Plastic Theatre in A Streetcar Named Desire

Plastic Theatre in A ropeway Named lust1. IntroductionI dont want in rectitudeism. I want magic (Williams, tram Named believe 130)It is Blanche DuBois who states this source in Tennessee Williams A trolley car Named inclination. In this drama from 1947, dickens humanss, collective by the twain characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski, clash. That contest between pragmatism and a sentimentalist glance of things is visible d iodin the complete play, increasing from photo to scene, and reaches its vertex in Stanleys rape of Blanche in Scene Ten. by and by that suppression of the love affair and with Blanche going to an asylum, unmatched might think that the pragmatic point of slew triumphs, besides in my opinion her leaving and her acting, still relying on the sympathy of strangers (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 159), leads to the impression of a survival of her envisage world. She honorable overleaps from the demonic night world and complet es the cycle of romance (Thompson 28). except I dont think that her illusions win over Stanleys realism, as she is a Romantic relay link committed to the ideal but aliveness in the modern age, a broken world (Holditch 147).In Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, things argon non constantly c tout ensembleed by their lines, but he creates a sensation of indirectness. With the aid of coitus names and special attitudes of the characters, he caricatures a truth behind things. However, this is not restricted to the protagonists and their quotations, but besides concerns the play itself, including the do directions. The feeling of hidden truths is supported by effects and motifs, for example the borrowing of light and music or the gestures of the actors. This realization of a play on a stage is c each(prenominal)ed the Plastic Theatre, as the audience gets more(prenominal) touch through the persona of different senses. This leads to a vivid impression of the feelings a nd thoughts of the protagonists. Williams himself created the endpoint of the Plastic Theatre in his production notes to The Glass zoo. There he writes slightly a conception of a wise, plastic theatre which essential take the place of the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions if the theatre is to cure vitality as a p contrivance of our culture (Williams, Glass Menagerie 4).2. DefinitionsTo provide a solid basis for the following thoughts concerning the different characters of A Streetcar Named Desire and their points of view, I want to introduce and explain the two barriers of realism and romanticism briefly. Both of them can also been seen as epochs in American Literature, but I just want to accent on the general statement. In addition, I want to expose pull ahead culture astir(predicate) the idea of the Plastic Theatre.2.1. RealismIn the Longman mental lexicon of Contemporary English, realism is exposit as accepting and dealing with life and its problems in a pr actical way, without world influenced by feelings or infatuated ideas. This means that one takes things as they argon, evaluating situations only with the aid of the visible facts, not relying on false hopes or following non-realistic ideals. The gentleman reason has, from a realistic viewpoint, a higher value and is more important than emotions or spontaneous impressions.2.2. RomanticismThe romantic perspective is in contrast to the realistic one. Romanticism is related to highly imaginative or impractical (Longman Dictionary, Romantic.) attitudes, admiring ideals which are not realistic or even unachievable. In romanticism, feelings and emotions are verbalise higher than rational thinking and human reason, not only in the context of love issues, but also in the way of dealing with situations and problems. Impressions are not based on visible facts, but on ideal conceptions, and these conceptions might be sometimes quite fictional or utopian.2.3. The Plastic TheatreTo express his universal truths Williams created what he termed plastic theater, a distinctive new style of drama. He insisted that setting, properties, music, sound, and visual effects e rattling the elements of staging must combine to reflect and enhance the action, theme, characters, and language (Griffin 22). akin Griffin, many authors, including Tennessee Williams himself, well-tried to explain the Plastic Theatre, but it was barely discussed in public. After he established the idea of the Plastic Theatre in the production notes to The Glass Menagerie, Williams never publicly discussed it once again. But from that moment on, his plays were really histrionics, with lyrical and poetic language, his scenic descriptions draw on metaphors from the world of art and painting and with quite symbolic use of sound and light (Kramer).3. A Streetcar Named Desire The Truth Behind ThingsIn Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience gets the impression that facts are not just verbaliz e within the text, but between the lines. The characters are often exposit go bad through their behavior and gestures than through their actual quotations. From scene to scene it gets clearer that Blanche and Stanley are embodiments of two rattling contrasting viewpoints of life extreme romanticism and gross realism. This is also visible through different symbolic motifs, which emerge variant times in the play. Connected with a genuinely evocative use of music and light and many relation names from the blood on, the whole play seems conspicuously allusive.3.1. Romanticism and Realism in A Streetcar Named DesireWe are presented in A Streetcar Named Desire with two polar ways of looking at experience the realistic view of Stanley Kowalski and the non-realistic view of his sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois (Kernan 17). Williams brings the two views into conflict immediately.3.1.1. Blanche DuBois as the Romantic ProtagonistWhen the audience meets Blanche, her appearance is described as incongruous to this setting (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 8). In Scene One she arrives at the Elysian Fields, where her sister Stella and her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski live. Her vestments are white and fluffy, looking genuinely delicate and as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 9). She is rattling shocked about the place of her sister and calls it a horrible place (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 13). The reviewer is confronted instantly with her deranged self-awareness, as she asks Stella to turn the merciless (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 13) light off, because she does not want to be looked at in the agleam light. This behavior is visible through the whole play. Blanche perpetually tries to avoid over-light and glare. Her self-esteem about her looks is also remarkable in the way Blanche presents her figure to her sister, fishing for compliments and stating that she has the same figure as she had ten years ago. (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 18). She often states very romantic quotations through the whole play, e.g. concerning the evenhandedly sky where she ought to go on a rocket that never comes follow through (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 44).When the relationship between Blanche and Mitch, a friend of Stanley, becomes more intimate, the audience gets an impression of Blanches romantic conception. She calls him her Rosenkavalier and wants him to bow, just kindred the gentlemen in the oldish South would do (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 90). Although she was married once, she tries to behave like she would be untouched and a virgin, which she is obviously not. When Mitch says that he cannot understand French, she asks Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir? (Would you like to have sex with me tonight?) (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 95). The information about her bypast, that she had many men in a hotel called the Flamingo, and the way sh e speaks about her relationship with Mitch, that she does not love him, but just want a man with whom she can rest, brings certainty for the audience.So Blanches character can be described as a very romantic one. For her, outwardness is very important, and to appear very delicate and pure she is not afraid of carnal knowledge lies. She is a fake, a person who likes to be better than she actually is, living in a fantasy world which has nothing to do with the real life. Already damaged by the harsh realities of disease and death, Blanches Romanticism is reduced in some moments to nothing more than sentimentality (Holditch 155).3.1.2. Stanley Kowalski as the pictorial ProtagonistStanley Kowalski seems as the embodiment of a real man, opposed to or ignorant of the transcendent, very sexual and physical. When the audience gets in contact with him for the counterbalance time, he carries a package of meat and throws it to his married charwoman Stella. He is described as potently, com pactly built. Animal joy in his being is underlying in all his movements and attitudes (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 24). His relationship to his wife is a very sexual one, as Stanley treats his wife in a very physical way and Stella states that she is very attracted to him. When Blanche leaves to the asylum and Stella cries, he consoles her by hint in a sexual way (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 160), which is sign of their relationship.His view of things is a very realistic one. When Blanche informs Stanley and Stella that she had lost the plantation of their parents, Belle Reve, Stanley thinks that in fact she did not lose it, but perhaps sold it and did not give them their part of the money. For him, this would be an affront against himself, as the property of his wife Stella is his own, too. He thinks Blanche bought jewelry, clothes like a solid-gold dress and Fox-pieces (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 32) from the returns of the plantation. In reality, the furs are inexpensive summer furs (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 33) and the jewelry is glass. This mistake is the mistake of the realist who trusts to literal appearance, to his senses alone (Kernan 18).Stanleys view of things, the realistic one, is the one which works in the modern, broken world. He embodies this harsh world with all its physical, material and sexual aspects. His strong appearance and his human reason is all he needs to get along in the real world.3.1.3. date between Romanticism and RealismThe two points of view clash from the commencement of the play on until the end. Blanche embodies the romantic one, whereas Stanley stands for the realism.In the course of the play Williams manages to name this realism with the harsh light of the naked electric bulb which Blanche covers with a Japanese lantern. It reveals pitilessly every line in Blanches face, every brazen-faced aspect of the set. And in just this way Stanleys pitiless and probing realism manages to reveal every line in Blanches soul by caustic through all the soft illusions with which she has covered herself (Kernan 18).Kernan explains very descriptive the relationship between the two protagonists. Stanley does not treat Blanche with much respect, which is visible through the way he talks about her bathing tubing and her way of dressing. But also Blanche has an aversion to him, calling him sub-human something not quite to the stage of sympathy yet (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 74). For her, Stanley is a threat, because he is able to stamp out her fantasy world and to uncover her past and her real face. The conflict increases from scene to scene and reaches its peak in the rape of Blanche. Stanley has to prove his dominance and therefrom rapes her to force his reality on her. But she is not broken after(prenominal) the rape, she is just even deeper in her fantasy world, which is shown by the way she trusts the doctor, holding tight to his arm, still depending on the kindness of strangers (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 159).lastly the audience gets the impression that the realistic point of view has the advantage of being workable. Blanches romantic way of looking at things, sensitive as it whitethorn be, has a fatal weakness it exists only by ignoring certain positions of reality (Kernan 18).3.2. The Plastic Theatre in A Streetcar Named DesireWilliams tried to communicate circumstances not only by the acting of the protagonists, but also through symbols and various effects. The setting, lighting, props, costumes, sound effects, and music, along with the plays dominant symbols, the bath and the light bulb, provide direct access to the private lives of the characters (Corrigan 50). The many telling names in the play give additional information and follow through the impression of a truth behind things. In the following subchapters I want to discuss exemplary Blanches bathing, the adoption of music and sounds and the use of telling names.3.2.1. Blanches B athingBlanche bathes very often in this play. She obviously wants to clean herself from her past. After the bathing, she feels all freshly and like a brand new human being (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 35). Every time she is confronted with the real, brutal world, she wants to escape in her reverie world, which is strongly connected with bathing. In Scene one-third when the men have a Poker Night and Stanley gives a clamorously whack of his hand on Stellas thigh, she instantly says I think I will bathe (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 49). In Scene Seven, she bathes again, unforesightful breathless cries and peals of laughter are heard as if a kid were frolicking in the tub (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 110), temporary hookup Stanley tells Stella about Blanches past and her affairs with a seventeen-year-old boy and many other men. The cognomen of the phone call Blanche sings while bathing is It Only a Paper Moon and it is described as a saccharine popular ballad w hich is used contrapunctually with Stanleys name and address (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 106). Especially the verse - But it wouldnt be pretending If you believed in me (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 107) is very ironic, because Blanche does not seem very trustworthy at all, and so the song even accentuates her disreputable past. After the rape, she bathes again in Scene Eleven and is very worried about her hair, as if the soap would not be completely washed out.The many baths in the play show that Blanche will never be done with bathing, because she is always confronted with the real world and could not clean herself from her past. It gives her a brand new outlook on life (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 115), but cannot interchange her life really.3.2.2. Music and SoundsThe use of music and sounds is also very theatrical in the play. The Blue cushy expresses the spirit of the life which goes on (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 6) and is always heard when the conflic t between real world and Blanches fantasy world seems to increase. It is heard, for example, when Blanche arrives at Elysian Fields and grows louder when she informs Stella about the detriment of Belle Reve as well as when Stanley tells her that Stella is going to have a baby. It also suggests the fall of Blanche as it is swelling when Stanley rapes Blanche and afterwards when he consoles Stella, who cries because of Blanches leaving.Another music, which is strongly connected with Blanches past, is the polka music. It is always heard when Blanche talks about her deadened husband. It emerges for the first time when Stanley mentions that Blanche was married once (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 28). She tells Mitch the falsehood about her husbands death, he shot himself after dancing with Blanche in a casino. He was homosexual and she discovered him with another man and said while dancing he disgusted her (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 103) and therefore he shot himself. It als o appears when Stanley gives Blanche a ticket back to Laurel where she lived and when he takes Stella to the hospital and Blanche remains in the flat. So the song predicts Blanches downfall, as it is always heard when she is haunted by her past.3.2.3. Telling NamesThere are various telling names in Williams play. Blanches name itself is quite telling, as blanche is French and means white, which is very fitting when looking at her character. The name of her plantation, Belle Reve is also French, meaning beautiful dream. Blanche behaves like she would still live in this dream, refusing to face the truth and the real world.There are many more telling names, but I want to concentrate now on the perhaps most important one, the Streetcar Named Desire as it is the title of the play. Blanche takes the streetcar named Desire (Williams, Streetcar Named Desire 9) to get to the apartment of the Kowalskis. This is very telling itself, as the audience finds out more and more about her past and th at she leaved Laurel as a broken woman somehow, but her desire to live her life as an elegant, trustworthy and near woman is still present. So she tries to live a, for her, desirable life, and she hopes to find that in New Orleans.By the aid of the telling names, which are visible from the beginning of the play on, the use of music and the different symbols which appear often, it seems very theatrical and plastic. The audience gets an impression of the characters and the circumstances in various ways.4. ConclusionIn Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, the conflict between Romanticism and Realism, embodied by the two protagonists Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski, is the major theme of the play. With the aid of the characterization of these protagonists and the explanation of the conflict between them I was able to verify this thesis. These two persons are very polarized, visible through their points of view, their behavior and gestures. But in the end, only one point of view is workable, namely the realistic one of Stanley. Blanche lives in her dream world, even in the end after her rape. Stanley is not able to go bad her, but she can only survive in her romantic fantasy world, which leads to the impression that she cannot exist in the modern age.The Truth behind things in this play is also visible through the Plastic Theatre. Williams caricatured this hidden truth by the use of music and sounds, symbols and motifs, and telling names. My notions about Blanches bathing, the Blue Piano and the Polka in the play, and the telling names were exemplary for this plastic and sculptural theatre, and therefore I showed the existence of a truth behind things and that the term of the Plastic Theatre fits for A Streetcar Named Desire.