1. A Streetcar Named Desire

2. Tennessee Williams America’s most famous playwrite
Writes in Southern gothic style- stories full of weird, twisted characters
Characters reflect own dysfunctional life

3. Hated by the church He was blacklisted by the Catholic church:
“His work is revolting, deplorable, morally repellent and offensive to Christian standards of decency”

4. Meanie Williams
Father was a physically and emotionally abusive traveling shoe salesman
He hated Tennessee but loved brother

5. Crazy mother Williams
Mother was a descendent of wealthy southern family
Appearances crucial
Smothering and manipulative

6. Off to the loonie bin Williams loved his beautiful sister, Rose
Rose was promiscuous- family claimed she was mentally ill
Parents made her get a lobotomy

7. Crazy Life= famous writer
Williams never forgave his parents
Credited alcoholism and own mental instability to bizarre and cruel family
Homosexual, alcoholic, drug addict

8. Famous works Won the Pulitzer Prize for Streetcar in 1948
Won the Pulitzer Prize for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
Won awards for Glass Menagerie

9. Death by Eye Drops One of the most interesting deaths of all authors
Choked to death on the cap of an eye drop bottle in MAY have been drug related??!!

10. A Streetcar Named Desire
Most famous American play
Iconic line- STELLA!
Story of the clash between body and mind
Reflected Williams’ view of himself as a loser in that battle

11. Stanley Kowalski Played by Marlon Brando Meat eating beast
Hottie- sexual undertones constant
Crude, mannerless, uneducated but honest, realistic

12. Stella Kowalski Stanley’s wife
Brought up with money and manners- turns away from gentility
Unable to resist the attraction of Stanley’s animal charm (and sweaty undershirt)

13. Blanche Du Bois Name means “White Forest”
Clings to civilities of old life- poetry, literature, manners
Former “belle of the ball”
Oddly similar to teacher in Room 505?…picture a Diet Pepsi in her left hand

14. Blanche Deceptive- lies about plantation, jewels, boyfriends, job
Has seduced a student- been fired
Utter loneliness results in affairs with strangers
Fragile, emotionally unstable, afraid

15. Themes and Symbols
Streetcars- Take “Desire” to “Cemeteries to “Elysian Fields”
Sex- Death
Light- Shadow
Fantasy v. Reality- Belle Reeve= “beautiful dream”
Women’s harmful dependence on men
Survival of the fittest- meat

16. The Censors Speak
1950’s -- very strong censorship committee controls all media
Refuses to allow the word “homosexual” or “rape”
“correct standards of life must be presented”
“the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of wrongdoing, evil or sin”

17. Compromise
Elia Kazan and the censors reached an agreement that these issues could be implied but not explicitly shown- first treatment of these issues on film

18. In conclusion….
P.S. Why you should not pick a spouse based on hotness at age 25