Critical Essay on A Streetcar Named Desire: Tennessee Williams' Monumental Success

Introduction

A Streetcar Named Desire was a play written by Tennessee Williams. This play was first staged on December 3, 1947, in New York. The play was a massive success for Williams. It stabilized his position among the most influencing and respected playwrights in the modern theatre. The play was the first production to be converted into a film because of its superb characters and highly emotional plot. This play became quite popular in almost every stage. The 1950s ushered in a new age of Hollywood filmmakers who were thirsting for a status quo. Among them was Elia Kazan who was not afraid to tell controversial stories to his film watchers. In 1951, Elia Kazan helped to turn A Streetcar Named Desire play into an extremely-regarded American cinema classics. Despite his proclivity for pushing the confines of acceptability on this movie, the version of this film is not the same as the play viewers saw on the live stage. While Kazan assisted in paving the way for the ultimate ruin of the censorship mandates from the original play, the movie was still within the thumb of censorship that imaged whims of the conservative American communities from William's original play.

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The Hays Code and Censorship in Film

Like in other fields, there are rules and regulations that production entities have to adhere. In the film industry, these rules are known as the Hays Code. The Hays Code comprises of three basic tenants. Every filmmaker has to subscribe to them. The rules say that no picture which lowers the moral standards of the public shall be created. Secondly, no law, human, or nature shall be ridiculed or shown any sympathy for its violation. Lastly, the correct standards shall be presented concerning life. Thus, by sanitizing all controversial materials for the movie viewers, however, this production code offered a grave disservice to the viewers. In the A Streetcar Named Desire, the fully-grown nature of the adults in the original play as watered down to somewhat less robust and decidedly blander (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). In the long run, the difference between the bowdlerized screen version and the original play reveals the limits censorship has on artists and filmmakers who make every effort to portray the brutal honesty of genuineness. Equally, these kinds of variances also exemplify how these artists and filmmakers could ingeniously sidestep the laid restrictions positioned on them and still get troublesome or salacious points across the movie watchers.

The Hay's Code dictated all filmmakers and artists to be creative to bypass the censorship. Most writers and directors were forced to implement the use of subtext, ingenuity and metaphors speak out of things without being outright, hence leading to the emergence of amusing film moments and hidden messages. As of Streetcar's production, a list of minor and significant changes were introduced which were not in the original Broadway play content. For Kazan, he viewed these alterations as harming the artistic integrity of the movie. Among the notable modifications in this film were: Elimination of references to homosexuality. The husband of Blanche in the play is well-known as a homosexual. This is evident in the sixth scene when Mitch tells Blanche that she found her husband with a man in bed (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). An additional instance in which Blanche was judgmental was yelled at her husband, "You disgust me" (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). This judgement of Blanche on the sexuality of her husband replicates the same judgement that other gay men faced in the 1950s. Her attitudes towards the husband are not unfamiliar to the audience of the 1950s. But the idea of permitting a reference to a homosexual character is viewed as verboten concerning the rules of the code. The same scene, but in the movie version, Blanche tells Mitch that, "the boy was tender" (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). The manner in which she recollects her memory and choice of verbiage in her expression refers to him as being gay. She equally notes him that he is crying to sheep. Her comments imply to his inability to make her some love. The viewers familiar with this material could pick up a hinting conversation, but those who are unaware would surely brush past this dialogue without a suggestion of homosexuality.

Weakening or Eliminating the Rape Scene

Considerably weakening or eliminating the rape. In the play, though all the actions happen offstage, it is crystal clear that Blanche is raped by Stanley late in the play. The movie renders this rape attack more ambiguous. It is seen that maybe Stanley just roughed her up, or it might be a rape case since the rape attack in the movie is in the editing. The director of this movie, Kazan, chose to employ a series of symbols which had various sexual overtones than that of the original play. For instance, as Stanley was threatening Blanche, she does hurl a bottle of whiskey at him, which thumps into a mirror. These resulting motions are viewed through reflections of the smashed glass, as Stanley picks Blanche into his arms. And all of a sudden, the screen turns dark, transitioning to the washing of debris by a street cleaner through the use of a powerful spray that eventually fades to a trickle (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). This scene in the movie is a phallic symbol of a forceful cut which highlights rape implicitly without showing the explicit element of the physical act as that of the original play (A Street Car Named Desire). Rape in this play and movie is the most exceptional point of disputation since the rape of Blanche was an integral and pivotal truth in the screenplay. Devoid of the rape scene in the movie makes Kazan's film loss it's meaning. Rape was the ravishment of a delicate, tender and sensitivity of the brutal ad savage forces of our modern society. Thus, rape was a poetic plea for viewers' comprehension.

The Punishing of Stanley

The punishing of Stanley for his rape attack. One of the most significant adjustments was the change of the film's end. Kazan felt that Stanley needed a bit of punishment for his rape attack, although the rape itself wasn't shown directly. For the viewers who knew the play deserved some closure on the rape of Blanche. Since in the play, Stanley had got away with it, a decision had to be made in the movie for him to be punished (A Street Car Named Desire). Kazan and his team felt that William's original play ending in which Stella cuddles Stanley was not conclusive. Thus, Kazan resorted to ending the film in that Stella splits to a neighboring apartment declaring to her child that they will never set foot again in their home (Elia Kazan, dir. A Streetcar Named Desire: Warner Bros, 1951. Film). As for Kazan, this ending asserts some punishment on Stanley, but it also undermines Stella's weakened resolve. It is assumed that Stella will come back to him after a while as she did when she erupted during the poker game in another earlier scene.

Conclusion

All in all, Kazan's censor requests is a clear indication of an attempt to revert their prospective damaging repression of A Streetcar Named Desire play content into ingenious beats that practically worked in the film but lacked most core material of the original play. Apart from the opaque conclusion of the filmmaker, the clues to William's controversial play core material, the film attempted through their clever subterfuge to embed this material.

Works Cited

A Streetcar Named Desire. "A: Dir: Elia Kazan." Mus: Alex North, Warner Bros (1951).

Williams, Tennessee. "A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947." New York: New Directions (2004).