Question

Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator’s voice to guide the
audience’s responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques
the playwright uses to guide his audience’s responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the
audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters’ responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary.

In theater, the playwright has a unique challenge of guiding the audience’s responses to the characters and action without the use of a narrator’s voice or the ability to directly address the audience. One play that effectively uses various techniques to guide the audience’s responses is “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. In this essay, I will analyze the techniques Williams uses to guide the audience’s responses to the central characters and the action, including setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters’ responses to each other.