The Developments of Tenessee Williamss Play A Streetcar Named Desire into a Stage Play - Research Paper Example

Tennessee Williams The developments of Tenessee Williams’s play A Streetcar d Desire into a stage play was remarkably noticed in 1947. In the determination of the most appropriate cast of the debut, Williams considered multiple issues such as the need for the characters to match the descriptions and personalities as depicted in the written play (Williams 145). The playwright’s concern during this time was the production of a kind of play that would attract significant attention at its first staging. Most importantly, the play placed much attention on the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski the two major characters at the heart of the play (Kolin 67). It was necessary for the selected cast to represent the tension, personality differences, and a range of issues that clouded the relationship between these two characters. Williams settled on Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy to represent the Stanley and Blanche respectively. The suitability of the two characters has often been assessed from the perspective of their ability to capture the diverse aspect of reality as portrayed in the play. The stage and screen representation of A Streetcar Named Desire effectively draw the dichotomy of worldview that separated the worlds of Blanche, a deluded and financially challenged school teacher and Stanley, a struggling young man who only aspires to live in accordance with the supplies of reality (Kolin 67). Measuring the aspect of success and efficiency of the play must encompass the various themes that are resident in the worldviews of the two characters, and how these, in-turn, shape the assumptions, responses, and reactions of the primary audience. Another important point of notice in the production of this play should be assessed from the fact that it was rendered in Southern Gothic (DiLeo 78). As such, the stage and screen representations were supposed to evoke the visual and auditory features that feature into the genre. With regard to tropes and characterization, the screen and stage version were fitting descriptions of social and cultural realities, which William’s obviously considered in the rendering one of his artistic masterpieces. It would be appropriate to consider some of the issues that relate to the translation of a written text into a stage performance or a screen show. Usually, when a written stage is being rendered on a stage performance, the playwright relies significantly on the tropes and the element of characterization to build on the inherent meanings of the stage. The task of putting the stage into context must be considered alongside the kind of audience that is primarily targeted by the play. In the stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, there is an obvious attempt on the part of the directions to capture the socio-economic realities that affected the American societies and the psychological tensions that were partly blamed on the American dream. Reality, according to sociologists, is socially constructed. In usual cases, works of reality are often used to mimic, parody, or critique reality through various techniques. Art represents reality in a microcosmic form, which is usually determined by the limitedness of space and the time factor. The development of a play onto a stage or screen production must entail a diagnostic assessment of the various aspects of reality that occur in the normal discourse. Williams sought to nourish the aesthetic tastes of his audience by serving them with a summarized form of truth around them in a fictionalized form. The overwhelming positive response that the play received during its premier must be recognized as testament to the high degree of effectiveness and success within the American audience (O’Connor 154). The character of Blanche as she appeared on stage might be considered as stronger version of the one represented in the written play. In the written play, Blanche can only be analyzed from the subjective des In both the stage and screen productions of the play, the directors make bold efforts to cram the diverse meanings of the text within the limited period. In the process of transferring a play into either screen or stage, there is always the danger than meaning may be lost and probably change or distort the authorial intentions as originally designed. Such losses of meaning often occur at the level of characterization or during the replacement of narrative content into visual representations or in the tropes. As such it is usually important for the author to place much emphasis on the suitability of the cast, tropes, venue, techniques and other aspects of art that are usually involved during the transition process. Various critical perspectives have attended to the development of the play into theatre. One of the most dominant observations that have often engaged the interest of critics is the aspect of melodrama. According to some critics, the heavy usage of melodrama as a technique, particular with regard to the role of Blanche was wrongly timed. The basis of this observation is that the play was acted at a point in time in the twentieth century at a time when the element of melodrama was beginning to lose its appeal. Naturally, it could be argued that the inclusion of melodrama marked a point of transition in the theatrical techniques as embraced by the American and British audiences. The melodramatic portrayal of reality is most evident when Blanche expresses raw emotions on the stage and acts in the near irrational ways that unnerves the audiences. According to some critics, such actions were out of touch with reality and did not fit particularly into the aesthetic tastes of the audience. However, those who defend the heavy use of melodrama argue that it was basically for the purpose of celebrating art in the form of sentimental attachment to certain subjects that related to the society. Therefore, it might be argued that activities that tie within the element of melodrama must be captured in ways that highlight a certain theme within the play. The dramatic effect of the high sensationalism has been defended on the basis of the need to anchor the character of Blanche within the forces that were working to unsettle her place in the society. Blanche is portrayed as a woman who does not wish to reconcile with the difficult and unfortunate situations in her life. She is constantly tormented by delusions of grandeur, and seeks by all means possible to adjust her life in a manner that would suit her to the hard realities of her failed marriage, scandalous life and financial insecurities. She creates a mental universe and often peddles falsehoods with the intention of elevating her stature in a society she expressly disapproves. Essentially, she fails to connect with some of the issues that affect and torment her, which leads her to insanity. Like other men of his time, Stanley perceives of women, and in this case his wife through a Cartesian divide that could only reveal her as either a pure submissive and subservient creature or an incorrigible whore. Throughout the play she adopted both characters in his imagination, and these prepared the final course towards the tragedy that happens at the end. In many ways A Streetcar Named Desire is in many ways a study into the thin line that demarcates love and hate in a marriage institution and how the potentialities and weaknesses of this divide could be exploited to yield either love or hate in varying measures. In this play the usual romantic picturesque of a marriage institution is destroyed at the end and its place replaced by the evocation of the horrific condition. The picture of the American character carries strong symbolism of the American luxurious lifestyle in a manner that reduces the complicated and dynamic nature of her culture in an assembly of visual and sensual imagery. The picture captures the philosophies represented in the American dream, the carefree high culture, aspects of consumerism and materialism, and all these captured in dimensions that portray the strengths and weaknesses of the American socio-economic system. The picture is portrayed in a careful way that enables it to appease to the differences across classes, sex, race, religions, and other definitions. The image and calligraphy on the ice cream are a bold metaphor of the high life and affluence that is traditionally associated with the American metropolis. The picture on the ice cream is aimed to offer some glimpse into the materialistic culture of the west in a manner that portrays this culture as the highest possible lifestyle that mankind might admire. It might be considered as a potent symbol of the American dream. This picture is meant to be appreciated in tow ways. On one hand it is meant to illustrate all the positive attributes that folks associate with the American culture. The allusions that it creates include financial power, economic might, ascension to upper classes and enlightenment. On the other hand this picture also negates certain aspects of life that should fall outside the American scheme of things. These include poverty, oppression, servitude, scarcity, and stress. The people who love ice creams are usually celebrated as belonging to some caste or a kind of secret society so that those who belong outside the system are deemed as lesser beings. The silent message is that those on the outside should endeavor by every means possible to gain entry into this class of ice-cream lovers. The bright rich colorations of the ice-cream packaging are artistically meant to evoke feminine sensations. These sensations have been associated with relaxing American blondes in high-class restaurants that must necessarily be beyond the reach of the ordinary folk. To this extent the picture of the ice cream has been portrayed in striking visual representations that are aimed at igniting love, romance and passion. On another level the picture also aligns with obesity. On several occasions the portrayal of the American social life is set in a leisurely environment such as a film theatre where obese children and their equally obese parents are having an easy time. The import of such a depiction has been used both negatively and positively. In the positive sense, this picture is aimed at portraying the subjects eating the ice-cream as a group of wealthy individuals who are basking in the glory of their affluence. In this sense the picture then becomes a potent symbol of capitalism; an ideology that celebrates wealth and private enterprise, and one that unites the American values of individual liberties and the philosophical American dream. In the negative sense the picture has been used by nutritionists to bemoan the culture of junk food, which has been criticized in health discourses as the most significant factor of obesity and diabetes, which have increasingly become a menace in the society. The portrayal of this picture in this negative sense is therefore meant to serve as a cautionary symbol to the wider society against the blind adoption of junk food as a fashionable practice. The negative depiction also serves as an attack and a reversal on the common misconceptions that obesity is fashionable. Consumerism and materialism are some of the supporting structures of American capitalistic lifestyle. These aspects are successfully captured in the picture of the ice cream as supporting pillars of the American might. In other places the image of the ice cream might be deemed as a symbol of needless luxury that should not fall anywhere on the hierarchy of needs. This is because priority in a world known of food scarcity should be placed on the acquisition of healthy foodstuffs to feed the starving populations. Scarcity and financial crises also demand naturally that there should be some prudence is spending so as to enhance the culture of saving. The American culture, however, is one that actively promotes the spending on ostentatious and frivolous undertaking for the chief aim of acquiring what can be acquired for the sake of morphing into the popular culture. Ice cream as a symbol of consumerism has been accepted as a kind of currency to transact the language of gifts and presents in situations where this might matter. The American values and culture are represented in the many aspects that make up the sum total of American life, but these aspects need physical signifiers to better illustrate the power and influence of these culture and values. The picture of ice cream is one bold statement that metaphorically condenses many of these cultural aspects into one single object. The power of this picture lies in the fact that it captures both the positive and negative aspects of the American lifestyle depending on the interpretations of the beholder. The comedy reveals some of the common characteristics of average American families in the context of the social pressures that make many of them almost dysfunctional. Several themes of the American social life and problematic family relations are explored in a manner that provides the most comprehensive picture of the American social superstructure. There seems to be a silent mystic that works within the family in Little Miss Sunshine. This mystic might be considered as the author of the various tribulations in the unit, and also the final adhesive that holds the family together amid seeming public disapproval. This comedy is diagnostic in the social sense, given its success in unraveling the different kinds of challenges that have encircled the lives of individuals, and the relationship of these challenges with the external American world. A hydra-headed monster of misfortune appears to hold the destiny of this family at ransom. The misfortune however appears to transform into a benign force because as the comedy concluded the family is more united than it was at the very beginning. The very pageant show becomes the ultimate moment of triumph that brings together fragmented individuals torn apart by social strife. Pride and jealousy, in measured doses, are the twin factors that sustain the institution of marriage but could also end in tragedy through a disruptive influence of matters of class, race, and external meddling. This study will mirror the unfolding of the tragedy in William’s play with a view of understanding the salient parts in an institution of marriage and how its survival or demise could be determined and conditioned by the variables of character, identities, status, history and environment like it is portrayed in the play. The irrational response by Stanley to Blanche’s insults is symptomatic of the Shakespearean construction of women sexuality especially in the American society during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Claims of illicit affairs in what was supposed to be a progressive are what culminated in the frequent conflict that threatened to tear Stanley’s household apart. What this would mean is that female sexuality was a measure of men’s power in a marriage institution, and therefore presumed cases of infidelity translated into a threat over manhood on the part of the husbands. The gradual conversion of Othello from a loving husband into the atrocious monster that he become were the result of the tensions that affected the society. The clearest illustration of this fact is the manner with which Blanche in the story begins relating to people after this life changing realization. She makes a promise to herself that she shall forever greet people and express her appreciation of them. She also chooses to avoid silence as much as she can manage. The natural effect that these choices might bring along is the conversion of Blanche into an extrovert, and fun-loving adult in future. She chooses to revise her lifestyle in the belief that by so doing she might avoid the fate of her sister and possibly live a longer life free of disease or physical damage. The mental crisis that Blanche seems to be locked in is one that illustrates the futility of mankind’s wish to alter the course of their lives against the limited power to make it happen. She is terrified by the possibility of her mother’s death. She wants to hold on to her for as much as possible so that every passing minute, to her, shall represent a celebration of life and living. It is for this reason that Blanche fails to see in the sister as anything else other than the embodiment of decay and death. She refuses to sleep on the same bed with the sister for the simple reason that the sister smells bad and that she looks unsightly. There is an evident configuration of the mind of Blanche in a way that offers her a completely different world view unlike the one she had grown knowing. Life has ceased to be the big party that she thought it was and has instead been replaced by unpleasant facts about the end of good things and the beginning of bad ones. Blanche’s mind is challenged by the indifference of the facts of life. The clock of events does not hearken to her wishes, and the course of things remains mute only demanding that she adjusts her own life according to the configuration provided by the supreme forces that condition the fate of humanity. The development of conflict in William’s play A Street Car Named Desire is testimony to the tenuous links that often unmake an otherwise flourishing and stable if subjected to the realities of class, privilege and other factors. Stanley locates his pride and substance in remaining faithful to the course of destiny as shown in his closeness to his wife and occupation (O’Connor 167). The disapproving Blanche scoffs at the stable union even suggesting to her sister to flee the marriage in search of a more affluent man. Works Cited DiLeo, John. Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors. New York: Hansen Publishing Group LLC, 2010 Kolin, Philip, C. Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. O’Connor, Jacqueline. Dramatizing Dementia: Madness In The Plays Of Tennessee Williams. New York: Popular Press, 1997 Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: A&C Black, 2009 Read More