Theme

A theme in A Streetcar Named Desire,  showed throughout the play is abuse. During the whole play Stella and Blanche experience mental and physical abuse. In the beginning of the play when Stanley drunk-pushes Stella, Stella tries to think he didn't mean it like that. Blanche is not only physically abused but mentally after being raped physical and mental abuse go hand-to-hand. Blanche also gets put in a mental hospital because no-one believes her. Blanche passes out trying to tell Stella and her emotions start to intensify.  Already grieving of the death of her husband she now experiences more trauma and abuse to the brain.

Stanley’s way of  trying to feel more like a man leaded to not hitting his wife instead he taking it out on her sister. The theme abuse is shown because in the 40s abuse wasn't a known thing that happened but many men did it behind doors. In this play I think they added abuse because it would have a major impact on all readers from the past and present. Especially right now rape is a crime and if it happens they will get put in jail, the readers reading the play today would be shocked that the victim gets put away in a hospital and nothing happens to Stanley. Do you think the way the play was set up and the theme made this play more successful?

   

Changing Elements

In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, if the play's elements were changed around and the characters played different roles it would impact the story greatly. If Mitch was the rapist and raped Blanche the story would not be as intense then it would be as Stanley raping Blanche. Overall, any rape is not good but the fact that Stanley is the father of Stella's baby and Stella is Blanche's sister makes it a bigger mess. Switching the guy who raped Blanche around would not have such a impact on the readers attention and would not be filled with total drama. If we switched around the sisters and the girlfriend of Stanley a lot of things would be totally different. For example, if Stella was the sister who got raped people would probably believe her more easily then Blanche. Blanche in the play is portrayed as being the high-maintenance sister that always needs attention or is a little more dramatic. So when she was raped it would be hard to believe her and we would probably think she is just over-dramatizing things as usual. Stella being the calmer and less dramatic sister, if raped we would believe her much easier.  Changing those important elements would not make the play better but worse. Switching them up would not be as dramatic and the play would quickly have an ending. Do you agree that switching those elements around would make a less-dramatic play?

Untold Story

Every relationship has it's flaws. Everyone looking at the outside of  relationships always think they are the perfect couple and never fight. They always think there is no deeper part in a relationship that no one knows about. In A Streetcar Named Desire everyone thinks Stanley and Stella have the perfect relationship.  This play can look at as being untold because when reading we find out how their relationship is not so perfect and Stanley isn't the good guy everyone thinks he is. Stanley ends up to not only be a abusive to Stella, his girl but ends up being a rapist as well. This is untold because even Stanley's friend Mitch thinks Stella and Stanley have a perfect relationship and that his friend would never hurt anyone. The story being told is that inside every relationship there are bigger problems you may not see from the outside. This play tells this story and plays the untold story of relationships and being in love with someone. This shows how love can make you indenial on what really goes on and the dangers. It shows you what people sacrifice to be with the one they love even if it means pretending something never happened. This untold story may not of been told if they didn't put in the fact that not all relationships are perfect like you think they are. For example, Stella and Stanley. This topic is very important because in life today we judge books from the cover. We look at a couple post cute pictures together and see them happy but never really think what really happens inside their relationship and think that everything is not always perfect. Was there ever a time you judged a relationship from the outside and thought everything must always be perfect between them?