ENCW 205: Art & Identity in New Orleans

The differences between the play and movie by the same name, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, provide drastic and deep differences in the interpretation of the story, particularly that of the ending. The play has the ending in which Stanley and Stella reconcile, leaving Stanley forgiven and unpunished in his crimes against Stella’s sister, Blanche. In the movie, Stella takes their son, says “Don’t ever touch me again”, and runs from Stanley’s calling for her to the safely of Eunice, their upstairs neighbor. This drawls a parallel between this scene and when Stanley beats Stella, but she returns to him at the start of the movie. The faster paced, and more expressive movie allows the audience to have a closer view into the emotional aspects of the story through the body language and expressions of the actors, in comparison to the internal monologues written into the stage cues of the play itself. This contrast allows readers of the story to sit and think over individual lines, while viewers of the movie watch scenes occur in real time, watching the nuanced expressions of the actors. This in turn can allow for different interpretations of the story, like that of the dramatic responses of Blanche’s theatrics being more apparent in the movie rather than the written play. This difference in body language is also expressed in the clothing of the characters and the use of the outfits worn to tell the stories of the characters. Such as the extravagant dresses of Blanche, being much more noticeable and odd compared to those of Stella in the movie. These subtle tells and differences (and sometimes not so subtle) allow for both a deeper view into the differences of the characters, as well as allowing for interpretations of the story to shift closer with the times in which the story is portrayed along with those who portray it.