Excerpt dialogue from Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire
Scene Six: It is about two A.M. on the same evening. The outer wall of building is visible. Blanche and Mitch come in. The utter exhaustion which only a neurasthenic personality can know is evident in Blanche’s voice and manner. Mitch is stolid but depressed……….
( He shuffles and coughs a little.)
Mitch: Can I—uh-kiss you— goodnite?
Blanche: Why do you always ask me if you may?
Mitch: I don’t know whether you want me to or not.
Blanche: Why should you be so doubtful?
Mitch: That night when we parked by the lake and I kissed you, you-
Blanche: Honey, it wasn’t the kiss I objected to. I liked the kiss very much. It was the other little—familiarity—that I—felt obliged to—discourage. . . .I didn’t resent it! Not a bit in the world! In fact, I was somewhat flattered that you—desired me! But honey, you know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone in the world, has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or she’ll be lost!
Mitch (solemnly): Lost?
Blanche: I guess you are used to girls that like to be lost. The kind that get lost immediately, on the first date!
Mitch: I like you to be exactly the way you are, because in all my—experience—I have never known anyone like you.
(Blanche looks at him gravely; then she bursts into laughter and then claps a hand to her mouth.)
Mitch: Are you laughing at me?
Blanche: No, honey. The lord and lady of the house have not yet returned, so come in. We’ll have a night-cap. Let’s leave the lights off. Shall we?
Mitch: You just—do what you want to.
I include a small excerpt from Williams A Streetcar Named Desire to start this month’s post for a couple of reasons. First reason, Mr. Williams has created a cornerstone (all his own) with”this most famous play which is one of the most influential works of American literature.” ( As stated by The Library of America.) The second reason is simply this; I enjoy finding in literature examples, metaphors that reflect different aspects of the self- reflection journey I have been sharing with you over the past two plus years. Now those of you that know me well over the decades might say at this point, “Really Mark, what are you enlightening yourself with this passage of dialogue between Blanche and Mitch? A little shallow of you after all your marriages! Why a scene about apparent lust between a man and a woman?” I understand your questions but what this play and this scene highlights for me is more than that? Tennessee Williams ability to create male and female dialogue “that forged poetic theater of raw psychological insight that fused realism and expressionism, again as stated by The Library of America, gives me a mirror to see the reflection of what I may desire versus what I may just want. All my life I have created lessons and events for myself that slowly taught me the difference. As a parent and as a grandparent I watched and listened to our toddlers and youngsters be straightforward with what they want. I have rarely heard a youngster say, ” Why Pop, I desire an Italian Ice from your freezer.”In the current popular Netflix series Lucifer, we have been binging on while we “shelter in place”, the main go-to question asked, as the main character (Lucifer) looks into the eyes of a subject is, “What is it you desire?”
So there you have it. These days of living with a pandemic. Fires that dim the sun thousand of miles away with horrific heat and destruction for those who live too close to the fires. Living with hurricanes that line up on our shores like planes arriving at Logan airport before we stopped flying because of the fear of that bug. Protests in our streets because of real injustice time and again cooked with ingredients of systematic racism. Living in a country that used to reflect its name, the United States of America. An election armed with fearful, angry divisive rhetoric. With all that as a back drop, it has been harder to find my inner balance. Balance necessary to hear my silence.
I had hoped I had grown calm and mature enough to listen with respect to others that have different opinions than me. But I still use negative words like “shame” and phrases like “your wrong!” I am sorry for that. I know that we should be able to stand side by side, look at the same thing, and have two different opinions about that same thing. I know that fact intellectually but I need to know it emotionally too. To create the balance I desire in my life I need to want to take more responsibility for my actions and my words to help create said balance. My life, my family, my friends, my neighborhood, my city, my state and my country need that balance from me and you. NOT to walk dogmatically in lock-step, both of us with the same opinion. But to be human with each other in a kind way especially when we disagree with each other.
This month, I am taking a street car named Desire to the jetty where my lighthouse is located. I invite you to join me. I promise to smile inside and out while I listen to you. I believe that the dramas of today are lessons available to each of us. Available for what? For me, something different than the something for you. The goal is to share our different somethings with each other peacefully! The rendering of the veil is my purpose in this life. With balance achieved, I continue that process.
Next month I hope to share some examples in literature that highlight what I believe the veil is covering.
Thank you for reading and please be safe!
Mark