A streetcar Named Desire

Revision and analysis

Themes

• Gender roles

• Fate and desire

• Deaths

• Social class
• Mental issues and representation

Context of the play : Antebellum

• Antebellum refers to the period in the United States before the Civil War (especially in the South).

• It is most associated with plantation life and economic growth that relied heavily on enslaved African-American labour.

Context of the play : Postbellum

• Postbellum refers to the period in the United States after the Civil War (from 1865 onwards).

• It is linked to Reconstruction and the major social, economic and political changes that followed the end of slavery.

Context of the play : Old South

• The Old South refers to the southern states of America before the Civil War, where plantation farming dominated.

• It is strongly associated with slavery, cotton production and a society built on enslaved Black labour.

Context of the play : New America

• Refers to mass diversity due to the bloom of immigration

• New money, laws and government

Context of the play : Plastic theatre

• Plastic theatre is the use of props, lighting, sound and symbolic stage directions to express emotions and ideas rather than realistic action.

• It aims to show deeper, poetic truths on stage by shaping the world of the play in a heightened, stylised way.

Context of the play : Southern Belle

• A young woman from the American South who embodied traditional Southern values, manners and etiquette.

• She was raised to reflect refinement, high culture and aristocratic expectations in dress, behaviour and education.

Context of the play : Southern gentlemen

• A man from the American South who was expected to show manners, courtesy and honour in his behaviour and conduct.

• Traditionally associated with education, refinement, social status and a responsibility to protect family and community.

Context of the play : Migrant

• A person who moves from place to place in search of a better opportunities for work

Context of the play : Plantation

• Farms specialising in cash crops

• They had enslaved people who were used for cheap labour until the early 19th century

Context of the play : Southern Gothic

• A literary style that uses horror elements including darkness, angst and alienation to reveal the flaws within Southern society.

• Often explores themes such as slavery, racism, patriarchy and moral decay beneath the surface of the Old South.

Context of the play :Economic context

• Focused on the rise of industrialisation and the working man

• and the fall of the plantation and the old Southern ways

Context of the play : American Dream

• Belief given to Americans that if you worked hard enough you could achieve wealth and security.

Act 1 Scene 1 : stage directions ‘ New Orleans’

• New Orleans served as a hub of diversity, shaped by waves of immigration, new wealth and cultural exchange.

• The city symbolised a shift away from old Southern beliefs and etiquette towards modern multinationalism and cultural pluralism.

Act 1 Scene 1 : stage directions ‘Elysian Fields’

• Williams chooses the name Elysian Fields which in Greek mythology refers to a paradise for the blessed dead and fallen heroes.

• The irony lies in the fact that the people who live there are flawed and struggling and their lives reflect the noisy chaotic reality of New Orleans rather than any form of paradise.

Act 1 Scene 1 : stage directions ‘Raffish Charm’

• Oxymoronic

• The vibrant, noisy setting of Elysian Fields and Stanley’s casual handling of Stella and Blanche in the stage directions reinforce his role as part of the raw, modern urban world, foreshadowing the conflict between his aggressive masculinity and Blanche’s fragile illusions.

Act 1 Scene 1 : “Stanley carries his bowling jacket and red stained package from the butcher” - Stanley

• Stanley’s bowling jacket and involvement in bowling symbolise his masculinity and working class identity, reflecting the physical leisure activities of lower middle class society and reinforcing his raw, labour based character.

• The stage direction “Stanley carries his bowling jacket and red stained package from the butcher” symbolically foreshadows blood, violence and Blanche’s eventual destruction, while his rough dress further emphasises class conflict between Stanley and Blanche.

Act 1 Scene 1 : ‘He heaves the package at her’ - Stanley

• The primitive and masculine action immediately establishes Stanley’s brutish nature from the outset, presenting him as physically dominant and instinct driven rather than restrained or civilised. References the imagery of the hunter and gather and traditional roles of men and women of the time.

• In the stage direction “He heaves the package at her”, the harsh consonance of the repeated h emphasises the force and heaviness of Stanley’s movement, reinforcing imagery of him as rough and burly and foreshadowing his aggressive treatment of both Stella and Blanche.

Act 1 Scene 1 : ‘Her appearance is incongruous to this setting…She is faintly dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice necklace and earrings of pearl’ stage directions

• Williams uses contrast in stage directions to present Blanche as out of place, as “her appearance is incongruous to this setting”, immediately highlighting the clash between her Old South gentility and the raw modernity of Elysian Fields.

• The symbolism of colour and costume in the “white suit” and pearls suggests purity and fragility, while also hinting at artificiality and illusion, foreshadowing Blanche’s inability to survive in Stanley’s brutal, masculine world.

Act 1 Scene 1 : ‘ They told me to take a streetcar named desire and then transfer to one called cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields’ - Blanche

• The metaphorical naming of Elysian Fields suggests that intense desire leads to decay and death, undermining the idea of paradise and prompting the audience to question Blanche’s status as a tragic heroine.

• This setting becomes a site of suffering rather than reward, reflecting how Blanche’s pursuit of desire results in deterioration rather than transcendence.

• Dramatic irony operates in Act 1 Scene 1 because in Greek mythology Elysian Fields is reserved for heroes after death, yet Blanche, flawed and haunted by past mistakes, is instead reduced and degraded, reinforcing her role as a fallen rather than heroic figure.

Act 1 Scene 1 : ‘She showed me a picture of your home-place, the plantation. A great big place with white collumns’ - Eunice

• Eunice’s description of the plantation as “a great big place with white columns” uses visual imagery to allude to the wealth and status of the Southern bourgeoisie, with the grand architecture symbolising inherited privilege and social power.

• Contextually, this wealth is rooted in slavery and exploitation, and by the time A Streetcar Named Desire is set, this aristocratic system is in decline, exposing the moral corruption beneath Blanche’s nostalgia for the Old South.

• Williams uses this reference to contrast the decaying plantation economy with the rise of Stanley’s working class masculinity, critiquing both the illusion of Southern gentility and the historical injustices that sustained it.

Act 1 Scene 1 :Feverish Venacity

• It represents and foreshadows Blanche’s fragile mental state. She adopts the stereotype of the Southern belle, appearing euphoric and giddy, to conceal her anxiety and discomfort in the situations she is placed in. This performative behaviour masks her emotional nervousness and highlights the instability beneath her outward charm.

Act 1 Scene 1 : ‘Turn that light off turn that light off I wont be looked at in this merciless glare” - Blanche

• The symbolism of light being the revealer of truth aligns with how Blanche tries to keep herself in the dark to hide from her unwanted truths to come out

• the fragmented lines reinforce this showcasing her sense of urgency and desperation at a attempt to conceal her actual reality.

Act 1 Scene 1 : “ I can hardly stand it when he is away for the night”

• As an audience we start to see the dynamic between Stella and Stanley and how they rely on each other sexually.

• Almost in a co-dependent nature as well as emotionally as she compares herself to being a baby in his arms reinforcing that submissive nature that we continue to see from Stella throughout the play.

Act 1 Scene 1 : Blanche monologue on her struggle with belle Reve

• The frequent use of personal pronouns (“I”, “me”, “my”) makes the situation self-centred, showing how Blanche frames the loss of Belle Reve entirely around her own suffering, rather than shared family grief.

• The accusatory tone Blanche adopts when speaking to Stella reveals her defensive and boastful nature. She positions herself as morally superior, emphasising everything she has “done” and “endured” to protect Belle Reve, which suggests a need for validation and admiration.

• The use of epiphora (repetition at the end of clauses) reinforces Blanche’s argument and heightens her sense of drama. This repetition emphasises her exaggeration and her attempt to overwhelm Stella emotionally.

• Hyperbolic language reflects Blanche’s tendency to exaggerate events, suggesting that while her suffering may be real, it is amplified to fit her self-constructed narrative of martyrdom.

• War imagery (“bled”, “fought”, “died”) presents Blanche as a heroic figure, implying that she sees herself as a noble defender of Belle Reve. This elevates her role unrealistically and exposes her delusion and theatricality.

• The image of the “long parade to the graveyard” contrasts sharply with the former glamour of Belle Reve. This metaphor shows how Blanche’s once “glittering” world of wealth and refinement has been overtaken and corrupted by death and decay.

• The allusion to and parallel with “pretty flowers” symbolises Blanche’s past as a debutante—once admired, youthful, and celebrated. As she ages, she feels discarded and “put on the shelf,” mirroring the fading relevance of Southern aristocracy.

• The reference to the Grim Reaper highlights the transition from the Old South to the New South. It suggests that the traditions and privileges of the old Southern elite are dying out, becoming relics of the past in postwar America.

• By calling Stanley a “Polack,” Blanche dehumanises him, reducing his identity to his ethnicity in order to assert class superiority. Although “Polak” is neutral in Polish, in the context of postwar America the term “Polack” carried xenophobic and offensive connotations, reinforcing Blanche’s prejudice and elitism.

• Tennessee Williams’ recurring focus on death may reflect his own life experiences, including his sister Rose’s lobotomy. Blanche’s fixation on loss and decay could mirror Williams’ sense that the person he once knew had, in a way, “died,” deepening the play’s themes of grief and psychological breakdown.