Monologue

 A streetcar called desire 

A streetcar called desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams that was produced on Broadway in 1947. 

What the play is about: 

Blanche, a women in her mid thirties moves from Laurel, Mississippi to New Orleans to live with her married younger sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. Blanche moves in with Stanley and Stella because she was fired from her job as a school teacher. At this point Blanche had no money and nowhere else to go. She tells Stella that she was fired because of her bad nerves, which we then find out later is a lie. 

Blanche complains about Stella's cramped two bedroom apartment, she also complains about Stanley and finds him rough and annoying, leaning her to evenly referring to him as common. Stanley doesn't care what Blanche says about him, but he doesn't like her and wants her to leave. 

Stanley later on questions Blanche about her earlier marriage. She then explains that she was married when she was very young but her husband died leaving her alone and widowed. Brining back memories of her dead husband brought her distress. 

Stanley then starts to worry about the inheritance and if he has been cheated out of it and demands to know what happened to Bella Reve and the Dubois family home. Blanche gives him the documents for the house without realising she had also given him a bunch of personal love letters from her dead husband. Stanley then informs Blanche that Stella is going to have a baby. 

The night after her arrival Stanley is playing poker with his friends and one particular friend stands out to Blanche and his name is Mitch. The two of them talk and their conversation goes from friendly to flirtatious, however Stanley who has had too much to drink and hits Stella out of anger causing Blanche and Stella to stay the night with their upstairs neighbour Eunice. When Stanley had sober up he shouts for Stella to come home and eventually she does. Mitch then turns to Blanche and apologises for Stanley's poor behaviour. 

Blanche is upset with Stella for choosing to go back to Stanley despite his abusive behaviour. While Blanche is complaining to Stella and tries to convivence her to leave Stanley, Stella simply laughs at her, Blanche then reveals that she is completely broke, but what the sisters didn't realise is that Stanley was listening to their conversation the whole time and later threatens Blanche hinting that he heard what she had said.

Mitch takes Blanche out on a date and after a few drinks in their system when they get back to Stella and Stanley's apartment Blanche reveals her secret which is that her husband committed suicide after she discovered and shamed him for his sexuality. Mitch then opens up about his former lover and the pair quickly realise that they need each other. 

A few months have gone by and Stella is preparing dinner for her, Mitch, Blanche and Stanley when suddenly Stanley burst in telling Stella that he had learned about Blanche past, that after losing the mansion Blanche was forced to move into a dirty motel from which she was evicted from due to numerous men leaving her room day and night. He also finds out that Blanche was fired for having a relationship with a student. Stanley tells Stella that he was informed Mitch which makes Stella furious and horrified. 

The dinner goes by and Mitch never shows up as Stanley indicavits that he is aware of Blanche past. He then gives us her a one way bus ticket back to Laurel, Stella shouts and Stanley and is disgusted by his actions. The pair are fighting and Stella ends up going into labour. While Stanley rushes Stella to the hospital, Blanche gets drunk and is eventually left alone in the apartment.

 A couple of hours have gone by and Mitch shows up telling Blanche what he had learned from Stanley. She confesses that its all true leaving Mitch to tell her that he can never marry and that she isn't fit to live with his mother. 

Later Stanley returns home finding Blanche who is even more drunk who tells him that she will be leaving with her former suitor Shep Huntleigh who is now a millionaire. Stanley is aware that Blanches story is just her imagination but is in such a good mood because off his baby he suggests they celebrate to their good fortune. 

Time passes and as Blanche tries to step past Stanley, he blocks her, things quickly escalate and Stanley tights his grip on Blanche's wrist, he eventually carries her to bed while she's screaming at him to put her down, he then rapes her.

Weeks later, Blanche is in the bath while Stella and her neighbour pack Blanche's bags while Stanley is playing poker with his friends. Stella tells her neighbour that she can't allow herself to believe that Stanley raped her sister. Blanche comes out off the bathroom and her deluded talk makes it clear that she's lost touch with reality. 

A doctor and nurse arrive to take her to an insane asylum however Blanche still believes she's leaving with a millionaire. When she sees the doctor she panics causing Stanley and his friends to try and control her while their neighbour holds Stella who is crying with her child in her arms. The doctor approaches Blanche calming her down and connives her to leave with him. Stanley goes to comfort Stella while Mitch is also crying as they watch Blanche leave with the doctor.  

  Tennessee Williams 

                                                  ( March 26 1911 - February 25 1983)

Thomas Lanier Williams was an American playwright born march 26 1911, but is known round the world as Tennessee Williams. At the age of 33 William became famous due to his play the glass menagerie. The play reflects his own unhappy family. He was the second child and his father was a shoe salesman who later then became an alcoholic who was rarely home whereas his mother was a music teacher. 

Williams spent most of his childhood with his grandparents and grew vey close to them. He had older sister called Rose and a younger brother called Walter. When Tennessee was a young child he almost died from diphtheria which is a bacterial infection, this left Tennessee feeling extremely weak. He was put on bed rest which continued for almost a year. As well as this father being a raging alcoholic, he was also very abusive causing his mother to be locked in a unhappy marriage.

During 1929 to 1931, Tennessee attended the university of Missouri in Columbia where he enrolled in journalism classes. He eventually got bored of his class and was distracted by a girl. Williams wrote poetry, essays, stories and plays, with the thought of entering them into writing contests hoping for a little extra in-come. 

The first play he submitted was called called beauty in the world, which was then followed by hot milk at three in the morning. The play beauty in the world was about a rebellion against a religious upbringing. He then became the first freshman to had received honourable mention in a writing competition. He joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity but soon found out that he didn't fit in well with his fraternity brothers.

During junior year Tennessee failed his military training course which resulted in his father pulling him out of school to go do work in the shoe factory. William hated it and his dislike of the 9-5 lead him to writing more frequently. His goal was to write one story a week which was hard considering he often worked on the weekends and late into the night of weekdays. Tennessee and his father both played a part in his own unhappiness, he was feeling overwhelmed as he overworked himself as well as he was having no success with his writing. By Williams 24 birthday he had suffered a nervous breakdown which lead him to leaving his job. 

Williams drew from memories of this period, but mostly a friendly co-worker who was inspired to create the character Stanley Kowalski in a streetcar called desire. During mis 1930's his mother had split from his father due to his worsening alcoholism and abusive tempter, however they were never divorced. Tennessee enrolled at Washington University where he wrote the play me vashya, However in autumn 1937 he then transferred to the university of lowa, where he graduated with a B.A in English. He then later studied at the dramatic workshop pf the new school in New-York, where he did an early  collaborative play called Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay. 

Tennessee struggled to gain production as well as an audience for his work in the late 1930s. He worked for a string of jobs, for example working as a caretaker on a chicken ranch in Laguna Beach in California. During 1939, from the help of his agent, Tennessee was awarded a thousand pound grant from Rockefeller Foundation in recognition of his play battle of angels. Which was produced in Boston in 1940 and unfortunately the play was poorly received. 

Williams used the some of the money that Rockefeller had gave him to move to New Orleans to write for Works Progress Administration, a funded program started by president Franklin D Roosevelt to put people to work. He lived in New Orleans, French Quarter, 722 Toulouse Street which set the setting of his play Vieux Carre (1977). The Rockefeller grant brought Williams to the attention of the holly-wood film industry which then lead on to Tennessee receiving a six-month contract as a writer for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio as he earned £250 per week.

In winter 1944 to 45, Williams play The glass menagerie was developed into a short story Portrait of a girl in glass. This was later produced in Chicago receiving good reviews. It was then produced in New-York where it instantly became a hit, enjoyed along Broadway. The glass menagerie won the award for the best play of the season in the New York drama critics circle award. His play, A streetcar named desire was Tennessee second biggest successful play that secured his reputation as a great playwright during 1947s.

Blanche DuBois 

We can clearly see that Blanche struggles with her mental health a lot through-out the play, but we can also see that the cause of her struggles is the guilt that she has. She feels guilty for the death of her husband and because of her last harsh words towards him. Her way of coping is through alcohol and sex. Blanche slowly loses herself as well as her touch with reality. She went from being a high-class rich women loving life, to living in her sisters two bedroom apartment, broke. 

                                                                                              

Monologue 

For some reason I had trouble uploading the background I wanted for the monologue so I'm putting it here instead. 

The reason I chose this background was because the play itself was set in the 1940's and when Blanche arrives she describes the place as run down and cramped, so I thought this background is a perfect description of it. Weirdly it was quite a struggle to find backgrounds like this, every time I searched it up, the images I was getting was quite clean and spacious. 

I did however, manged to find the play on you-tube, and I watched the play and re-watched Blanche talking about when her husband passed a few times to get an understand of how to say it. Blanche talks in a southern accent and I tried to speak like her but found it quite difficult and eventually gave up trying to speak in a southern accent. 

As to costume wise I didn't really have anything that looked like something Blanche would wear. Lucky for me I ended up finding a bag of my mum old clothes and found a top that instantly reminded me off Blanche.