A Streetcar Named Desire

Olivia Shaw

Plot and Sub-Plot

A Streetcar Named Desire

The main plot in A Streetcar Named Desire is all based around the character Blanche DuBois and the never-ending downfall of her life. The play opens with Blanche arriving in New Orleans where she has come to find and stay with her sister Stella. Stella lives in an apartment with her controlling husband Stanley, when Blanche sees the apartment which she stays she cannot believe her sister lives in such a place. Blanche and Stella greet each with passion but before long Blanche becomes irritable. Blanche has bad news and tells Stella she has lost they’re old home ‘Belle Reve’ Blanche says to Stella it’s her fault and her leaving was the reason they lost their home. This gets Stella upset so she goes to the bathroom. While she is there Stanley comes home, he gives Blanche a frank stare and they have an awkward conversation, we find out Blanche had a husband who died when they were both very young. Stanley is common and rough compared to Blanche who is delicate. Stanley is a very sexual man and sex is part of what makes him tick. His appraisal of women is frank and straightforward. It becomes obvious that the sexual bond between Stanley and Stella is intense, and that this is what keeps their relationship going. Stella tells Stanley about the loss of ‘Belle Reve’ and Stanley thinks Blanche has profited from this and goes through her things. When Stanley routes through the letters her husband had written this makes Blanche angry and also brings back memories of her past. That night Stanley has his friends round for a poker game and this is where Blanche first meets Mitch they talk about things they have in common and she tells him she is Stella’s younger sister we know this isn’t true. She asks Mitch to put a paper lantern over the light bulb; this is because Blanche doesn’t want Mitch to see her true self, hiding herself and her past. Stanley becomes angry when Stella answers back to him, and he pounces on Stella and starts beating her. Blanche is hysterical. She gathers Stella's clothes and they go up to Eunice's place. Stanley gets Stella to come back with little persuasion, and Blanche meets back up with Mitch outside.

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Mitch and Blanche begin to see each other frequently but still Blanche keeps up the facade of virginity, innocence, and properness. She tells him of her young husband's tendency toward homosexuality, her discovery of his secret, and his ultimate suicide. They open up to one another saying how they both need somebody and that they would be good for each other. Stanley continues to search for evidence on Blanches blemished past, finding people who knew her in Laurel, the town where she lived and taught English. She lived at a second-rate hotel called the Flamingo, sharing company with many men. She was involved with a seventeen-year-old boy at her school, which is the reason for her sudden departure. She was also evicted from the hotel, because her personal life was too seedy even for them. Stanley tells Mitch these stories and Mitch stands Blanche up at her birthday dinner. Stanley presents her with the present of a bus ticket out of New Orleans on, and erupts at the table, breaking plates and glasses and scaring both Stella and Blanche even more. Mitch arrives later to talk to the drunk Blanche and she attempts to cover up her drunken state and keep him in her life. They fight and he tells her he wants to sleep with her, but she responds that she will, only if they were married. He tells her she is not clean enough for him and leaves. Blanche believes that she is to leave New Orleans to go on a Caribbean cruise with one of her old beaux, Shep Huntleigh. Stanley laughs at her, but tries to make amends because his wife is having a baby. They fight and Blanche tries to stab him with a broken bottle top. She admits to her sketchy past and he shows his bad temper. Weeks later, Stella has the baby and Stanley hosts another poker game. Blanche believes that she is going on a vacation in the country with Shep. Instead, a doctor and nurse arrive at the door to have her committed. She screams and tries to stay with Stella. After a skirmish, the doctor is kind to her and she begins to trust him. She walks out of the house with him and will go to the institution. Stella cries, wondering if she did the right thing while Stanley hopes that everything will go back to normal now that Blanche has gone. The Sub-plots in the play are of Blanches past in Laurel where she worked as a teacher, but was fired for being involved with one of the students. Also the activities she got up to in her hotel room which got her evicted. When Stanley finds out these things this destroys her relationship with Mitch and also Stella doesn’t know weather to believe her husband or her sister. The relationship between Eunice and Steve who live upstairs to Stella and Stanley is in some ways the opposite of Stella and Stanley’s. Stanley is the dominant figure in their house but Eunice is dominant over Steve. In other ways they are the same because both relationships are fueled with sex. This works well in the play because this illuminates the relationship between Stella and Stanley; we begin to wonder weather Stella will one day become more dominant, more like Eunice. By Tennessee putting these characters in it gives us an insight of what the future might hold for Stella and Stanley. In 400bc there was a famous Greek philosopher called Aristotle who wrote an essay called ‘The Poetics’. This essay was arguing what makes a good tragedy. He said there had to be three vital ingredients to a play. ‘A play should be about one character’, in A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee used Blanche, the tragic heroin the protagonist he based his play around Blanches character. ‘A play should be set in one place’ Tennessee used New Orleans, with the play begin set in one place this increased the tension, be more intense so more confrontations would occur if there was no where else to escape to. For Blanche’s character New Orleans becomes a trap. Aristotle also said ‘A play should be set over a 24hr period’ Tennessee didn’t use this ingredient in his play because we needed time for Stella’s pregnancy to develop and cause more conflict. We needed to see Blanche and Mitch’s relationship develop and unfold. Also Blanches mental state needed time to deteriorate so we wouldn’t feel so shocked when she was taken away by the nurse and doctor.