Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
A landmark work, which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A Streetcar Named Desire thrilled and shocked audiences with its melodramatic look at a clash of cultures. These cultures are embodied in the two main characters—Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle whose genteel pretensions thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur, and Stanley Kowalski, a representative of the industrial, urban working class. Marlon Brando’s portrayal of the brutish and sensual Stanley in both the original stage production and the film adaptation has become an icon of American culture.
A landmark work, which won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, <em>A Streetcar Named Desire</em> thrilled and shocked audiences with its melodramatic look at a clash of cultures. These cultures are embodied in the two main characters—Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle whose genteel pretensions thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur, and Stanley Kowalski, a representative of the industrial, urban working class. Marlon Brando’s portrayal of the brutish and sensual Stanley in both the original stage production and the film adaptation has become an icon of American culture.