Synopsis Of The Film 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Streetcar Film Essay The playwright for “A Streetcar Named Desire” is one that many, including myself, believe is a shocking or edgy piece of work. In 1951 under the “Hayes Code”, it is reasonable to ask whether these set of rules “handcuff” the filmmakers during that time, in making A Streetcar Named Desire film. Considering the edgy source material, one could worry whether the themes and characters would be diluted in an attempt comprise towards the code. In my opinion this is thankfully not the case in regards to this specific film.

To start, I feel as if the major themes of the story are presented in the film and for the most part remain intact. Probably the biggest theme in the book is one of human desires and how those emotions
can overtake and generalize a person. This theme connects to all the main characters of the story and is really prevalent to the build of each character. Stanleys desires from the play tends to stay intact throughout the film, as we are shown Stanleys sexual and aggressive nature. Granted the swearing and the more aggressive sexuality was watered down , but we definitely see the physical intimacy either through physical hugging or suggestive dialogue. Examples of the physical desires in the film included, when Stella comes down from Eunices and is carried away by Stanley, also the mentioning of Stanley's and Stella's wedding night alludes to their relationship. Throughout the film Stanley and Stella embrace intimately and it mentions that Stanley wants Blanche out so that his relationship with Stella could go back to normal, alluding to his sex life. A key aspect of Stanley’s character is shown in the climax by his immoral action of raping Blanche, granted the full on sexual action was not shown (thank goodness) but it didn’t need to be shown because it was hinted at well enough. In fact at the end they added a part where Mitch gets angry at Stanley and believes that he is the one that messed up Blanche, all but highlighting the character's desires.

A key aspect of the main character,Blanche, is her desires with other men and how they perceive her.
One of the first things she is shown to do in the movie is drink and as we know from the book she doesn’t like people knowing she has this problem. The drinking was not allowed to be excessive so they showed a few scenes with her drinking but the main tool they used was dialogue to show her problem. Comments made for Blache stating she barely touches alcohol is immediately contradicting to the audience as we just saw her drinking. Also Mitch quotes Stanley, saying that she is drinking all his liquor, Blanches alcoholism is not shown visually abundant but the dialogue certainly builds this aspect into her character. Another huge desire Blanche has is her flirtatious nature and urge to find a man that could fill the loss of her husband. One of the first examples of this is when she flirts with Stanley and even tells her sister that she did. Also they show her intimate moment with the “young man” exactly how it was written in the play. Stanley also mentions to Stella, Blanche's history with the Purple Flamengo and the relationship with the 17 year old boy. Both of these examples are vital to her character showing her background and why she is in New Orleans, also stating her position as far as her desires go. There are some other moments that were cut from the film which depict this desire but the fact is we are given enough as the audience to know her character with the
examples we are given in the film.

As far as Mitch and Stella, their desires are shown in the film as well. Mitch is shown attempting to kiss Blanche on their date which shows his desire he has for Blanche. This desire is again shown when he walks into her room after not seeing her for a while, where he proceeds to suggest wanting intimate relations even though he thought she was too unclean to bring to his mother. Stella’s desire is also key to her character because it is the reason she stays with Stanley. After her and Stanley get into an argument she furiously exists the house to Eunices place. Stella forgives Stanley and is taken by him away into the alley. This implies that she accepts him back for desirous reasons and this causes her to overlook his flaws for his physical structure. Also after she hears from Blanche about the rape incident, she tells Eunice that she couldn’t believe Blanche and still be with Stanley. As a character this shows how Stella’s desire for Stanley causes her to disbelieve her own sister in fear of damaging her desire.

Another theme prevalent to Blanche's character is death, seeing that her past experiences with death and her rape simultaneously cause her to become crazy. Key scenes such as the flower lady is still present as well as her mental breakdowns of hearing the music and gunshot of the dance where her husband killed herself. In the film they change the alluded idea that Blanche's husband was homosexual, however I feel that even though that was a major part of his character, the importance of the scene didn’t rely on him being gay. Granted how they describe his motive to commit suicide in the film is quite silly and doesn’t hold as much dramatic impact, the effect on Blanche,the main character,is the same. When it comes down to it, the purpose was to show how Blache feels guilty for her husband death not really on the fact that he was gay.

The opposition would argue that the films cut out major parts that are key to certain characters.
Although this is true in some aspect, I feel as if though those elements were just extra layering given to each character that couldn’t be added due to their upfront nature but those character elements are not dismissed as a whole. The audience is shown or alluded to these elements and are present in the film just not as sexualized and vulgar. A major change of the story happened at the end of the film where the filmmakers deviate from the source material. In the play Stanley ends up “victorious” with Blache being taken away but in the movie Blanche still leaves but Stella gets mad at Stanley and leaves to Eunices with the baby saying she won’t go back. Granted this is a huge change but the ending was just a conclusion and not a major theme, Stanley still kinda “wins” this persona match with Blanche, as she still goes crazy. However the end change doesn’t change the character of Stanley because he is still the womanizing jerk that he is in the
play.

I truly believe that that the themes and characters were able to stay intact through the changes imposed by the “Hayes Code”. The characters desires are clearly laid out and build those same character motives we are familiar with from the play. The main plot points stay the same and even though things were taken out, we still got those characters layers that are vital. The film can keep the essence of the original work, though the code makes it an obstacle, it is a hurdle that can be overcomed through creative screenplay.