The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) is one of the most popular works in the world theatre and cinema in general and by Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) in particular. The fierce dramatic collision, the intensity and depth of the dialogues, the uniqueness of the stage images, the extreme frankness of the aspirations and emotions that guide the characters made this work magnetically fascinating. The author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1948) and was acknowledged the...
The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) is one of the most popular works in the world theatre and cinema in general and by Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) in particular. The fierce dramatic collision, the intensity and depth of the dialogues, the uniqueness of the stage images, the extreme frankness of the aspirations and emotions that guide the characters made this work magnetically fascinating. The author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1948) and was acknowledged the classic of the modern drama of the 20th century during his lifetime.
The plot is based on the fates of two sisters – Blanche and Stella, who grew up in a cozy family estate “Beautiful Dream”, thinking and believing that prosperity, goodness, happiness and love would always accompany them. But life and fate made their own adjustments to the girls' dreams, reminding that happiness was only a moment. The death of their father was the beginning of the destruction of ideals. Stella was the first to leave the “Beautiful Dream” and become “a priestess of the cult of desire” in the person of her husband Stanley Kowalski instead. 10 years later, Stella's sister Blanche joined the Kowalski family. She had to go through all the stages of further destruction and, most importantly, the destruction of the “Beautiful Dream”. Unlike Stella, who found her piece of illusory happiness in the whirlpool of the all-consuming power of craving, Blanche remained true to the ideals of the “Beautiful Dream”. Neither the loss of loved ones nor the persecution and harassment of others could destroy her soul, a desperate, perhaps illusory and naive desire (not craving) of true beauty and love. However, the relentless fate, guided by craving, took its toll, turning a beautiful dreamer into a neurotic. For Blanche, meeting her sister and the events that happened in the Kowalski family were fatal…
