[The article from which this excerpt is taken was originally published in The Saturday Review of Literature, December 27, 1947.]

A Streetcar Named Desire is bound to raise [a mirage of familiarity] in the minds of those who saw The Glass Menagerie. Tennessee Williams' new play is new. No one can question that. In story, setting, incident, and some of the details of its characterizations, it is a work quite different from its predecessor. It is better, deeper, richer than was that earlier drama…. Yet new as it is, it is scarcely novel. Even the surprises, many and startling, which it holds resemble more closely misfortunes engulfing old friends than misadventures overtaking new people.

The reasons for this are obvious. The mood of Streetcar is the same as that of The Glass Menagerie—only more so. Once again Mr. Williams is writing of the decay of Southern gentility. Once again...