In watching the movie and reading the play they were both incredibly similar. I've read The Glass Menagerie and for me I saw several similarities in how the women are portrayed in both versions. In the film version of Streetcar Named Desire Stella is utterly in love with Stanley, her passion for him is so intense he could probably murder someone and she'd be fine with it. It isn't until Blanche reveals that Stanley raped her that she leaves him. I prefer the play version because it shows Stella's need and dependence on Stanley, in the movie she just seems to do it because it is "the right thing" (as deemed by the Hayes Code of Hollywood at the time). In Blanche you see a character who wishes to return to the old days of the Southern belle, something often seen in Williams' plays. Blanche wants romantic love with someone who can protect her and finds Stanley's brute nature a sign that he's beneath her. She considers him and Stella's baby as "diluting the bloodline" in a way but finds it a necessary fact of life in the current time. Stella lives in reality while Blanche dreams of an old world sensebility with manly chivalry. And I'm not gonna lie...Marlon Brando's pretty hot throughout the movie even though he's an ass.
Critical Thinking Question: How is the rape of Blanche the final break in her worldvie, eventually driving her to madness? Would she have gone mad without the rape? And just how hot is Marlon Brando?
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