Play vs. Movie: Which is best? Streetcar Named Desire was written by Tennessee Williams. Tennessee Williams was an American playwright from Mississippi. It became his first Broadway play in 1947. In 1951, the play was change into a movie by Elia Kazan. After reading and watching Streetcar Named Desire/Streetcar, I noticed there was some similarities and differences. Two similarities I will develop a thought on will be, the plot and setting. There were also some differences in the setting. Some aspects were emphasized more than other or even deleted. The two differences will be the censorship and casting(characters). Let’s take a look at the details of some of the similarities and differences. The play and movie share many common details. Both shared the same author. Since the author are the same the plot is the same, in a way. Williams understood that many directors would understand the plot in …show more content…
The casting in the play involved Marlon Brando as Stanley, Kim Hunter as Stella, Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois, and Karl Malden as Mitch. The cast of the movie was the same as the play but a different actress for Blanche DuBois. In the movie, Jessica Tandy was replaced by Vivien Leigh. Kazan thought she would add more to the movie. Although, the actor who played Stanley Kowalski didn't change, some of his features did. Marlon Brando portrayed Stanley as “macho man”. And added a more sexual personality to his role unlike the play. The movie tried remains true to the controversial issue that takes place in the play but included some censorship. They were many issues raised about some moral issues. The issues were: rape, domestic violence, and homosexuality. With some censored and removal of part, the play and movie still went together. Censorship occurred because of the audience’s views and religion. The scene where Blanche got raped was almost completely censored out. They were a some disagree with the decision but it was
It was more difficult to find differences between the two than similarities. There are so many characters that resemble each other, with personality alone, that anyone could tell the movie was “like totally” based on the novel. They show so much comparability that has been changed the slightest, to bring the novel back into a 20th century classic that everyone loves. Some distinct contrasts include the time eras, clothing styles, and age difference. While many more similarities exist including: the main characters losing their mothers, their outrageous wealth, and the dominant roles played within their communities and
Examining Marriage in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee William’s 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in Elysian Fields, New Orleans, and portrays the marital situation of this time. This play illustrates conflict over the marriage of Stella and Stanley. This marriage can be seen as strict, and controlling but also full of lust.
They also had their differences, but after reading and watching both, you can tell that they had to have used some ideas from the poem in the movie. In conclusion, they have greater similarities than there are
The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is about an emotionally unstable lady named Blanche. She moves in with her youngest sister and her husband because the landlord took the land away from Blanche because they could not pay for it anymore. After being their for a while Blanche starts remembering her horrible past which is something she was trying to do in the first place. The husband of Stella, Stanley Kowalski was also someone that made Blanche’s life miserable for complicating everything and harassing her in every possible way. Death is one of the most symbolic terms in this play.
Williams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.
Although there are many differences between the two, there are also many similarities. Like how in both the movie and the novel she outsmarts the
After having been performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in 1946, A Streetcar Named Desire brought about much controversy. At first it seemed that much of the controversy stemmed from the unpleasantness with which the subject was presented, such as the vulgar, unprecedented topics acted out on stage. George Jean Nathan, an original critic of the play, touched upon the vulgar manner of the drama, calling it “The Glands Menagerie.” (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire”) Perhaps the more pressing reason as to why this play was received controversially, however, is a result of its cynical nature.
Tennessee Williams wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Williams, 1947) It is based in New Orleans a new cosmopolitan city which is poor but has raffish charm. The past is representing old south in America 1900’s and present is representing new America post world war 2 in 1940’s. Past and present are intertwined throughout the play in the characters Stanley, Blanche, Stella and mitch. Gender roles show that males are the dominant and rule the house which Stanley is prime example as he brings home food and we learn of one time when he got cross and he smashed the light bulbs.
The play A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most notable plays of the late 1940s to early 1950s and is still prevalent in the theater community today. It originally opened on Broadway in a 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, today more commonly known as the Barrymore Theatre, preforming for a little over a thousand patrons. The original Stanley was played by Marlon Brando, who would reprise this role in the movie adaptation. At the Barrymore Theatre, the set was quite complex with a full stairway and banister, a pallor with a 4-chair dinning set and all the dressings of a then modern, but lower-class apartment.
This is most evident between the characters Stanley and Blanche. Stanley states ‘The Kowalskis and the Dubois have different notions.’ The diversity of their backgrounds is shown by their surnames; ‘Dubois’ represents a seemingly aristocratic, southern belle, whilst ‘Kowalski’ is reminiscent of a working-class minority, alien to
Stereotypical gender roles have existed as long as human culture has, becoming a natural part of all of our lives. Within each gender lies a variety of stereotypes and expectations. Most notably for men they are often depicted as tough and the family provider. Whereas women are often shown to be soft and vulnerable. Throughout the play A Streetcar Named Desire the author; Tennessee Williams illustrates the main characters, Stanley, Stella, Mitch and Blanche with these stereotypes.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play.
A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis The late 1940’s were characterized by the emergence out of World War II that led to a dependence on the idea of The American Dream, which meant men were working harder to achieve a more comforting lifestyle and opportunity while women were still fighting the oppression of caused by unequal representation. This idealistic dream is illustrated throughout Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”, which has a rigid dichotomy between illusion and reality revealed throughout multiple characters and their dysfunctional lives that are a direct result between fantasy and actuality. Illusion is taken advantage of as an alternative to the unfair circumstances that the characters in “A Streetcar Named
A streetcar named desire was written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, in purpose to show the “declining of the upper class and the domination of the bourgeois middle class in the U.S.A. where the south agriculture class could not compete with the industrialization.” Blanche Dubois the protagonist of our story, a southern beauty that is trapped by the restrictive laws of her society. But she broke them, and eventually put herself in a state, where she had no job and no house. So she had to go to her sister, Stella and live with her and her sister’s husband, Stanley. While staying there, she created a façade for her to hide her flaws and kept acting as a lady, where she is anything but that.
Society of Tennessee Williams’ time saw sexuality as a part of ourselves that should be suppressed because of it’s destructive nature. Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire Williams showcases his characters in this anti-sex society. He shows them in this society, not to praise it, but instead to highlight the negative effects of existing in such a world. Through the actions and consequences his characters face in conforming to societies’ standards Williams manages to communicate a story that condemns society for keeping people from expressing their sexuality and from being stable, whole and sexual human beings. Expressing sexuality or sexual desires leads the play 's characters to death or to ruin, the suppression of desire is destructive and