Nathan Wilson
May 3rd, 2011
Dr. Kandl
Comp. 111
“Social realism in A Streetcar Named Desire.”
The play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” written by Tennessee Williams is a
theatrical performance that shocked the theater world forever. The acts acted in the
play are something that Broadway has never seen before. Williams uses real world
situations to convey his commentary on contemporary society. Such commentaries
include relationships, gender roles within the American household, sexual identity,
and the American dream.
Williams uses the social realism to create his characters. Blanche Dubois is a
make-believe southern belle who searches for a new lover to be with. Starting her
life over in New Orleans and moving in with her sister Stella. Blanche soon meets
her antithesis Stanley who is a brute of a man. Williams describes him as, “ an
admirable brute, as an incontrovertible, irresistible force of nature.” Stan represents
cold hard reality. He is the grounding force for Blanche. These encounters drive a
connection to the audience.
Sex is a tool of social realism that connects with the audience. Stanley’s robust
male sexuality is a prime example. No other male figure could compare to Stanley.
Creating shock waves trough out the entertainment industry. Blanche came out as a
different sexual figure. Her slander and lies through out the play made the audience
take an introspective look at themselves. Williams said that, “there isn’t one time
anyone didn’t have a little if Blanche Dubois and Stanley within themselves.”
As for socially real characters, Stanley is as down to earth as anyone can get.
With the creation of Stanley, Williams’ inspiration came from his father who acted
pretty much the same as Stanley, poker, drinking, the essentials. But Stanley did
something more than just put Blanche down and pound beers, he ushered in a new
breed of male sexuality. Giving birth to such figures like James Dean, Paul Newman,
and Robert Mitchum. (1) Stan is the quintessential man, he licks his fingers clean
when he eats, works hard as a craftsman and makes love to his wife Stella. Stan is a
sensualist. Williams wants the audience to know this, he wastes no time in doing so
by describing Stan as he enters.
“… Since early manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with woman, the giving and
taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a rich
feathered male bird among hens… He sizes woman at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude
images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.” Scene 1.
Stan embraces his sexuality. Sex is running through his mind at all times. Stan is
so proud of his sexuality, in scene 11 he is seen wearing his special silk pajamas.
They are in bright colors and are elegant. This is of coarse right before he rapes
Blanche. But as he approaches her, Blanche tears his pjs revealing his muscular
chest. Stan is everything physical and the tearing of his pajamas indicates his robust
male sexuality.
The gender roles in Streetcar are stereotypical in a post WWII household. Even
though women got to work when the men went off to fight, work roles soon changed
as soon as the men arrived back home. Stan is described as a WWII G.I. vet who
survived the war and is now home from a long deployment. Stan may not appear to
be smarter than Stella; he still has dominance over her. Stan is the provider of the
household and Stella is the caretaker if the house. Such roles between the couple can
be noted at the start of the play in scene one. Stan throws a hunk of meat at Stella,
almost like a hunter arriving home with the day’s kill.
What makes Stanley seem more brutish than a hunter is sex. This is the main
factor why Stella stays with her man Stan. Stan brings Stella down to his level with
his lovemaking, creating desire and driving their connection even further. Because
they don’t have much in the way of material items. They have a small apartment and
little possessions. This confuses Blanche because she and Stella grew up with money.
Material items measure success in her eyes. Such is the American dream. But
Williams is tearing down this notion of the post WWII American dream by creating a
new one. Williams notes this when Stanley is trying to convince Stella that it was
right to tell the truth about Blanche’s past to Mitch. “When we first met, me and you,
you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was as common as dirt. You
showed me the snapshot of the place with columns. I pulled you down off them
columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going! And wasn’t we
happy together, wasn’t it all okay till she showed up here?” The columns being her
high place on the social ladder. Stanley’s speech is also something to take notice. It is
basic at time and awkward. This is symbolizing reality. Stanley is reality and he is
the connection that makes Stella so down to earth and so different from Blanche.
Stanley and Stella resemble a young couple madly in love. They don’t have much but
they have each other.
Blanche Dubois is anything but reality. When she first appeared, the grim
downtown area of New Orleans overtook her as she helplessly looked for her sister
to take her in. The robust neighborhood steaming with life is something new to her.
This is the mindset of an ambiguous character William’s created to promote social
realism through her sexuality.
Throughout the play, Blanche is always well dressed and attempts to be well
mannered. She has to keep up appearances at all times because she is of a
traditional southern birth, growing up on a plantation with Stella. Yet this is not
Blanche and she knows it. “…What I mean is- he (Mitch) thinks I’m sort of- prim and
proper, you know! [She laughs out sharply.] I want to deceive him enough to make
him want me…” (Pg 1203) There is much more to Blanche than some nice white
dresses. She is a calculated liar. Blanche is looking for passion in her life. Desire
through un-conventional means. Before her arrival to New Orleans, she resided in
the small town of Laurel where she taught English but had to resign due to her
seeping around with many young men at the town hotel.
One of the possible origins of her mental instability is her marriage with Allen
Grey. Who shot himself due to his homosexuality. Lauren Seigle claims that, “the
trauma that the death has caused Blanche, and the implications that the
overpowering love she felt for Allan Grey may have been the last true emotion to
which she allowed herself to succumb.” Blanche will do what ever she can to
experience desire and the compassion of being with another human being no matter
what society deems appropriate. Yet she doesn’t want to appear that way. As for
explaining to her sister Stella why she left her job and town of residence, she had
this story to say.
“…I was on the verge of- lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves- Mr. Graves is the high school
Superintendent- he suggested I take a leave of absence. I couldn’t put all of those details into the
wire. (drinks quickly.) Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels so good!” (Pg 1170)
She quickly dismisses the question with a prepared answer. To her, this is the
desirable world she wants to live in and therefore exists. The ideas and actions
taken into account are totally different. Blanche, as a physical being is the bridge
between the reality everyone lives in (physical world) and her own reality inside
her mind. The only way she can meet that bridge between her reality and the real
word is, actually by two means, sex and Stanley.
First off, sex is a means of escape for Blanche. As she claims in a conversation
to Mitch in scene nine that the opposite of death “is desire” and sex is how she grabs
hold of life after suffering the loss of her lover/ husband to suicide. But Mitch is not
convinced. This is due to Stanley, her an-thesis, who “does anything to fence in the
truth by removing, or cutting off the top layer of pretense and deception that
Blanche superimposes on the solid facts, and by defining the borderline between
“realism and magic.” Said scholar Philip C. Kolin of the University of Southern
Mississippi. The solid facts being Blanche’s past; her numerous sexual encounters
and the magic being her “lady like” appearance.
Stan is as Philip Kolin put it “a stone age man who labors with all kinds of
materials to destroy Blanche.” He goes on to say that “Blanche and Stan are a
wonderful mixture of decayed elegance and sheer unadulterated guts.” Stan didn’t
like the sight of Blanche from the start. Blanche does all that she can so she can look
her best. Clothing, speech and even the lighting in the house are all important to
keep up her façade. Stan takes notice to this. Because he is a brute of a man who
thinks all women are lying, deceptive creatures and he must put them in their place.
Stanley: “I’ve been on to you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes! You
come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume…” Scene 10.
Blanche is target and an outsider. “Incidents of sexual misconduct in the past haunts
her (Blanche)… these incidents become pivotal lot points that lead her to reversals.”
Says Kenneth Elliot in an essay on uncommon tragic protagonists. Blanche must put
on a different face in order to start a new life in New Orleans. She is shunned from
her hometown of Laurel. She knows no other place and Stella is her only support as
her sister.
Blanche is damaged goods. She once had a love but lost such love very suddenly.
She moved on with her life by embracing her sexuality. But such a move was
shunned in her small town. As a result, she appears to be a prodigious liar to others.
Her southern belle appearance is seen as a mask. By moving in with her sister Stella
and Stanley to create a fresh start on life, Blanche soon found out that Stan would be
her reality check. Seeing through her façade as she attempts to get her life back
together and start a new. This is how Williams incorporates the human condition to
his play. By depicting real social situations to reach the audience. William Hawkins
of the New York telegram would agree, “Tennessee Williams models out the rawest
materials and his finished art is harsh realism.”
Another aspect of Williams social realism is the use of lighting and props,
Williams uses these to his advantage. Such as the lighting when Blanche is present.
Blanche wants to hide the glare of her old age. She makes sure of this by placing
lampshades over the lights in the tiny apartment. “And turn that over light out. Turn
that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!” Scene 1. Another device
William’s uses to express how Blanche wants to remain an innocent young girl she
once was. But the lampshade has an unconscious meaning behind it. Along with the
artificial shade masking her age, the shade is also a symbol of her own reality. The
shade dims the light like how she dims the truth about her past. Making her seem
unclear like the room she occupies. “Just as the naked light must be toned down by
an artificial lantern, so every sordid reality must be cloaked in illusion.” (Mary Ann
Corrigan.) Mitch knows of this. When Blanche and Mitch meet inside Blanche’s room,
Mitch tears off the lampshade and demands to “get a good look at her.” This is all
after Stan reveals the truth about Blanche’s past to him, confusing him as to who he
can believe, his friend Stan or his new lover Blanche.
Another physical representation of Blanche trying to disregard the past is her
numerous baths. Blanche sees the world as dirty and imperfect. The baths cleanse
her of reality. “I take hot baths for my nerves. Hydrotherapy they call it.” Water is a
universal symbol for purification. The scene in which Blanche flirts and eventually
kisses a underage newsboy. “…Williams has it rain before the young man’s entrance.
The rain, like the water in Blanche’s frequent baths, becomes a cleanser, a purifier.”
Says Bret Cardullo of Yale University. Williams has it rain before Blanche’s
encounter with the newsboy because it brings Blanche back to her innocence when
she and her former husband where together. They both were in love and Blanche
was as pure as the white dresses she wears throughout the play. Williams takes an
ordinary conversation and transforms it to a deeper understanding of what Blanche
really wants. All she wants is her lover back. She wants someone to love like her
sister who has Stan. But Blanche cannot figure out the love Stan and Stella have for
each other.
Stella loves Stan. She left Belle Revere to pursue her own life with Stan. Stan
provides Stella with a wholesome life, a small apartment to enjoy the simple
pleasures of life like liquor, cards and bowling. Blanche is superior to Stan. She is
well educated, at times well mannered and better dressed. “As long as Stella is
devoted to him, despite her ability to see the truth of Blanche’s assessment, his
(Stan’s) resentment is mollified by his sense of victory over the manners that
Blanche represents, over a standard of behavior that would invalidate him.” Says
Neil Heims. Stan would rather destroy Blanche than just be comfortable with the
fact that Blanche is a manipulative liar. Yet Blanche cannot figure out why Stella
would approve of Stan. Stella is seen saying how Stan, out of the rest of the fully
qualified men that Stan associates with will not advance at the plat in which they
work, epically Mitch. Stella knows of Stanley’s down falls. She is waiting for him to
get better, which will never happen.
Stan will remain static. This is noted at the end of the play in scene eleven.
When he rapes Blanche. This is the last statement signifying that Stan is a brutal
man. He brings Blanche down to his reality like he did with Stella. Only this time it
was done by a considerable amount of force. Stan is seen saying, “We’ve had this
date with each other since the beginning!” Blanche arrived in New Orleans to start
her life over. She needed a sense of reality after being scared emotionally. Stanley
used the same brute force he used on Blanche’s sister on here. Bring her all the way
down to his reality. This is more shocking to Blanche’s system because of her severe
detachment from reality. Hence, why she is committed to a mental institution. But
some argue that Blanche wanted Stan, that she had a desire for him since the start.
The same desire she was looking for when she slept with all of those men in the
Flamingo Motel in Laurel.
“The beginning of scene ten, as is. Stanley has no interest in Blanche, and wishes only to be rid of
her. She identifies Stanley’s rejection of her the bridegroom’s rejection. He goes to bed. Blanche wants
him, knows she does, feels intense guilt, begins to drink by herself, tries to wake Stanley on various
foolish excuses, and grows more desperate and more frightened as the night wears on, and the drinks
take effect. By the morning- the crack-up has come- she believes that he did rape her. And she runs to
Stella. (Lillian Hellman)
Williams ends the play with Stanley the victor. He tore her down like he said he
would. Blanche in one aspect gained a sense of reality. Her desire that she wanted to
meet through sex, (sex is her way of clinging to life) but the change was so radical
that it broke her down to pieces. “The rape of Blanche by Stanley is a pivotal,
integral truth in the play, without which the play loses its meaning, which is the
ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate, by the savage and brutal forces
of modern society.” (Schumach.) Williams made blanche drunk at the time of the
rape so her conscious will would not get in the way. She has kept her southern Belle
act going for so long, it consumes her and is he identity. But unconsciously she knew
that she had to change, this is why she went back to Stella. This is why their date
(Stan and Blanche) has been inevitable from the start. Before Blanche is committed
to the mental institution, she utters the most famous quote from the play, “I’ve
always relied on the kindness of strangers.” This referring to her sexual encounters
through out her life. How strangers are the source of her desire and sex helps her
stay attached to life. The rape scene in scene eleven has sent shock waves through
the theater world and its moral ambiguities are still discussed in great detail in the
twenty first century.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a busy play. There is so much reflection on
contemporary society. Such a production could be labeled as a tragedy, a modern
day Hamlet. The characters cannot be loved or hated in Streetcar. Their moral
dilemmas are those that we the audience or reader have encountered or will
encounter in out life times. The unadulterated sex is the play is not only shocking in
the twenty first century but also even more shocking in a post WWII United States.
The play almost got censored because of the rape scene. Without the rape scene, the
play would lose its most critical resolution.
The social realism in the characters’ sexuality stems from Williams’ own
sexuality, Blanche being his more sensitive, almost homosexual side and Stanley
being the dominant male figure he wants to be and his father was. This is how he
wrote the characters and proves how real they are. This struck accord with the
audience making the production successful. Blanche and Stan are testaments to the
understanding of the human condition. Because of them the reader can take a better
look at themselves and social realism creates a bridge for this to happen. Real world
situations speak to real life people. Almost like reality television. But Streetcar is
better than reality television because of the serious motifs going on and the
believability of the characters. Gender roles, sex and social class are all pivotal in
our place and even happiness in America. Williams knows this and utilized them to
make his characters speak volumes to the audience.
Works Cited
Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York: W.
W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
Cardullo/ Yale, Bret. "STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, WILLIAMS." 44-45. Print.
Kolin, Philip C. "William's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE." 241-43. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
Martin, Robert A. Critical Essays on Tennessee Williams. New York: G.K. Hall, 1997.
Print.
Murphy, Brenda. A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. Pasadena, CA:
Salem, 2010. Print.