Characters St Car Named Desire

A detailed Summary of Characters St Car Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) is a controversial film classic, adapted from Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play of 1947. Elia Kazan, a socially conscious director who insisted that the film be true to the play, directed this film. The film challenged the censors with its bold adult drama and sexual subjects (rape, domestic violence, and female promiscuity) - it is the story of the mental and emotional demise of a delicate Southern lady. Her downfall in the filthy French Quarter apartment of her sister and beastly husband is at the hands of savage and brutal forces in modern society. In refuge she finds that her sister lives with drunkenness, violence and ignorance.

The main character roles were played with remarkable performances - Vivien Leigh who recreated her role from the London production of the play portrayed the Southern belle heroine. Kim Hunter's role as her sister (a role she originally played on Broadway) was pivotal, and Marlon Brando, recreating his Broadway role, delivers an overpowering, memorable performance.

Set in New Orleans, the film opens with the arrival of a train and southern belle Blanche DuBois - she has taken the train to the city. As a joyous wedding party runs by in the station, Blanch

Stella Kowalski - Blanche's younger sister, with the same timeworn aristocratic heritage, but who has jumped the sinking ship and linked her life with lower-class vitality. Her union with Stanley is animal and spiritual, violent but renewing. She cannot really explain it to Blanche. While she loves her older sister, and pities her, she cannot bring herself to believe Blanche's accusation against Stanley. Though it is agony, she has her sister committed

Blanche's character is more complicated than she would like everyone to believe. The image Blanche shows the world is sad enough, that of the former social debutante who somehow failed to get a husband and has now become an old maid, her much relied upon looks failing, especially when the old maid in question is being played by Scarlett O'Hara herself. As the film moves on, we learn more about Blanche's past. We hear of a disreputable hotel where she was met by many different men and something about a much younger man's involvement at the school where she taught. At one point, a newspaperman, a very young man, visits the apartment, and Blanche's demeanor is very suggestive and is clear that she desires him. Then comes the admission, to a prospective suitor, the timid Mitch. It is clear that Blanche has had her fair share of desire in her life, but now, aging and alone, she's at the end of her rope.

She is a fascinating character, hiding from the harshness of reality in fantasies and reveries about that way things used to be, only to be driven to madness by reality's crashing in on her in the form of Stanley Kowalski. His base nature, his dismissal of even the slightest affectations, and, of course, the ultimate act of his reality, his climactic attack on her, leave her incapable of facing the world as it exists; she can only go thro

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Approximate Word count = 1212
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English