A Streetcar Named Desire
Themes
“-Loneliness/attempts to overcome it
-Using illusion to deceive yourself or others about reality
-Sexuality as a primitive, powerful force that can both create and destroy
-The clash of primitive and brutish with civilized rationality and culture
-Cannot escape the past
-Relationship between desire and destruction
-The reluctance or inability of people to accept the truth
- The final destruction of the Old South, symbolized by Blanche and Belle Reve
- The despoliation of the sensitive and feminine by the feral and masculine
- Unbridled sexual desire leads to isolating darkness and eventually death~ Williams establishes this
theme at the beginning of the play, when Blanche takes a streetcar named Desire (sex), transfers to
one named Cemeteries (Death), and gets off at a street named Elysian Fields (the Afterlife). He
maintains the theme during the play with references to Blanche’s first husband, a homosexual who
committed suicide after she caught him with another man, and with Blanche’s literal and figurative
retreat into the shadows after having many sordid affairs. She shuns bright lights; she dates Mitch
only in the evening.
- All that glitters is not gold
Scene One
“two-storey buildings”
“Elysian Fields”
“raffish charm”
“mostly white frame, weathered grey, with rickety outside stairs”
“peculiarly tender blue…gracefully accentuates the atmosphere of decay”
“warm breathe of the brown river”
“tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers”
“This ‘Blue Piano’ expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here”
“The white woman…occupies the upstairs flat; the coloured woman a neighbour”- racial hierarchy
“relatively warm and easy intermingling of races”
“St. Barnabas would send out his dog to lick her and when he did she’d feel an icy cold wave all up
an’ down her”
“He heaves the package at her. She cries out in protest”
“Her appearance is incongruous to this setting”
“Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”
“Stella DuBois. I mean- Mrs. Stanley Kowalski”- not an individual, only referred to in terms of her
husband
“A light goes on behind the blind, turning it blue”
“The surrounding areas dim out as the interior is lightened”
“A great big place with white columns.”
“She begins to speak with feverish vivacity as if she feared for either of them to stop and think. They
catch each other in a spasmodic embrace”
,“turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!”
“Now don't get worried, your sister hasn't turned into a drunkard, she's just all shaken up and hot
and tired and dirty!”
“Never, never, never in my worst dreams could I picture--Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe!--could
do it justice!”
“I just got in the habit of being quiet around you.”
“I was on the verge of--lunacy, almost!”
“No, one's my limit.”
“you're just as plump as a little partridge!”
“You just have to watch around the hips a little.”
“You hear me? I said stand up!”
“your little hands folded like a cherub in choir!”
“I never had your peaceful self-control”
“You messy child, you, you've spilt something on the pretty white lace collar!”
“I want you to look at my figure!”
“They're something like Irish, aren't they?”
“Polacks?”
“They're a mixed lot”
“Heterogeneous--types?”
“Yes. A different species.”
“Oh, you can't describe someone you're in love with! Here's a picture of him! [She hands a
photograph to Blanche.]”
“civilian background”
“When he's away for a week I nearly go wild!”
“And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby...”
“I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!”
“The music of the "blue piano" grows louder.”- invoked in scenes of great passion
“I took the blows in my face and my body!”
“what gorgeous boxes they pack them away in!”
, “the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep!... Stella. Belle Reve was his headquarters!”
“Where were you! In bed with your--Polack!”
“I'm going into the bathroom to wash my face.”
“'No, Lady, but y'r hat's on crooked!'' [They give a hoarse bellow of laughter.]”
“Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the
center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak
indulgence, dependency, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.”
“bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual
classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.”
“Where's the little woman?”
“No, I--rarely touch it”- doesn’t want to get drunk, already fears his power+ what he might do
“Do you mind if I make myself comfortable? [He starts to remove his shirt.]” – doesn’t wait for an
answer, allows to push boundaries, gives confirmation that she consented by getting her to say yes
“You going to shack up here?” followed by “Good.”- can mean to move in with a lover,
foreshadowing.
“[The music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance.]”
Scene Two
“How about my supper, huh?” followed by “Well, isn't that just dandy!” – left stage directions out so
it can be interpreted differently depending on the gender of the reader, also allows for opinions and
social interpretations to change with social climate/context
“Her little weakness!”
“the country place was disposed of”- disposed suggests purposely got rid of, motive
“Let me enlighten you on a point or two, baby”- Patronising, ‘baby’ to undermine her understanding
“what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband”
“And what have we here? The treasure chest of a pirate!”
“He kicks the trunk partly closed”
“[She snatches up her white hat and gloves and crosses to the outside door.]”
“Since when do you give me orders?”
“[He crosses through drapes with a smouldering look.]”
“She didn't say nothing. That shut her up like a clam”
“I cannot imagine any witch of a woman casting a spell over you.”
