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Tennessee, the Titan.....[mumbling]

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let's go... it's Mardi Gras New Orleans biggest and wildest celebration and [Woman in fancy dress at Mardi Gras]

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that's saying a lot even though the city is best loved for this crazy party its

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history and culture draw people to it as well this was the case for early 20th

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century playwright Tennessee Williams he loved the culture on everything that

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went along with it Williams was a super successful playwright but Lapp wasn't

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always easy for him let's meet this guy shall we Tennessee was born Thomas [Thomas as a baby crying]

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Lanier Williams in Mississippi in 1911 the state name came later on his

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parents had a tough marriage and childhood with pretty rotten for young [Young thomas hit in face by parents boxing]

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Tommy dad traveled a lot for work and when he was home he was critical of and

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cruel to his children and his wife to escape from family troubles Tennessee

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turned to writing, his mom gave him a typewriter and he was happiest tapping

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away while other kids played outside of course this only cost his father to make

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fun of him and call him miss nancy which was a big insult back then for some [Thomas's father insulting him while typing]

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reason but Tennessee didn't stop writing and his bad family life actually gave

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him plenty of writing fodder that showed up in much of his later work after

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briefly attended the University of Missouri dad pulled Tennessee from

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school and got him a job as a shoe salesman he hated the job but made jokes [Thomas dragged by Dad out of school]

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about it when he got older he said he went from shoe biz to showbiz....

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in order to keep his cool during this time Tennessee wrote and

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wrote and wrote his first play Cairo Shanghai Bombay was produced in Memphis

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then he returned to school at the University of Iowa graduated and began

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winning awards for his writing, this low level celebrity also got him noticed by

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an agent which helped propel him further into commercial success [Agent appears beside Tennessee]

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Tennessee moved to New Orleans and loved it one of his most famous plays the one

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that will be examined in a few is set in the French Quarter the oldest

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neighborhood in the city... though inspired by the city Tennessee

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didn't make New Orleans his forever home he travels around the country to put on

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plays in New York City and write screen plays in Hollywood in 1944 one of his

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best-known plays The Glass Menagerie was a huge success when it opened in Chicago

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the story is quite closely based on Williams own family three years after [Williams family appears on stage]

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that a streetcar named desire opened on Broadway and introduced the world to a

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then-unknown actor named Marlon Brando this guy, the play was made into a film

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which one 4 of the 12 Academy Awards it was nominated for yes this pretty

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much secured Williams place as a writing God among men he kept right on writing

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plays and winning awards throughout his career Tennessee received both mad [Tennessee on stage receiving award]

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praise and intense criticism the criticism came from the frank way sex

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drug and alcohol use and mental illness were major topics of his plays

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additionally Williams had a relationship with a man for more than a decade and

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wrote about the topic of homosexuality with canda, in the mid nineteen hundreds

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people were like what about this subject even when portrayed and awed back then

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being gay in Hollywood was like being a Republican in Hollywood today anyway

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Williams work was praised because people were stoked about seeing hot topics like

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sex and addiction so genuinely examined and portrayed Tennessee also struggled

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with addiction he self medicated with pills and booze to help keep his anxiety [Man with head on a table]

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at bay in 1963 his partner died from lung cancer which sent Tennessee into a

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great depression and made his current addictions even worse he suffered from a

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mental breakdown and his brother had him committed to a hospital for treatment [Tennessee in a stray jacket]

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Tennessee continued writing during all this time but he had several major flops

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which greatly bruised his ego in 1963 Tennessee choked on a medicine bottle

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cap and died of suffocation in the hotel in New York City in his lifetime

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Tennessee wrote more than 20 plays yes that's a ton of dialogue in his memoir

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aptly titled memoirs Tennessee said I've had a wonderful and [Paragraph from Tennessee's memoir appear]

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terrible life and I wouldn't cry for myself would you nicely put Mr. Williams

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no tear here shifting gears Tennessee is included as a writer who wrote within a

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particular genre known as southern gothic yes it does sound

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more romantic than it really is the southern gothic school of writing

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mostly includes authors and playwrights who were born in the south in the wake

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of the Civil War like pretty much every war ever the Civil War completely

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wrecked the land homes and lives of the people who lived through it many [Bodies on the floor]

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families suffered personal losses and the South was left at economic and

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social ruin after losing the war southern gothic writers pondered what it

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truly meant to be southern and tackled big questions such as how had the South

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become so distorted by the practice of slavery what would life after the war

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mean for former slaves why was violence such a major part of southern culture

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these are pretty heavy questions and they showed up so often that the

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southern gothic genre was born elements of horror on the supernatural world were [Gothic characters appear together]

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also commonplace in southern gothic writing... Tennessee Williams is included in

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this group of writers since he was both from the south wrote about the south and

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created tortured terrible characters who destroyed both themselves in the world

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around them in their searches for happiness told you it was heavy all

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right I've been stringing you along for long enough it's time to check out a

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streetcar named desire in more depth you're going like this a streetcar named

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desire......

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So this is the story of Blanche DuBois and the Kowalski's Stanley and Stella

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Blanche and Stella are sisters the Kowalski's are chillin doing the thing [Kowalski family relaxing at home]

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in New Orleans when suddenly Blanche shows up claiming that the family

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plantation went belly-up and the sisters are bankrupt

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of course this means more to Blanche than Stella since she's single and

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Stella's madly in love with the brutish Stanley who throws meat at her literally [Meat hits Stella in the face]

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Stanley isn't a Blanche fan which she isn't used to and tries to prove she

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lied about the estate and the reason she came to New Orleans in the first place

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he discovers that Blanche a former English teacher was accused of having an [Blanche teaching English class]

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affair with one of her students and basically prostituting herself before

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being run out of town uh-oh Blanche Stella goes into labor and Stanley

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rushes her to the hospital when he comes back Blanche is alone and dolled

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up entertaining a delusion that some old fling is about to take her on a cruise [Blanche thinking of a cruise]

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her craziness makes Stanley even more hot and bothered and he ends up sexually

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assaulting her Stella and the baby come home and make

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arrangements for Blanche to be taken off to a mental hospital since she's clearly

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a wacko the doctor comes to take her away and has to pretend he's a Southern [Doctor escorting Blanche away]

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gentleman there to escort Blanche somewhere fabulous so she'll leave with

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him which she does the end yep this play is pure scandal and that's

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exactly why people both loved and hated it so there's a lot to this play and

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we're gonna check out the title the main characters and some of the place themes

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since this is a play we'll examine excerpts of both dialogue and stage

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directions to get the gist of everything that's going on and why this is a piece

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of southern gothic writing... the title of this piece sounds kind of weird when you

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just hear it by itself a streetcar named desire [A streetcar named Desire book appears]

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Blanche got to the Kowalski's haven't taken a streetcar named desire which is

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the literal meaning of the title there's a slightly deeper more figurative

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meaning to this title as we can stop to see in this bit of dialogue between

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Blanche and Stella what are you talking about this brutal [Dialogue between Blanche and Stella appears]

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desire just desire the name of that rattletrap streetcar that bangs through

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the quota of one old narrow street and down another haven't you ever ridden on

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that streetcar it brought me here while Blanche is saying that she literally

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took desire to get to the house we also understand that her desire and life is

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what drove her to the place she is at that point in the play Blanche was [Blanche walking down street with a man]

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having numerous sexual affairs with men in her home town and was essentially

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asked to take a hike... therefore Williams title has both literal and figurative

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meaning and shows off his skill with wordplay like I said Blanche and the

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Kowalski's are three central players so let's check out all the main details

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Blanche DuBois the oldest sister is complex and fascinating as an audience

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we love her and hate her which always makes for a good time with a character [Audience cheers and boo's Blanche]

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she is a liar but she's delusional she's beautiful but she's flawed she's weak

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but she's great at putting up appearances all these contradictory

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characteristics make Blanche a compelling protagonist all central

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character in this story she's also at least partially aware of her faults

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which makes her even more likeable I don't want realism I want magic

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yes yes magic I try to give that to people I misrepresent things to them I

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don't tell the truth I tell what ought to be true and if that is simple then

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let me be damned for it don't turn the light on this passage reveals both

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Blanche's acknowledgment of her dishonesty and her desire for what she can't really [Blanche in a stray jacket in a padded room]

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have magic since she can't hates it it also shows how concerned she is with

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her looks and how scared she is to be thought of as anything less than [Blanche looking at herself in a mirror]

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superhot Blanche is trying to be someone she's

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not and it can be annoying to both the characters in the play and to the

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audience after all the woman's charm is 50%

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illusion this bit of dialogue again demonstrates Blanche's odd sense of

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self-awareness while going on about the importance of appearances one of the [Blanche falls into a pond]

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main themes in this play it seems like every few lines we're hearing Blanche

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tells someone to turn the light off so her face is hidden or how a little

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weight she's gained blah blah blah as a woman who's grown accustomed to being

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appreciated for her looks Blanche's beauty banter can be boring but it makes

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her who she is Blanche is also constantly toeing the [Blanche walking alone]

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line between sanity and her crazy place.. It's Stanley's assault that eventually

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sends her over to the dark side for good though there's nothing remotely funny or

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flippant about rape some argue that Blanche's overt sexuality and flirting

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with and taunting Stanley led to the inevitable end of this play he tells

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Blanche we've had this date with each other from the beginning and as an

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audience we know he's right and thus we see the beautiful Blanche bomb hard.... you

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know what I shall die of I shall die of eating an unwashed grape one day out on

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the ocean I will die with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ship's doctor

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of a young one with a small blonde moustache and a big silver watch and I'll

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be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard at noon

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in the blaze of summer and into an ocean as blue as my first lovers eyes someone

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take her away sex is another prevalent theme in the [Man and woman kissing]

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play I'll wait for the giggles to pass all of the characters talk about it

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think about it and engage in it to some degree or another heck even the word

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desire in the title the play tells us it's gonna be about sex it might even be [Woman reading book]

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thought of the downfall of all the characters in a way...

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Blanche's sexuality led her to the Kowalski's her flirtin with Stanley made

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her situation with him even more horrible..Stella's attraction to Stanley

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keeps her in an abusive relationship and controlled to an extent she's in labor

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at the hospital when Stanley attacks Blanche which could be viewed as a time

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that Stanley used sex to control both Stella and Blanche it kept Stella out of

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the picture and opened the door for Stanley's brute force to spring for and [Stanley yells and face turns red]

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Stanley's sexuality well let's let Williams description of Stanley do the

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talking animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and

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attitude since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure

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with women the giving and taken of it, not with weak indulgence dependently but

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with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens he sizes

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women up with a glance with sexual clarifications crude images flashing

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into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them

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yikes that sounds almost like a predator foreshadowing alluding to events to come

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anyone Stanley Kowalski is not all that lovable but he's got an animalistic [Stanley's head transforms into a wolf head]

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quality that draws women to him from the beginning of the play we see him in a

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very basic masculine way Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red stained

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package from a butcher's....1 guess what that red stain is mm-hmm

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Stanley is the very essence of a man's man he orders his wife around takes her to [Stanley working out at a gym]

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bed and plays poker with the boys Stanley Steve Mitch and Pablo wear

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colored shirts solid blues a purple a red and white check, a light green and they

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are men at the peak of their physical manhood as coarse and direct and powerful

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as the primary colors there are vivid slices of watermelon on the table

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whiskey bottles and glasses in these stage directions Williams is showcasing

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the men's manliness by talking about their bright and bold color schemes this

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is a direct contrast to Blanche who's constantly being shown in white as the [Blanche wearing white fanning herself]

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very face of femininity hanging with his boys is one way that Stanley exerts his

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manliness and when Blanche starts flirting with his friends and

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playing her music while the guys are playing poker he snaps drunk - drunk

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animal thing you you lay your hands on me and... that's not good

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still even when he's drunk and violent Stella the doting wife can't stay away [Stanley punches Stella]

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from him which brings us to the character of Stella Kowalski

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poor sweet Stella is somewhat more likable than her sister and husband but

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is also kind of a pushover from the Kowalski's relationship the theme of

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marriage is portrayed as well awkward... for instance Stella's so gaga over her

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hubby and she doesn't see his faults and talks him up whenever she can I can

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hardly stand it when he is away for a night, when he's away for a week I nearly

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go wild and when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby.... whoa that's love

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after Stanley strikes Stella at the poker game she allows Blanche to take her

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away but only until Stanley comes crawling back begging for forgiveness [Stanley yelling for forgiveness]

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One wail from Stanley sent Stella right back into his arms it's

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apparent that these two are madly passionate about each other but the

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relationship doesn't exactly seem healthy of course if Blanche hadn't come

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along and shaken things up maybe the Kowalski's would have been just fine the

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world will never know that's the full story of Tennessee Williams and his

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southern gothic masterpiece a streetcar named desire or at least all we've got

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time for for today if you're into scandalous behavior breakdown of the [Man speaking with psychiatrist]

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human psyche and a dash of supernatural here and there you're going to be a huge

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fan of Williams plays and his life... it's no wonder that he's drawn to New

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Orleans this city is chock-full of weird and

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creepy history gorgeous people and lots of fun but if you'll excuse me I've got

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some beads to get before tonight's big events [Woman in fancy dress walks away]

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