1. A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams

2. Summary
Blanche DuBois: A former beauty and member of an elite social set. She has not, and cannot, adjust to her loss of standing and wealth
Stanley Kowalski: former soldier and current salesman. He is masculine, forceful and has a bestial sense of life
Stella Kowalski: caught in the middle. Chooses husband over sister.
Mitch: yearns for love and has gentle nature.
MAJOR THEMES: perception and reality, loyalty, honesty and choice
SETTING: New Orleans after WW11 (1948)

3. Blanche DuBois Frightened Unable to adjust to her changing situation
Guilt ridden
Uses her sexuality to gain protection/love
Faded Southern beauty
Symbol of the old South
Pretends to be what she is not
Moth-like
Borders on madness/driven to it
Yearning

4. Stanley Kowalski Brutal Energetic Brash/loud Modern Sexist
Uses sexuality as symbol of power
Resentful of anyone who thinks they are better than he is
Overbearing
Crass
Physical

5. Stella Kowalski Symbol of transition between old and new worlds Gentle
Excited by Stanley’s physicality
Torn between loyalty to her husband and her sister
Sensitive
Weak
Pacifist
Understanding
Practical

6. Mitch
Lonely
Loyal
Weak
Sensitive
Gentle
Patient
Good-natured

7. Fantasy and Reality
Blanche creates a façade of illusion in order to cope with her past (shattered and harsh).
She tells what ‘ought to be the truth’
When she finally retreats into her fantasy, she is hauled off as insane but is in fact, happier there than in her reality

8. Fantasy and Reality
Stanley refuses Blanche’s description of him as a ‘brute’ and ‘ape’ when they are in fact, accurate.
His illusion is that he is in control, yet he is merely a bully, using physical force
There is no superiority in him despite his claims that he is ‘King around here’
He is cruel and cunning and deludes others into seeing that cruelty as honourable

9. Fantasy and Reality
Stella makes a clear choice between reality and fantasy because she ‘couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley’
This echoes her willingness to overlook Stanley’s physical abuse

10. Desire and Death
The play suggests that the blind pursuit of desire leads to death itself – the Streetcar named Desire leads to the Cemeteries which lands you in Elysian Fields where residents are doomed to repeat the same errors in life
Blanche uses sexual desire to fill the emotional void – the kindness of strangers
Her desire to reconnect with her sister leads to her mental devastation
Sexual desire between Stella and Stanley pulls her from her columns and ends her gentility
The sexual act is used to connect the characters but in using it this way, they lose something of themselves.

11. Power and Vulnerability
All of the characters are vulnerable in the play and they each use all the power at their disposal to avoid exposing this.
Stanley – physical and verbal power prevents criticism
Stella – sexuality and submission to keep Stanley from using his power
Blanche – sexuality and powers of illusion to protect her from damage

12. Whose Reality?
How do the various elements of the play explore the issue of whose reality?

13. The SAC – Creating and Presenting
Prompt: there is no such thing as an absolute reality
Expository
Persuasive
Imaginative