A+Streetcar+Named+Desire

** Named Desire ** ** By Tennessee Williams ** ||
 * || ** A Streetcar **

//Main Characters//

Blanche DuBois-(protagonist) Stella’s sister who is visiting from Laurel, Mississippi. She is on leave of absence from her job as an English Teacher due to “nerves.” She dresses very eloquently; first being introduced as “daintily dressed with an uncertain manner.” She pretends to be someone she is not, and uses men as a crutch to hold up her self-esteem. She is visiting her sister to tell her the news that she “lost” the family home Belle Reve. Her ultimate downfall comes from Stanley, her brother-in-law, who finds out her past and ruins her future. (Round/Dynamic)

Stella Kowalski- Blanche’s younger sister who is married to Stanley, and expecting a child. She becomes caught in between her love for her husband and her sister whom she loves. She is loyal in that she wants her sister to find her way in life, regardless of her rude remarks or losing their family’s home. (Round/Dynamic)

Stanley Kowalski- (antagonist) Stella’s husband who brings Blanche to her demise through his derogatory remarks and actions. He instantly is put off by Blanche’s actions of acting as if she is better than him and the life he leads. He shows his true colors however, when he rapes Blanche and then turns her in to the insane asylum. (Round/Static)

Harold (Mitch) Mitchell- One of Stanley’s poker buddies. Mitch becomes a love interest or toy to Blanche. He is a softer type than Stanley, and is hurt by the way Blanche toys with him in the end. (Round/Dynamic)

Eunice- A neighbor of Stella and Stanley’s. Eunice plays the role in telling Stella to believe her husband over her sister. Eunice, like Stella, endures poor treatment from her husband, but has no other way out. (Flat/Static)

Allan Grey- Blanche’s former husband. He shot himself after Blanche discovered his homosexuality and made a spectacle of it. It is the tragic flaw that haunts her and ruined her sexuality and sanity. (Flat/Static)

Shep Huntleigh- A former male companion of Blanche. She fantasizes that he will save Stella and herself from the downtrodden life and take care of them. When being led to the insane asylum, Blanche pretends it is Shep coming to take her away. (Flat/Static)

//A Streetcar Named Desire-Summary//

One day, Blanche DuBois shows up out of the blue to her sister Stella’s house. She brings the news that she lost the family’s home Belle Reve. She appears to be well off, wearing the best clothes that money can buy and looking on with distaste at her sister’s new life with lower class Stanley. Stanley immediately dislikes Blanche because he believes she cheated his wife (HIM) out of money through the “Napoleonic code” meaning what belongs to a wife, belongs to her husband. He digs deeper to find the truth of Blanche’s vague past. To his disgust, Blanche goes out with his poker buddy, Mitch.

Stanley later finds out the truth about Blanche. He learns about her going broke and having several male suitors, and was fired from her teacher position after being caught with a male student. Mitch is disgusted that Blanche had lied about who she was to him, and resents her for having just been a tease to him. Stanley comes in to fight with Blanche some more. Blanche’s sanity is weakening and she speaks of being swept off her feet by Step Huntleigh. Tension grows and Stanley overpowers her and rapes her. Having Blanche’s fits on his side, nobody believes her, and she is sent off to the insane asylum. The final seen Williams leaves us with is Stella sobbing with her newborn baby in her arms, Mitch crying as well, and Stanley soothing his grieving wife.

**Themes/Motifs**

Inability to accept reality

People often struggle to comprehend their own life’s pitfalls by pushing it aside with false realities.

Blanche chooses to pretend she is still of the upper class by looking disdainfully on her poor sister’s apartment and neighborhood, even though Blanche herself is homeless and has just lost the family’s home. Her high fashion clothes represent the falseness and fake compliments that Blanche needs to survive.

Male Dominance

During the changes of Post-War American, women often viewed themselves as prospects to men who needed them for their own happiness and self-worth.

Both Stella and Blanche relied on men for their futures. Blanche looked to Mitch as her way out of being broke and unhappy, and constantly wanted complimented to get by day to day. Stella believes the only way she can survive is if she is with Stanley, even though he is not that great of a husband.

Loyalty

Love often diminishes the past pains and struggles under the brimming promises of a new start.

Stella looks past the sometimes rude remarks of her sister with the hopes of a fresh relationship. She only strays from that at the end of the book when her husband and neighbor causes her to second guess her sister’s actions and let her go.

Literary Elements

Williams makes use of the scene directions and music changes to emphasize key moments in the story, as well as the changing moods. The “blue piano” that frequently plays symbolizes the downfall of Blanche DuBois. The music picks up at certain points like a polka tune when referencing her younger years (31). He uses the stage directions to introduce us to the characteristics of Stanley who was described as “A richly feathered male bird among hens.” Even though he was of lower class, Stanley treated women as though he was above them all. He was later described as “Sizing up women at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them (25).”

Williams also makes use of metaphors and imagery to further rope in the reader.

He shows us into the insecure mind of Blanche when she describes herself as “Daylight never exposed so total a ruin (21).” He reveals how badly Blanche views herself and needs pumped up by everyone she comes across.

When accusing her sister of ditching her while telling how she lost Belle Reve, Blanche declares, “Funerals are pretty compared to death (26)”. She wants her sister to feel bad for missing the downfall of their parents and family members who struggled in their dying days.