A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire

The play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is by Tennessee Williams. The genre is tragedy and the setting is in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 1940's. The major characters include Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, Harold Mitchell, who was also known as Mitch, and Stella Kowalski. We learn a lot in the beginning of the play, such as the tone being ironic and compassionate practicality.

Blanche DuBois was the main character out of all the major characters. She lost her family fortune and estate along with a young husband who committed suicide a few years back. She was a social exile due to her behavior sexually. Blanche tried to cover up a drinking problem, but she did not do a good job. She played an insecure, dislocated person who tried to hide her age and panicked because she thought her beauty was fading. Her wardrobe showed us that she wore cheap evening clothes and her manner was dainty and frail. Unfortunately, Stanley Kowalski saw through her act and found out information about her past.

While Blanche is visiting her sister, Stella, she pretends to be indignant and it ends up showing as being a snob. Although she thought it would help her look attractive to the men in New Orleans, it did not. Blanche's self-esteem was based on male sexual admiration. Blanche meets Mitch and hopes to get married by him and that it would help her escape poverty and her bad reputation would be left behind. Blanche ends up not getting married and there was no longer happiness in her future. Eventually, Stanley rapes Blanche and then Stella and Stanley send her to an insane asylum.

Stanley Kowalski was very loyal to friends and passionate to his wife when Blanche first gets to New Orleans. At points in the play, Stanley looses control when he is called derogatory names such as, "Polack." Stanley does not like Blanche, thinks she is not trustworthy, and does not appreciate the way she tries to fool people into thinking she is better than they are. Stanley gets back at Blanche by investigating her past, buying a ticket back home for her birthday, and telling Mitch not to associate with her anymore. We do not learn Stanley's bad habits until he hits Stella and rapes his sister-in-law. However, he does gamble, drink, bowl, have sex, and lacks imagination.

Mitch is the sensitive one out of all of Stanley's friends that is why Stella introduces Blanche to him. Mitch lives with his mother