Stanley as the Primitive Hero

Background of the film

A Streetcar Named Desire is widely considered as one of those classic movies that marked one period of time. This movie presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women's lives. Williams uses Blanche's and Stella's dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. The fact that the movie was made in black and white only increases the drama that involves relations between the main characters. As Roger Ebert says:Color would have been fatal to the special tone. It wouldhave made the characters seem too real, when we needthem exactly like this, black and gray and silver,shadows projected on the screens of their own dreamsand needs. Watching the film is like watching aShakespearean tragedy.

Streetcar named Desire is a play both grimly naturalistic and poetically symbolic, written by playwright Tennessee Williams. It is set in New Orleans post the depression and World War II. The characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are trying to rebuild their lives in post-war America. Much of the characters and themes found in Williams's dramas were derived from the playwright's own life. Alcoholism, depression, desire, loneliness, and insanity were all included. Typical of Williams' style, Streetcar portrays the main character as Blanche DuBois, a, faded Southern belle who represents the culture and beauty of the past and her evident distaste for her younger sister, Stella's, husband, Stanley Kowalski, a lower class Polish man who is the personification of modern practicality, crudeness, cynicism, and brutality. Through this play we follow Blanche and her descent into madness and lunacy.

A Streetcar Named Desire contains more within its characters, situations, and story than appears on its surface. Symbolism and interesting characters are widely used in order to involve the audience. The plot of A Streetcar Named Desire alone does not captivate the attention. What makes people watch this movie in “one breath” are brilliant and intriguing characters who make a person truly understand the movie's meaning. It also presents a continuous flow of raw, realistic moods mixed with a world of fantasies in which a cruel reality does not seem to be so terrifying. Altogether, the symbolism, characters, mood, and fantasy world make this movie unique.

Blanche DuBois is the most fascinating character in A Streetcar Named Desire. One reason is that she ...