Danica Pavlović
Desire, Sensuality and Sexuality
(I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies. Aristotle)
Desire, sensuality and sexuality are differently expressed within characters of this play.
Desire is something raw, rough, open, sensuality is timid, tender, gentle and sexuality is
hidden and emphasized.
The title of the play is symbolical. Desire motivates all characters in the play. Blanche was
lead by her desire which eventually destroyed and killed her, she ended up like sinful soul
wanting to repent its deeds. First she travelled with a streetcar named Desire, and then she
took a streetcar named Cemetery to the street called Elysian Fields.
Desire – not just lust but a strong hope or wish of characters to achieve psychological and
spiritual state which is always unachievable. The only victim of her desire and promiscuity is
Blanche. As a young woman Blanche was self-confident, she was aware of her body and
thought of herself as sensual and attractive. Soldiers were passing by her home and she liked
to flirt with them and to seduce them. She admits her desire for them. Now when she is
ruined she has a strong desire for love, protection, consolation and refuge. Once in
conversation with Stella she says: “I guess that is what/I meant by being in love…”, like she
doesn’t know what that means because the true meaning of being in love is unfamiliar to her
since she lost her husband. However, now she desires to be loved, and above all, respected.
She thought she found that in Mitch letting him believe that she is a virgin, clean and sinless.
She is too week to face the truth, reality and finds peace in the world of lies and illusions.
“And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare.” This
avoidance of light is symbolically her avoidance of the truth, reality which is painful. She is
looking for home, tranquility, safe harbour as she is abandoned, friendless and unprotected.
When she comes to New Orleans she is faced with reality. New Orleans is described as world
of hot music and lust, the place where jazz music was originally developed. There are
prostitutes, drunkards on the streets, we see Negro woman taking the purse of the prostitute,
and from everywhere you can hear music such as jazz, polka, blues. Blues is an expression of
the loneliness and rejection.
Mitch believed in the “truth” she liked. Mitch’s desires coincide with hers in the sense they
both fear of staying alone, and they both had beloved who died. They both long for the sense
of belonging. He looks very gentle and caring but he tends to be very rude and cruel when
“tears the paper lantern off the light”, and discovers who she really is. She wears a scarlet
dress, red-passion and fall-an allusion to Scarlet Letter-mark of the sin. He feels betrayed and
tricked and attempts to sexually abuse her as a sort of revenge. He wants to show that she is
not good for anything else except for a sex. In this part Mitch’s violent desire and sexuality is
compared to Stanley’s.
Danica Pavlović
Sexuality is most emphasized in Stanley’s case. He desires poker and sex. Stanley is
described as”gaudy seed bearer” who valuates women according to their sexuality. He can’t
stand orders from women, it insults his manliness. He says: “'Every Man is a King! And I am
the king around here, so don't forget it!” He is very proud of being born in America. He hates
to be called Polack because he feels inferior to Stella’s and Blanche’s aristocratic ancestry.
His relationship with Stella is not concerned with intellectual or spiritual intimacy but with
raw desire. He is very impetuous and brute and when he drinks too much he tends to beat
Stella. He hits her, she forgives him and they passionately make love. This is like a normal
everyday routine in their relationship. Even in the stressful moments for Stella he is obsessed
with desire. He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse. Stanley
emphasizes the significance of sexual needs in his story about a rooster. Stella enjoys when
he behaves aggressively, she liked when he broke all the bulbs. Stella cries like a baby,
laughs like a baby and he calls her “his baby.” Stella is like a child who needs someone to
take care of her. She is insecure woman who finds protection in man who is strong and acts
like a savage. She loves him but the importance of intimacy, desire and sexuality she
emphasizes with words: “But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the
dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant.” Stella doesn’t seem to miss
anything, she is completely satisfied with her life. Eunice and Steve, their neighbours, have
similar relationship, they have more dramatic fights but same reconciliation.
Blanche subconsciously has sexual desire for Stanley. Although she compares him to an
animal, an ape that brings raw meat, she flirts with him. She is attracted to his manhood. She
mentions that he has strong capable hands and that he is a real man. She stresses his sexuality
with words: “But the only way to live with such a man is to - go to bed with him!” What he
feels is not just desire, he will be led into sensuality. His streetcar going the other way
because his desire is not self-destructive. When he violently rapes Blanche he feels more
sensual and egoistic. Blanche’s desire protects her keeps her alive, but after some time this
desire kills her. Blanche’s desire is like Achilles’ heel- shields and kills her. Her husband
Allan loved men, he couldn’t suppress this desire. When she discovered that she told him that
he made her sick. He was fragile and couldn’t stand his sexuality so he committed a suicide.
Blanche blames herself for his death because she couldn’t satisfy him. This guilty haunts her.
Blanche becomes promiscuous and says “intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to
fill my empty heart with.” She tries to find peace and comfort in alcohol and in having sex
with many men. She is the victim of her promiscuity as she finds it impossible to control her
desire. This is symbolized by the name of a hotel “Tarantula Arms”- men with whom she
slept. She acts like a nymphomaniac and pedophile. Her desire is uncontrollable, she even
seduces a 17-year-old- boy. Now when she is much older she longs for the same desire as she
is concerned with aging and fading of her beauty. A young boy she sees on the door stirs her
desire. She starts telling jokes, touches his shoulder, cheeks and kisses him. Again, she feels
attractive, sensual, satisfied, and cheerful even for a short period of time. Blanche tells Mitch
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” and later she flatters him that he is in good
condition, well-built. She emphasizes his sexuality. However, with Mitch is different, she
wants to be emotionally involved.
Danica Pavlović
Blanche is almost all the time dressed in white. White symbolizes purity, innocence, or rather
her desire to be pure, clean, unspoiled. She feels dirty and wants to wash her past actions
away - that’s why she keeps bathing. She is obsessed with her sensuality, she knows she must
attract man with her physical appearance. She wants to act like a lady, she puts on some
cheap clothes, perfume, talks about ideals of the old south which doesn’t exist anymore. She
is empty like a phantom.
Tennessee was homosexual and his concerns about homosexuality in a straight society are
highly influential on his work (Allan). He is even compared to Blanche DuBois. What they
have in common is their fight against insanity, fear of death and lust for Stanley. Williams
said: “I cannot write any sort of story unless there is at least one character for whom I have
physical desire.”
Desire, Sensuality and Sexuality of the characters determine their acts, way of life, thinking,
and eventually lead them into total destruction as in the case of Blanche, or victory( Stanley)
or live them unchanged, passive and ignorant( Stella).