Themes of “A Streetcar
Named Desire”
by
Tennessee Williams

What William says
about this play
“the ravishment of the tender, the
sensitive, the delicate, by the
savage and brutal forces of modern
society”

Historical context
 As a Southerner, he
was more affected
by the events of the
American Civil War
(1861 – 1865) than
WW2. Following their
defeat by the
Northern states, the
South suffered
economically during
and after the Civil
War.
Source :Wikipedia

Tennessee Williams
• Born on March 26, 1911
Columbus, Mississippi
and Died on
February 24, 1983 New
York City
• Influenced by Anton
Chekhov, D. H.
Lawrence, August
Strindberg and Hart
Crane
Source:www.casarotto.co.
uk

THEMES

Exterior & interior,
fragility , Vulnerability
“I draw every character
out of my very multiple
split personality. My
heroines always express
the climate of my interior
world at the time in which
those characters were
created.”(William)
Source:
deathdeconstructed.blog
spot.com

Street Car Named
Desire
 Title comes from Street
car that runs along
desire street.
 There are two New
orleans neighborhood
- “Desire and
Cemeteries”
Source:
imaginepittsburgh.com

Street car Named
Desire
Written by Tennessee Williams
Characters
 Blanche DuBois
 Stella Kowalski
 Stanley Kowalski
 Harold Mitchell
Date premiered December 3, 1947
Place premiered
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
New York City, New York
Original language English

Stanley Kowalski
Age: 25
Origin:
Polish Descent
Marital Status:
Married
Occupation:
Factory Worker
Hobbies:
Bowling, Poker, Drinking

Blanche Dubois
Symbolic Meaning: Star
Age: 25
Hometown:
Laurel, Mississippi
Marital Status:
Married
Occupation:
Housewife

Escapism
William’s wrote:
“an escape from a world
of reality in which [he] felt
acutely uncomfortable”.
Drugs and Alcohol as an
escape.
Souce:www.dreamstime.
com

Appearance and
Reality
Shakespearean motif:
“All that glitters is not
gold”
A common saying that :
“Appearances are often
deceptive”
Sex and the death,
Blanche- True Blanche
Source:english12aphaml
et.weebly.com

Role of men
In this play, masculinity means:
 Aggression
 Control,
 Physical dominance
 Violence

Role of women
“Some of Blanche’s difficulties
can be traced to the narrow
roles open to females during
that period”
(Spampinato, 291).

Role of women contd
• Women in the Old South had a social and
symbolic role, were expected to be
passive and chaste. This world could not
give Blanche what she needed (see
scene 5) and so she tried to marry into the
‘light and culture’, but on doing so, she
discovers that there is corruption and
deceit behind the façade.

Light and dark motifs
 In the sixth scene, Blanche reveals to Mitch that
loving her husband was like having the world
revealed in “bright, vivid light”. Since his death,
she wants darkness and has only experienced dim
light during her sexual affairs with others.

Marriage or…
 A name for:
- hero-worship,
-aggression
- -difference between
husband and wife.
Source:www.awamisiasa
t.com

Marriage, Sex for
commitment or safety?
 While discussing sexual exploits with Mitch
,Blanche said thus:
'What do you want?'
'What I been missing all summer.'
'Then marry me, Mitch!'

Sex as a literal Death
In this drama sex
leads to hardships,
aggression ,Literal
death, violence and
Hardships.
www.withoutend.org

Desire
 Sex &desire for men, if not found Blanche creates
them
 Blanche came to town on street car named
“Desire”
 Stanley can not control his desires and …
 Stella learns the truth but stays with Stanley as she
love and desires him

Loneliness and
haunting thoughts
 “Yes, I had many intimacies with
strangers. After the death of Allan,
intimacies with strangers were all I
seemed able to fill my empty heart with…
I think it was panic, just panic, that drove
me from one to another, hunting for some
protection” (Williams, A Streetcar…).

Old and New world
• Stanley
represents the
American Dream
that all men are
born equal and
can succeed
equally, whilst
Blanche
represents the old
world, where
class and race
are still important
issues
Cigarbrief.com

William’s Love for
Southern
“I write out of love for the South … once a
way of life that I am just able to remember
– not a society based on money … I write
about the South because I think the war
between romanticism and the hostility to it
is very sharp there.”

Class, sect, cast
• Stanley and Blanche are opposed
• Advised Mitch , not to marry Blanche
• Ticket as a birthday gift.

Alcoholism and
Delusions of Drandeur
 Drugs and Alchohol
effects conscience.
 Delusion of Grandure is
a type of desease in
which one thinks of him
or herself as some one
higher than the other.

Journey from desire to
death
LAUREL
Belle Reve
NEW ORLEANS
French Quarter

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