A Comparison of the Openings of A Streetcar Named Desire and A View from the Bridge Anita Hill 12th Grade

The opening of a play is naturally one of its most important parts, serving as an introduction to its setting, characters and themes; the best openings also encapsulate both the intentions and style of the playwright. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams describes the set in extreme details, using plastic theatre to create a vivid setting, while Arthur Miller displays a closer focus on characters, themes and dialogue in A View From the Bridge. Both of these approaches present the realism necessary for any domestic tragedy to have impact.

A Streetcar Named Desire opens with a lengthy description of the set. Williams is evidently describing something more conceptual than actually feasible, as he includes detail of “the L & N tracks and the river”, features of the landscape that would be difficult to capture on a stage, yet more abstractly juxtapose nature with industry, each out of place in this environment, and bear connotations of travel and movement. Both these ideas link to Blanche’s arrival at the Elysian Fields, out of place and finding that life has moved on without her, leaving her a relic of a previous age. Williams furthermore uses techniques of plastic theatre, building up a soundscape of the “perpetual...