A Streetcar Named Desire

Watching the film really gave me a much better insight as to how Williams intended to portray the characters. Blanche for example was really crazy in the film. When I was reading the play, I did not think that she was all that crazy. Just watching her eyes and the way they would roll and look like they came out of her head made her look like a mass murderer.

When I read the play, I felt bad for Blanche after her sister made her out to be a liar and sent her to an institution. After watching the film, I do not really care if Blanche was raped or not, she needed to be sent to an asylum. However, I think that Stella, Stanley, and Mitch needed to join her there. All four characters were made to appear insane in the film. I did not find that to be the case while reading the play.

The reading made the situations and characters seem more realistic and natural. The film however really showed the characters "acting." Everything we saw seemed forced and very fake. I think that this took away from the play. Mitch for example played a very fake role. When he danced up to the door, it just did not seem to fit the situation. If a guy I had just met was coming to take me out for the first time and he came dancing up to the door like some sort of clown, I would close the door in his face. When I read the play, I did not think that Mitch was crazy or as immature as he was portrayed to be in the film. He seemed very responsible and mature in the reading.

One good thing that the film did as far as portraying characters was with Stanley. He was a pig, and Blanche had every right to compare him to an animal. The only times we ever saw him without food in his mouth was when he was fighting, or being abusive. When I read the play, I thought that Blanche was just trying to make herself look better than him by putting Stanley down. After watching the film, I would agree that Stanley is a pig in every sense of the word.

blinded by the darkness

I thought that a really interesting theme from "A Streetcar Named Desire" was light. It seemed to show up at so many points and really signify an eye opener. Blanche was especially sensitive to light, and she was thus afraid of seeing the truth.
Throughout the story we see many examples of how afraid Blanche is of the truth, and of what is here and now. She is very stuck in the past. She always uses light covers, never goes out in the day time, and if she does it is only to dimly lit places. Blanche is very afraid that the light will allow someone to see that she is "putting on a front." This happened when Mitch saw her. He realized how old she was. At this point when the lights were revealed, Blanche's promiscuous past was also revealed. She can not come to the present and realize that the past is over. "I don't want realism, I want magic."
At the end of the play, we find out that Blanche was not the only one hiding in the darkness. Stella was also really irrational and couldn't believe her sister even though she kind of knew it was true on the inside. She knew that if she did believe Blanche then she couldn't go on living with Stanley.