Play vs. Film

Although the adaptation of plays into films usually carry many differences, they also exhibit similar characteristics through the script, character portrayal, or light and sound. For example, A Streetcar Named Desire portrays the aspect of lighting in both the play and the film to accurately display the correlation between light and the characters. A prime example of lighting displaying an element of a character throughout A Streetcar Named Desire is Blanche. Throughout the play, we see that Blanche always avoids being in direct light. In both the play and film, Blanche makes her distinction of abhorrence with light clear by buying and placing a paper lantern over a naked light bulb in the Kowalski’s apartment to shield her face and figuratively shield her past. 

When watching the film the dark lighting really made me see Blanche’s character as having an obscure, yet, dramatic disposition. From the start of the film, the element of shadows surround Blanche portraying her avoidance to discuss her past truthfully with other characters. In accordance with her eloquent talking, any conversation Blanche held with other characters seemed to be ten times more dramatic than the dialogue between other characters. 

 As Blanche tells Mitch the story of her deceased husband, the black and white lighting makes the scene dramatic showing light used to represent love and destruction. Tennessee Williams does a great job of displaying this dual element by making Mitch, someone who Blanche thinks of as a potential husband, put up the paper lantern; however, Mitch destroys this fantasy by tearing off the lantern Blanch asked him to put up, exposing her true self. When you closer examine the element of light throughout the play and film, the realization of light and its meaning becomes more obvious.