Streetcar Named Desire

General Setting

The Play “Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessy Williams is about the destiny of a Women who tries to rebuild her life in the early 1950s, the postwar America, after loosing nearly everything, her family her wealth and her possession. She she moves to her sister and tries to keep her luxury lifestyle by creating her own world full of desire, lies and making-believe. The play is named after one of the New Orleans streetcars that protagonist Blanche DuBois rides on her way to her sisters appartment, foreshadowing her desterny, from(her unfulfilled) Desire to Cemetery(symbolizing death, or the loss of reality) and a street called Elysian Fields (ancient mythological land of the dead) (p.11/l.6-8)

The setting of the play is distinguished by the importance of New Orleans, because the city is full of contrasts like the old French architecture and the modern and new rhythms of jazz music. The Old World is mixed with the modern life which brings poverty with it. The Americans associate New Orleans with desire and a very direct kind of sexuality . The theme of old and new is important throughout the whole play, Blanche and her sister Stella lived their youth in the family mansion called “Belle Reve” which is French and means “Beautuiful Dream” but this beautiful life is lost forever. Stella changes her lifestyle and beginns a new life in New Orleans with her husband Stanley. But Blanche can not let go her luxury lifestyle. Nearly the whole play takes place in the small, confining appartment of Stella and Stanley, the conflict unavoidable between the three of them because of the lack of space and the hot, oppressive weather.

Password

Confirm Password

I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy

The Society Depicted

The society depicted in this play is split into two classes which are the total opposide of one another. These two extremly contrasting lifestyles meet one another because of the distinct backgrounds of the main characters. Stella and Blanche Du Bois were raised on a wealthy plantation shaped by tradition, luxus and an upper-class society. Blanche shows her high-class background to everyone by her appearance, she is perfumed, well dressed, and soft-spoken. While Stanley Kowalski represents the opposide backgroung and lifestyle, he is a polish man of “solid blue-colour stock”. Stanley and his friends ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

The Society Depicted

Now those two classes are pushed together in one world. Stella could manage to change her lifestyle, to let the old life go and to build up a new world in New Orleans toghether with her husband. But Blanche is still clinging to her lost wealth, she is trying to keep it upright by pretending and lying to everyone.

The primary desires /hopes /agonies and terrors of Blanche compared to Martin Dressler

Blanche Du Bois wants to live her life under the conditions of “make believe”, rather than accepting reality. Blanche has suffered a lot in her life so far, after the early death of her husband she took care of her dying familymembers and lost everything she owned, loneliness and desire for something better fill her life. Blanche is very insecure. She has dealt with her suffering by making-believe, by taking refuge in fanciful dreams about herself and her surroundings. She never tells her real age and for that, does not want to be seen in the harshness of bright light. In darkness, she is able to give the other people illusions about herself. But at the same time Blanche is very sincere and kind to everyone. Her whole life is full of lies which have isolated her. She lies, but never with the intention to hurt somebody but she does it because of her weakness,her immaturity and a fear of reality.

She always tries to become what she thinks will please the others.

She had the chore to take care for her family nearly half her life, while her sister Stella ran of and started a new life with Stanley and to build up a relationship which mainly contains sexual desire. Blanche is both angry and jealous of Stella’s choice, she feels left alone. Blanche denies the power of desire, just as she denounces the streetcar which brought her to her sister. But in reality this streetcar, symbolising her desire and loneliness what caused her to run out of town. Loneliness is one of the main chracteristics next to desire which controll Blanche’s life. The two couples in the play, Stella and Stan and Eunice and Steve provide a contrast to Blanche’s less healthy outlets for her desire, like she did in her past when she was looking for comfort and protection in impossible places, with men who were only interested in one thing. She suffers from a terrible loneliness, from which she seeks to escape in inappropriate ways. When she meets Mitch which is a gentle and well manered exception between Stans friends, she thinks that she found the company and protection she was looking for, because he makes her feel secure. But finally, the man she hoped would stay with her rejects her, because of her lies and because of the approach of Stan to get Blanche out of his life because he wants to preserve his authority and domination over his wife. He behaves very heartless and cold, without any kindness or understanding.But Blanche has often in her lifedepended on the kindness of others, but she was always abandoned or abused by everyone. Finally, even her own sister has betrayed her. Her fragile personality, her defenselessness, and her self-deception have brought her to madness. Blanche is a weak person with very freyed nerves, with her baths which became a cleansing ritual, she tries to gain strenght and to wash away her problem, she sais that she feels like a new person after taking a bath, but that strenght does not last very long. In the end of the play she is a broken person.

Compared to the personality of Martin Dressler whos life is controlled by businessmatters and gaining success, his desire is different than Blanche’s. He is always driven foreward by the desire to build up and to own more and more lunchrooms and hotels of extraordinary apperance. He is forced to go alway a bit further in his life, he does not have a goal or is satisfied at a certain point. He is controlled by an eager restlessness. Because of his selfconfident appearence and his lively businesslife, one would never call him lonely. But in the end his social life is neglected and he can never share all his thoughts with a loved one. Martin has a strong personality compared to Blanche, but thier ability of imagining a life which is better than the reality is something they both have in common.

Elements of the American Dream

The novel “Streetcar Named Desire” is no typical example of a “rags to riches” story. Blanch DuBois comes from a wealthy background. Her french ancestors had already reached the American Dream and build up a wealthy and luxury life in the mansion called “Belle Reve”. Reve which is French and means Dream is referring to the beautiful dream Blanche’s immigrating ancestors had, and which they reached in America. Blanche and her sister Stella lost their former life, by loosing their wealth and mansion. They sort of went into the other direction than the American Dream. Blanche’s life is, you could, say a “riches to rags” story. She and her sister climed down the ladder of success and are now at the same level or lower than people who are trying to reach a life called the American Dream.