A Streetcar Named Desire
Recently I watched “A Streetcar Named Desire” and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall accomplishment of a film created in the middle of the 20th century. The film has countless plot developments that I believe put it ahead of its time.
The first accomplishment I am referring to comes from the main characters development. Blanche and Stanley’s relationship is nothing like the norm described in most textbooks about the 1940s. They have huge personal conflicts that make their relationship turn on its heels whenever one of them steps outside of the norm. Theses personal conflicts come from their extremely different personalities and I believe their relationship was designed to attracted viewers. People watch “A Streetcar Named Desire” so see how this unorthodox couple make it through the end of the film. I would classify Blanche as princess because of her consistent need for attention. As well as the fact that she feels the need to doll herself up whenever she will see a man, regardless of her relationship with the individual. The fact that she was beautiful kept a lot of these poor qualities in the background. Of her unfaltering quality one stood out the most to me, her alcoholism.
The mixture of alcoholism into the main character almost makes her human in the viewer’s eyes, it clouds her judgement and at times leads her down some questionable walks of life. The most interesting aspect of the relationship between Stanley and Blanche is how they even got together in the first place. The film tries to explain how they were first attracted to each other but honestly a man like Stanley should not have been with Blanche. Stanley was a drunk, smelly, gambler that only cared about himself and that his wife was home waiting for him when he was ready for her. Blanche needed to be challenged by the excitement of her partner. That is why I believe Mitch was a better fit for her. Mitch was the exact opposite of Stanley, a proper man that dressed to the nails every day. Just when you compare how the two men spoke you can tell that Mitch was a better man then Stanley could ever be. He spoke with elegance that escaped Stanley whenever he would start drinking. Blanche always felt lonely with Stanley because she needed someone to connect with in order to be happy.