Week of September 6- September 10

Most of my weekend has been consumed with the Book on File project, so I think I will blog about that.  The choice book that I read over break was A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams.  While researching the author, I learned that Williams decides on the settings in his play through his own personal experiences.  Williams loved living in New Orleans, which is why he chose it as the main setting for the play.  Also, he grew up in a Mississippi town very similar to the one that Blanche is described to have come from.  While looking at critical commentaries of A Streetcar Named Desire, I stumbled across both familiar and unfamiliar statements.  One commentary, found in CLC Volume 5, presents the idea that Blanche Dubois is the tragic hero of the play.  This is made evident through William's clear attempts to make the audience sympathize with Blanche and the near helpness situation that she is in.  This sympathy stems from the fact that by beginning in media res, Williams gets the audience to believe that previous events that occurred in Blanche's life were and are uncontrollable and that Blanche now faces the present while being hindered by a past she cannot control.  The other commentaries similarly proclaimed Blanche as the tragic hero, and one from Volume 11 went as far as to say that by the end of the play, Blanche is more morally correct than Stanley.  Another idea that all of my critical commentaries seemed to touch upon in one way or another is the power of sex as a destructive and devastating tool.  They claim that Williams usually prefers to use sex tragically, as a way of portraying the downfall of one or more characters.  An easy example to support this would be the scene between Stanley and Blanche towards the end of the play (scene 10 I think).  Stanley's rape of Blanche shatters the few remaining connections she has with reality, and forces her to completely retreat into her illusionary world.  In this world, characterized by old-fashioned dresses, hats, and paper lampshades, Blanche sees herself as the perfect model of an aristocratic, beautiful, genteel woman.  The criticisms also presented unfamiliar ideas to me, usually as to how Tennessee William's technique falls short in various instances.  One critic, examining William's works in general, laments the fact that he is "unable ,apparently to develop fully one theme, he scatters his energy among several.."  The criticism that he is making is basically that Williams doesn't completely develop a theme to the fullest of its possibility and instead jumps to a new theme.  Another remark that the critic makes concerning William's style is that "Williams has never concerned himself with the organic development of drama but rather with highly charged dramatic scenes that will deliver a good shock."  In other words, although Williams plays are extremely tense and suspenseful, they lack the analytical quality that would make them a complete piece.