Blog Post 3- Topic 4

“A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams is a play that showcases the main character, Blanche DuBois’, descent into insanity. The play was well received and was successful enough to be adapted into a movie. Although much of the success comes from the well-written storyline, another important contribution can come from being originally written using the literary genre of drama. The play was well-suited for drama because the physical environment was a key element in the story, and Blanche’s moments of mental instability are more enhanced when performed rather than if it was written as a novel or short story.

            The visual aspect of the physical environment is important because it allows the viewers to fully see the distinction between Blanche and everything else. Beginning from Scene 1 and up until the end of the play, Blanche is continually out of place no matter where she is in the story. In Scene 1, the neighborhood of Elysian Fields is described a poor neighborhood that is weathered, rickety and in decay. This a huge contrast to Blanche’s initial description. In her first appearance, she was dressed elegantly, and all in white. Although a reader can imagine this on their own, they would not be able to see the extremity of the contrast between Blanche and her surroundings. As a drama, this contrast is in constant effect, and emphasizes Blanche’s status as a social outcast, and lack of belonging.

            Another reason the visual representation of the environment is enhanced with the genre of drama is because there are certain important scenes that would not work unless it was a play. An example of such a scene is during Stanley and Blanche’s final confrontation. At one point in this scene, a cue in the stage directions calls for the a wall in the room to become transparent and view of the street is seen. In the street, there is a short scene with a prostitute, and a drunkard. None of these characters speak or are even directly acknowledged by either Stanley or Blanche as they have their confrontation. Such a scene would be extremely hard to portray in a literature since it might impair the dramatic momentum that Stanley and Blanche are having. The author might have not included it, but given the time that the scene played in the story, this short scene is seen as important since it is a foreshadowing of Stanley raping Blanche.

            Blanche’s mental instability also benefits from being portrayed in a drama because it can use elements other than words or visuals to convey it. An example of this is with the repeated use of the polka song when Blanch is having moments of mental instability. A person just reading the play may not understand how repetitive the song is because they may casually read through it. However, people in an audience have the experience of listening to the continued use of the song, and even when it begins to distort towards the end. The drama allows the audience to take part in Blanche’s descent into madness.