Streetcar Named Desire Essay, Research Paper

Good drama is built on conflict of some kind — an opposition of forces or desires that must be resolved by the end of the story.

Streetcar Named Desire employs exactly that. An opposition of forces, and desire, all of which must come to some sort of resolution or conclusion at the end. This is the backbone of the dramatic structure used in Streetcar Named Desire.

The start of the play introduces the audience to the conflicts. Straight away the audience is introduced to elements of which add to the drama of the play. These include such things as Stella being pregnant, Blanche moving in with Stanley & Stella, and Stanley s distrust for Blanche. All this is heated up, and situations made tenser, when Blanche takes extra long Baths, criticizes the untidy apartment, and generally irritates Stanley. Stanley’s roughness seems to bother Blanche; he makes no effort to be gentle with her.

Tensions build in the apartment throughout the summer. Blanche and Stanley look on each other as mortal enemies, and Blanche turns increasingly to alcohol for comfort. This makes the dramatic structure of the play more and more effective.

The introduction of Mitch makes the play even more dramatized. For now, not only is there strong tension between Stanley and Blanche, but there is evidence of mutual attraction between Mitch & Blanche.

The major portion of the play is focused on developing the conflicts, building tension as the characters interact, their motivations are examined, and obstacles are met and overcome. The developments of the introduced conflicts are extremely important in the build up to the climax, and the conveying of emotions to the audience.

Emotion is the most important thing in a play. Eventually, emotions reach a climax, the most intense point of the story. In Streetcar Named Desire this could be either fight scene, or he rape scene. In both scenes there are objects that help to build up tension and suspense, but most importantly, convey emotion to the audience, such as the breaking of the glass in each scene.

Dialogue was an important factor in making the play more dramatic. Words were always said with much exaggerated emotion, and were said slowly so as to allow audiences to take it in. Language was always very supportive of the emotion being conveyed. Mitch did not simply Kiss Blanche, he Desired Blanche.

The dramatic structure used within Streetcar Named Desire was very effective. It very successfully conveyed the themes, and storyline, to the audience in the dramatic manner that it was always meant to do.