Jak vložit přezdívku a odkaz na blog do komentářů? Návod (v komentářích) zde

Skloňování šunkič zde

Kontakt zde

neděle 2. srpna 2015

Drama of struggles

Esej na téma Streetcar named Desire/Tramvaj do stanice touha

Přidávat sem něco, co má úzkou spojitost s tou institucí na "š" v půlce prázdnin, se může zdát depresivní a nevhodné, ale nelíbí se mi, jak to tu mám neudržovaný a tohle za zveřejnění stojí. Teda ne že by to byla tak světaborná esej, ale Streetcar named Desire je jedna z největších amerických divadelních klasik (byla dokonce parodovaná v Simpsonovejch v epizodě "Tramvaj do stanice Marge", nebo tak nějak), a tak není k zahození si ji přečíst nebo se na ni podívat (několik filmových adaptací) a pak se nad ní trochu zamyslet, páč je tam určitě hodně materiálu k zamyšlení. Proto jsem si ze všech amerických děl 20. století vybrala právě ji jako téma pro esej :)
Mimochodem, pokud budete počítat i čas, který jsem strávila hledáním a čtením citovaných recenzí, zabralo mi přesně 12 hodin to napsat. 12 hodin vkuse! :D




Drama of struggles
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by Tennessee Williams. It tells a story of Blanche DuBois coming to New Orleans to live with her married sister Stella and her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski due to the recent loss of her home in Laurel, Mississippi. Blanche is a very fragile woman and mentally suffers from Stanley’s hot-tempered ruthless nature. For their differences they seem to be unable to get along and when Stanley thwarts Blanche’s marriage with Mitch, her only chance to escape from the house of violence, and sexually assaults her, she loses her mind completely and is taken to a mental hospital.
The scholars across the years have not managed to agree whether Streetcar is a social or psychological drama (Bak, 18). Both theses are supported by many theories out of which I am choosing only two for further analysis.
Elia Kazan, Streetcar’s first director, had a great influence on the naturalistic theory about the play and on the question of victimization, both being objects of sociodramatic studies (Bak, 6). His book, Kazan on directing, makes perfectly clear where the author’s sympathies lay:

One of the important things about Stanley is that Blanche would wreck his home. Blanche is dangerous. She is destructive. Soon she would have him and Stella fighting. He’s got the things the way he wants them around there and he does not want them upset by a phony, corrupt, sick, destructive woman. This makes Stanley right! (Kazan, 56)

The psychological side can be observed in Blanche’s inner struggle with herself which graduates within the play and is finally lost. Jeanne M. McGlinn, a professor of Education at the University of North Carolina, specifies it as a clash of illusion and reality:

McGlinn points out that, like all the women in Williams’s plays between 1940 and 1950, Blanche refuses to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion. (Bak, 14)

To establish a true martyr in this play is not as easy as it may at first seem to be. Some might have difficulties seeing Stanley, the strong muscular man, as Blanche’s victim but Kazan certainly has a point: Stanley’s life is being shaken by Blanche, she is the intruder, she is the one insulting him, disrespecting him and begging his wife to leave him. Stanley is in right to feel threatened and to do his best to get Blanche out of his house. It is also understandable – one might even say it is considerate of him – that he tells Mitch everything about Blanche’s past. After all, he is his friend and he would not want to see him get hurt. Knowing all of this, we cannot blame him for taking a hostile attitude towards her.
On the other hand, as Blanche says in the tenth scene, some things are not forgivable. Stanley’s cruelty is inadequate to Blanche’s behavior, the way he is offending her is inexcusable and he truly appears to be less than human, an animal, an ape. He disregards completely her state of mind and sensitivity. He seems to be rather trying to destroy her than to get her out of his way. We may not sympathize with Blanche, who is self-observed and promiscuous, but we have to feel for her. She is not only victimized by Stanley but also by herself, being unable to free herself from the guilt of losing Belle Reve and her late husband, being unable to make peace with reality.
Stella, although she appears in every scene, is somehow overshadowed by Stanley and Blanche and often omitted from reviews; but she could be a victim, too. She has no intentions of leaving her husband and she claims to be happy, but is she really? Living in poor conditions, being married to a brute and surrounded by drunks, Stella’s life seems to be rather far from being happy. Her destiny is not as tragic as her sister’s, but many could see her as the saddest case of the play, not realizing that she is a victim as well.
Blanche is a very complex character with obvious mental issues which she conceals with overtalking and making jokes.  She is afflicted by the amount of her relatives’ deaths, she is all alone in the world having only her sister left; but Stanley is standing in the way representing an insurmountable obstacle. Soothing herself with hot tubs and alcohol, still she cannot come to terms with her life and lies and denial seem to be the only solution. That concerns mainly her dark past no one would understand and she is so desperately trying to forget. Finally she becomes lost, no more capable of distinguishing the truth from her imagination. With no strength left, she is giving up and leaves everything behind, clinging devotedly to a doctor’s hand. Her story is touching and dreadful at the same time and it might be the main message of the play: how a fragile mind can be affected by misfortune, incomprehension and cruelty.
Williams’s play is soaked with roughness which is getting under your skin in the course of time. It is visible in every move Stanley makes and in every word he says. His outbursts of rage are truly horrifying but not as much as the ease they are accepted with. The whole neighborhood is filled with brutes and no one seems to care; it has become their way of life and everyone laughs about it. We rarely see the quarter in daylight but, on the other hand, very often messy. Blanche is trying to bring some light to this place but like all of her attempts this one fails as well. The atmosphere is tinged with piano music and noises from streets which make the scenery even more intense.
A Streetcar Named Desire is very simply a tragic play of struggles. There is the conflict between Blanche and Stanley, their fight for domination, the clash of their different cultures and origins; Blanche herself is caught between reality and fiction, past and present, promiscuity and loneliness, death and desire. Each fight is desperate with no chance of winning. And that’s probably the most fascinating aspect of the play.





Bibliography:
Bak, S. John. Criticism on A Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003. Cercles 10 (2004), 3-32.
Kazan, Elia. Kazan on Directing. 1st ed. Vol. 1. New York: Knopf Doubleday Group, 2009. 368. Print.

Žádné komentáře:

Okomentovat