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Essays on A Streetcar Named Desire

Choosing the right essay topic is crucial for your success in college. Your creativity and personal interests play a significant role in the selection process. This webpage aims to provide you with a variety of A Streetcar Named Desire essay topics to inspire your writing and help you excel in your academic pursuits.

Essay Types and Topics

Argumentative.

The role of gender in A Streetcar Named Desire
The impact of societal norms on the characters' behaviors

Paragraph Example:

In Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the portrayal of gender dynamics is a central theme that sheds light on the power struggles and societal expectations faced by the characters. This essay aims to explore the significance of gender in the play and its influence on the characters' decisions and relationships.

Through a close examination of the gender dynamics in A Streetcar Named Desire, this essay has highlighted the complexities of societal norms and their impact on individual lives. The characters' struggles serve as a reflection of the broader societal challenges, prompting us to reconsider our perceptions of gender roles and expectations.

Compare and Contrast

The parallels between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski
The contrasting symbols of light and darkness in the play

Descriptive

The vivid imagery of New Orleans in the play
The sensory experiences portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire
An argument for Blanche's mental state and its impact on her actions
The case for the significance of the play's setting in shaping the characters
Reimagining a key scene from a different character's perspective
A personal reflection on the themes of illusion and reality in the play

Engagement and Creativity

As you explore these essay topics, remember to engage your critical thinking skills and bring your unique perspective to your writing. A Streetcar Named Desire offers a rich tapestry of themes and characters, providing ample opportunities for creative exploration in your essays.

Educational Value

Each essay type presents a valuable opportunity for you to develop different skills. Argumentative essays can refine your analytical thinking, while descriptive essays can enhance your ability to paint vivid pictures with words. Persuasive essays help you hone your persuasive writing skills, and narrative essays allow you to practice storytelling and narrative techniques.

Reality Versus Illusion in The Streetcar Named Desire

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How Blanche and Stella Rely on Self-delusion in a Streetcar Named Desire

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An Examination of The Character of Blanche in a Streetcar Named Desire

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The Concealed Homosexuality in a Streetcar Named Desire

Oppression, its brutality and its inescapability, is a dominant theme in literature, similar themes in a streetcar named desire by tennessee williams and water by robery lowell, first impression lies: the power and masculinity exuded by stanley kolawski, determining the tragedy potential in a streetcar named desire, how tennessee williams is influenced by the work of chekhov, the use of suspense in a streetcar named desire, a streetcar named desire by tennessee williams: personal identity of blanche, the portrayals of sexuality in cat on a hot tin roof and a streetcar named desire, evaluation of the social class ranking as illustrated in the book, a streetcar named desire, blanche and mitch relationship in a streetcar named desire, female powerlessness in the duchess of malfi and a streetcar named desire, a comparison between the plastic theatre and expressionism in a streetcar named desire, morality and immorality in a streetcar named desire and the picture of dorian gray, oppositions and their purpose in "a streetcar named desire" and "the birthday party", how femininity and masculinity are presented in ariel and a streetcar named desire, tennessee williams’ depiction of blanche as a casualty as illustrated in his play, a streetcar named desire, history defined the themes of a streetcar named desire, comparing social and ethnic tensions in a streetcar named desire and blues for mister charlie, the use of contrast as a literary device at the beginning of a streetcar named desire.

December 3, 1947, Tennessee Williams

Play; Southern Gothic

The French Quarter and Downtown New Orleans

Blanche DuBois, Stella Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski, Harold "Mitch" Mitchell

1. Vlasopolos, A. (1986). Authorizing History: Victimization in" A Streetcar Named Desire". Theatre Journal, 38(3), 322-338. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3208047) 2. Corrigan, M. A. (1976). Realism and Theatricalism in A Streetcar Named Desire. Modern Drama, 19(4), 385-396. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/497088/summary) 3. Quirino, L. (1983). The Cards Indicate a Voyage on'A Streetcar Named Desire'. Contemporary Literary Criticism, 30. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1100001571&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00913421&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E8abc495e) 4. Corrigan, M. A. (2019). Realism and Theatricalism in A Streetcar Named Desire. In Essays on Modern American Drama (pp. 27-38). University of Toronto Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781487577803-004/html?lang=de) 5. Van Duyvenbode, R. (2001). Darkness Made Visible: Miscegenation, Masquerade and the Signified Racial Other in Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll and A Streetcar Named Desire. Journal of American Studies, 35(2), 203-215. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/abs/darkness-made-visible-miscegenation-masquerade-and-the-signified-racial-other-in-tennessee-williams-baby-doll-and-a-streetcar-named-desire/B73C386D2422793FB8DC00E0B79B7331) 6. Cahir, L. C. (1994). The Artful Rerouting of A Streetcar Named Desire. Literature/Film Quarterly, 22(2), 72. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/7040761d75f7fd8f9bf37a2f719a28a4/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=5938) 7. Silvio, J. R. (2002). A Streetcar Named Desire—Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 30(1), 135-144. (https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/jaap.30.1.135.21985) 8. Griffies, W. S. (2007). A streetcar named desire and tennessee Williams' object‐relational conflicts. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4(2), 110-127. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aps.127) 9. Shackelford, D. (2000). Is There a Gay Man in This Text?: Subverting the Closet in A Streetcar Named Desire. In Literature and Homosexuality (pp. 135-159). Brill. (https://brill.com/display/book/9789004483460/B9789004483460_s010.xml)

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Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire

Analysis of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on October 13, 2020 • ( 0 )

Tennessee Williams ‘s (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983) A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), is generally regarded as his best. Initial reaction was mixed, but there would be little argument now that it is one of the most powerful plays in the modern theater. Like The Glass Menagerie , it concerns, primarily, a man and two women and a “gentleman caller.” As in The Glass Menagerie , one of the women is very much aware of the contrast between the present and her southern-aristocratic past; one woman (Stella) is practical if not always adequately aware, while the other (Blanche) lives partly in a dream world and teeters on the brink of psychosis; the gentleman caller could perhaps save the latter were circumstances somewhat different; and the play’s single set is a slum apartment. It is located in Elysian Fields, a section of the French Quarter of New Orleans. The action takes place in the downstairs two-room apartment rented by the Kowalskis.

Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter in the 1951 adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire

Stella Kowalski relaxes in a shabby armchair in the bedroom of the small apartment. She eats chocolates and reads a movie magazine. Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski, enters, carrying a package of meat dripping with blood and yelling for his wife. Stanley tosses the meat to Stella, who catches it in a surprised reaction. Stanley leaves to go bowling with his friends, and Stella decides to tag along. She hurriedly primps in the living room mirror, quickly closes the apartment door behind her, and says hello to Eunice Hubbell and a Negro Woman who are sitting on the landing. As she exits, the two women laugh about Stanley’s lack of manners.

Blanche DuBois enters. She is carrying a small suitcase and a piece of paper. She is a fading Southern belle, whose appearance suggests she is going to a garden party, but her search for her sister, Stella, has landed her in the slums of the French Quarter. Eunice notices the confused Blanche, and she asks whether she is lost. Blanche explains that she was instructed to take a streetcar named Desire to Elysian Fields via a streetcar called Cemetery. Eunice informs her that she is indeed in the right place. Eunice lets her into the Kowalskis’ apartment to wait for Stella while the Negro Woman fetches Stella from the bowling alley. Blanche has arrived unannounced, and she is shocked to discover Stella living in such a dismal place.

Blanche searches for a drink, and Stella enters. The two sisters are ecstatic to be reunited. Blanche speaks excitedly, overwhelming Stella with criticism of the apartment. Stella is speechless and hurt by these remarks, and she notices that Blanche is shaking and anxious. Stella is concerned by her sister’s behavior, and she attempts to calm her nerves by offering her a drink. Blanche urges Stella to explain why she is living in such depressing conditions. Blanche says she has taken a leave of absence from her high school teaching job. She says that she is having a difficult time and needed a break. Blanche mentions the weight Stella has gained, and she compliments her on her appearance; however, Stella knows that her sister is being critical. Blanche demands that Stella stand so she can fully analyze the size of her hips, her less than perfect haircut. She asks Stella about having a maid, but the Kowalskis’ apartment only consists of two rooms. Blanche is horrified by this news. She pours another drink to curb her intolerance of the place. Blanche has been lonely; she feels her sister abandoned her when she left Mississippi and their father died. Blanche admits that she is not well. Stella insists that her sister stay at the apartment, and she directs her to a folding bed. She insists that Stanley will not mind the lack of privacy, as he is Polish. Stella advises her sister that Stanley is unlike the Southern gentlemen they knew back in Laurel, Mississippi. She confesses he is ill mannered, but she is madly in love with him.

Blanche confesses that she has lost Belle Reve, the family plantation. Blanche expresses her resentment of her sister because she was “in bed with [her] Polack” while Blanche scraped and clawed to hold on to Belle Reve. Stella is very upset to know that they have lost their homestead. Blanche bitterly blames the foreclosure on the many deaths in the family. Blanche is plagued with guilt, as well as being hopelessly adrift, and she projects her feelings of loss onto Stella, who runs into the bathroom to escape her sister’s wrath.

Stanley returns home. He shouts to his friends, Steve Hubbell and Mitch (Harold Mitchell), from the stairwell. Blanche speaks to him before he notices her presence. Stanley is cordial to her and asks for Stella, who has locked herself away in the bathroom. He offers Blanche another shot of whiskey, noticing that the bottle has already been sampled. Blanche declines the offer, stating that she rarely drinks. Her obvious dishonesty spurs Stanley to ask some very personal questions regarding her past, namely, about her husband. He sheds his sweaty shirt to find relief in the summer heat and welcomes her to stay with them. Upset by his meddlesome inquiries, Blanche replies that her young husband is dead. She grows nauseous discussing this subject and has to sit down to regain her composure.

Around six o’clock the following evening, Blanche and Stella plan to have dinner out and see a movie while Stanley and his friends have a poker night in the apartment. While Blanche readies herself in the bathroom, Stella tells Stanley that Belle Reve has been lost. She also warns him not to mention that she is pregnant because Blanche is already so unstable. Stanley is most concerned with the loss of the estate. He suspects Blanche sold the plantation and kept all of the profits for herself. Referring to the Napoleonic Code, Stanley wants to know whether he has been swindled. To find proof of the foreclosure he rummages through Blanche’s trunk. Appraising the furs and jewelry she has, he urges Stella to acknowledge that Blanche has deceived her. Stella fears the looming confrontation, so she escapes to the porch.

When Blanche emerges from her hot bath and realizes that Stella is not around, she flirts with Stanley as a means of winning him over; however, he is interested only in the profits from Belle Reve. When Stanley accuses Blanche of selling the plantation and keeping all of the money, she insists that she has never cheated anyone in her life. She says, “I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion, but when a thing is important, I tell the truth.” Stanley rifles through the trunk again, searching for documents that will prove Blanche is lying. Stanley discovers yellowing letters held together by aging ribbons, and he withholds these visibly precious items until she pulls two manila envelopes from her belongings. Blanche says that his touch has contaminated her cherished love letters. She tells Stanley that this paperwork is all that is left of the plantation, and he continues berating her by demanding to know how she could allow the foreclosure to happen. Blanche recoils with anger and retorts that the plantation has been lost by generations of negligent men who “exchanged the land for their epic fornications.” Stanley intends to have the documents read by a lawyer friend, and Blanche invites him to do so. Now that Stanley has been proved wrong, he justifies his concern with the fact that Stella is pregnant. This is a happy digression for Blanche, who is genuinely excited by this information. When Stella returns, Blanche expresses her joy about the baby. She brags that she handled Stanley and even flirted with him. The two sisters leave as Stanley’s friends arrive for their poker night.

Later that night in the Kowalski apartment, Stanley and his friends are still drinking and playing cards. Stella and Blanche return at 2:30 A.M., and Stanley asks them to visit Eunice until the game is over. When Stella does not comply, Stanley slaps her backside as a means of countering her disobedience in front of his friends. Blanche is intrigued by Mitch, who is uninterested in the poker game because he is worried about his ailing mother. Blanche is immediately attracted to his sensitivity. The two introduce themselves. Mitch offers her a cigarette, showing her the inscription on his cigarette case. She immediately recognizes it as the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Mitch explains the case is from a former girlfriend who died. Mitch’s story of his former lover resonates with Blanche’s own sense of loss of her young husband, Allan Grey. She tells Mitch, “Sorrow makes for sincerity,” and continues, “Show me a person that hasn’t known sorrow and I’ll show you a superficial person.” She asks Mitch to cover the naked lightbulb with a Chinese lantern she recently purchased.

Stanley grows more inebriated and increasingly irritated by the music Blanche is playing. He crosses the room, rips the radio from the wall, and throws it out of the window. He hits Stella when she tries to stop him. Humiliated and stunned, Stella runs into the kitchen area and orders Stanley’s friends to leave. Stanley chases and attacks Stella. Blanche begs Mitch to stop him, and the men restrain Stanley on the sofa. Blanche whisks Stella to Eunice’s apartment upstairs while the men attempt to sober Stanley. After a cold shower, he stumbles out of the bathroom, goes out onto the porch, and yells up to Stella. He continues to shout for Stella, who descends the stairs and returns to him. Stanley falls to his knees, pressing his head against her legs. Kissing passionately, the couple retreat to their bedroom. Blanche runs down after Stella. When she discovers them making love, she is angered by her sister’s weakness. Mitch calls out to Blanche. They share another cigarette. Blanche is thankful for Mitch’s kindness.

Early the next morning, Blanche returns to the Kowalski apartment after spending the night at Eunice and Steve’s apartment. When she realizes Stella is alone, she hugs her with nervous concern. Stella, on the other hand, is cheerful and content. Stella blames liquor and poker for Stanley’s behavior. She explains to her sister that she gets a thrill from her husband’s extreme actions. Blanche is infuriated. She says Stella has married a “madman.” While Blanche devises an escape plan for them, Stella tidies the apartment. Stella says she is happy with Stanley. Blanche is still bewildered by Stella’s cool resignation.

Blanche remembers an old beau, Shep Huntleigh, whom she plans to call on for their escape, but Stella does not want to be rescued. Blanche compares Stanley to an ape. During this conversation, Stanley has returned unnoticed. He has heard everything that has been said. All of Blanche’s persuading has been in vain: When Stella sees Stanley, she runs over and jumps into his arms.

Blanche has been living at the Kowalskis’ apartment for three months. While she finishes writing a letter to Shep about imaginary cocktail parties she has been attending, Stanley enters. He slams drawers and creates noise to express his irritation by Blanche’s presence. To provoke Stanley, she asks him his astrological sign. He remarks that he is a Capricorn (the goat) and Blanche replies she is Virgo, the sign of the virgin. Stanley laughs and asks her about a man by the last name of Shaw who claims to have spent an evening with Blanche at the Flamingo Hotel. Blanche adamantly denies this accusation, but her face registers panic and alarm. Stanley is victorious and exits to go bowling.

Analysis of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie

Blanche becomes hysterical. She asks Stella whether she has heard rumors about her, but Stella gracefully denounces gossip. Blanche confesses that she did not maintain a good reputation when she was losing Belle Reve. She admits her fears of being a “soft” person, of needing people too much, and of her fading beauty. Blanche fears she will not be able to “turn the trick” much longer because she is visibly aging. She also confesses that she lied about her age to Mitch because she wants him to fall in love with her. Blanche has presented an illusion of herself as a prim and proper woman to Mitch. Stella is accustomed to Blanche’s nervous tirades, and she pays little attention to what her sister is actually saying. Stella comforts her by pouring her a drink. A young boy stops by the apartment selling newspapers. On his way out, Blanche calls him back inside and kisses him. Blanche chastises herself for putting “her hands” on the boy. He leaves and Mitch arrives with a bouquet of roses for her.

Later that night, Blanche and Mitch return from a disappointing date. Blanche blames herself for the dull evening. Mitch asks whether he may kiss her good night, and she consents but says their actions can go no further because she is a single woman. Stanley and Stella are not home, so Blanche invites Mitch in for a nightcap. Blanche plays the coquette while Mitch perspires with desire for her. While she searches for a bottle of whiskey, Blanche asks Mitch in French whether he would like to sleep with her. She comments that it is a good thing Mitch does not understand French. She encourages him to take off his coat, but he is embarrassed by his sweatiness. Blanche asserts that he is just a healthy man.

When Mitch suggests that the four of them go out together sometime, Blanche makes it clear that Stanley hates her. She asks whether Stanley has said anything derogatory about her. Mitch replies that he does not understand how Stanley could behave so rudely to her. Blanche says she plans to leave as soon as Stella has the baby.

Mitch asks Blanche her age, and Blanche refuses to answer. He explains that he asks because he has been with his mother talking about her. Blanche presumes Mitch will be very lonely when his mother dies. She explains that she knows this sort of loneliness firsthand because her one true love has passed away. She tells Mitch about Allan’s tenderness and sensitivity and says that she never understood him until she discovered he was having an affair with an older man. Blanche explains that Allan needed her to help him, but she could not see what was happening until it was too late. She confronted him while they were drunk at a dance at Moon Lake Casino. Her words provoked him to run to the edge of the lake and commit suicide. She can still hear the polka music that was playing during the time. Blanche cannot forgive herself for condemning Allan’s desires and pushing him to such drastic measures. She compares her love for Allan to a“blinding light.” Mitch answers that they are both lonely, and they both need someone. The polka tune that continually plays in Blanche’s mind ceases. Mitch and Blanche embrace with thoughts of marriage.

Several weeks later, Stanley arrives home after a day of work to find the apartment decorated for Blanche’s birthday party. He is disgruntled to know that Blanche is taking a hot bath, making the apartment even hotter and increasingly unbearable. Stanley proudly announces to Stella that he has found out the real story behind her sister’s extended visit. She was fired from her teaching job because she had an indecent relationship with a 17-year-old boy and set up residency at the Flamingo Hotel, which she was then forced to leave because of her sexual excesses. She has become the laughingstock of Laurel, Mississippi. Stella is profoundly stunned by this information, and she tries to defend Blanche by explaining the tragic situation with Allan. Stanley informs Stella that he felt it was his duty to warn his friend about Blanche. Blanche calls for a towel and notices a strained expression on Stella’s face, but Stella assures her nothing is wrong. Stella is fraught with worry about what will happen to Blanche now that Mitch is likely to abandon her. Stanley implies that Mitch may not be through with Blanche, but he certainly will not marry her. He remarks that he bought Blanche a bus ticket back to Laurel. Stanley yells for Blanche to get out of the bathroom so that he can use it. Sensing something is wrong, Blanche cautiously enters the room.

Nearly one hour passes. Stella, Stanley, and Blanche are eating dinner. Blanche is trying to ignore the empty chair where Mitch would be sitting. Blanche tries to lighten the mood of the party by telling a joke, but no one finds it funny. Stella says Stanley is “too busy making a pig of himself.” She instructs him to wash up and help her clean the table. Stanley flies into a rage, sweeping the table’s contents to the floor, and declares that he is the king in his home. When Stanley leaves the table and goes out onto the porch, Blanche begs Stella to tell her what is going on. Blanche calls Mitch’s home while Stella chastises her husband for passing rumors to Mitch. Stanley presents the bus ticket to Blanche. She runs into the bedroom crying. Stella yells at Stanley for being so terrible to Blanche. Stanley reminds his wife that she loves his commonness, especially at night in their bedroom. As he shouts for Blanche, Stella doubles over with pain. She is rushed to the hospital.

Later that evening, Blanche sits alone in the darkness of the apartment drinking liquor. Mitch enters wearing his work uniform. Although he is dirty and unshaven, she admits that she is happy to see him, as his presence stops the polka music that otherwise persistently plays in her mind. She searches for more liquor to serve him, but he declines drinking Stanley’s liquor. Mitch inquires why Blanche keeps the apartment so dark and insists on seeing him only at night. He wants to turn on the light, but Blanche begs him to allow the magic (illusions) to continue. When he wrenches the lantern off the lightbulb, Blanche’s aged face is revealed. He proceeds to tell her what he has heard about her promiscuous life in Laurel. Blanche immediately pleads that after Allan and the loss of Belle Reve, she could only find relief from the pain in the arms of strangers. A vendor is heard outside selling flowers for the dead. This sparks Blanche to talk about all of the deaths in her life. She says she was “played out” when she finally landed in New Orleans. She found solace and love with Mitch, believing that she could possibly find happiness and rest. Mitch embraces her, and she pleads for marriage. Mitch says she is unsuitable. He pulls her hair and demands the physical intimacy she has denied him all summer. Blanche orders him to leave, and when he does not, she runs to the window and shouts, “Fire!” This action prompts Mitch to leave.

A few hours later, Blanche is still alone and drinking heavily. She is wearing an old gown and a rhinestone tiara. Stanley enters carrying liquor. He informs Blanche that Stella will not have the baby before the morning, so he has come home. Blanche is nervous about being in the apartment alone with Stanley all night. Stanley laughs at her and questions her attire. Blanche announces that she has received a telegram from Shep Huntleigh, inviting her on a cruise to the Caribbean. Stanley retreats to the bedroom and collects the red silk pajamas he wore on his wedding night. When he returns, Blanche says that Mitch came by begging for forgiveness, but she simply could not forgive his cruelty. Stanley angrily denounces her lies. Blanche rushes to the telephone and pleads with the operator to connect her with Shep Huntleigh. When she puts down the phone, Stanley corners her. Blanche retreats to the bedroom, where she smashes a bottle to use as a weapon against him. Stanley lunges at her, grabs the bottle, and gathers Blanche in his arms. She fights him, but he overpowers her, stating that they have had this date with each other from the moment she arrived.

Several weeks later, Stella cries as she packs Blanche’s belongings. Eunice holds the baby while Stanley and his friends play poker. Stella wonders whether she is doing the right thing in sending her sister to the state institution. Eunice responds that if Stella wants to save her marriage, she must believe that Stanley did not rape her sister. Blanche enters from the bathroom with a “hysterical vivacity.” She asks whether Shep has called while she dresses. The doorbell sounds and a doctor and attendant enter to collect Blanche. Blanche wants to leave the apartment, but she does not want to be seen by Mitch, Stanley, and the other men. When she sees that the man at the door is not Shep, she tries to run back into the apartment. Stanley blocks her way. He cruelly tells her that all she has left in this apartment is the paper lantern hanging over the lightbulb. He tears it down and hands it to her. Blanche screams, and Stella rushes to the porch, where Eunice comforts her. The doctor and attendant wrestle Blanche to the ground to restrain her.

Mitch attacks Stanley, blaming him for Blanche’s condition. The men fight and their friends pull them apart. Blanche is helped to her feet. The doctor helps her to the door and she says that she has “always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Stella is heartbroken by the scene. She sobs while the doctor escorts Blanche out of the apartment. Stanley consoles Stella by fondling her breasts. Steve announces the next round of poker.

When asked about the meaning of A Streetcar Named Desire ,Williams responded, “the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate, by the savage and brutal forces of modern society” (Haskell, 230). All the characters in Streetcar have been ravished by life to some degree. Although Stanley clearly functions as the most damaging force against Blanche, he, too, has also been forced to grow up too quickly as he spent his youth as a soldier serving in World War II. Reintegration into a mundane, peaceful world does not keep him fulfilled. He is moody and restless, and his animalistic tendencies are challenged by the overly refined Blanche.

Stella is a submissive character, placed in the middle of a war between gentrified society, represented by Blanche, and the rugged, practical world of the working class personified by Stanley. In war there are the victors and the vanquished. Blanche ultimately suffers the most damaging defeat, being institutionalized, while Stanley continues to brutalize his way through life.

In the opening scene of the play, Stanley appears carrying a package of bloody meat, which immediately establishes his primitive nature. In stark contrast, Blanche enters the scene wearing white. Williams compares her to a moth, symbolically stressing her fragility, purity, and virtue. Her pristine attire serves as an effective camouflage for her sordid past. As Chance Wayne (in Sweet Bird of Youth), Sebastian Venable (in Suddenly Last Summer), and Lot (in Kingdom of Earth, or the Seven Descents of Myrtle) do, by wearing white, Blanche uses her clothing to disguise her “degenerate” selfperception. Her name, which is French, literally means “white of the woods.” Out of her unlucky and desperate wilderness, Blanche enters the Kowalski apartment a transformed, mothlike creature of nature, recast as a virginal character. Although she has been a prostitute, Blanche prefers to believe in her renewed chasteness. She lives in a world of illusion and believes that her sexual encounters with strangers never constituted love; therefore, she never forfeited any aspect of her true self.

As has Karen Stone in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone , Blanche has an aversion to being viewed in bright light that will reveal her true age. As early as the first scene, she asks Stella to turn off the overhead light. Blanche is most comfortable in the warm glow of a lamp that allows her to play the part of the innocent coquette completely. She lies about her age when she courts Mitch and avoids spending time with him in daylight. When Mitch returns in the final meeting with her, he insists on tearing the lantern off the overhead light so that he may finally have a good look at her. When Blanche asks why he wants the glare of bright light, he says he is just being realistic. Blanche replies:

I don’t want realism. I want—magic! . . . Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And if that’s a sin, then let me be damned for it! Don’t turn the light on!

Of course, Stanley has informed him that she has been lying about everything. However, her mothlike, youthful facade is not just used to fool Mitch; it is an integral part of who she is. Blanche wishes she could actually be what she pretends to be. She resigns from reality because it has been too harsh. The “magic” in which she chooses to dwell is her only means of survival, as her suffering has been so great. She fears that looking her age will further discredit her in a world that has already discarded her.

Blanche also drinks heavily, while pretending to adhere to a Southern gender code that restricts well-bred women from drinking in company or in public. This is another aspect of playing the innocent coquette. Late in the play, Mitch informs Blanche that Stanley has talked about how much of his liquor she has consumed, and she realizes that her subterfuge has failed.

Although it is a means of comfort and relief, alcohol has long been a source of shame and regret for Blanche. She particularly regrets her drunken criticism of Allan because she did not mean the words that drove him to take his own life. Leonard Berkman suggests:

It is not the existence of Allan’s homosexuality that signals the failure of Blanche’s marriage; it is, rather, that Blanche must uncover this information by accident, that Blanche is incapable of responding compassionately to this information, that in short there never existed a marriage between them in which Allan could come to her in full trust and explicit needs. (“The Tragic Downfall of Blanche DuBois,” 2)

Blanche responded to Allan’s sexuality with a sense of wounded pride, and as Brick in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF does to his friend Skipper, she spends the rest of her life regretting that she did not love and accept him. Blanche responded too harshly. She loved Allan and truly believed in their marriage; however, she lived in a romantic world of delusion until she witnessed a real moment when Allan was having sex with another man, which completely shattered the illusion. As Blanche explains to Mitch:

[Allan] was in the quicksand clutching at me— but I wasn’t holding him out, I was slipping in with him! I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything except I loved him unendurably but without being able to help him or help myself.

In this instance, it was Blanche who was cruelly responsible for the ravishment (or abuse) of one that was “tender, sensitive, and delicate.”

Allan Grey’s suicide scene is reminiscent of the final scene in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. When Konstantin can no longer endure his life and the knowledge that he must live without the love he desires, he is drawn to the lake (like a seagull) and shoots himself. Konstantin and Allan are tragically similar characters, who are gravely misunderstood by those around them. Williams was enamored of Chekhov’s characters, finding them dynamically flawed and powerfully present. Chekhov’s dramaturgical influence is inherent in Streetcar , as the psychological reality of the characters creates the dramatic tension and fuels the action to an unavoidable conclusion.

Blanche tells the story of her homosexual husband to Mitch, who could very easily assume that Blanche and Allan’s marriage was never consummated. Even through her tragically truthful tales Blanche continues to create the illusion that she is prim and virginal. This makes the news of her promiscuous past more shocking and insulting to Mitch, who has respected her wish to abstain from sexual intimacy. Blanche presents the person she would like to be: naive, proper, and respectable. Blanche has found an Allan substitute in Mitch. She longs to have an opportunity to re-create that marriage and have a second chance to make up for her cruel past actions. Mitch is the answer as his sensitivity stops the haunting polka music in her mind (i.e., the painful memories of Allan’s death).

Throughout the play, Blanche frequently takes long hot baths in the sweltering heat of a New Orleans summer. This symbolic act of baptism absolves her of her past sins and cleanses her body in preparation for her husband-to-be. She repeatedly purifies her body in water, and in her mind, by each ritual bathing, she creates more distance from the sullied strangers she encountered at the Flamingo Hotel in Laurel. In moments of desperation and self-doubt, Blanche bathes. This repeated action greatly annoys Stanley.

Stanley and Blanche are archenemies because they possess antithetical personalities, and each lays claim to Stella. Whereas Stanley respects complete honesty, Blanche delights in experiencing the world through rose-colored glasses. She spends much of her time rejecting the harshness of life, and Stanley is always there to make her acknowledge the truth. Blanche enjoys the protocol of the Old South; she is nostalgic about the tradition of Southern life, whereas Stanley hates sentimentality. In his production notebook, Elia Kazan writes of Blanche:

Her problem has to do with her tradition. Her notion of what a woman should be. She is stuck with this “ideal.” It is her. It is her ego. Unless she lives by it, she cannot live; in fact her whole life has been for nothing. (Kazan, 22)

Blanche defines her existence according to the traditions of the Old South. She is completely immersed in that world, whereas Stanley symbolizes the new or modern world that is obliterating that former way of living.

Early in the play these two characters clash over the subject of Belle Reve. It is Blanche’s lost, beautiful dream, rich with family heritage and pride; Stanley is interested only in the property’s material or monetary real estate value. He is happy in the loud, harsh, and dirty world of the Vieux Carré of New Orleans, whereas Blanche prefers finer accommodations, the bucolic setting of hundreds of acres of land and large white pillars on a grand veranda that provide lounging quarters out of the midday sun. Some critics see Blanche as Williams’s most representative character, as she has lost the stability of her ancestral home and is now in exile.

According to Kazan, Blanche’s emotional decline begins when she is stripped of her plantation:

The things about the “tradition” in the nineteenth century was that it worked then. It made a woman feel important with her own secure positions and functions, her own special worth. It also made a woman at that time one with her society. But today the tradition is an anachronism which simply does not function. It does not work. So while Blanche must believe it because it makes her special, because it makes her sticking by Belle Reve an act of heroism, rather than an absurd romanticism, still it does not work. . . . She’s a misfit, a liar, her “airs” alienate people, she must act superior to them which alienates them further. (Kazan, 22)

Blanche is one of Williams’s “lost souls,” those characters who are caught between an old and a new world. As are Amanda Wingfield (in The Glass Menagerie ) and Alma Winemiller (in Summer and Smoke ), who also delight in tradition, Blanche is lost in a modern, industrial society because in it she does not have a special position simply by virtue of being a Southern woman. Belle Reve is her identification or authentication as a person, and without it, she does not possess a self and therefore must rely on others to supply stability, security, and substance. Blanche only realizes that she is responsible for her own financial and social status when it is too late. Her “airs” are her tragic flaw in this new world, Stanley’s world, a world that has been changed through hardship and struggles associated with industry, war, and economic depression. Blanche becomes “a last dying relic . . . now adrift in our unfriendly day” (Miller, 23). Although this situation may make her more pitiable, it does not make her less offensive to her peers.

Blanche’s very vocal disapproval of Stanley serves to isolate her from Stella, the one sympathetic person in her life. Her critical opinion of the dismal apartment and of Stanley’s brutish demeanor creates a chasm in the sisters’ relationship, and her chances of familial bonding are sacrificed. Blanche demonstrates her racial prejudices when she calls Stanley a “Polack,” and her gradual, yet persistent provocations lead to her ultimate violation. This act of rape wounds Blanche to a point of no return. The culmination of Stanley’s victory over Blanche occurs when Stella refuses to believe that her sister has been assaulted. Stella sides with her husband as Blanche’s past and world of illusions (or dishonesty) serve to silence her in her most desperate moment.

Williams’s ability to “capture something of the complexity of the novel within the dramatic form, especially in the area of character probity and psychology” (Adler, 9), has set Streetcar apart and is the reason it merits its status not only as a modern classic, but s a watershed moment in U.S. theater history. Essentially, Williams created a new genre in the modern theater: a heightened naturalism that allows dreams (or nightmares) to coexist with reality.

DuBois, Blanche

Described in the opening scene as “mothlike,” Blanche is an aging Southern belle. She is refined, delicate, and steeped in the traditions of Southern gentry. She first appears wearing white, symbolizing her feigned purity and virtuous nature. Blanche is one of Williams’s dreamers, forfeiting reality for a magical or romantic approach to life. She is not concerned with truth, but rather “what ought to be the truth.”

When she was a young woman, Blanche married her true love, Allan Grey. He was tender and sensitive, different from the other men in her life. Although he was not “the least bit effeminate looking,” she learned of his homosexuality when she entered a room uninvited and found Allan having sex with an older male friend. Later that night, the three of them attended a dance at Moon Lake Casino. During this evening of heavy drinking, Blanche confronted Allan about his sexuality while a polka played and lovers danced around them. Devastated by Blanche’s disgust toward him, Allan ran off the dance floor. He found refuge at the edge of the nearby lake, where he shot himself. Blanche is forever haunted by the guilt she feels over Allan’s suicide. She cannot move beyond the loss of her husband, and in moments of desperation she still hears the polka waltz in her mind. She drinks whiskey to cope with her self-reproach, but the cruelty she displayed toward Allan forever torments her.

Blanche’s life continues on a downward spiral with the deaths of several other family members. She is obligated to nurse them, witnessing the slow, torturous deterioration of life. Blanche is forced to earn her living as a high school English teacher because her ancestral home, Belle Reve (which means “beautiful dream” in French), in Laurel, Mississippi, is in danger of foreclosure. Severely lonely and desperate, she finds consolation in the embrace of strange men. When she is fired from her teaching position because of a “morally unfit” liaison with a 17-year-old boy, her reputation is completely ruined. Belle Reve is foreclosed and she is forced to live in a seedy hotel called the Flamingo. Because of her practice of entertaining men at the Flamingo, she is eventually forced to leave that establishment as well.

Destitute and homeless, Blanche travels to New Orleans, taking a “streetcar named Desire” to the slums of Elysian Fields, where her sister, Stella Kowalski, lives with her brutish husband, Stanley Kowalski. She arrives unannounced at the crampedtwo-room apartment. She immediately rejects Stanley because of his unrefined behavior and crude, straightforward response to life. Her worst opinions of Stanley are justified when she witnesses the beatings Stella suffers at the hands of her husband. Blanche believes that “a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion,” and she clashes with Stanley, who is determined to catch Blanche in all of her lies. Her facade quickly positions her as Stanley’s prime enemy. He is sickened by her exaggerations and false prudishness. Despite her past, Blanche remains married to the ideals of purity, creating the illusion of what she “ought to be.”

Stanley triumphs over her when he finds out about her promiscuous past in Laurel. He destroys her only chance of comfort by relating her sordid past to Mitch (Harold Mitchell), her only and final marriage prospect. Stanley then rapes Blanche, presuming that she has had so many sexual encounters that one more will make no difference. After this act, a deed that Stella refuses to acknowledge, Blanche is wounded once and for all. She loses her grip on reality and finds consolation in a type of magical world that will not allow her to hurt anymore. This world places her at the mercy of “the kindness of strangers.” The strange men in her life are replaced by the medical staff of a mental institution.

Hubbell, Eunice

Eunice is the wife of Steve Hubbell. She and Steve are the upstairs neighbors of Stanley and Stella Kowalski. As do Stanley and Stella, Eunice and Steve have a volatile marital relationship. In many ways, the older couple (Eunice and Steve) mirror Stanley and Stella and offer a vision of what the young couple will be in the future. Eunice is a confidante to Stella, and Eunice eases the younger woman’s transition into a life of denial and compromise. When Stella’s sister, Blanche DuBois, accuses Stanley of rape, Eunice instructs Stella to disavow Blanche’s claims for the sake of her marriage, her child, and her own sanity.

Hubbell, Steve

Steve is the husband of Eunice Hubbell. He and Eunice are the upstairs neighbors of Stanley and Stella Kowalski. As do Stanley and Stella, Eunice and Steve have a volatile marital relationship. In many ways, the older couple (Eunice and Steve) mirror Stanley and Stella and offer a vision of what the young couple will be in the future.

Kowalski, Stanley

He is a strong, brutish man of Polish descent. Stanley is a former soldier, who fought during World War II and who now lives in the mundane world of factory work. He is cruelly honest. His pastimes include bowling, drinking, playing poker with his friends and having sex with his wife, Stella Kowalski. Stanley enjoys the comforts of Stella’s love. Although he is unrefined, loud, and quick-tempered, he possesses a simplicity which makes him desirable to Stella. There is also an animal attraction between Stanley and Stella, and their relationship is based not on communication but on physical attraction. In the stage directions of Streetcar , Williams describes him as a “gaudy seed bearer [who] sizes women up at a glance.”

Stanley revels in the fact that Stella is from an old aristocratic Southern family and that she has rejected upper-crust society to live with him in a tenement house in the slums of New Orleans. Stanley functions with very basic objectives. He is strongwilled and responds to adversity with violence.

When his sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois, moves in, Stanley feels threatened by her presence and her rejection of his way of life. He does not like to share what is his: his wife, his liquor, and his apartment. When he finds out that the DuBois plantation, Belle Reve, has been foreclosed, he immediately demands proof that Blanche did not sell it and keep the money. Stanley expects to share any profits, as he is Stella’s husband. Stella and Blanche are personally devastated by the loss of their ancestral home; Stanley is only concerned with the practical, monetary side of the situation. He has no way of comprehending the emotional loss of such a thing. In addition, Blanche’s large personality leaves little room for him to be the center of attention. The two engage in a power struggle that draws out the worst in Stanley’s personality. The tension created by Blanche’s presence provokes Stanley to beat Stella and to seek a way to ruin his sister-in-law.

He triumphs over Blanche after searching for the truth of her disreputable past. When he has gathered this ammunition, he informs Blanche’s only marriage prospect, Mitch (Harold Mitchell)of her sordid past. By this he is able to pierce the virginal facade that Blanche has used to manipulate and control. Stella defends her sister by explaining that she has had a tragic past and she is weak, but Stanley is interested only in survival of the fittest. He rapes Blanche and denies that he did to Stella. This is Stanley’s ultimate triumph. In the end, Blanche is taken to a mental institution while Stanley comforts his wife by fondling her breasts.

Kowalski, Stella

She is the wife of Stanley Kowalski and the sister of Blanche DuBois. Stella is a member of a very refined and dignified Southern family, who has chosen to cast off her social status in exchange for marriage to Stanley, a vulgar and often brutal simpleton. She is caught in the war between Stanley and Blanche, whose constant bickering and fighting leads to Stanley’s sexually assaulting Blanche. Stella refuses to believe that her husband would rape her sister. After her accusations of rape, Stella commits Blanche to a mental institution. As does her sister, Stella glosses over harsh reality to live in the world of illusions to cope with Stanley’s abhorrent behavior.

Mitchell, Harold (Mitch)

A middle-aged man whose dedication to his ailing mother leaves him lonely and troubled. Mitch falls in love with Blanche Dubois, a refined, yet fading Southern belle. They engage in a respectable courtship, and Blanche insists on delaying sexual relations until they are married. When Stanley Kowalski informs Mitch of Blanche’s sordid past as a prostitute, he is shocked and offended that she has made him wait for sexual intimacy.

FURTHER READING Adler, Thomas P. A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and The Lantern. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Berkman, Leonard. “The Tragic Downfall of Blanche DuBois,” Modern Drama 10, no. 2 (December 1967): 249–257. Kazan, Elia. “Notebook for A Streetcar Named Desire,” in Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Jordan Y. Miller. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice- Hall, 1971, pp. 21–26. Shaw, Irwin. “Masterpiece,” in Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Jordan Y. Miller. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971, pp. 45–47. Sova, Dawn B. Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures. New York: Facts On File, 2001.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee williams, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

A Streetcar Named Desire: Introduction

A streetcar named desire: plot summary, a streetcar named desire: detailed summary & analysis, a streetcar named desire: themes, a streetcar named desire: quotes, a streetcar named desire: characters, a streetcar named desire: symbols, a streetcar named desire: literary devices, a streetcar named desire: theme wheel, brief biography of tennessee williams.

Historical Context of A Streetcar Named Desire

Other books related to a streetcar named desire.

Full Title: A Streetcar Named Desire
When Written: 1946-7
Where Written: New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans
When Published: Broadway premiere December 3, 1947
Literary Period: Dramatic naturalism
Genre: Psychological drama
Setting: New Orleans, LA
Climax: Stanley’s rape of Blanche at the end of Scene Ten
Antagonist: Stanley Kowalski

Extra Credit for A Streetcar Named Desire

That Rattle-trap Streetcar Named Desire. The Desire streetcar line operated in New Orleans from 1920 to 1948, going through the French Quarter to its final stop on Desire Street.

Streetcar on the silver screen. The original 1947 Broadway production of Streetcar shot Marlon Brando, who played Stanley Kowalski, to stardom. Brando’s legendary performance cemented the actor’s status as a sex symbol of the stage and screen. Elia Kazan, who directed both the original Broadway production and the 1951 film adaptation, used the Stanislavski method-acting system, which focuses on realism and natural characters instead of melodrama. The Stanislavski system asks actors to use their memories to help give the characters real emotions. Brando based his depiction of Stanley on the boxer Rocky Graziano, going to his gym to study his movements and mannerisms. Largely due to Brando’s Stanley and Vivian Leigh’s iconic Blanche, Kazan’s film has become a cultural touchstone, particularly Brando’s famous bellowing of “STELL-LAHHHHH!”

Oh, Streetcar! In an episode of The Simpsons , the characters stage a musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire called Oh, Streetcar! Mild-mannered Ned Flanders as Stanley gives the famous “STELLA” yell, singing, “Can’t you hear me yell-a? You’re putting me through hell-a!”

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A Streetcar Named Desire: Essay Questions

A list of potential essay questions to form revision and speed planning practice

‘Stella is the lynchpin within the play for better or for worse’ In light of this statement, explore William’s presentation of relationships in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Shame lies at the heart of each character’ In light of this statement, explore William’s presentation of self and identity in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘A Streetcar Named Desire is a play emblematic of the modern era’ In light of this statement, explore William’s presentation of time and place in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Abuse is normalised as the strong dominate the weak’ In light of this statement, explore William’s presentation of power in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors.

Examine the view that the conflict between Stanley and Blanche is primarily based on their difference in social class.

‘A play about secrets and the catastrophic consequences of their exposure’ In light of this statement explore Williams’ presentation of secrets and their revelation in A Streetcar named Desire .

To what extent can Blanche DuBois be considered a victim in A Streetcar named Desire ?

Discuss the importance of the past in A Streetcar named Desire .

‘This play explores the clash between two cultures not, two individuals’ Consider this perspective in A Streetcar named Desire .

‘The play essentially reveals to us the vulnerability of human beings’ Examine this view in A Streetcar named Desire .

Explore Williams’ use of music in the play, is it much more than a naturalistic device?

Blanche believes the opposite to death is desire. How is this theme developed throughout the play?

Discuss the role of music and other sound effects in A Streetcar named Desire .

Explore themes of morality in A Streetcar named Desire .

8x A* 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE' ESSAYS for A Level English Literature

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

22 June 2019

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This is a bank of 8 ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Essays submitted as part of the Edexcel A Level English Literature course. All of them were marked and were either a high Level 4 or Level 5, which, when using the grade boundaries from last year, means that they are all an A* standard. This is useful to teachers, who are looking to share exemplar essays with their students. It’s also useful to students themselves who are looking to compare their work or improve. All the questions answered cover various themes and characters to ensure students are best prepared for the exam. This resource might be useful for a reverse essay planning exercise, where students have to generate an essay plan from a pre-written essay. It might also be good for students to self-assess, to identify what the Exam Board are looking for and where

The questions answered are:

‘Despite the excitement and clamour, the play essentially shows us the vulnerability of human beings.’ In the light of this comment, explore Williams’ dramatic presentation of vulnerability in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Williams viewed the characters he created as ‘my little company of the faded and frightened, the difficult, the odd, the lonely’. In light of this statement, explore Williams’ presentation of key characters. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘When a play employs unconventional techniques it is not, or certainly shouldn’t be, trying to escape its responsibility of dealing with reality.’ In the light of this comment, explore Williams’ dramatic presentation of reality. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Elysian Fields is a world filled with violence, in which Blanche cannot survive.’ In the light of this comment, explore Williams’ dramatic presentation of violence in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Mitch may be a weak character, but his treatment of Blanche is still disturbing and harmful.’ In the light of this comment, explore Williams’ dramatic presentation of Mitch. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘Blanche to Mitch: I don’t want you to think I am severe and old-maid school-teacherish or anything like that…I guess it is just that I have … old-fashioned ideals!’ In light of this quotation, explore Williams’ presentation of characters’ attitudes to sex and sexuality. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

‘A Streetcar Named Desire is a play concerned with the conflict between the old world and the new.’ In light of this comment, explore Williams’ presentation of the conflict between Blanche and Stanley so far. In your answer you must consider relevant contextual factors.

Evaluate Williams’ presentation of the setting and characters presented in the exposition of his play A Streetcar Named Desire. You should make links to relevant contextual factors.

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A Streetcar Named Desire: Language and Imagery

Understanding language and imagery.

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is celebrated for its rich language and vivid imagery which helps communicate the tensions, themes and personalities of the characters.
Tennessee Williams cleverly uses various literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors, and figurative language to add layers of interpretation to the play.
Understanding this can enhance one’s appreciation of the depth of portrayal and insightfulness of the play.
The streetcar itself is a powerful symbol, reflecting the path that Blanche has taken in her life. Its name - ‘Desire’ - represents her past promiscuity while ‘Cemeteries’, its final destination, could represent the end of Blanche’s life as she knows it.
Light and Darkness : Blanche’s constant need to hide her age and her past is emphasized through the frequent mentions of light, shadows and darkness. Light represents reality, which Blanche fears, while darkness stands for illusion and secrecy.
The paper lantern she puts over the bulb is another symbol representing her attempts to mask and soften the harsh truth of her life.

Metaphors and Figurative Language

Animalistic Imagery : Williams frequently uses animal metaphors particularly to describe Stanley’s behaviour, emphasizing his primal, raw, and physical nature.
Floral Imagery : Blanche is often associated with flowers, signifying her frailty, delicacy and transient beauty.
Tarantula Arms : This metaphor underscores Stanley’s predatory nature against Blanche’s delicate vulnerability.

Significant Quotes

“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!” – Blanche’s arrival sets up the symbolic trajectory of her character through the play.
“I can hardly stand it when he is away for the night” - Stella’s description of Stanley uses sensual, passionate language that demonstrates their carnal relationship.
Stanley’s description of Blanche as “the Queen of the Nile setting in state” is heavily saturated with sarcasm , highlighting his sneering contempt for her pretentious airs.

Key Themes Highlighted Through Language and Imagery

Illusion vs. reality : The deceptive nature of Blanche’s character and her desire to escape the reality of her past are amplified through symbolic use of light and darkness.
Animalistic Desire : Stanley’s raw and primitive character is emphasized through repeated use of animal metaphors.
Decay and death : The journey of the streetcar and its final destination, the decay of Blanche’s beauty and former life, all point towards the pervading theme of decay and death.

Studying the Use of Language and Imagery

An understanding of Williams’ use of language and imagery adds depth to the character analyis, offering insights into their motivations, conflicts, and complex personalities.
Attention to these details will provide a richer analysis in your critical essay, supporting your interpretations and arguments with textual evidence.

A Streetcar Named Desire is Soulpepper at its best

Amy Rutherford, as Blanche DuBois, and Mac Fyfe, as Stanley, in A Streetcar Named Desire at Soulpepper. Rutherford is in full command of her performance, while Fyfe's portrayal of Stanley is one of a survivor who you never for a moment feel sympathy for. Dahlia Katz/Supplied

Title: A Streetcar Named Desire
Written by: Tennessee Williams
Director: Weyni Mengesha
Actors: Amy Rutherford, Mac Fyfe, Shakura Dickson
Company: Soulpepper Theatre Company
Venue: Young Centre for the Performing Arts
City: Toronto
Year: Runs to July 14, 2024

Critic’s Pick

Sometimes, there’s God so quickly. But, in theatre, more often the divinest of productions are the slowest of burns.

That’s the case with director Weyni Mengesha’s revival of her acclaimed 2019 production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire – now simmering on stage at Soulpepper for an extra week, until July 14.

Five years after she first played Blanche DuBois for the Toronto theatre company, Amy Rutherford has returned to the role, the most iconic of Williams’ Southern belles.

The highly distinctive, yet chameleonic actor is never not in full command of her performance vocally or physically for a second of the show’s running time of three hours and 15 minutes. If you missed her tremendous take last time around (as I did), here’s a chance not to make that mistake again.

In this classic 1947 American play, Blanche shows up in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella (Shakura Dickson) and husband Stanley (Mac Fyfe), a salesman who is everything she disdains: loud, crass and of Polish descent.

Blanche has been through a parade of traumatic deaths of her closest loved ones and lost the family plantation – and, along with that financial security, seemingly some of her sanity. And yet, she still retains a certain love of beauty, language and imagination that makes her one of American theatre’s most intoxicating characters.

Rutherford weaves the proper surface spell with her depiction of Blanche’s tics, her twang, her theatricality, but her flightiness here seems to be a survival technique that’s more calculated than it is uncontrolled. Each long soak in a hot bath is a strategic retreat, each nervous breakdown also an elegant deke in her battle with her brutish brother-in-law.

Rutherford always makes it seem possible that her Blanche might not just survive her latest setbacks, but eventually thrive – making the play’s inevitable tragic ending all that more crushing.

The fight between Blanche and Stanley is the heart of the play, and on one level, is over the smallest piece of territory, a fold-up bed behind a curtain in a cramped French Quarter apartment. But it’s also for the mind and body of Stella – who believes she has found freedom from her past in an abusive relationship – and the future of the unborn child inside her.

Fyfe is one of the few male Canadian stage actors working these days who doesn’t feel the need to make his characters likable in the least. You certainly get the sense that his Stanley is a survivor himself – of racism, of classism, of whatever he saw or did in the Second World War – but you never for a moment feel sympathy for him.

“You know what luck is?” Stanley asks his poker buds, rhetorically. “Luck is believing you’re lucky. To hold front position in this rat-race you’ve got to believe you are lucky.”

It’s clear in the restrained (though not always restrained) rage of Fyfe’s performance that he’s as full of delusions about himself as Blanche is; he’s living in a patriarchal American society that will ultimately reward them.

The softness in this Streetcar comes from Dickson as Stella – new to this revival, and not yet digging quite as deep as she could into the character – and Gregory Prest as Mitch, one of those seemingly good straight men that Williams likes to dangle in front of his female protagonists and then yank away.

Shakura Dickson, as Stella, and Fyfe, as Stanley, in A Streetcar Named Desire. Dickson brings softness to Tennessee Williams’ iconic tragedy. Dahlia Katz/Supplied

What leavens the playwright’s remorseless cruelty in Mengesha’s production is a wonderful conjuring of the steamy atmosphere of New Orleans and its jambalaya of cultures through music and the excellent ensemble work of Divine Brown, Lindsay Owen Pierre, Sebastian Marziali and Ordena Stephens-Thompson.

Designer Lorenzo Savoini’s set transforms the stage into a kind of giant shipping container – its corrugated metal walls on all sides buckling and making unsettlingly loud bangs when bumped up against (at one point, devastatingly).

There are some pleasing anachronisms in Rachel Forbes’ costumes, as well as the props; Blanche’s first entrance, dragging a modern suitcase with wheels down the auditorium aisle and onto the stage, shows just how out of place she is in the world she’s about to enter.

This is Mengesha at her best as a director – not showing off but using imagery and metaphor for maximum impact.

Soulpepper first arrived on the scene saying to Toronto theatregoers – hey, you don’t have to drive out of the city to see stellar productions of classics in the summer. It still offers that, here.

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A Streetcar Named Desire

By tennessee williams, a streetcar named desire quotes and analysis.

I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action. (p. 60) Blanche

This line clearly sets up the key theme of illusion vs reality. Blanche takes the naked truth - the stark bare lightbulb, the rude remark - and dresses it up prettily to make everyone happier and everything easier. That she speaks of talk and action as analogous to a lightbulb shows that she considers the remedy for uncouth behavior and appearance to be a paper lantern, an external cover, rather than a change from within.

Poker should not be played in a house with women. (p. 63 & 65) Mitch

During Stanley's tantrum at the poker game, Mitch twice remarks that women and poker are a bad mix. This characterizes Mitch as someone who believes women are soft and gentle and should be protected from the roughness of poker. But it also shows that he doesn't blame the individual - Stanley - for his actions, but instead blames the poker game, as though the testosterone stirred up were unavoidable and necessary.

I'm not in anything I want to get out of. (p. 74) Stella

This moment represents a major blow to Blanche's world view. Up till now, she was unable to imagine that her sister could be happy with the small flat and the brutish husband. But Stella finally drives home the point that she is not looking for an escape. It crumbles Blanche to learn that this way of life is embraced by someone she loves and respects.

But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant. (p. 81) Stella

Stella is explaining her overwhelming love for Stanley in terms of physical passion. Blanche correctly sums this up as "desire," just like "that rattle-trap street-car that bangs through the Quarter." Blanche can recognize desire, but she tries to pretend she can't, and refuses to get on board. She cannot experience desire separately from shame. Stella's contentment with her relationship is completely foreign to Blanche.

I never was hard or self-sufficient enough. When people are soft - soft people have got to shimmer and glow - they've got ot put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a - paper lantern over th elight... It isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be soft and attractive . And I - I'm fading now! I don't know how much longer I can turn the trick. (p. 92) Blanche

Blanche explains her difficulties in life through a philosophy that pairs softness with attractiveness. She paints herself as floating, without agency or will, just a victim of the demands that the soft be attractive. But the truth is that the abuse of life has forced Blanche to harden up. She resists any hardness, preferring the ephemeral freeness of her youth, and actively undermines any walls and strength that have built up inside her. Her use of the phrase "turn the trick" is also noteworthy, as that is an old idiom for prostitution. Women in Blanche's world view must sell themselves, and when they are no longer a sellable commodity then they are in a desperate situation indeed.

And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that's stronger than this--kitchen--candle. (p. 115) Blanche

Blanche is telling Mitch the sad details of her marriage to Allan. She loved him truly, despite her disgust at his homosexuality, and something broke inside her when he died. She ties this loss to the theme of light. Blanche hides from bright lights because they expose the truth, but she also avoids them because there is no longer any light inside her to match.

I don't want realism. I want magic! (p. 145) Blanche

This is Blanche's battle cry. It doesn't matter whether the magic is real. It doesn't even matter whether Blanche herself believes it. What's important for Blanche is that she always have the option of the fantasy - that she can believe in and hope for something prettier and lovelier and kinder than the real world. She is a self-aware Don Quixote, forcing the world to be as beautiful as she imagines it.

Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty. (p. 152) Blanche

Blanche may be deluded about a lot of things, but she is lucid and strong on this point. She lies and cheats and steals, but never to hurt anyone. She wishes only to preserve an illusion. And a fundamental component of her illusion is that she must believe the best of anyone she loves, and believe them incapable of cruelty. She is, unfortunately, unable to make this dream a reality.

We've had this date with each other from the beginning. (p. 162) Stanley

This is Stanley's implicating moment. In a fundamental way, Blanche and Stanley have always been the only ones who knew what was going on. Blanche knows what part of her story is illusion, and Stanley sees through it all. The conflict of that dynamic was destined, according to Stanley, to come to a head in the bedroom. But this statement also turns Blanche's rape into a premeditated act, turning Blanche for once into as much a victim as she has long painted herself to be.

I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley. (p. 165) Stella

Stella is the interesting character in the final scene. She has resolved an unresolveable conflict in her soul in the only way possible. Her sister says that Stanley raped her. Stella's only options, therefore, are to either believe Blanche - and leave Stanley - or to consider Blanche's story a lie or a delusion. Even though Stella knows deep down that Blanche was telling at least a partial truth, she must now follow her sister's example and embrace illusion over reality, in order to continue living the life she had before Blanche ever came to New Orleans.

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A Streetcar Named Desire Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Streetcar Named Desire is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is the significance of the hand mirror Blanche looks into in this scene? What does she confront through this action?

I see no evidence of a hand mirror in Scene V. Please provide the text in question.

The difference between Blanche and Stanley’s social background is shown through their way of speaking. What are some quotes from scene 2 to support the following statements

STANLEY: What's all this monkey doings?

Blanche explains that she knows she fibs a lot, because "after all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion"

You can clearly see the difference in diction.

strange man

re you referring to Streetcar Named Desire?

Study Guide for A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire study guide contains a biography of Tennessee Williams, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire Summary
Character List

Essays for A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Chekhov's Influence on the Work of Tennessee Williams
Morality and Immorality (The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Streetcar Named Desire)
Traditionalism versus Defiance in a Streetcar Named Desire
Comparing Social and Ethnic Tensions in A Streetcar Named Desire and Blues for Mister Charlie
The Wolf's Jaws: Brutality and Abandonment in A Streetcare Named Desire

Lesson Plan for A Streetcar Named Desire

About the Author
Study Objectives
Introduction to A Streetcar Named Desire
Relationship to Other Books
Notes to the Teacher

Wikipedia Entries for A Streetcar Named Desire

Introduction
Stage productions
Adaptations

‘A Street Taxi Named Desiree’ makes a pit stop in Mbombela

The play, which was showcased during this year's innibos, was inspired by the renowned “a streetcar named desire” by tennessee williams and offers a satirical take on the issues facing most south africans..

“When you start your day in the office, before you type your first ‘kind regards’, mine has long started – on the road, no tea breaks, no days off, no medical aid. Just me on the road, making sure you get to work, you go to your job interviews and you get to school.”

This was a taxi operator’s dialogue in a play called A Street Taxi Named Desiree, which showed the intricacies of the South African taxi culture. The play was part of this year’s Innibos National Arts Festival and was showcased on various days at Laerskool Laeveld.

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Each facet of the taxi ride was depicted in individual scenes portraying the point of view of the driver, the passenger and even the observers. It offered a captivating journey into issues that South Africans experience on a daily basis.

The producer, writer and director, Obett Motaung, said the play served as a satirical look at what happens in the taxi world and unravelled some of the general issues in South Africa.

Motaung said he drew inspiration from the American play by Tennessee Williams with a similar title, A Streetcar Named Desire, the South African classic Woza Albert! and The Island.

“The play was inspired by many other works and through this process, we unpacked what is happening in contemporary society, including issues like gender-based violence and corruption. However, we used the imagery of the taxi world to drive the story.”

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An audience member who attended the play on Saturday June 29, Zani Barrish, said she loved that it was a satirical take on A Streetcar Named Desire but that it was set in a South African context with issues to which the audience could relate, such as load-shedding, government grants, strikes, reality TV and the need for change – both small and larger political change.

Barrish said the actors transitioned brilliantly and seamlessly between different perspectives and various characters.

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The American ‘Pope’ of German Ballet Steps Down After a Long Reign

John Neumeier has run the Hamburg Ballet for 51 years, putting his stamp on the company and the city.

A black and white portrait of a male dancer, topless, wearing loose white pants. He has one arm extended and one leg bent.

By Roslyn Sulcas

Reporting from Hamburg, Germany

It’s among the longest tenures of any director of an arts organization. The choreographer John Neumeier has been running the Hamburg Ballet for 51 years, transforming it from a provincial opera house troupe into an international vehicle for his work — a prolific mix of abstract and storytelling ballets that draws fervent audiences at home and abroad.

On Sunday, Neumeier will take his final bow as director, at the company’s annual end-of-season Nijinsky Gala , at which extracts from 13 of his works will be performed. After that the Argentine choreographer Demis Volpi will step into the role of artistic director.

Neumeier is 85, which might seem like a decent age to retire. But choosing to go was difficult for him.

“It was a rational decision, not an emotional one,” he said hesitantly in an interview in April at his home, a light-filled, early 20th-century villa in a quiet suburb of Hamburg. Trim and dapper in sneakers and a plaid shirt, Neumeier speaks with quiet focus and still moves with a dancer’s ease.

“If I asked myself, are the dancers unhappy, are they bored, I have to say I didn’t feel any of that,” he said. “But when I started approaching 50 years here, I thought, I don’t want a downward slide.” He looked momentarily tearful. “The hardest part is looking at the young people coming up, that’s the most beautiful part of your work, feeling that you are contributing to them.”

Neumeier is American, born in Milwaukee, and strongly influenced by his early training with the experimental modern dance choreographer Sybil Shearer in Illinois. But his career has been in Europe, where he is counted as a major figure in ballet who has created over 170 works, many in company repertories around the world.

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A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
An Examination of The Character of Blanche in a Streetcar Named Desire. 5 pages / 2287 words. In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the nature of theatricality, "magic," and "realism," all stem from the tragic character, Blanche DuBois. Blanche is both a theatricalizing and self-theatricalizing woman.
Analysis of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams 's (March 26, 1911 - February 25, 1983) A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), is generally regarded as his best. Initial reaction was mixed, but there would be little argument now that it is one of the most powerful plays in the modern theater. Like The Glass Menagerie, it concerns, primarily, a man and two women and a ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Study Guide
Key Facts about A Streetcar Named Desire. Full Title: A Streetcar Named Desire. When Written: 1946-7. Where Written: New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. When Published: Broadway premiere December 3, 1947. Literary Period: Dramatic naturalism. Genre: Psychological drama.
A Streetcar Named Desire: Essay Questions
A list of potential essay questions to form revision and speed planning practice 'Stella is the lynchpin within the play for better or for worse' In light of this statement, explore William's presentation of relationships in A Streetcar Named Desire. In your answer, you must consider relevant contextual factors. 'Shame lies at the….
A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis
Stella is from Laurel, Mississippi, where her family for generations owned a large plantation outside town. The days of family wealth have gone, hence Stella's journey to New Orleans to seek her ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Essays and Criticism
Theater Review of A Streetcar Named Desire. First published on December 4, 1947, this laudatory review by Atkinson appraises the play's debut and labels Williams's work as a "superb drama ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Critical Overview
Critical Overview. A Streetcar Named Desire premiered in Boston and Philadelphia, then in New York on December 4, 1947, to almost unanimously laudatory reviews. The New Yorker described Streetcar ...
8x A* 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE' ESSAYS for A Level English Literature
docx, 26.35 KB. This is a bank of 8 'A Streetcar Named Desire' Essays submitted as part of the Edexcel A Level English Literature course. All of them were marked and were either a high Level 4 or Level 5, which, when using the grade boundaries from last year, means that they are all an A* standard. This is useful to teachers, who are ...
A Streetcar Named Desire: Theme & Key Quotes: Interior vs Exterior
Everything you need to know about A Streetcar Named Desire: Theme & Key Quotes: Interior vs Exterior for the Higher English SQA exam, totally free, with assessment questions, text & videos. ... Critical Essay: A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire: Context: The Great Depression; A Streetcar Named Desire: Context: World War II;
A Streetcar Named Desire Essay Questions
Essays for A Streetcar Named Desire. A Streetcar Named Desire literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire. Chekhov's Influence on the Work of Tennessee Williams; Morality and Immorality (The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Streetcar ...
Sample Answers
This is explained in the opening scene: Blanche travels on a New Orleans streetcar 'named Desire', then changes to one called Cemeteries, to reach her sister's home. This implies that desire leads to death. Making the symbolism more obvious, Blanche tells Stella in Scene Four that the 'streetcar' of desire has led her to the Kowalski ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Essays
A Streetcar Named Desire. Throughout scenes 1 and 2 of A Streetcar Named Desire, playwright Tennessee Williams presents Stanley as extremely powerful and authoritative through the use of dialogue as well as stage directions. The audience immediately learns how strong... The Theme of Entrapment in The Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire.
A Streetcar Named Desire Critical Essays
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams shows the reality of people's lives, an enduring concern of his throughout his writing career. He wrote this play believing he was about to die, so he wrote ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
Essays About A Streetcar Named Desire; Chekhov's Influence on the Work of Tennessee Williams; Morality and Immorality (The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Streetcar Named Desire) Traditionalism versus Defiance in a Streetcar Named Desire; Comparing Social and Ethnic Tensions in A Streetcar Named Desire and Blues for Mister Charlie
A Streetcar Named Desire
Desire - Established in Scene 1, 'Cemetaries', 'Elysian Fields' - Context: Elysian Fields, Blanche's living death - 'Epic fornication' - Stella and Stanley fated for ruin due to desire - Parallels with Steve and Eunice, abuse, 'luxurious' - Desire is the 'opposite' to death - 'After the death of Allen...' - Death of psyche due to Stanley's desire Death of the Old South - Expressed through ...
A Streetcar Named Desire: Language and Imagery
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is celebrated for its rich language and vivid imagery which helps communicate the tensions, themes and personalities of the characters. Tennessee Williams cleverly uses various literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors, and figurative language to add layers of interpretation to the play.
Review: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at Paramount has all of ...
Indeed. Those words of the late, great drama critic — who adored Tennessee Williams and jump-started his career — always ring in my ears when I review Williams' plays, especially "A ...
Review: A Streetcar Named Desire is Soulpepper at its best
That's the case with director Weyni Mengesha's revival of her acclaimed 2019 production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire - now simmering on stage at Soulpepper for an extra ...
A Streetcar Named Desire Quotes and Analysis
A Streetcar Named Desire study guide contains a biography of Tennessee Williams, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. ... A Streetcar Named Desire literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A ...
'A Street Taxi Named Desiree' makes a pit stop in Mbombela
An audience member who attended the play on Saturday June 29, Zani Barrish, said she loved that it was a satirical take on A Streetcar Named Desire but that it was set in a South African context ...
What is a good thesis statement for A Streetcar Named Desire
3. Because Stella cannot escape marriage like Blanche can, she is just is much of a victim in the end. A thesis that would tie all of these together would be: Although it seems like Blanche is the ...
The American 'Pope' of German Ballet Steps Down After a Long Reign
Over his long career, Neumeier has produced story ballets based on literary texts ("Lady of the Camellias," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Othello") and other sources ("Nijinsky ...

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Reality Versus Illusion in The Streetcar Named Desire

How Blanche and Stella Rely on Self-delusion in a Streetcar Named Desire

An Examination of The Character of Blanche in a Streetcar Named Desire

The Concealed Homosexuality in a Streetcar Named Desire

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‘A Street Taxi Named Desiree’ makes a pit stop in Mbombela

Caxton and I Teach announce revolutionary partnership

Mpumalanga’s Nkosi City finally back on track

New crime-busting sheriffs in Mpumalanga determined to eradicate scourge

MEC bows out from Mpumalanga Legislature after 15 years

Suspect connected to deaths of Pienaar minors confirmed dead

The American ‘Pope’ of German Ballet Steps Down After a Long Reign

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