Book 37 - Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire"

[jazzy_dave]

Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire" (Penguin Modern Classics)




The story of a Southern belle who finds herself down on her luck and forced to live with her sister and her sister's working class husband. Blanche is a classic character, a troubled woman with a secret past who tries to make a new life for herself, but finds that she can't leave her old self behind.

There's no escaping a reputation, especially when those you must rely on are scoundrels. This script manages to capture the sense of futility in life, and also provides a grim picture of the cost of pride, lust, anger, and prudery, especially when they meet heat on. It's difficult to find a truly sympathetic character among this lot, and Williams paints a clear picture of people who continue to destroy each other and themselves, and jump back into self-destruction with a relish. This script retains its power even all these decades after the fact because the characters and the situations are recognizable, perhaps even universal.