Modernist American playwright Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949. Williams received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III (1911–1983) is considered among the three foremost playwrights of twentieth-century American drama (the others being Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller). In this task, you’ll assume the role of a theater critic. Write a theatrical review of act 1, scene 2 of the play. Your theatrical review should include these elements: an introduction with the name of the play and the playwright a brief description of the storyline of act 1, scene 2, explaining what happens and highlighting the themes and identity issues addressed a brief description of the scene’s climax a description and analysis of the three characters presented in the excerpt, including a discussion of which character dominates the action Your theatrical review should be a minimum of three paragraphs in length.

dramatic irony occurs when the reader/audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does. the one main effect is that it gives the reader a sense of superiority, or detached superiority. the reader not only seemingly discovers what is revealed, but feels superior for doing so.

1.   in sonnet 18, the speaker wants to describe the beauty of his love, but can’t find the words to do so. the speaker says “then in mid-utterance the lay was lost” when he tries to think of the words to describe his love’s beauty.   through his defeat of finding words to describe his love, he shows his love for her.

2.   instead of describing how perfect his love is or comparing her to other beautiful things, he says she is average and there is nothing special about her.   at the last 2 lines of the poem, the volta changes the poem by saying that even though his love is average in beauty, his love for her is special and unique. so instead of praising her throughout the whole poem, he contrasts her average characteristics with his special love for her.

3.   the beloved asked the speaker to describe how he feels about her. she begins to describe what she feels but "drop the torch" and says that she can't do it because the words "hid in me out of reach." the the speaker says "nay, let the silence of my womanhood command my woman-love to thy belief" and that her silence will have to be the answer to his question.