A Streetcar Named Desire
by Tennessee Williams
Vanesa, Iqra, Brianna

About the Author
Born: Thomas Laniar Williams March 26, 1911
Died: February 25, 1983 (71 years old)
Other plays: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1955), The Glass Menagerie (1994)
Attended University of Missouri in Columbia and studied journalism
First play: Beauty is the word (1930)
Influences: Emily Dickinson, Thomas Wolfe, James Joyce, William Shakespeare, and Ernest Hemmingway
Fun fact: Sister had schizophrenia
Said he died from choking on a cap of an eye drops container, later confirmed of a drug and alcohol overdose,

Setting

Characters

• Blanche DuBois: The thirty year old protaginst that worries about her fading beauty. Although she has had many lovers in the past, she presents herself as a woman with of high virtue. Her perception of reality fades as the play progresses, and her instability grows along with misfortune.
• Stella Kowalski: Blanche's younger sister, about twenty-five years old and with the similar southern charm of her sister. She is torn between Blanche and Stanley, her husband. Though she loves her sister, she cant bring herself to believe Blanche's accusation of Stanley raping her and sends her to a mental institution. Her denial of reality at the end proves she has more in common with Blanche than she thinks.
• Stanley Kowalski: Stella's husband who is the epitome of vital force. He see's himself as a social leveler, and seeks to destroy Blanche's distortions of the truth. At the end of the play, he is a disturbing degenerate, beating his pregnant wife and raping his sister-in-law. However, he is considered the family man while Blanche is the outcast.

Important Themes

• Reality vs. Appearance: Blanche and Stanley's relationship represents the struggle between reality and appearance. Blanche believes apperences are important. She wears fancy clothes, lies about her life, and acts with manners. Stanley acts bluntly. Although in the end Blanche goes mad, she able to receive some comfort by fitting her fantasy to reality. Fantasy has the ability to ease reality.
• The Relationship Between Sex and Death: Blanche's fears of death cause her to fear aging and loss of beauty. She believes that sex will make up for the death of the things she has loved. The death of her husband, death of her family, death of Belle Reve, an affair with a student- all lead to her having sex and bringing an end to all she loves. Riding the streetcar named desire leads to misfortune.
• Alcohol: Alcohol is drank by the characters in the play frequently. The alcohol is a form of fantasy that distracts the characters from reality. Fantasy is able to succeed in some aspects of reality in the play.

Important Symbols
Shadows and Cries: foreshadow Blanche's breakdown, where she ignores reality altogether instead of coloring her perception of reality
The Varsouviana Polka: represents Blanche's loss of innocence and guilt- the song played during a dance with her young husband when she last saw him alive. Earlier that day, she caught her husband in bed with an older man. After pretending nothing had happened. During the dance, Blanche tells her husband he disgusts her- He later runs away and commits suicide.

Important Quotes
"They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at-- Elysian Fields" -Elysian Fields is the land of the dead in Greek mythology, and the journey described by Blanche to Stanley and Stella's apartment is an allegorical version of her life up to that point. Her pursuit of her own sexual "desires" led to her social death and exile from her hometown, and Blanche's landing in such a sketchy area is likened to that of a pagan heaven, where she understands and lives in the repercussions of her past action.

Another Important Quote
"Whoever you are-- I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."-- Spoken at the very end of the play, the words above from Blanche's final statement. Her statement proves ironic for two reasons. First, the doctor she perceives to be gentlemen savior is not at al like this. Second, her dependence on the kindness of strangers is the very reason for her psychological demise. While many of the strangers in her life have shown kindness in exchange for sexual favors, others completely deny Blanche of the kindness she deserves.