A Streetcar Named Desire Play Analysis

A Broadway director criticised Tennessee Williams’ original Act Three on three counts. He claimed that Big Daddy should not be absent from the Act; that there should be perceptible change in Brick’s character after his interview with Big Daddy; and that the character of Maggie should be more sympathetic.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the director?

When the play was staged on Broadway in New York in 1955 Elia Kazan, a friend of Williams who has directed many of his other plays on Broadway including ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, directed it. Kazan had reservations about the original Act Three and asked Williams to rewrite it. He felt that Big Daddy should not disappear after Act Two, that the impact of the conversation between Big Daddy and Brick in Act Two should have a change on Bricks character in the following act; and that Maggie should be made a clearly more sympathetic character. Williams rewrote the act to incorporate Kazan’s suggestions but in his note of explanation for the rewrite he explains that he did not feel that all the changes were necessary. It was only the third of the suggestions that he was keen on as although he explains that he sympathised with her and “liked her myself” he could see that she may need to be more clearly sympathetic to the audience.
Most of William’s plays are often seen as tragedies, for example ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is often seen as a tragedy. Many of his plays have tragic features, such as Big Daddy having cancer, Bricks alcoholism and Maggie’s failed marriage. Although the main theme of the play is survival of the fittest and it would be seen as a waste if Maggie did not succeed in fixing her and Brick’s relationship, as Maggie is a ‘winner’. From this point of view, the original version of Act Three suits more the tragic