In class individually we had to read a play. I chose to read the play Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. This play is about a girl named Blanche who moves in with her sister Stella and her husband. During her stay many bad things happen to them as a “family”. This represents cruelty. Cruelty is shown throughout this play multiple times. Between Blanche deliberately hurting Stella and telling her she did not do anything to help Belle Reve stay theirs and Stanley raping Blanche at the end of the play. In Williams play there are many ways to hurt someone and some may be worse than others.
“I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.” (1.3.60)
In this quote Blanche talks about how she hates getting treated mean but the irony is she treats everyone else around her mean. Although some of Blanche's remarks are not meant to intentionally hurt Stella they do. Along with Blanche being so harsh another character who shows these characteristics is Stanley. In scene 9 Stanley throws a fit at the dinner table just because Stella told him that his hands were greasy.
These examples from the books are Williams's way of showing the hatred and dislike without blatantly coming out and saying it. I feel as though structuring the play like this makes it more interesting to the readers to sit and figure out what he means by the certain directions he takes on the book to show the theme of cruelty. The characters actions and behaviors are put into such great detail in order to share what needs to be shared and what doesn't need to be shared. Many authors that do this usually end up confusing me and it does not make sense but Tennessee Williams really knows what he's doing.
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