ANALYSIS – STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Scene 1 Blanche arrives in New Orleans, meets Stanley; each takes the other's measure. Blanche
generally optimistic.
At the start of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams paints a loving portrait of New Orleans.
He had spent several months in the city before writing the play. He lived in a flat overlooking the
streetcar tracks where one car named Desire and another called Cemetery ran back and forth every
day. Somehow the names of the streetcars and their ceaseless comings and goings struck his poetic
mind with "having some symbolic bearing of a broad nature on the life in the [French Quarter]- and
everywhere else, for that matter...." Williams' affection for the place extends even to the run-down
section of town between the railroad tracks and the waterfront. There, you find a street named Elysian
Fields. The name comes from Greek myth. Elysium was a happy land, a paradise free from rain, snow,
cold or misfortune of any kind. When you get further into the play you'll doubtlessly recognize the irony
in Williams' choices of names.
The setting of New Orleans is important to the play: The city is one of powerful contrasts: old French
architecture and the new rhythms of jazz; a kind of Old World refinement mixed with the grit of poverty
and modern life; decay and corruption alongside the regenerative powers of desire and procreation.
The city is eternally in a state of convulsion, a mix of the modern world and New Orleans' confused
history; in the American imagination, New Orleans is also associated with desire and the most direct
kind of sexuality. From the beginning, the three main characters of Streetcar are in a state of tension.
Williams establishes that the apartment is small and confining, the weather is hot and oppressive, and
the characters have good reason to come into conflict.
The South, old and new, is an important theme of the play. Blanche and her sister come from a dying
world. The life and pretensions of their world are becoming a thing of memory: to drive home the point,
the family mansion is called "Belle Reve," or Beautiful Dream. The old life may have been something
beautiful, but it is gone forever. Yet Blanche clings to pretensions of aristocracy. She is now as poor as
Stanley and Stella, but she cannot help but look down on the humble Kowalski apartment. Stanley tells
her that she'll probably see him as "the unrefined type." The differences between them, however, are
more complex and volatile than a matter of refinement.
Desire is central to the play. Blanche is unable to come to terms with the force of her own desire. She
is clearly repelled and fascinated by Stanley at the same time. And though she stayed behind and took
care of the family while Stella ran off to find a new life, Blanche is both angry and jealous of Stella's
choice: she seems a bit fixated on the idea of Stella sleeping with her "Polack." Stella has chosen a life
built around her powerful sexual relationship with Stanley. Blanche is both repulsed by and jealous of
the choice.
Stanley, on the other hand, is a creature comfortable with desire and satisfying his physical needs. Sex
is part of what makes him tick. His appraisal of women is frank and straightforward, and he makes no
pretences of being sexually self-controlled.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
The play is haunted by mortality. Desire and death and loneliness are played off against each other
again and again. The setting is one of decay; the dying Old South and the dying DuBois family make
for a macabre and unsettling background. Blanche's first monologue is a rather graphic description of
tending to the terminally ill. There is also the spectre of Blanche's husband, who died when they were
both very young; indeed, Blanch still refers to him as a "boy."
Williams is fond of symbols, and his plays are full of symbols that resonate with his central themes. To
get to the "Elysian Fields," where Stella and Stanley live, Blanche had to take "a streetcar named
Desire" and then a "streetcar named Cemeteries." The symbolic names echo the themes of desire and
mortality.
Another symbol is the meat: Stanley enters carrying a package of bloody meat, like a hunter coming
home from a day of work. Stanley is a superb specimen of primitive, unthinking, brutal man. The meattossing episode is seen as humorous by Eunice and the Negro Woman, who infer a sexual innuendo
from the incident. Apparently, it is obvious to the neighbours that the sexual bond between Stanley and
Stella is intense.
Scene 2 Conflict over loss of Belle Reve. Blanche submits papers to Stanley.
While Blanche soaks in the tub Stella urges Stanley to be kind to Blanche. Stanley ignores Stella's
pleas. He wants to know more about the loss of Belle Reve. He can't understand that the place is justgone! He wants to see a bill of sale or papers of some kind to confirm Blanche's story. He cites the
Napoleonic Code that says what belongs to the wife also belongs to the husband and vice versa. If
Belle Reve is gone, it's his loss as well as Stella's. And Stanley is right. Because the Louisiana
Territory was owned by France before President Thomas Jefferson bought it for the United States,
French civil law, the so-called Code Napoleon, was used for a long time to govern Louisiana's civil
affairs. In the Code are found rules about inheritance and property. In recent years, however, the Code
has gradually been superseded by new laws and court decisions.
Blanche understands, as if by instinct, the threat that Stanley represents. She knows that he has no
need for the polite evasions that are so important to her. She also understands instinctively his need to
dominate. And she is not blind to Stanley's aggression as Stella is: "I have an idea she [Stella] doesn't
understand you as well as I do".
In their attitudes toward money, we see the tremendous difference in class between them. Stanley is
convinced that he is being swindled, but after a moment it becomes clear that Blanche is capable of no
such thing. She cares nothing for money; her class only understands how to spend it, and that is part
of why Belle Reve was lost. When Stanley demands if it was lost on a mortgage, Blanche can only
respond uncertainly, "That must have been what happened." She is completely ignorant on business
matters. Stanley is no expert, but his basic approach is that of a new world, the real world in which
Blanch is so unable to survive.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
Blanche also believes she is much stronger than she is. Speaking of her dead husband, she tells
Stanley that she hurt the boy, in the same way that Stanley would like to hurt Blanche. But she
believes he can't: "I'm not young and vulnerable anymore". The truth is far harsher. Although Blanche
is exuberant after her supposed victory over Stanley, it is soon seen how frayed her nerves are. When
the tamale vendor shouts out to hawk his product, the cry startles Blanche terribly. She reacts as if
she's seen a ghost.
Scene 3 Poker night. Blanche meets Mitch.
Blanche hopeful about the future.
Blanche clicks on the radio. A beautiful waltz is
heard. Caught up in the music, Blanche dances
gracefully. Mitch imitates her awkwardly, like a
dancing bear. The waltz, "Wien, Wien, nur du
allein", is a sentimental expression of love for oldtime Vienna, the city of dreams. The song conjures
up images of elegance and splendour that contrast
with the run-down apartment of the Kowalskis.
Ironically, at the time A Streetcar Named Desire
(Van Gogh's Caffe di Notte (All-Night Cafe)
was written the beauty of Vienna existed only as a
memory. The city lay in ruins from heavy bombing during the war. Watch for other discrepancies
between reality and illusion in the play.
Two elements of this scene are striking. First, it is recognized more and more that Blanche is more
comfortable with make-believe than reality. Second, the animal nature of Stanley and his bond with
Stella becomes clear.
Blanche has suffered terribly; only hints of it have been seen so far, but later more will be learned more
about the depths of her loneliness. Loneliness and desire are integral to Blanche's being. She chose
the harsh road of staying at Belle Reve to care for the dying, and she has suffered because of it. For
many years, she was a delicate young woman who lived alone in a house full of the terminally ill.
There is both honesty and illusion in her comments about the sincerity of the suffering. On one hand,
Blanche is very insincere. She has dealt with her suffering by making-believe, by taking refuge in
fanciful dreams about herself and her surroundings. She lies about her age. She also insists that Mitch
cover the naked bulb. She does not want to be seen in the harshness of bright light. In darkness, she
is free to fabricate and re-imagine whatever cannot be seen. On the other hand, there is something
very sincere about Blanche's affection and kindness. She lies, but never with the intent to hurt. She
seeks to become what she thinks will please others.
Stanley is at his most basic and animalistic in this scene. He insists on living up to the ideas of
absolute male dominance; he acts like the apartment is his and his alone. He seeks to dominate not
only the women, but the other men as well. He beats his pregnant wife.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
And yet Stella comes back. Something about Stanley excites her, even, or perhaps especially, when
he is at his most beast-like. Significantly, what is seen of their making-up is completely wordless.
There is not an eloquent plea for forgiveness, no promise of better behaviour: Stanley and Stella make
up by coupling like animals. Words come second, if at all. The bond between Stanley and Stella is not
intellectual, but physical.
Scene 4 Blanche berates Stella. Stanley defeats Blanche in competition for Stella's allegiance.
The streetcar named Desire comes up again as a metaphor. As Blanche and Stella argue about
desire, Blanche talks about the rattletrap streetcar. Stella asks if Blanche has ever ridden it; Blanche
says that it brought her here.
They're talking about the literal streetcar, but the symbolism is clear. Blanche denounces the streetcar,
just as she denies the power and appeal of desire. But in reality, she has known desire, too. In her
loneliness, it's been one of her refuges. As she says of the streetcar, "It brought me here," she is
speaking also of how her desire and loneliness caused her to be run out of town.
Stanley's overhearing Blanche's denunciation of him will ultimately be disastrous for her. If before they
were enemies, now they will become locked in a more serious struggle. Stanley will not be content
until Blanche is gone from the apartment, even if it means her destruction.
Blanche's speech illustrates one of the play's major conflicts, a symbolic clash between civilization and
barbarism.
Scene 5 Blanche plans for future; she kisses newsboy. Blanche hopes that Mitch will provide love.
To keep her hope alive, or at least to keep up the pretence of hope, Blanche composes a letter to
Shep Huntleigh, informing him that she intends to make room in her crowded social life to visit him in
Dallas. Regardless of whether Shep is imaginary or real, to Blanche he represents a chance to be
rescued from her plight. He's a savior, a symbol of a vanishing breed- the gallant, romantic, and
wealthy Southern gentleman. More than likely, such a man is Blanche's mirage. Earlier you heard her
rage against the real Southern gentlemen she knew.
The theme of illusion runs through this scene. Blanche is watched, fabricating a series of lies in her
telegraph to Shep. She has no qualms about it; the truth is so much less interesting and delightful than
the illusion she offers, so why not do it? But she is not the only character with some fear of the truth.
When she confesses to Stella that her behaviour in Laurel was less than exemplary, Stella stops
listening. She stops listening whenever Blanche is morbid; this convenient ability to block out the truth
foreshadows Stella's betrayal of Blanche at the end of the play.
Blanche's illusions are quite fragile. Stanley deeply upsets her by hinting that he knows the truth about
her. Blanche is rendered vulnerable by this attack; her lies have isolated her, and afterward she
gushes with emotion for Stella. The theme of loneliness, central to the play, is rendered skilfully in this
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
scene. Stella is uncomfortable with these displays of emotion; possibly, they make her feel guilty
because Stella is all that Blanche has in the world, and Stella herself has Stanley.
The local couples provide a contrast to Blanche's less healthy outlets for her desire. The near-comic
altercation between Eunice and Steve shows a world where more stable people go through the same
convulsions of violence and desire, with a somewhat healthier approach. The fight is over another
woman, but Steve and Eunice seem to work it out. The violence of the fight also shows an alternative
to the brutality of Stanley and Stella; Steve comes down the stairs with a bruise on his forehead. A
woman striking her husband, who afterward is none the worse for wear, is a healthier alternative to a
man savagely beating his pregnant wife. By the middle of the scene, all is well between them.
Blanche cannot seem to recover from the convulsions of desire. She denounced the physicality of
Stanley's and Stella's relationship. But she herself suffers from a terrible loneliness, from which she
seeks to escape in inappropriate ways. Her advances at the Young Man are the first direct sign, on
stage, that she occasionally seeks desperate remedies for her loneliness. Remember that in this
scene, Blanche has been the lone observer of two happy couples: Stella and Stanley, Steve and
Eunice. Left alone in the apartment, she seeks some connection with the first person she sees.
Scene 6 Date with Mitch. Blanche wins Mitch's love
Blanche's fatigue after the carnival emphasizes how frail she is. The act that Blanche puts on for Mitch
is also seen. She pretends to be taken with old-fashioned values. Her need to be the virginal Southern
belle isn't malicious in intent. She indulges in the deception not only to attract Mitch, but for her own
sake. Playing the Southern belle gives Blanch great pleasure. It allows her to feel young and
unscarred again.
The conversation about Mitch's size is a charming and comic moment. The discussion of Mitch's
weight and his membership at the gym is downright cute; Blanche ooh-ing and ah-ing Mitch's muscles
is wonderful courtship scene, a brief respite from the increasing darkness of the play.
Finally, the truth about Blanche's marriage is heard. The homosexuality of Blanche's husband is stated
outright. Blanche speaks of finding her husband in bed with an older man, a long-time friend. Blanche
has never overcome her feelings of guilt for what happened. It was her expression of disgust that
finally set the boy off; she blames herself, and has relived that horrible music, right up to the final
gunshot, many times since.
Loneliness plays itself out in so many ways throughout the play. Blanche's intense loneliness goes far
back; she discovered that the man she loved had a secret life, quite separate from his life with her.
Since than, she has been a girl caring for dying relatives. Mitch, too, is lonely. He had a love who died;
he also is caring for his dying mother.
Mitch makes Blanche feel safe. He is touchingly gentle and sensitive. In his company, the music fades
away, and Blanche notices the difference. She dares to hope that Mitch's entrance into her life is a
touch of God helping her.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
Scene 7 Preparation for party. Blanche in high spirits.
Blanche's habit of always bathing is symbolic; when she emerges, she always announces that she
feels like a new person. The baths are a cleansing ritual, but the feeling of refreshment and renewed
strength is not long lasting. Blanche's fragility and how quickly she tires are obvious. The past does not
wash away so easily.
Blanche's song, "It's Only a Paper Moon," was a popular song of the 1940's. The lyrics speak of a
make-believe world, which is phoney but pleasurable if everybody plays. The song not-so-subtly
parallels Blanche's attitude toward illusion and fantasy. She seems to pay no attention to the fact that
her lies, sooner or later, will be found out. The pleasure of illusion is not primarily its power to keep
people deceived; Blanche delights in the act of creating these lies. The performance is part of the fun
for her. As if life were a party at Belle Reve, she hopes that everyone will stay constantly entertained.
Masking the truth is part of this entertainment.
Scene 8 Stanley gives Blanche bus ticket; Blanche horrified.
Stanley needs to possess Stella completely. He will not tolerate any kind of equality between them.
She is not allowed to ask him for help with the chores. She is not allowed to criticize him. Stanley yells
at her, "Huey Long said 'Every man is a King!' And I am the king around here, so don't forget
it!" Blanche's presence seems like a threat to his authority. He feels that Stella has become
insubordinate since Blanche arrived. His motivations are clear: he is jealous of Blanche, he seeks to
preserve his authority, and he delights in the power of hurting another.
He is absolutely merciless with Blanche. He gives her the bus ticket in the moment of her highest
vulnerability, knowing full well that she cannot return to Laurel. He delights in hurting her.
Blanche cannot stand up to this kind of attack. Presented with the ticket, she falls ill. She has been
humiliated by Mitch, and now she is being forced out of her sister's home. Stanley will not stop here.
Scene 9 Mitch visits Blanche, attempts rape. Blanche distraught.
Blanche has a difficult time relinquishing illusion. Even as Mitch begins to confront her with the truth,
she seeks to brush aside anything that is bothersome. She wants to pretend everything is fine. But she
is not a malicious liar; she lies from weakness, from immaturity, from a fear of reality. She tells Mitch
that she speaks of the world as it ought to be, and as people would prefer it to be. She lies because
she has a taste for a fantasy life better than her reality.
But Mitch continues to insist on the truth, and when Blanche finally gives up her lies, the effect is like a
dam breaking. In chilling and lurid detail, her escapades in Laurel are revealed. The description of the
soldiers calling out her name from the lawn of Belle Reve is Williams at his lurid best. The story shows
the depths of Blanche's loneliness and depravity; she sought comfort and protection in impossible
places, with men who were only interested in one thing. She might as well have been alone at Bell
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
Reve, and in all the beds she frequented. Blanche is terrifying isolated. In her desperate loneliness,
her desires became more and more difficult to control, and more and more unhealthy. Throughout this
whole scene, the theme of death and oblivion is underscored (none too subtly) by the vendor selling
flowers for the dead. The flowers recall the deaths of the elderly Dubois family members, and
foreshadow Blanche's destruction.
Blanche puts herself at Mitch's mercy. She asks him to save her, and he refuses. When he leaves, so
does Blanche's last hope at salvation. She is hearing the polka music again and again, and she is no
shape for the coming confrontation with Stanley.
Scene 10 Stanley returns; rapes Blanche. Blanche destroyed.
Blanche's illusions are not with the intent to hurt. When she speaks of the only unforgivable crime
being deliberate cruelty, she's not being hypocritical. As she says, it is a crime of which she has never
been guilty. And here, at the end of her rope, she spins out another series of illusions. Unlike before,
these lies are not even remotely credible. She does not seek necessarily to be credible: she only
seeks the comfort of fantasy, even if the fantasy is ridiculous. Blanche is drunk, rejected, and about to
become a vagabond; all she asks is to be indulged.
Stanley refuses. He is on the brink of his great triumph. His child is about to be born; this birth,
coinciding with Blanche's birthday and destruction, is a symbol of the new order coming into being as
the old passes away. Blanche will have no descendents. The South she represents, ineffectual and
frail and ultimately sterile, is dying.
In this horrible climax, the paired themes of desire and loneliness once again come into focus. Blanch
has longed for some kind of contact; she needs company, and the protection of men. She is not a
stranger to desire. But finally, the man she hoped for rejects her, and the man she despises takes her
by force. She is not strong enough to offer any resistance; and at the same time, Stanley is right when
he says that they've had this encounter coming since the beginning. Part of her does long for Stanley;
in her loneliness, she is desperate for contact. Her previous comments indicate that some part of her is
fascinated by Stanley's animal nature. The animal side of desire is emphasized by the jungle sound
effects outside the apartment.
However, Blanche does not want to be raped. The rape will deliver the deathblow to Blanche's sanity.
Scene 11 Blanche sent to insane asylum.
Although Blanche is the character most dependent on illusion throughout the play, it would be too
simple to describe Stanley and Stella as representing "truth." Stella is able to stay with Stanley only
after a monumental act of self-deception. Stella tells Eunice that she wouldn't be able to stay with
Stanley if she believed Blanche's story. Eunice's response is telling. She tells Blanche not to believe it,
but she does not seem interested in trying to see if the story is true or not. The priority is believing
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
whatever it takes in order to go on with life: "No matter what happens," she says, "you've got to keep
on going." Eunice advises dismissing the accusation outright, and doing whatever it takes to go on
living.
And on some level, it seems likely that Stella knows she has betrayed her sister. As they nurse
wrestles Blanche to submission, Stella cries out, "What have I done to my sister?" Note that as she
leaves, Blanche pays no heed to Stella's cries. Even in the midst of her dementia, some part of
Blanche is aware that Stella has betrayed her.
Stanley's comforting of Stella is an act of supreme hypocrisy. Blanche's madness is largely his doing,
as Mitch correctly ascertains. But Stanley comforts Stella lovingly, "voluptuously," and plays the role of
tender caretaker. Their relationship will from now on be based in part on a series of lies.
Blanche's famous line is full of terrible irony. It is true that Blanche has often depended on the kindness
of strangers, but all of them have abused and abandoned her. In the end, even her own sister has
betrayed her. Her fragility, her inability to fend for herself, and her self-deception have brought her to
madness. She speaks the line with hope; in her madness, she clings to a belief in chivalry. But no
chivalry has been seen in this play. The representative of the new man, Stanley, is more ape than
knight. But Blanche's line is earnest in that it shows her terrible loneliness. For so long, she has known
only strangers; a young girl in a house full of the dying, and then a woman losing her looks seeking
protection from callous men.
And her tragedy will for the most part be forgotten. Stella is crying, but she has, nonetheless, decided
to stay with Stanley. She also will have to busy herself with caring for the baby. The other men have
callously chosen to go on with their poker game on this day, denying Blanche the dignity of being
taken away in private. The Old South dies, and the New South does not mourn her passing. Everyone
is going to move on: as the play ends, Steve is already dealing a new hand.
POINTS TO PONDER
The direct clash between Stanley Kowalski and Blanche Dubois represents an ongoing war between
several sets of conflicting values: truth vs. fiction, reality vs. fantasy, ambition vs. imagination, lust vs.
love. The marriage between Stanley and Stella makes no sense to Blanche because it is based on a
reality that she has never been able to accept – that sex can be the foundation of love. She considers
emotional security and trust as the roots of love, but she doesn’t grasp the importance of fulfilling
natural human desires. Blanche may have had many sexual affairs and sought comfort in the arms of
strangers, but she only sought temporary relief from them to escape the terrors of loneliness – what
she really wants out of a relationship is someone who she can share life with and who will understand
her. The sexuality that exudes from Stanley is too overwhelming for her to handle because it is REAL –
it is palpable and tangible in his figure, and it is not just a figment of her powerful and overactive
imagination.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
Symbolism runs rampant throughout this play; Tennessee Williams also seemed to have the same
imagination as the distinguished Blanche Dubois. The delicate paper lantern that Blanche places over
the light bulb in her room represents the façade that she consistently wears. Because the light of the
naked bulb is too harsh, the paper lantern dulls the light and makes everything appear more attractive.
So too does Blanche try to misrepresent the truth about the mistakes that she has made in the past in
order to make herself more attractive to others, for she believes that the “real” her is not beautiful
enough to be loved.
Another example of the symbolism that is omnipresent in the play is Blanche’s need for bathing. She
takes several baths throughout the play because she is metaphorically washing off her past sins.
These rejuvenating, cleansing baths, however, have only temporary power, for in a few hours, she
feels dirty again – and the guilt and shame that tortures her from her past comes back to haunt her
again. Note that Stanley always complains whenever Blanche is in the tub, for he constantly gripes to
Stella about how Blanche always hogs the bathroom for her lengthy baths. The forceful presence of
Stanley, the voice of harsh reality in the play, thus proves that Blanche’s attempt to renew and redefine
herself through washing away her sins and her guilt will ultimately fail.
In addition to the powerful symbolism that runs throughout the play, the autobiographical elements that
appear in the cast of characters also lend poignancy to Williams’ script. Tennessee Williams’ life was
filled with the same strains of alcoholism, isolation, depression, and insanity that echo throughout A
Streetcar Named Desire. Williams was a homosexual who declared his sexuality during an era that did
not embrace – or understand – homosexuality, and the suicide of Blanche’s young homosexual
husband, Allan, reveals some of the same loneliness, angst, and depression that tortured Williams
throughout his life. By using Blanche, the main character of the play, to exemplify the disgust with
which America met with homosexuality during the time period, Williams showed how alone and
depressed he was. Like Blanche, Williams also toyed with alcoholism as an escape from the isolation
that he experienced because of his sexuality, and after his partner died in 1963, the quality of his work
diminished because of the depression that overwhelmed him.
MAIN THEMES
Fantasy/Illusion: Blanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defence. Her deceits
do not carry any trace of malice; rather, they come from her weakness and inability to confront the
truth head-on. She tells things not as they are, but as they ought to be. For her, fantasy has a
liberating magic that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure. Unfortunately, this
defence is frail and will be shattered by Stanley. In the end, Stanley and Stella will also resort to a kind
of illusion: Stella will force herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false.
In symbolic terms, the conflict between Stanley and Blanche pits reality against illusion. What is
reality? To Stanley reality is what you can touch and see. Stanley feels right at home in reality- that is,
among real people, the kind who act natural and who say what they think and feel. Since a human is
an animal, according to Stanley he ought to act like one. To put on airs, to deny one's instincts, to hide
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
one's feelings- those are dishonest acts. No wonder Blanche rejects reality in favour of illusion.
Reality has treated her unkindly. Too much truthfulness destroyed her marriage. Taking refuge in
dreams and illusions, therefore, she plays a perpetual game of let's pretend. She says what ought to
be true, not what is true. Stanley can't tolerate idealists like Blanche. What she calls "magic" Stanley
calls "lies." Losing her way altogether at the end of the play, Blanche can no longer distinguish illusion
from reality. So she goes to an asylum, the only place where that distinction doesn't make any
difference.
The Old South and the New South: Stella and Blanche come from a world that is rapidly dying.
Belle Reve, their family's ancestral plantation, has been lost. The two sisters, symbolically, are the last
living members of their family. Stella will mingle her blood with a man of blue-collar stock, and Blanche
will enter the world of madness. Stanley represents the new order of the South: chivalry is dead,
replaced by a "rat race," to which Stanley makes several proud illusions.
Cruelty: The only unforgivable crime, according to Blanche, is deliberate cruelty. This sin is Stanley's
specialty. His final assault against Blanche is a merciless attack against an already-beaten foe. On the
other hand, though Blanche is dishonest, she never lies out of malice. Her cruelty is unintentional;
often, she lies in a vain effort to plays. Throughout Streetcar, the full range of cruelty is seen, from
Blanche's well-intentioned deceits, to Stella's self-deceiving treachery, to Stanley's deliberate and
unchecked malice. In Williams' plays, there are many ways to hurt someone. And some are worse
than others.
The Primitive and the Primal: Blanche often speaks of Stanley as ape-like and primitive. Stanley
represents a very unrefined manhood, a romantic idea of man untouched by civilization and its
effeminizing influences. His appeal is clear: Stella cannot resist him, and even Blanche, though
repulsed, is on some level drawn to him. Stanley's unrefined nature also includes a terrifying
amorality. The service of his desire is central to who he is; he has no qualms about driving his sisterin-law to madness, or raping her.
Desire: Closely related to the theme above, desire is the central theme of the play. Blanche seeks to
deny it, although it is learned later in the play that desire is one of her driving motivations; her desires
have caused her to be driven out of town. Desire, and not intellectual or spiritual intimacy, is the heart
of Stella's and Stanley's relationship. Desire is Blanche's undoing, because she cannot find a healthy
way of dealing with it: she is always either trying to suppress it or pursuing it with abandon.
Loneliness: The companion theme to desire; between these two extremes, Blanche is lost. She
desperately seeks companionship and protection in the arms of strangers. And she has never
recovered from her tragic and consuming love for her first husband. She has constructed a web of
pretence to delude herself and others that she is charming and sociable. She invents tales about her
gentleman friend Shep Huntleigh. Whether he's a real or an imaginary person isn't important. He is
real enough to comfort Blanche and to keep hope alive that someday she'll be rescued from
loneliness. Blanche is in need of a defender. But in New Orleans, she will find instead the predatory
and merciless Stanley.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
The Victory of the Apes: One of Blanche's impassioned speeches to Stella depicts Stanley as an
ape. It's true, there is something apelike about him. His primitive qualities are seen from the first
moment of the play, when he comes home lugging a package of bloody meat. There are many
allusions to the subhuman quality of life in Elysian Fields. Sometimes the place is described as a
jungle. Shrieks and groans pierce the hot, humid air. Mitch is described as a bear, the women are
called "hens." Stanley and Stella emit "low, animal moans." Blanche is the only champion for
civilization in the play. "Don't hang back with the brutes!" she tells Stella. What conclusion can be
drawn from the fact that the brutes ultimately destroy her? Are Blanche's values useless in a savage
world? Inventing a Beautiful Past: When most of us glance back to the past, we wear rose-colored glasses,
and if the present is bleak, the past appears still rosier. In Streetcar, hardly a character is immune from
visions of a beautiful past. Blanche's manner and way of speaking suggest the sort of past she has
lodged in her memory. You'd think she grew up in grandeur and gentility of the Old South, at least until
you hear her tell Stella the history of Belle Reve's decline. Why does Stella recall the white-columned
plantation with fondness? Would she have left the place at an early age if life there had been so
attractive? The name Belle Reve (beautiful dream) indicates, perhaps, that both Blanche and Stella
believe in an illusion.
Sexual Violence: The proverbial conflict between males and females has often been termed the
"battle of the sexes." Sexual hostilities rage throughout the play. On one side is Blanche, who is a
veteran of considerable sexual give and take. She lures the newspaper boy into her arms, but thinks
the better of it, and frees him after only one kiss. She wins Mitch's affection but claims "high ideals" to
keep him at a distance. When Mitch discovers that he's been hoodwinked, he attempts to rape her.
Blanche wards off the attack like a seasoned warrior. Only Stanley is unconquerable. He sees right
through Blanche's sexual pretences. At the end of his war with Blanche, he rapes her, proving that in
sexual combat, he is the winner and still champion.
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ANALYSIS – STREETCAR
STYLE
Poetry, like many art forms (music, dance, painting) inspires moods and emotions. Throughout
Tennessee Williams’ life, he read the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, D.H.
Lawrence, and Hart Crane (In fact, he was known to carry a worn out copy of Crane’s poetry
everywhere). Below are some examples of poetry that inspired Tennessee Williams throughout the
writing of A Streetcar Named Desire.
After asking Stella “What on earth are you doing in a place like this?” Blanche claims that “Only Mr.
Edgar Allan Poe - could do it justice! Out there, I suppose, is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.”
This reference comes from Poe’s poem entitled "Ulalume" -a piece that highlights Poe’s macabre style
of writing. Mitch owns a silver cigarette case given to him by a former lover. The inscription reads:
“And if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” This quote, as Blanche recalls, comes
from Elizabeth Barrrett Browning’s "Sonnet 43" . What significance do you think it has?
Throughout the play, the world of reality in which Stella and Stanley live and Blanche's world of broken
illusion are witnessed. Hart Crane, captures the feeling of Blanche’s world in his poem "The Broken
Tower":
... And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
New Orleans and the French Quarter are often referred to as “Vieux Carre.” Tennessee Williams
named a play after it and several poems have been published under the same title. In Walter Adolphe
Roberts’ poem, the city is described with romantic undertones.
Vieux Carre
by Walter Adolphe Roberts
This city is the child of France and Spain,
That once lived nobly, ardent as the heat
In which it came to birth. Alas, how fleet
The years of love and arms! There now remain,
Bleached by the sun and moldered by the rain,
Impassive fronts that guard some rare retreat,
Some dim, arched salon, or some garden sweet,
Where dreams persist and the past lives again.
The braided iron of the balconies
Is like locked hands, fastidiously set
To bar the world. But the proud mysteries
Showed me a glamour I may not forget:
Your face, camellia-white upon the stair,
Framed in the midnight thicket of your hair.
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