All That Williams Injected
Psychotic
schizophrenia, desperate loneliness, and animal desire: Tennessee William's
play A Streetcar Named Desire has graced, haunted, and occupied a
special place in American literature and theatrical drama since 1947. Exhibiting eccentric extremes while
emphasizing emphatic characters and their dire straits, the play has been
adapted for various film productions because of its popularity and the fact
that it displays various desperate themes with colorful characters. The best film production of William's play
was released in 1951 and starred Vivien Leigh as Blanche, Kim Hunter as Stella,
and Marlon Brando as Stanley (Warner Bros., 1951). But does it do the play
justice simply because it starred great actors of the era? Although only the
ending was altered, giving the story an entirely different twist, the Warner
Brothers film adaption (directed by Elia Kazan) is an artistic production that
enhances William's near psychological tragedy.
During
the summer of 2010, I remember driving home from church one evening using the
route that passed by the Guthrie Theater. At that point in time, A Streetcar
Named Desire was being advertised, and I vividly recall being disgusted at
the title, thinking that if I were assigned or required to read it, I would,
but I was determined, with all stubbornness, to avoid it. Nearly three years later, I sat by my
fireplace on the most dreary of rainy, winter afternoons, with an assignment
before me, an assignment to read of this story, that of A Streetcar Named
Desire. However, now I was curious, and as I delved into the lives of these
people I had never wanted to meet, I was surprised that I liked them.
Concerning the play, I realized I appreciated William's writing and his
talented ability to capture realistic and likeable characters, however crazy,
annoying, base, or psychotic they may have been. After I read and appreciated
the play in this sense, I was eager to see the film adaption and was equally
pleased, as each actor and actress embodied all Williams injected into his
powerful piece.
The
tragic story, tracing events across months, in which a troubled and psychotic
Blanche DuBois stays with her sister Stella and her husband, Stanley Kowalski,
was not a film without emotional draw.
When reading literature, I tend to try and keep myself detached from
certain stories, but I liked this play for many reasons, and I do admit to
letting myself become quite involved. On that rainy day, the likeable characters
and tragically scripted story evoked a solitary tear as I read of Blanche's
fate. I realized how fragile life was at the end of A Streetcar Named Desire,
and as Stanley crooned, trying to comfort Stella in the loss of her sister, I
felt the need to be reassured. Each character was dealing with their own
problems, but I was involved in all of it.
Not
surprisingly, Tennessee William's play was considered taboo in relation to
different aspects, especially the references to sexuality as well as homosexuality. Hollywood was directed by patrons to censor
out most of these references. In the play, Blanche recalls finding her young
husband to be homosexual, and when she confronted him, he despaired and
committed suicide. The film contains no reference to Allen (her late husband's)
sexual identity when Blanche colloquies with Mitch (Karl Malden), as they were
required to gloss over the fact marked so clearly in the play. Another section censored includes Blanche's advances
on an adolescent newspaper boy. Her overtures in the play were quite
frightening. Like dust smothering a plant in spring, her intentions were
nonsensical, out of place, and essentially ugly, but the producers of the film
were very adamant to follow requirements and make Blanche's out of decorum
actions seem not that terrible, therefore, they diluted the concentrated
content. The last piece censored was
Blanche's rape by Stanley. Out of three
options, the producers decided, that in order to please their audience, they
would allow the unfortunate circumstance to happen, but Stanley would be
punished for his actions, which caused the film to end in the opposite
direction of the play. Instead of being comforted by Stanley on the loss of her
sister to the sanatorium, as in the play, Stella ambles outside with her baby
and viciously declares that she will never return to Stanley, adding to the
theme of desperation.
Kazan's
film adaption closely follows the themes of William's play, including those of
film fantasy versus reality as well as despair versus delight. In both film and play, the protagonist,
Blanche DuBois, is in conflict throughout, as she cannot escape the vicious
cycle of attempting to blanket, smother, and even suffocate her past and present
reality with fantasy. These themes are aligned in every possible way, but
because the ending of the film was changed, it alters the feeling that
everything will turn out alright. Stanley tried to reassure Stella, in both the
play and film stating everything would “be alright...the way that it was” (NAAL
139). However, the film ends with desperation, not desire, and Stella vows
not to return, despite Stanley's loud and desperate calls for his wife.
Closely
following William's play, the 1951 film adaption stars many excellent actors
who embody the concentrated themes in the near psychological tragedy A
Streetcar Named Desire. I was
pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised in that I found the play to be enjoyable
and slightly terrible simultaneously. While the film adaption does A
Streetcar Named Desire justice as well as intensifying it in
multiple ways, the play kept my attention, leaving my imagination to fill in
details of how fragile life is. Impacting emotion, whether characteristic or
horrific, the details censored out retained the clarity, leaving imagination to
reign yet again. Despite the altered ending, the film enhances a play I judged
to be deplorable so many years ago. Instead, Elia Kazan's 1951 production of A
Streetcar Named Desire is a masterfully crafted piece of drama that
examines the fantastic and the realistic, the desperate and the desiderata: All
that Williams injected.
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