennesse Williams also did a great job with kinda showing that some people can be a Blanche, Stanely, Stella, Mitch, Eunice, and other characters that were mentioned.
Book Review: Williams Desire
Summary: 4 Stars
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate play written by Tennessee Williams. It is easy to see that his work was carefully thought of and developed by the irony and symbolism throughout the play. I believe this can be used positively and lessons can be learned through Tennessee's writing. Although good lessons can be learned, I do feel that the play was lacking morally.
I believe Williams's reason for writing this play was to show his opinion on some matters that were faced in A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams wrote very closely to how he himself was. He let himself be portrayed through his writing. I believe that Williams made the main character, Blanche, somewhat psycho because that's what his sister had faced. He portrays Blanche in a way that brings on a sense of pity and sorrow for the reader. He also brings up the issue close to his life of homosexuality. Blanche had married a "boy" in her younger days and he tragically killed himself when she found out he was a homosexual. Williams also put a lot of irony into the play. Stella, Blanches sister, moved to a run down part of town and is living with her husband Stanley. Oddly, Williams named the place, Elysian Fields. In Greek mythology Elysian Fields is a type of heaven to them. So to put a run down part of New Orleans and name it Elysian Fields is showing part of Williams and his life. I see two perspectives in this. One is that Williams wants to show the irony of calling a crumby place heaven. Or two, Williams considered it to be his heaven and was showing that through his writing again.
I believe another reason Williams wrote this was to show life in the 50s. In our society we are very repulsive to the things that Stanley, Stella's husband does. Stanley is a very rough man. He is disrespectful to women, he gets angry quickly, beats his wife at times, and ends up raping Blanche. When Blanche talks to Stella after the night Stanley hit her, Blanche, not used to the circumstances, says that Stella should leave Stanley. Stella replied with "...I am not in anything that I have a desire to get out of...people have to tolerate each others habits, I guess." I think that here Williams shows that in New Orleans during the 1950s life was expected to be this hard. Williams writes to show emotion of something. He portrays that life was hard and that it really did have many down parts that left you in the dumps and sometimes, like Blanche, it left you going insane. Williams shows a harsh realism to the way life was in his story, and perhaps for him.
I have personally learned that life is going to be hard. And although life is hard we need to find a way to deal with it. In A Streetcar Named Desire you can see Blanch pushing away her responsibilities and not facing them. She makes up a world that revolves around lies because she doesn't know how to handle the truth and pain she's surrounded by. By observing the play I have learned the importance of facing the things that come at me, and not only facing them but also being prepared to deal with them. I have learned the best way for me to deal with problems is to go to God. God can offer all the wisdom and strength to get through all circumstances.
I recommend this play if you are interested in learning about the author as well as ironic things intertwined in the play. It is tragic and if taken seriously, a thought provoker. The characterization is incredible and very well done. Be discerning because the morals are not high but nothing terribly described. Otherwise this is a very interesting and good play to read.
Book Review: Judge not.....or be Judged
Summary: 3 Stars
I found the play, "A Streetcar named Desire," not as enjoyable as I expected. I feel that the plot was not well formed and the actors were too unrealistic for my liking. I feel that the reason that Tennessee Williams had for writing this play was to inform the audience of the sinful nature that humans have. Throughout the play you see various characters go through their everyday routines and not once think twice about the sin in their lives. For example take Blanche. The first time that she was talking to Mitch she lied about her past, and she lied about her job right to his face. Some might say that Blanche was a little mentally unstable so I'll give another example. Stanley's life was of no means perfect. He would talk bad to women, gossip about people behind their backs, beat his wife, and even rape Blanche then lie about it to Stella. Now even though the reader can see that Stanley is doing all of these bad things, I believe that Stanley is unaware of how bad his actions truly are, all he really cares about is making Blanches life worse. Which leads me back to my original point, I believe Williams wrote this to help show the reader that no one is perfect, but before you start to point out someone else's faults you need to examine the sin in your own life.
From reading this play I have been able to stop looking so much at other's mistakes and I have started to try and fix the mistakes in my life. For example when reading the play I really was not fond of Blanche. I did not like the way she would lie to people and try to fool them into falling in love with her. Because of this I started to like Stanley because he was basically Blanche's enemy. Truthfully, I have done that in real life as well. When I don't like someone I sometimes, unconsciously, think I wouldn't mind if something bad would happen to them. What I need to do is stop focusing so much on other people and the things that they do, especially the bad things they do. I also need to reevaluate my life and try to fix some of the problems I have. Judge not, or you will be judged is what the Bible says, and maybe Williams wasn't too far away from the same idea.
I personally would recommend this play. I believe that this play can be looked at from a variety of ways and many things can be learned from reading it. I did not enjoy reading the play but I think the lessons that can be learned from it makes it worth the read.
Book Review: Williams' "Streetcar" Right On Track
Summary: 4 Stars
After recently finishing the reading of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, I was profoundly struck by the massive amount of information packed into such a small play. Williams has packed the reading full of all kinds of subtle undertones, foreshadows, and various allusions to his own lives or the lives of those around him in this dramatic piece of literature. Williams' style is unmistakable and immediately recognizable, giving the reader a clear understanding of his artistic vision with deep detailed descriptions of his scenes, as well as giving obvious representation of his characters mindsets and personal mental states.
While reading A Streetcar Named Desire, the main point I felt that Tennessee was trying to convey to the reader was a sad one, one that reflected his own life very deeply. As Blanche Dubois flees her troubled past to her sister's home, she climbs aboard a streetcar named Desire. After a time, she gets off and switches to another streetcar, this one named Cemetery. Finally, she reaches her destination, the place of his sister's living, an apartment complex style building known as the Elysian Fields. This trip is repeated several times throughout the play, sticking its emphasis in the reader's mind to consider. I saw Williams pointing out that if you follow your desires, you will be under the impression that you will be heading for "heaven", or at least peace and enjoyment, just as Blanche thought she was. However, your fleshly desires, the wants of this world's pleasures, will lead to death, maybe not the physical death, but to the death of your soul, your mind, your emotional stability, or maybe someone around you's death. And then, just when you think you've escaped it, gotten away from Cemetery, and you are at your Elysian Fields, you will discover not what you thought would be there at all, not a heaven, not a pleasant resting place, but a set of dingy, dirty, run-down apartments, not heaven at all, but actually closer to hell itself. I believe that Williams found this in his own life, and this play was his specific way of conveying that message out to his readers.
In my reading of Streetcar, I found myself waffling between having a preference for Stanley Kowalski and hating Blanche Dubois, and abhoring Stanley and feeling pity for Blanche. This reminded me that there is not always black and white, not always right and wrong, not always a good and an evil, plain and simple, in every situation. There are circumstances, there are things that change, and there are opinions in every fight. Judging too quickly may not always be the best thing, and you can never judge and be done, your opinion of a situation or even a person may be constantly changing.
This play was a moral dilemma for everyone who I know who read it. It made me think, and it made me ponder some of the issues raised. I would recommend this as a good read, not for a feel-good read, but for a read that may make a person take stock of their own life, may make them think twice about the way they live, the way they treat others, or the way they act.