So both Emma Bovary and Blanche Dubois believe they deserve lives they can never have. Charles loves Emma unequivocally; Stella loved Stanley unequivocally – both even when faced with evidence that would allow them abandon their love. And as both stories near their denouement, a blind person appears.
Thus ends my Madame Bovary/Streetcar Named Desire medley. Lessons: some themes, symbols, devices transcend time, nation, even art form; and the line between aspiration and illusion, between dreams and delusion, can be a very fine line. The Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line ….oops, stream of consciousness.
Streetcar remains one of my favorite plays, after all of Shakespeare, about as favorite as West Side Story and Camelot and some Greek extravaganzas, more favorite than The Iceman Cometh, which is much too long. I also like Waiting For Godot, Ghosts, Threepenny Opera. I haven’t read many plays lately – a book of Sophocles a year or so ago is all, and thigs that old are difficult to imagine as stage productions.
But Madame Bovary has cracked my Top 3 books, joining To Kill A Mockingbird and The Bell Jar. I would mention that Bovary and Jar are in there mainly for the artful writing itself; I was not particularly enraptured by The Bell Jar’s plot, not uplifted by the fate of the Bovary family. But man, are they all genius, or what?
Yes, they are.
Found a collection of Dame Agatha at Goodwill. Will be resting from Great Literature for a while, relaxing as if at the beach with a book a cut (but just a cut) above a beach book.
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