A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

THE STORY: The play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche du Bois, a woman whose life has been undermined by her romantic illusions, which lead her to reject--so far as possible--the realities of life with which she is faced and which s




Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

Presents a collection of ten critical essays on Williams's play "A Streetcar Named Desire" arranged in chronological order of publication.




Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie & A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

A guide to reading "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.




A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

This revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Bess Rowen, Assistant Professor at Villanova University, US, which looks in particular at the play's treatment of rape, vulnerable people, mental institutions (especially in connection to Williams's own family), sexuality and sexual desire. A Streetcar Named Desire shows a turbulent confrontation between traditional values in the American South - an old-world graciousness and beauty running decoratively to seed - set against the rough-edged, aggressive materialism of the new world. Through the vividly characterised figures of Southern belle Blanche Dubois, seeking refuge from physical ugliness in decayed gentility, and her brutal brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, Tennessee Williams dramatises his sense of the South's past as still active and often destructive in modern America. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: · A chronology of the play and the playwright's life and work · An introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created · A succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece · An analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text · A bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study




The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams


Book Description

This is a collection of thirteen original essays from a team of leading scholars in the field. In this wide-ranging volume, the contributors cover a healthy sampling of Williams's works, from the early apprenticeship years in the 1930s through to his last play before his death in 1983, Something Cloudy, Something Clear. In addition to essays on such major plays as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, among others, the contributors also consider selected minor plays, short stories, poems, and biographical concerns. The Companion also features a chapter on selected key productions as well as a bibliographic essay surveying the major critical statements on Williams.




The Theatre of Tennessee Williams


Book Description

Volume III of the series includes Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), and Suddenly Last Summer (1958). The first, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Award, has proved every bit as successful as William's earlier A Streetcar Named Desire. The other two plays, though different in kind, both have something of the quality of Greek tragedy in 20th-century settings, bringing about catharsis through ritual death.




'A Streetcar Named Desire' by Tennessee Williams, Scene Nine - An Analysis


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, Ruhr-University of Bochum, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction For this term paper I analyse scene nine of Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire. The episodic drama was written in 1947 and is set in New Orleans. It is divided into eleven different scenes. The main characters of the play are Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. In a supporting part appears Mitch. Blanche is a thirty year old woman from Mississippi. At the beginning of the play she comes to visit her younger sister Stella in New Orleans, because she does not know where else to go. All of her family are dead except Stella. Blanche is helpless and seeks protection, because she has lost her home “Belle Reve”, her inheritance and her employment. Stella and Stan are living in a small apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans called “Elysian Fields”. Blanche has to take the streetcars called “Desire” and “Cemeteries”. Here the strong symbolism of Williams' writing can already be seen clearly. The names of the streetcars foreshadow the course of the play and its outcome and in general show Blanche's journey in the play, from longing and desire to destruction.




Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

Introduction, by J.Y. Miller.--Notebook for A streetcar named Desire, by E. Kazan.--Review of a tryout performance in Boston, by E. Hughes.--Streetcar named Desire sets season's high in acting, writing, by J. Chapman.--Streetcar named Desire is striking drama, by R. Watts, Jr.--"Streetcar" tragedy--Mr. Williams' report on life in New Orleans, by B. Atkinson.--O'Neill status won by author of "Streetcar", by H. Barnes.--The streetcar isn't drawn by Pegasus, by G.J. Nathan.--Review of Streetcar named Desire, by J.W. Krutch.--Southern discomfort, by J.M. Brown.--Masterpiece, by I. Shaw.--Miss Vivien Leigh, by H. Hobson.--Laughter dans le tramway, by R. MacColl.--Williams' feminine characters, by D. da Ponte.--A trio of Tennessee Williams' heroines: the psychology of prostitution, by P. Weissman.--Tennessee Williams and the tragedy of sensitivity, by J.T. von Szeliski.--The innocence of Tennessee Williams, by M. Magid.--A streetcar named Desire--Neitzsche descending, by J.N. Riddell.--Most famous of streetcars, by W.D. Sievers.--The southern gentlewoman, by S. Falk.--Tennessee Williams: Streetcar to glory, by C.W.E. Bigsby.--Selected bibliography (p. 116-119).




A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

Theatre program.




Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire


Book Description

One of the most important plays of the twentieth century, A Streetcar Named Desire revolutionised the modern stage. This book offers the first continuous history of the play in production from 1947 to 1998 with an emphasis on the collaborative achievement of Tennessee Williams, Elia Kazan, and Jo Mielziner in the Broadway premiere. From there chapters survey major national premieres by the world's leading directors including those by Seki Sano (Mexico), Luchino Visconti (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Jean Cocteau (France ) and Laurence Olivier (England). Philip Kolin also evaluates key English-language revivals and assesses how the script evolved and adapted to cultural changes. Interpretations by Black and gay theatre companies also receive analyses and transformations into other media, such as ballet, film, television, and opera (premiered in 1998) form an important part of the overall study.