A Streetcar Named Desire

[WaterBird]

Anyone else read this?
Just finished it now for a drama course. Writing style was good but I couldn't warm up to the characters.
Stanley was really awful and I think Stella should have left him long ago. I pitied Blanche though: it seems like there really was something wrong with her and she had no one. I think she could have stayed with Stella if Stanley had still not been there.
Anyone else not care for the play too much?

Yes read it for A Level English Literature and not thought about it since. It didn't stick with me at all. I suppose thinking about it I still pity Blanche and despise Stanley but I can't really remember why. Complete contrast to some of the other texts we studied which I really adored, but then again the other plays we studied were Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe!

I loved it, but a big part of that came from reading it, seeing it onstage and then watching the film. Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando were electric.

I would say however that this is a while back and I might reread/watch and change my opinion!

It's my favourite play and I've seen three (I think) different productions over the years. Stanley is awful but that's part of the tragedy of it, that Stella can't (or won't) see this and it does such damage to Blanche who is already messed up.

I haven't watched the film version yet. I should do that.
I thought Stanley's character was too one-dimensional. Usually an author will try to give even the worst characters some kind of quality, even if it's not much.

I teach this play. Comments about Stanley are v twenty first century... the first director Elia Kazan believed "Stanley was right!" to dominate (and even rape) Blanche as she threatened his comfortable existence with Stella. So not so one dimensional at the time it was written, perhaps.

Wow, never thought of it like that before!