A Streetcar Named Desire is regarded as a superior play of the 20th and 21st century. It’s already received critical acclaim, with The New Yorker claiming it to be “a brilliant, implacable play about the disintegration of a woman, or, if you like, of a society”. Personally, Streetcar is the most valid representation of life within a written form. It’s a microcosm of life even after Tennessee's time. Some people might say “Streetcar is crap and boring”, but I'm going to quote Shaggy on this: “It Wasn’t Me”.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a masterpiece of literature. It’s a fine story set in New Orleans, focusing on the tragic life of Blanche DuBois and her interactions with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s abusive husband, Stanley Kowalski. The play ends with Blanche's complete mental breakdown and her being taken to an institution while Stella, torn between loyalty to her sister and obedience for her husband, remains in her abusive marriage. The play explores themes of desire, class conflict, mental illness, and the destructive effects of repression and illusion.
Streetcar is great, because it’s readable. It's short, sweet and simple – it isn’t 11 seasons on Netflix or the length of 11 books, like the Shatter Me series. This makes Streetcar the best because who has time in our “busy” lives to read a 49 chapter novel about the life of a family when we have our own problems, like nationalism, bills and the cost of living crisis? That’s not to mention trying to avoid Covid like it’s a bailiff.
Another reason A Streetcar Named Desire is still slaying the house down is because of how relatable it is. It explores things like insecurity and toxic hegemonic masculinity, which is basically the structure of more common problems for our generation like gym rat culture for men and beauty and weight standards for women. A Streetcar Named Desire literally eats and leaves no crumbs. Not only is it filled with a juicy plot like an episode of our beloved Love Island, but the whole of Streetcar is still relevant, especially in the sense of how it talks about the American Dream and the whole concept of a white picket fence and 2.5 children – which, side rant, makes no sense, like which half of a child do you pick? (Just a joke, i'm not that dumb, but I’m working on it)
Streetcar talks about how “great” America is through the abusive Stanley Kowalski, who represents the “new” America, but he's Polish. Crazy. This is a deliberate attempt to point out confusing political and identity messages portrayed within the late 1940s, but they can also be applied to the politics of today. In summary, A Streetcar Named Desire is not only a great play but the guide made by Tennessee Williams to guide our future.
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