A STREETCAR NAMED

DESIRE
New Orleans and the American South- An
introduction to the world of A Streetcar
Named Desire

• The action of A Streetcar Named Desire is all set within

the French Quarter (the Vieux Carré) of New Orleans in
Louisiana, one of the ‘Deep South’ states of America. It
is set soon after the end of World War 2, around the
same time that it was written in 1946-7.
• Unseen but referred to throughout the play is another
setting – Mississippi and the ‘Deep South’, a name which
stands not simply for a geographical location but also for a
set of values and a way of life. This ‘South’, shaped by a
belief in history and family ancestry, is a place looking
backwards to before the American Civil War of 1861-65 (the
antebellum era) when white plantation owners had made
fortunes from black slave labour. Although this life no longer
really existed by the 1940s, there continued to be a
romantic view of both the past and its decline – kept
alive by the blockbuster smash Gone With the Wind,
published in 1937 and made into a film in 1939.
• Although a ‘Deep South’ city, New Orleans had little in
common with these values and way of life. Urban, with
a diverse, often immigrant population, it was a city with
liberal (even risqué) values and morals, the home of
jazz music, a place in which family name and ancestry
had little weight. In the 1940s New Orleans was a place
looking forward to the second half of the 20th century
SETTING
• A Streetcar Named Desire brings together into a small
one-bedroomed flat the values and beliefs associated
with these two very different worlds. Knowing
something of these places and the values associated
with them will help you understand and enjoy your first
experience of the play
Scene 1

• Contrast between Stanley and Blanche

• Blanche's disapproval of Stanley

• 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
• Expressionistic stage directions and music.
Scene 2
• Blanche’s frequent baths symbolize her yearning for emotional rejuvenation and cleansing. The revealed pregnancy
explains Stella’s weight gain. Stella has not yet told Blanche so as not to surprise Blanche’s delicate nerves all at once
• Stanley is not concerned with Blanche’s emotional fragility: he is only looking out for his own interests. He
immediately distrusts Blanche, as he senses that she has some power over Stella, whereas he wants to have Stella
completely.
• Stanley thrusts open Blanche’s trunk and digs through her clothes, searching for the bill of sale. He thinks that her
flashy dresses and costume jewelry are expensive, glamorous pieces that cost thousands of dollars. Stella tells him
that they are fake fur and rhinestones and stalks out angrily to the porch.
• In one sense, Stanley and Blanche are fighting for Stella—each would like to pull Stella beyond the reach of the other.
But their opposition is also more elemental. They are incompatible forces—manners versus manhood—and peace
between them is no more than a temporary cease-fire. Blanche represents the Old South’s intellectual romanticism
and dedication to appearances. Stanley represents the New South’s ruthless pursuit of success and -economic
pragmatism.
• The red satin robe suggests sexuality. Blanche tries to flirt with Stanley by emphasizing her femininity, but Stanley
continues to assert his aggressive physical dominance.
• Though Stella tries to mediate between Blanche and Stanley, the power struggle is between the two of them. Stanley
is suspicious of Blanche and insistent that she is hiding something from him. Blanche does not want Stanley to
contaminate the love letters from her husband: she does not want her romantic vision of her past soiled by the
present.
• The tamale vendor yelling “Red-hot!” symbolizes the power of the red-blooded physical world over lost dreams of the past.
Writing tasks

• Summarise your thoughts on the position of women in

20th century America.
• Write an article on Life Is But a Dream: The American Dream as
Portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire
• How does Blanche represent the American dream ?
Scene 3
• It is 2:30 in the morning - The artificially lurid, vivid kitchen in the middle
of the night is somewhat sinister and hell-like. The card-playing and drinking amplifies the
men’s animal natures. When Mitch worries about his mother, he goes into the bathroom, leaving
the masculine space.
• When the women enter the apartment, they walk straight into the heart of the masculine space.
Stanley asserts his dominance physically over Stella, and she and Blanche retreat to the
shadowy, feminine bedroom space- When Stella suggests that they stop playing for the night, Stanley slaps
a hand on her thigh.
• Blanche encounters Mitch under her terms, that is, in the half-light of the bedroom that hides
reality. She sees that she can draw him in with her flirtation, and she views him as a potential
suitor. Faithful Stella sets Stanley above the rest of the men in her estimation.
• Stanley is upset that Blanche is demonstrating power in his house: he wants to dominate
the entire space, but Blanche is creating her own gravitational pull. Stanley yells at Blanche and
Stella to be quiet. Blanche turns on the radio, but Stanley turns it off and stalks back to the game.
• Blanche and Mitch have both lost their sweethearts, and the death of loved ones draws them
together. Blanche hangs a paper lantern over the bare light bulb to create shadows and
illusions that hide the reality of her real age.
• As Stella comes out of the bathroom, Blanche turns the radio back on, and she and Mitch
clumsily begin to dance. Stanley leaps from the table and throws the radio out the window.
Stella yells at him, and he strikes her violently. The men rush forward and pull Stanley off Stella.
Blanche shrieks hysterically, pulls out some of Stella’s clothes, and takes her sister upstairs to
Eunice’s apartment - Stanley violently asserts his aggression over Stella in an abusive
demonstration of dominance
• Unlike Blanche’s bathing, which serves as an escape from reality, Stanley’s shower
brings him back to his sober self in the real world. His bellow is like a wounded animal
roaring for his mate. Stella returns to him wordlessly, and the two embrace and make
murmuring noises as they hold each other. Their relationship exists on a deep, primal level.
Even though Stanley abuses his wife, and even though Blanch protects her, Stella chooses to
come back to Stanley
• Blanche rushes downstairs, confused and frantic. Mitch appears and tells her not to worry, that
this is just the nature of Stanley and Stella’s relationship. He offers her a cigarette, and she
thanks him for his kindness.
• The attraction between Mitch and Blanche contrasts aptly to the bestial attraction
between Stanley and Stella. The sensitivity and the quietness of Blanche and Mitch
emphasize the delicate basis of their relationship.
Scene 4
• This scene points up Blanche as the definite outsider. In attempting to get Stella to see Stanley as a common
and bestial person, she succeeds only in alienating herself from Stella.
• Although Stella claims to repudiate Stanley’s violence, she is clearly aroused by his aggression. Stella is calm,
peaceful, and glowing, as though still lit with some of the lurid kitchen lighting of the previous night. Though
Blanche sees Stanley’s actions as unforgivable, Stella, to a certain degree, is under the spell of some of the
violence—as she says, she finds it thrilling.
• Even though Blanche is horrified at the way Stanley treats Stella, her solution to get out of the
situation also relies on a man. Blanche wants to believe that she is staying with Stella by choice, rather than
necessity, and that at any moment she can sail away with Shep, though the audience can tell that her fantasy is
just that: a fantasy.
• Stella defends her relationship with Stanley through their sexual chemistry. Blanche uses the streetcar named
Desire symbolically, saying that carnal desire is not a way to run a life. But Blanche herself has ridden Desire to
arrive in New Orleans; in other words, her own lust has taken her to the end of the line.
• Blanche bursts into a rant against Stanley, calling him an ape- like, bestial creature. “There’s even something––
sub-human” about him, she cries, telling Stella, “Don’t––don’t hang back with the brutes!” Unbeknownst to the
women, as Blanche pours out her vicious rant, Stanley has come into the apartment and has heard the whole
tirade.
• Under the cover of a train’s noise, Stanley slips out and re- enters. Stella leaps into his arms, and
Stanley grins at Blanche as the “blue piano” music swells in the background- music
underscores Stanley and Stella’s passion.
• This scene does not give us a direct confrontation between Blanche and Stanley, but
instead and equally important, there is a confrontation between the two
concepts of life represented by Stanley and Blanche. And at the end of the
scene when Stella throws herself at Stanley, it is an obvious victory for
Stanley
Scene 5
• Stella and Blanche are in the bedroom. Blanche laughs at a letter she is writing to Shep Huntleigh
that is full of fabricated stories about cocktail parties and society events that she and Stella have
been attending all summer.
• Eunice and Steve, like Stanley and Stella, reconcile quickly after their fight: though
they passionately lash against each other, they just as passionately make up.
• Blanche tries to explain the world around her through mythology, but Stanley cuts through her
fantasies and symbols. The discussion about the stars is also an oblique power struggle over Stella
(“stella” means “star”): Stanley rejects Blanche’s interpretation of the constellations.
• Stanley asks if Blanche knows anyone named Shaw in Laurel. Blanche blanches but tries not to
show her anxiety. Stanley says that Shaw knew Blanche from the Hotel Flamingo, a disreputable
establishment. Blanche attempts to dismiss the accusation lightly, but she is visibly shaken. Steve
and Eunice return arm-in-arm to the building. Stanley leaves for the Four Deuces, saying that he
will wait for Stella there
• Blanche frantically asks Stella what people in town have been saying about her. Blanche admits
that there was a great deal of sordid gossip spreading about her in Laurel. She was too soft, she
says, not self-sufficient enough to cope properly with the loss of Belle Reve, and she cloaked
herself in half-shadows and Chinese lanterns to make herself attractive.
• Blanche drinks to escape the present and to blur the harsh edges of reality. When she thinks Stella
has stained the dress, she overreacts as though Stella has ruined her whole dream of herself, and
she is overly relieved when the stain blots cleanly away. If the stain had stayed, Blanche would
• Blanche claims that she is only nervous because she wants things with Mitch to go well, but this is
also the end of her line, her last chance: she is clinging to this relationship as a way to make her
dream about herself stay alive. She is dependent on Mitch to restore her "honor" and security as a
married woman.
• Stanley bellows his mating-call yell again, and Stella runs to his summons, joining the New Orleans
world and leaving Blanche behind.
• As Blanche waits for Mitch, a Young Man arrives, collecting subscriptions for the Evening Star
newspaper.
• Blanche’s direct flirtation with this young boy foreshadows the affair with the student that we later
learn was the real reason she lost her job, and reveals the voracious, uncontrollable sexual
appetite that Blanche tries to keep hidden. The paper’s name, the Evening Star, recalls Stella,
since “Stella” means “star.”