25 Jul 2022

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How "A Streetcar Named Desire" shows problems of the US after World War II

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Academic level: College

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A streetcar named Desire is a classic for the genre of drama transcribed by Tennessee Williams which tables the problems of the United States during the fidgety years after World War II as well as great despair. This film also touches on the matters of immigrant groups and the ancient settlers. The play provides themes in a compelling manner that makes it universal even though it is situated in the south. This film was released in 1951. Its screenplay and script were both done by Tennessee William and directed by Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire film has two main characters about which the storyline is plotted - Blanche DuBois who is played by Vivian Leigh and Harold Mitchell played Karl Malden. These two characters take on the most challenging task of conveying two intricate, demonstrative characters onto the grey screen. The two characters create an understanding that is both entertaining and dramatically comprehensible with accurate antiphons to one another’s melodramatic developments. This play is, however, grouped as an American classic because of its setting, characters and the conflict amongst the characters. 

The setting of the film is in Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, in the street called Elysian Fields Avenue. A city situated on the Loire River in Center, France, and is better known for its divergent French Creole architecture, together with its cosmopolitan and polyglot heritage which contributes to it being the perfect setting of the film. The indigenous streetcar that Blanche takes to arrive at this point is named “Desire” which reflects the initial step of her life after the death of her husband, Allan. She, however, ended up living a life occupied with sex and immoral resolutions even though she was desperately yearning for love and companionship after struggling with the loss of her husband hence her obsession by desire after the tragedy of her husband’s death. The street where Stella and Stanley live are Elysian Fields which refer to the part of the illicit and a residence of the reward of righteous death in the Roman mythology. The house where Stella and Stanley stayed also forms a major setting in this play because it is where all the conflicts and social interrelations between the characters happen. 

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The film, A Streetcar Named Desire has an assortment of characters apart from the two protagonists of the play. They include Stella ; she is Stanley’s spouse and a sister to Blanche, Stanley Kowalski who is often a realistic character, Harold Mitchell “Mitch” who is the only individual apart from Stella who comprehends the catastrophe of Blanche’s craziness. Additionally, there is Blanche DuBois, she is regarded as a fallen woman in the eyes of the society, and she is also a woman with many mysteries. There are characters clash throughout the filmmaking it interesting and fun-full to follow through. 

The film “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a renowned play of its time centralized to its southern setting, the characters together with their conflicts. The convolution of the characters conveys both drama and passion behind the scenes . All the characters have their responsibilities regarding how this play discloses. The conflicts of this film coil out of management resulting in neither of the characters remaining with their former lives before Blanche came into their homes. There are several conflicts in this film . However , most of them circle about two protagonists, Stanley and Blanche. One of the primary conflicts of this film is that Stanley and Blanche are in a clash to win Stella and none of them is willing to give up. However, there is also conflict between Mitch and Blanche towards the last scenes of the film regarding Blanche’s lack of caution, and the conflict they had in the house while Stanley and Stella were in the hospital. These conflicts portray the biggest theme of the film which is violence. 

Another theme that is depicted in the film is desire and promiscuity which are portrayed by Blanche’s outgoing and flirty behavior. The film explores the use of symbolism to portray this theme of desire right from the common streetcar named Desire which Blanche uses to go to the Kowalski’s house to which she also takes her desires of unremitting love and companionship after the death of her husband. This serves as the antecedent to the film because her desire and promiscuity destroyed her repute and ended her into driving out of her former town. Additionally, there is the theme of death alongside the theme of desire portrayed in the film. The Mexican woman with flowers, the polka harmony, Blanche’s frightened voice together with the gunshots are all perfectly presented and are very effective in the film for portraying the theme of death. Apart from the title of the film, the relationship between the themes of death and sexual desire are comprehensively reconnoitered in the film. 

Some of the pertinent economic issues that must have been of concern in the making of the film include the challenges which the director must have experienced adapting the play to the production of the film most especially in the times of 1951. For instance, finding the performers who would fit into the dominant characters and their conflicts, helping the viewers to understand, to some extent Blanche and Stanley, the expansion of the scenes beyond Stella and Stanley’s home as well as the integration of music and the polka tunes. Additionally, there would be the challenges of handling the scenes between Blanche and newsboy without risking censorship and capturing of Blanche’s emotional instability. 

The film A Streetcar Named Desire depicts a cultural clash between Blanche DuBois, an affected, vanishing object of the Old South and Stanley Kowalski, an escalating member of the developed, downtown settler class. Blanche is a southern belle whose pretentiousness to advantage and culture only lightly disguise her nymphomania and alcoholism. Upon her arrival at the house of her sister Stella Kowalski, Stella fears Blanche’s arrival will distress the stability of her bond with her companion Stanley. 

“A Streetcar named Desire” shocked its audience with its overemotional point of view of the clash of cultures. These cultures are personified in the two main characters, Blanche, a vanishing southern belle whose courteous affectations lightly disguise alcoholism and misconceptions of magnificence, together with Stanley Kowalski of the industrialized, metropolitan employed class. This cultural aspect in the initial stage production and the adaptation of the film portrays an icon of American culture. The film also addresses the poles and polacks as well as brutal men of the 1940s portrayed by the way Stanley stands firm for his heritage against Blanche in a conflict. 

This film impacts American popular culture in diverse ways by shaping the expectations of people in different aspects of life like love, relationship, money. The film, A Streetcar Named Desire has had an impact on the American popular culture through the work of the director Elia Kazan to show the dark side of desire right from the beginning of the title of the film, which shows the relation between desire and death. S ome of the themes of the film that are comprehensively explored are the themes of desire and death as well as the theme of violence. These themes are established in the film in a manner that they serve to teach the American people and shape the American popular culture. The film also expresses the outcomes of living a life of a bitter relationship that is resultant of suffering violent alcoholism as well as expressing the idea of homosexuality to the heterosexual American society. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 16). How "A Streetcar Named Desire" shows problems of the US after World War II .
https://studybounty.com/how-a-streetcar-named-desire-shows-problems-of-the-us-after-world-war-ii-essay

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