a streetcar named desire

protagonist

theme

key facts

scene 1

scene 2

scene 3

scene 4

scene 6

scene 5

scene 7

scene 8

sexual desire

fantasy and delusion

interior and exterior appearance

masculinity and physicality

femininity and dependence

Blanche

Stella

Stanley

Mitch

when she was 16, she married an effeminate young man who turned to be homosexual. He killed himself. Blanche is still haunted by his death.

She is not taking a leave from her school due to her nerves, but she has been fired for having an affair with her student.

Blanche loves Stella and tries to get her sister to escape New Orleans.

Blanche is repulsed by Stanley, yet finds herself almost hypnotically attracted by his physical power.

thirty years old, was a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi until recently forced to leave her position

emotional center of the play

calm, reasonable foil to Blanche’s frenetic hysteria

soothing, feminine voice that counteracts Stanley’s violence

no desire to return to her past

Stella’s pregnancy underscores her commitment to her Kowalski future, not her DuBois past.

she is drawn into the magnetic pull of his powerful physical presence

scene 9

scene 10

scene 11

Tennesse Williams

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symbol

the streetcar

varsouviana polka

bathing

paper lantern and paper moon

alcohol and drunkenness

shadows

Stanley

Blanche

his masculinity becomes exaggerated

he grows increasingly physical, violent and brutal

he makes a show of drinking swaggering and openly pouring himself shots

hides her alcoholism

constantly claiming that she rarely drinks while secretly sneaking frequent shots

she uses drinking as an escape mechanism

refers not only to a real streetcar line in New Orleans

also refers to the power of desire as the driving force behind the characters' action

So desire is a controlling force ; when it takes over, characters must submit to its power and they are carried along to the end of the line

to soothe Blanche's nerves

escape from the sweaty apartment

Blanche retreats to the water to attempt to cleanse herself and forget reality

temporary respite, she can never escape the past

full of raw strength, ferocity, violent masculinity and animal magnetism

genteel and mannered than Stanley

Mitch ultimately driven away when he learns of her sordid past

still a man with physical desires

plays when B is reminded of her husband in specific

plays when she is particularly disturbed by the past in general

continues until some event in the real world distracts her

continues until a gunshot goes off in her memory

engine propelling the play

much of B's conception of how she operates in the world relies on her perception of herself as an object of male sexual desire