A Streetcar Named Desire is a gripping drama, but it does not succeed as tragedy because Blanche never fully engages the sympathy of the audience. How do you respond to this idea?

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Isobel Talks

“A Streetcar Named Desire is a gripping drama, but it does not succeed as tragedy because Blanche never fully engages the sympathy of the audience.” How do you respond to this idea?

My response is that I do not agree with this statement. Indeed there are points in Williams’ theatrical piece where Blanche is perceived negatively by the audience. However, it is through his clever dramatic structure, in which we learn about Blanche step by step, her character revealed as  sometimes things are revealed against her will which allow the audience to sympathise with her. Perhaps it can be said that our sympathy as the audience is only fully engaged when Blanche finally meets her tragic fate and that that is where the tragedy lies. As Williams reveals the details of Blanche’s life we feel that perhaps the events in her life were not all her own fault, perhaps beyond her control, and making us as the audience feel that even if we do not agree with her way of dealing with these tragedies, she deserves some sympathy. Overall I am of the view that we as the audience do sympathise with Blanche – more and more as the play goes on and fully at the end.

 To me ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is the ultimate tragedy as it follows Aristotle’s conventions, that tragedy should be "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain length....decorated with artistic embellishments like plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and song." Streetcar is complete, in that Blanche’s fate is finally sealed, but also it has many ‘embellishments’ of character, spectacle and song.

It cannot be ignored that Williams’ piece, although a more modern tragedy than some, may have been viewed differently at the time it was written. When ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ was first performed in England in 1949 it was met by harsh criticism, which saw it to be full of “… excessive symbolism, violence, sexuality …” amongst other things. These critics did not seem to be able to recognise the tragedy in the play and the fact that Blanche’s sexuality is not supposed to be offensive, but a large part of her tragic personality. However, not all people would have seen it that way, including William’s contemporary Arthur Miller commented that the need of a tragic hero is to “secure one thing – his sense of personal dignity”. There could hardly be a better way to describe Blanche’s tragic last few months in New Orleans.

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At the beginning of the play we are introduced to the setting for the entire drama – a street corner in the French Quarter of New Orleans, mostly within the claustrophobic environment of the Kowalski’s apartment, showing that it fits the tragic convention of having unity of place. When Blanche enters the stage for the first time we are presented with a protagonist who is not all that she seems. Her past is revealed through memories she reveals in conversations with Mitch and discoveries by Stanley. Blanche enters the stage dressed all in white, with “dainty gloves” and a “fluffy ...

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