This review contains spoilers

Review Written: 19th January 2013


Three Plays in a Post

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams – having previously read it for my English Literature GCSE, it was nice to read it again and actually understand the whole of the text.

1. Blanche tries it on with a seventeen year old & when a young boy; as he is so named, comes in, she kisses him.
2. She is raped by her sister’s husband Stanley. It never actually says what happens but it is so heavily implied by ‘we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’ (Act X) that I’m not sure how fifteen year old me failed to register it. Twenty year old me however can, and it makes it tragic.
3. Blanche also prostitutes herself to try and pay for her childhood home of Belle Reve – this is also heavily implied.

I just wanted Blanche to have a happy ending, but instead, she’s taken to a mental hospital.

Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller. I previously read this for my English Literature A Level. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now. The play focuses on Willy Loman, an elderly salesman, his wife Linda, failing son Biff and ‘not as successful as he likes to think he is’ son Happy. It’s just so confusing switching back and forth from past to present. Is it because it’s supposed to represent Willy Loman’s madness? Who knows? I just spend the entire play feeling sorry for everyone and I’m not sure that’s even the point.

All My Sons by Arthur Miller. The only play I hadn’t read before. I didn’t think it was exactly an American classic...I felt like I was waiting for the action to start the entire play and it wasn’t until the last 10 pages that something happened. The plotline is ‘the Keller’s son went missing in World War 2, and in those last 10 pages you find out what actually happened to him.’

If I have to choose a favourite playwright out of the two, it would have to be Tennessee Williams. His play was just more...juicy, and I’ve never used that word to describe a book before. It also had a villain of the piece in Stanley [debatable but he is the villain in my book – I say debatable because my flatmate will read this and say she likes Stanley.] All three are short plays and can be read within the hour. Regardless of my feelings for Miller’s plays, I recommend they be read for the value of the literature.