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Quote by Tennessee Williams

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A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is a profound exploration of the complexities of human emotion. Set in the 1940s, the play delves into the psychological turmoil of Blanche DuBois, a fragile woman who seeks refuge with her sister, Stella, and her brother-in-law, Stanley. The narrative unfolds in a small, rundown apartment in New Orleans, where the characters' desires and obsessions collide, leading to a tragic climax. The play is renowned for its raw emotional intensity and Williams' poetic language, making it a cornerstone of American theater. more

Author

Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams

American playwright, renowned for his profound psychological portrayals and unique dramatic style. His notable works include 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Glass Menagerie'. more

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“He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something -sub-human -something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something - ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in - anthropological studies! Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is - Stanley Kowalski - survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you - you here - waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been discovered yet! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! - you call it - this party of apes! Somebody growls - some creature snatches at something - the fight is on! God! Maybe we are a long way from beng made in God's image, but Stella - my sister - there has been some progress since then! Such things as art - as poetry and music - such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! In some kinds of people some tendered feelings have had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag! In this dark march towards what-ever it is we're approaching . . . Don't - don't hang back with the brutes!”

EvolutionAbusePrimitivePrimalRegressionApeBlanche DuboisApe LikeStanley Kowalski
Book:A Streetcar Named Desire
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“True? Yes, I suppose-unfit somehow-anyway.... So I came here. There was nowhere else I could go. I was played out. You know what played out is? My youth was suddenly gone up the water-sprout, and-I met you. You said you needed somebody. Well, I needed some-body, too. I thanked God for you, because you seemed to be gentle-a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in! But I guess I was asking, hoping-too much! Kiefaber, Stanley and Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.”

Blanche Dubois
Author:Tennessee Williams
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“One is proposing a future to us, one does so by condemning the past. It is into this future also that we want to see clearly. It is these principles that we would like to look at directly. For we already foresee that these new ethics refer to a strange universe, a universe with something sick about it, an elastic universe where our eyes no longer recognize things: but a universe which is that of others, precisely that of which Bernanos had a presentiment when he feared that one day the dreams, locked up in the sly brain of a small Negro shoeshiner in a New York ghetto, would come true. We are there. Our minds are doped. We have been struck by Circe. We have all become Jewish.”

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