A Streetcar Named Desire is a well-loved old timey classic. Set in New Orleans, Louisiana around 1947, this Tennessee Williams play is a fantastic Southern Gothic read.
The Plot
((warning: spoilers)) ((tw: domestic violence, suicide, rape, homophobia))
Stella, 25 and pregnant, lives with her husband, Stanley Kowalski. The Kowalski apartment is in a poor but charming neighbourhood in the French quarter, called Elysian Fields.
Blanche Dubois, Stella’s older sister, arrives unexpectedly at the Kowalski apartment carrying all that she owns. She arrives by travelling on a streetcar named ‘Desire’, and then another named ‘Cemeteries’. Blanche tells her sister that Belle Reve, their family mansion, has been lost. Blanche had stayed in Laurel (their home town) to care for her dying family when Stella left to make a life for herself – it is clear that Blanche holds some resentment.
Blanche meets Stanley and is seemingly uncomfortable. We learn that Blanche had married young but is now widowed. Stanley initially distrusts Blanche about the share of Belle Reve. The tension between Blanche and Stanley continues and they don’t get on.
One night, Stanley gets too drunk during a poker game and beats Stella. The women go to their upstairs neighbour’s apartment but Stella soon returns to Stanley. Blanche struggles to understand their destructive relationship.
That night, Blanche meets Mitch and there’s an immediate attraction. The next day, Stanley overhears Blanche badmouthing him and decides to devote himself fully to her downfall.
Blanche has a shady past which she kept to herself: When her late husband admitted his homosexuality, she told him she was disgusted. This causes her husband to kill himself. During the last days after their mansion was lost, she was lonely and turned to many strangers for comfort. This destroyed her reputation, resulting in the loss of her job as an English teacher and near-expulsion from town.
Blanche and Stanley become enemies and Blanche turns to alcohol for comfort. Stanley finds out about her past and he tells Mitch. Although they were on track to marry, Mitch loses all interest in Blanche and abandons her on her birthday.
Stanley gives Blanche tickets back to Laurel for her birthday, but she can’t return as she’s ill – which Stanley knows. This causes a fight between Stella and Stanley. During their fight, Stella goes into labour.
That night, Blanche packs and drinks when Mitch arrives. He confronts her and she opens up to him. When he makes advances, he refuses to marry her and is consequently kicked out of the apartment.
Hours later, Stanley comes home to sleep while Stella is still in labour. Blanche and Stanley clash and he rapes her.
Weeks later, another poker game takes place.
Blanche has a mental breakdown and tells Stella about the rape, but Stella doesn’t want to believe it.
A doctor and nurse arrive and take Blanche away to an asylum. The poker game continues as though nothing happened.
Themes
Fantasy and Illusion
- Blanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self defense
- Her deceits carry no traits of malice, but show her weaknesses and inability to confront the truth head on
- She sees the world as what it ought to be, rather than what it is. This protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure
- Blanche’s illusions greatly contrast with Stanley’s realism, and it’s his views that eventually wins
- Stella had reason for illusion when she forced herself to believe that her sister’s accusations about her husband were false
Cruelty
- According to Blanche, the only unforgivable crime is deliberate cruelty – which is Stanley’s speciality
- Blanche is dishonest but never lies out of malice. Her cruelty is unintentional, and she often lies to please
- Throughout the play, we see a full range of cruelty: Blanche’s well-intentioned deceits, Stella’s self-deceiving treachery and Stanley’s intentional yet unchecked animosity and rape
Primitive and Primal
- Blanche often refers to Stanley as ‘ape-like’ and primitive as he represents a very unrefined manhood; a romantic idea of a man untouched by civilisation. This gives him the attraction of women → Stella can’t resist him and, although full of hatred, Blanche is still drawn to him
- Almost like a predator with prey, Stanley targets the weakest of the herd as Blanche is so vulnerable – arguably increasing his cruelty. Blanche finds this so threatening as it’s something she sees and hides within her
- Stanley’s unrefined nature includes a terrifying amorality – he has no doubts or regrets about driving Blanche mad, or even raping her
Desire
- Although she denies it, desire is one of Blanche’s driving motivations and even caused her to be driven out of Laurel (metaphorically and literally, as the title of the play suggets)
- Physical desire is the main bond with Stella and Stanley, and it doesn’t make their relationship weaker – arguably their baby is a symbol of this permanence
- Blanche either tries to suppress her desires or pursues them with abandonment – she can’t find a healthy way of dealing with it and it becomes her undoing
Desire vs Cemeteries
- Throughout the play, there is tension between romance vs realistism and lust vs death
- Blanche takes the streetcars named Desire and Cemeteries. Like the phrase ‘la petite mort’, these cars and the themes they symbolise drive Blanche to her final destination. This contrast is shown throughout the play: Stanley the realist vs Blanche the romantic, whose previous sexual encounters all link to death.
Loneliness
- The dichotomy between loneliness and desire is shown as Blanche desperately seeks comfort in the arms of strangers
- Although Blanche seeks protection through this companionship, it’s clear that this desire, as a result of her destructive solitude, only leads to more destruction
Light
- Throughout the play, Blanche avoids the light to hide her aging appearance, especially from Mitch
- Light symbolises seeing the reality, so Blanche avoiding this may link to the fact that she finds comfort in illusions to avoid the truth. She covers the light bulb with a Chinese paper lantern.
- Light can also symbolise happiness and a clear view. Blanche says being in love with her husband was like having the world revealed in bright, vivid light. Since his suicide, her life turned upside down and she’s driven to madness. Her numerous sexual encounters occurred in dim light, implying she could seek comfort but fulfilling her desires briefly didn’t bring back her happiness
Overall, from ghostly illusions to heavy focus on psychological breakdown, this play is one that will always remain on my list of recommendations. Keep an eye out for a future blog on the symbols and literary techniques used in A Streetcar Named Desire!
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Citations: Williams, Tennessee, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Penguin Modern Classics, 2009.
The English Nerd 
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