Aalborg University
Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies
English, 6th Semester
Title:
Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire – An innovative
melodrama?
Subject:
Literary Studies
Number of units:
27,3 normal pages
Hand-in date:
June 02, 2004
Supervisior:
Camelia Elias
1
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 3
1. THEORY ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 A Survey of American Drama from the nineteenth-century ...................................................5
1.2 A survey of Tennessee Williams .................................................................................................9
2. ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 15
2.1 The Opening ...............................................................................................................................15
2.2 The Characters ...........................................................................................................................17
2.3. Symbolism and Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire..........................................................23
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 27
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................... 29
2
Introduction
Tennessee Williams wasn’t trying to move the American drama into new subject areas when
his own personal empathy for the lost and weak led him to explore their experience in the
1940s and 1950s; it was the fact that these plays spoke to a perhaps unexpected hunger for
counsel and reassurance in the heats of his audiences that made them succeed […]
(Berkowitch, 1992:4)
This quote from Berkowitch from his book American Drama of Twentieth Century claims that the
playwright Tennessee Williams1 did not create a new specific school or movement of American
drama, but rather developed his own style of writing with the belief that before everything else
came the “empathy for the lost and weak”. Also, Berkowitch observes that Williams sought to
depict the experience of the “deeply wounded [human] spirit and psyche”. (Berkowitch, 1992:87)
As opposed to other playwrights who did not confine their depiction of domestic experience to
certain regions, Williams, being a southerner, was decidedly concerned with the social conditions
of the South, and more importantly with the experience of the people inhabiting the south, often
with a twist of bizarre Gothicism. Berkowitch believes that Williams more than any other dramatist
“helped move domestic realism beyond its accomplishments of reflecting large political and social
issues through their effect on the domestic setting, and into the final stage of its evolution, the
exploration of the emotional burdens of ordinary life”. (Berkowitch, 1992:87)
In this project I will investigate Tennessee Williams’ play from 1947 A Streetcar Named
Desire2 to establish an understanding of how Tennessee Williams can be seen as an innovative
American playwright within the genre of melodrama. In order to do so, I will take a closer look at
how he uses the overall melodramatic form in his writing and combines it with gothic, realist and
domestic representations. Thus it is relevant to explore his portrayal of characters and
representations of themes, because all of it is naturally closely linked. I have chosen solely to work
with Streetcar as my object of analysis not because the play is his most recognized play to date, but
rather because it is interesting in the way that it is melodramatic in form, but also considerably
gothic and realistic in its representation of setting, characters and themes. Philip C. Kolin gives
following description of Streetcar:
The play is characteristically American- vicarious and self-reflective simultaneously. It
cancelstamps our cultural vices and virtues, pains and pleasures. Streetcar tells tales about us and is
one of the most haunting tales we tell about ourselves, often revealing what we want concealed and
concealing what we want revealed. (Philip C. Kolin, 1993:1)
1
Born 26th of March 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi
For the sake of convenience and inspired by others, I allow myself to shorten the title so that Streetcar instead of A
Streetcar Named Desire will be used when appropriate.
2
3
The overall structure of this project is divided into two parts: theory and analysis. The first part
introduces the context of Tennessee Williams with two main sections. The first being a survey of
the development of the American drama from the mid-nineteenth-century to the 1930s. This gives
an overview of the dramatic influences and societal aspects that led American playwrights to
discover and use dramatic terms such as melodrama, realism and domestic realism. These genres
came before and had great impact on the era of Tennessee Williams. The second theory section is a
survey of Tennessee Williams and introduces theses that explore what type of a playwright he is
and how he was influenced by his literary past. This part will also introduce fundamental themes
that are shown in his work.
The second part is analytical and explores Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named
Desire. Like the theoretical part this is also divided into two main sections. The first section will
deal with characterisation, whereas the second section will deal with significant themes and
symbolism in the play. This section will also contain a number of observations by selected critics
which will be discussed.
4
1. Theory
1.1 A Survey of American Drama from the nineteenth-century
According to Gerald Berkowitch the nineteenth-century American theatre was “an immensely
popular and vital form of entertainment” (Berkowitch,1992:12). At the same, though theatres all
over the country were packed with imported European plays and “less ambitious” but “large-scale”
melodramas3, this was not the time of meaningful artistic literary expression. (Berkowitch,1992:12)
Nancy Tischler writes that the highest esteemed plays were those imported from Europe (e.g.
Shakespeare) and only a few American playwrights emerged in that period. (Tichler,2000:20)
Additionally, Bruce McConachie asserts that the magnitude of imported European plays was due to
the fact that they were cheaper to produce and that they had already been tested by a European
audience. Moreover he claims that Americans had “no prestigious intellectual and cultural
formations to rival the accumulated authority of the English” because America was preoccupied
with its “newness” as a country (McConachie (in Bigsby and Wilmeth),1998:138). Due to the
enormous number of European plays in America, it was implied that American playwrights and
audience were highly influenced by the European dramatic tradition. This belief,
however,
developed a rising repertoire of plays that focused on the “diverse catalogue of American
characters, situations, manners, social questions, and reform movements” (Gary A. Richardson (in
Bigsby and Wilmeth),1998:257-258). The American plays in the nineteenth-century gradually
became more and more characteristic of the dramatic feature of melodrama.
Melodrama, as inferred by Richardson, which did not escape the critical and artistic values of
earlier European dramatic aesthetics, was a reaction to the altering social, political, economic and
cultural circumstances (Richardson (in Bigsby and Wilmeth),1998:258). Moreover, McConachie
explains that the immense success of the American melodrama can be related to the “reactionary
nostalgia” it presented; “it sought to return its spectators to an illusionary image of prerevolutionary bliss when families lived together in faith and peace”, and he asserts that American
melodrama was characteristic of “moral clarity” that claimed social perfection and encouraged the
idea that all evil could be discarded (McConachie (in Bigsby and Wilmeth),1998:139). This thought
is prolonged by Tischler who claims that the melodramatic plays were “hastily written”, and
“presented savage villains and perfect heroes and heroines, often in violent conflicts, with the good
3
”mélodrame was first used by Rousseau to describe his attempts to heighten the emotional expressivity of Pygmalion
(1770) by adding musical accompaniment to the soliloquy and pantomime of his “scène lyrique” (Richardson,1998:258)
5
always triumphing over the evil” (Tischler,2000:20). Berkowitch perfunctorily labels this variety of
drama the “cheer-the-hero-hiss-the-villain kind” (Berkowitch,1992:12). Richardson explains that
the core of American melodrama can be seen as an affirmation of an “eternal battle between good
and evil” and “a tacit admission that previous accepted constructs can no longer explain the
conflict’s dynamics or guarantee virtue’s inevitable triumph” (Richardson (in Bigsby and
Wilmeth),1998:259).
Through its dramatic universe, characters, languages, and stage devices, melodrama portrayed
society’s fractures, vented the age’s anxieties, and lent support to the abiding hope that progress and
a new, freer order were in fact the legacies of the American Revolution. (Richardson (in Bigsby and
Wilmeth),1998:259)
At the end of the 19th Century a new tendency in European drama made its way to America.
Playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Anton Chekov and George Bernard Shaw
challenged the melodrama with a “new serious kind of drama”, the realistic drama. These
playwrights presented new fresh new provocative thinking to the American audience and incited
young playwrights to adapt their way of thinking to American life (Tischler,2000:20). Tischler
describes Ibsen as being a “master of the well-made play” who raised “precarious” issues such as
the liberation of women, venereal diseases and corruption. Strindberg on the other hand is described
as a playwright who presents the constant war between men and women, and “wives and mothers as
castrators of the men in their lives, and dreams as mirrors of reality” (Tischler,2000:20). Chekov,
the innovative playwright, introduced unrestricted impressionistic theatre, revolting against the
traditional “fourth-wall” realism4. His aim was to reach a psychological truth in his “gentle
meditations on the decline of the old aristocratic class in Russia” (Tischler,2000:20). In
consideration of the playwrights mentioned above, Tischler claims that Shaw was inspired by the
“fresh interest in theatre” and introduced notions such as socialism, and the ideals of great thinkers
such as Darwin or Nietzsche. (Tischler,2000:20)
Berkowitch, on the other hand, infers that it was not so much the “European dramatic models”
that was the source of inspiration for American playwrights at the turn of the century, but rather the
new realistic American novel practised by writers such as William Dean Howells and Henry James.
Berkowitch maintains that these writers introduced new ways of analysing “the ways in which
individuals were affected by the world they inhabited” and therefore presented both psychological
and social forces (Berkowitch,1992:12). The taste for realism expounded by Howells and James,
4
The fourth wall realistic theatre assumed “the front of the stage to be a fourth wall allowing audience to look into
actual livingrooms, etc.” (Tichler, 2000:20)
6
entailed a wide range of experimenting plays of dramatic realism in the late nineteenth-century;
theatre-producers became interested in the realism on stage in the shape of the setting and put real
objects on stage. Yet, Berkowitch infers this the new realism was “more a matter of surface than
content”. What he finds most interesting in terms of dramatic realism is the type that imitated the
novel by putting characters in moral or practical dilemmas that demanded acknowledgement and
debate of larger issues (Berkowitch,1992:13). The play could seem melodramatic in style but the
story was obviously reflecting specific aspects concerning larger issues, here Berkowitch has
Edward Sheldon’s Nigger (1909) in mind. The early twentieth century was an era of numerous
dramatic styles in which several playwrights experienced with “epic, symbolism, expressionism,
verse tragedy and the like” (Berkowitch,1992:2). Eugene O’Neill was probably the most famous
playwright to try on new methods of expressing drama; Berkowitch suggests that O’Neill was
shaping the medium so it could “express his profoundly thought-out insights and philosophies”. A
playwright such as O’Neill changed his styles of writing repeatedly because not all suited the tastes
and topics of the American culture. (Berkowitch,1992:2) About dramatic realism Berkowitch
writes:
The important point is that the illusion of reality is maintained; realism avoids gross violations
of the laws of nature (people don’t fly) or the introduction of purely symbolic characters (like
the Little Formless Fears in O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones), while presenting characterizations
and behaviour that are at least possible (Berkowitch,1992:2).
Thus, realism can be put in contrast to naturalism’s attempt to represent reality as accurately as
possible. Furthermore Berkowitch claims that the American drama in the early twentieth century
was considered “domestic” in the sense that it was all about recognisable people in a recognisable
world, but also about the recognisable personal issues of the people involved. This was to a large
degree the result of the import of European plays made by Ibsen and Chekov among others
(Berkowitch,1992:2).
In the 1930s the Great Depression5 caused not only the stock market crash but also economic
frustration and unemployment. It affected and distorted the lives of nearly every American family.
Berkowitch describes the decade long depression this way:
Career choices were made or altered, dreams were abandoned, marriages were cancelled,
crimes were committed, religious faith was lost or found- millions of people’s lives were
irreversibly altered by the economy (Berkowitch,1992:43).
5
“America's Great Depression is regarded as having begun in 1929 with the Stock Market crash, and ended in 1941
with America's entry into World War II”. (www.amatecon.com/gd/gdtimeline.htm)
7
The situation led to larger social and moral uncertainty. Americans started questioning the basic
belief about the land of opportunities. Had the American Dream, in which everyone could achieve
success through hard work and talent, proved to be worthless? The state of the country and the
discovery of new important social issues resulted in a new literary development. Alongside the
earlier mentioned experimenting era of the early twentieth century, which many playwrights
practised in the 1930s, the dominant dramatic force seemed to be “realistic, contemporary, middleclass, domestic melodrama and comedy” (Berkowitch,1992:44).
The domestic realism which had proved to be capable of showing individual experience through
psychological analysis, appeared to O’Neill, among others, not suitable for portraying “whole
cultures or the exploration of metaphysical questions” (Berkowitch,1992:44). Playwrights such as
Clifford Odet discovered that instead of using non-realistic modes or the epic representation, it
seemed most suitable and familiar to the audience, if a small group of people in a domestic setting
was depicted in order to dramatise the great national traumas of the Depression and the World War
II. In that sense the real issue of the Depression was not as Berkowitch writes “financial statistics”,
but rather domestic experience (Berkowitch,1992:44). To the playwrights of the 1930s the domestic
experience seemed a major discovery, but later playwrights such as Tennessee Williams would
carry this notion further, namely with the recognition that a group of people interacting in their
personal, private ways could not only draw a picture of the world outside that was affecting those
personal lives, but could have an inherent dramatic power and importance without need of a larger
context (Berkowitch,1992:44).
The dramatic aspects reflected on in this chapter can be seen as a presentation of a turning
point in the American dramatic history. Owing to the massive import of European plays the French
dramatic term melodráme was introduced to a society in artistic and intellectual stagnation and
adapted to fit American purposes. What at first appeared to be an unpretentious form of
entertainment of the “cheer-the-hero-hiss-the-villain” kind gradually became more and more
significant because playwrights realized that this particular form of drama could be converted into a
reflection of social and moral issues. The acknowledgement of social and moral issues in American
drama as well the new European tendencies in the late nineteenth-century influenced the American
playwrights to push the melodrama one step further and combine it with realistic experimentation.
As Berkowitch writes the inevitable reality of the 1930s required “dramatic consideration” in
a way that earlier benign American drama had not. The playwrights at the time discovered the main
political and social issues could best be depicted through their “reflection in a domestic situation”.
8
(Berkowitch,1992:73) This meant that plays became representative of recognisable people in a
recognizable world with recognisable problems or issues.
The American realist domestic drama, with its melodramatic roots, became a medium for rendering
political and social issues caused by the economic circumstances during the Great Depression.
Berkowitch writes: “Something in the instinctively democratic American perspective recognized
that the important thing to be said about any large subject was that it affected the lives of ordinary
people, and thus found its native and natural voice in domestic realism” (Berkowitch,1992:73).It
seems relevant to assert in a concluding remark that the dramatic features in the late nineteenthcentury and the beginning of the twentieth century are not to be seen as “artistic schools or
movements” but rather as gradual discoveries of dramatic devices that appeared most relevant to the
playwrights in relation to the societal development of America. The discoveries touched upon in
this chapter became the fertile soil for the next generation of American playwrights.
1.2 A survey of Tennessee Williams
The dramatic development presented in the preceding chapter was a substantial account of how
playwrights acknowledged the relevance for dramatizing social and economic circumstances by
depicting the domestic experience of people affected by the world they live in. This chapter,
however, will situate Tennessee Williams within the framework of the fundamental ideas presented
earlier.
Along with his contemporaries, Arthur Miller in particular, Tennessee Williams build on the
discoveries of the predecessors, and was highly influenced especially by Chekov. Gilbert
Debusscher writes that Williams detected a sensitivity in “Chekov’s interest for creatures broken in
body and mind, quietly pining away over unfulfilled dreams and unrequited passions” which,
according to Debusscher, much like Williams’ own sensitivity was used as a strategy to investigate
“dark motivations of characters and their survival strategies”. (Debusscher (in Roudané),1998:179)
In addition to the above, Debusscher claims that the “Chekovian mixture of pity and derision would
be for many years the trademark of Williams himself”. (Debusscher (in Roudané),1998:179) More
or less consistent with Debusscher, Roger Boxhill asserts that Williams’s “blend of sadness and
mockery, and his casual handling of plot come from the drama as well short fiction of his
acknowledged master, Chekov”. (Boxhill,1987:4) Anne Fleche reckons that Chekov alongside
Ibsen and Shaw had “shown the way out of realism’s binding “truth” by exploring the conventions
9
of its representation”, but American dramatists of the 1930s needed to address the problem again,
this time, she claims “in a new era of social programs, global war, and a politicised theater”.
(Fleche,1997:12) Fleche expresses that Williams stood apart from the “realistic renaissance” of the
thirties (much like O’Neill) and his reaction against it was, as Fleche observes, a “response to real
conditions of representation”. (Fleche,1997:12) However, Fleche believes that both O’Neill and
Williams seemed to be straddling between realism and a philosophical rejection of it. She also
claims that though O’Neill attacked the “U.S. capitalist greed and its cycle of exploitation and
despair” with plays such as Morning becomes Electra (1931), he was not seen as more socially
significant than Williams. (Fleche,1997:12) Furthermore, Fleche claims that both O’Neill’s A Long
Day’s Journey into Night (1956) and Williams’ Streetcar repeatedly were considered realistic and
compared with for example Arthur Miller’s realistic plays, but they demonstrated “far less faith in
the social efficacy of art.” (Fleche,1997:13) As Thomas P. Adler puts it Miller perceived Williams’
plays, The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Streetcar in particular, as an “almost entirely new
perception of lyrical drama”, which was exploiting the stylistic potentials of the stage and breaking
away from the realist drama of the nineteenth-century. (Thomas P. Adler,1990:8) In agreement with
Adler’s belief that Miller saw Williams’ plays as breaking away from the nineteenth-century’s
realism and Fleche’s earlier mentioned remark that Williams stood apart from the “realistic
renaissance”, Adler asserts that especially The Glass Menagerie and Streetcar introduced a “spatial
fluidity” that revolts against the traditional realism. In other words, the symbols and scenic images
on stage would speak to the audience with as much power as the actual words of the characters.
Thus, the plays by Williams were not bound by language in the same way as the realist drama of the
nineteenth-century. (Adler,1990:8) Nevertheless, he argues that these plays were realistic plays
insofar as “the audience suspends its disbelief and makes believe that what is on stage is not a
fictional construct but real”. (Adler,1990:8) The plays thus created the illusion that the front of the
stage was the imaginary fourth wall that separated the audience from the characters on stage. This
line of thought suggested by Adler, naturally presupposes the idea that however much inspired by
Chekov, Williams did not adhere to his revolt against the traditional fourth-wall drama (cf.
Theory,5).
As Berkowitch observes, Williams was to a large degree seen as a sensationalist because
many of his plays involved characters “guilty of (or victims of) murder, rape, castration,
cannibalism, alcoholism, promiscuity, homosexuality and other shocking violations of social
norms”. (Berkowitch,1992:87) Berkowitch asserts that Williams, as most southern writers, was
10
attracted by the “extreme and even gothically bizarre” which his plays present by portraying
characters whose behaviour is in the periphery of the acceptable, which is an example of universal
experience (shortly I will explain the connection between characterization and the gothic).
Additionally he claims that Williams saw the everyday life for most people as a sort of “Sisyphean
labour” which can be seen as the burden of a hostile world endured by lonely and doubting
individuals. (Berkowitch,1992:87) Alice Griffin writes that characterization is one of Williams’
strongest achievements and because his characters are convincingly created, it is tempting “to take
them out of context and theorize about their lives before and after the action of the play”.
(Griffin,1995:15) Yet, Adler argues that Williams eagerly sought to maintain the same
“verisimilitude in characterization that had been the chief hallmark of dramatic realism” but at the
same time “envisioned a theatrical space that would not demand that the spectators deny that they
are in an auditorium watching a play”. (Adler,1990:9)
When explaining the relationship between characterization and the gothic6 it is relevant to
look at the origins of the literary term gothic. M.H. Abrams points out that the type of fiction called
gothic was inaugurated by Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764) in which the
subtitle “refers to its setting in the middle ages”. (Abrams,1999:111) Abrams writes that many
writers in the nineteenth-century followed Walpole and set their stories in the medieval period or in
a Catholic country (Italy or Spain). The surroundings were often “gloomy castles with, subterranean
passages and sliding panels”. The typical gothic story focused on “the sufferings imposed on an
innocent heroine by a cruel and lustful villain, and made bountiful use of ghosts, mysterious
disappearances and other sensational and supernatural occurrences”. (Abrams,1999:111)
Furthermore Abrams claims that the term gothic was later broadened to a fictional form that does
not have “the exotic setting of the earlier romances, but develops a brooding atmosphere of gloom
and terror, represents events that are uncanny or macabre or melodramatically violent and often
deals with aberrant psychological states.” (Abrams,1999:111) When considering Abrams’
perception of the gothic it seems relevant to assume that the most significant element in the gothic
fiction was the setting used by the writer to present a “gloomy atmosphere” in which the characters
are present. Therefore the gothic element can be said (because of the gloomy setting) to support and
strengthen the “sufferings” and “aberrant psychological states” of the characters presented by for
example Williams.
6
”The word Gothic originally refered to Goths, an early Germanic tribe, then came to signify “germanic”, then “medieval.” (Abrams,
1999:110)
11
Abrams claims that the southern part of America was particularly productive in the gothic
fiction, he refers to the writings of, for example, Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner.
About the southern gothic literature Hana Sambrook writes:
One quality regarded as characteristic of the Southern writers was their rich imagination, often
bordering on the bizarre and the grotesque (‘Southern Gothic’ was the phrase used to describe
it). Its roots lay perhaps in an awareness of being part of a dying culture- dashing, romantic,
and at the same time living on an economy based in a deep injustice and cruelty. The cultural
climate favoured the individualistic, the eccentric, the outcast. (Sambrook,2000:68-69)
Sambrook also writes that as Williams looked to the European playwrights “for models of the
form”, the subject matter of his plays were “deeply influenced by his image of the South”.
(Sambrook,2000:69) This is supported by Allean Hale who writes that Williams was very
controlled by a “nostalgia for aristocratic idealized South” and he would transpose the South to
most of his work.. (Allean Hale (in Roudané)1998:13) In agreement with Hale, Albert J. Devlin
writes that “as a spiritual southerner, Williams was family proud and revered the “elegance” of the
bygone south that he was just “old enough to remember””. (Albert J. Devlin (in
Roudané),1998:102) Hana Sambrook asserts that after the defeat of the confederate army in 1865
the southern literature was renewed and prospered on “nostalgia of the past”. She claims that the
south had a romantic appeal because it resembled a lost world. As a comparison to the romantic
appeal of the South she refers to the romantic appeal of Scotland presented by writers such as Sir
Walter Scott or Robert Louis Stevenson. The twentieth-century saw a development of Southern
literature in which the nostalgic fascination of the past was combined with the realization of the
South’s economic decay. (Sambrook,2000:68) The decay of the South was for example signified
through the decaying beauty of Southern estates as represented in both Streetcar (Belle Reve) and
in Cat on Hot Tin Roof (1955) (the family Pollitt’s plantation mansion). When considering the south
as a major element in American literature Boxhill writes:
The myth of the old South is a pastoral romance, the myth of its fall a pastoral elegy. Both the
romance and the elegy are manifestations of the American agrarian myth: the underlying
notion in the national literature of an earthly paradise in the unspoiled landscape of the New
World. (Boxhill,1987:1)
Furthermore he claims that the “agrarian myth” is merely a statement of “human longing for an
ideal order-of-being denied by harsh realities of life and time”. (Boxhill,1987:1) In connection with
the above Boxhill considers Williams as an “elegiac writer” or as a “poet of nostalgia who laments
the loss of a past idealised in the memory”. (Boxhill,1987:1) In addition to Boxhill, Judith J.
Thompson writes that most of Williams plays are characteristic of an ““idyllic”, “demonic” or
12
otherwise mythicized memory of a past event in the life of the protagonist”. (Judith J.
Thompson,1987:1) The idyllic memory, Thompson reckons, is a reflection of the protagonist’s
“psychological quest to recapture a romanticized past”. The demonic memory, on the other hand, is
a recollection of a depraved past that the “guilt-haunted” protagonist tries to escape. (Thompson,
1987:2) Both “memory types” presented by Thompson can be found in Streetcar: An example
could be Blanche’s idyllic memory of Belle Reve and the demonic memory of her marriage with the
homosexual Allan Grey (this will be discussed in greater detail in the analysis).
Regarding the themes of Tennessee Williams, there are a lot of diverse contentions on what
themes are the most prominent in Williams plays. Berkowitch claims that the most recurrent themes
are those of “loneliness and insecurity, the fear of not being up for the task of living, and grasping at
any sustenance for the labour or distraction from the pain” (Berkowitch,1992:87) Moreover he
claims that this is represented in the plays through “melodramatic stories”. Berkowitch claims that
the themes of loneliness and insecurity in Williams’ plays not only work as emphasis and
clarification of the insights through intensity, but also make the audience “recognize an emotional
fear that they share with the characters”. Thereby the audience sense a larger degree of compassion
for “those driven to aberrant behaviour” (Berkowitch,1992:87) Robinson contends that “dime-store
terms like “lonely and longing” aren’t nearly as raw and shambling as the lives they are meant to
describe” (Robinson,1997:29) He finds that however much Williams is acclaimed of expressing
emotions, each of his characters are not equipped with a certain set of emotions like ““sorrow”,
“frustration”, “love”, “jealousy”, [and] “grief”. (Robinson,1997:30) Instead he asserts that Williams
“deals with washes of affect” that are only slightly understood but instinctively felt. The “feelings”
or “emotions” are then not possible to measure. (Robinson,1997:30) He claims that the
impossibility in measuring the “feelings” in the plays is of great importance to Williams, to
emphasize that line of thought Robinson argues: “In fact, if his characters could name their
conditions as deftly as many spectators have, they wouldn’t suffer from them so.”
(Robinson,1997:30) Griffin states that Williams’ themes are “universal, and his structure is
frequently that of a visit by his protagonist to a microcosm of the world itself”. (Griffin,1995:17)
Furthermore, she claims that the fears of the protagonist can mostly be found in “the tyranny of time
and death, which might be transcended by love and procreation, the loss of youth and beauty”.
(Griffin,1995:16) These themes are as claimed by Griffin exposed in subject matters that at the time
was considered taboo “including homosexuality, nymphomania, and rape” -all are to be found in
Streetcar. (Griffin,1995:17)
13
When judging from the observations about Williams presented in this section, it is relevant to
assume that Williams was primarily interested in creating drama that was his own. Through
inspiration from his predecessors he to found a certain way of forming all their dramatic discoveries
into to a synthesis. This will be kept in mind through the following analysis.
14
2. Analysis
2.1 The Opening
You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown river warehouses with their faint
redolences of bananas and coffee. A corresponding air is evoked by the music of Negro
entertainers at a bar-room around the corner. In this part of New Orleans you are practically
always around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played
with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers. This ‘blue piano’ expresses the spirit of the life
which goes on here. (115)7
So writes Williams in the stage directions in the opening of the play. Obviously, the above quote
suggests an oppressive but also living atmosphere of a never-sleeping city. The substantial setting is
a “two-storey corner building on a street in New Orleans” (115) named Elysian Fields8. The houses
imply a former prosperity with their “white frame” and “ornamented gables”, but they are now
“weathered grey” (115) and the outside stairs are rickety which implies that the days of prosperity
are long gone and all the houses in the city are decaying. Though this part of the city is poor,
Williams writes that it still has a “raffish” charm to it.
The first characters encountered by the reader in the opening are Eunice (“who occupies the
upstairs flat” in the two-storey corner building) and a Negro woman (“a neighbour”). The fact that
these two women are talking friendly to each other indicates that New Orleans is as Williams puts it
“a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old
part of the town” (115). In other words: the passage of time and social changes has made the old
slave/owner relationship between blacks and white in the South change. Presumably, the earlier
mentioned raffish charm of the city, or indeed the word raffish, might refer to how the old
aristocracy of the South would have perceived the types of intercultural relations.
The word raffish also indicates that the “new” face of the South is borne by people who do not
care for the old South’s gentility. This can be seen in the entrance of Stanley Kowalski. He enters
the scene loudly bellowing “Hey, there! Stella, Baby!”(116) which shows that he belongs
confidently to this part of the city, and he is not afraid of drawing everyone’s attention to the fact he
is coming. His outer appearance as described by Williams: “roughly dressed in blue denim work
clothes” signifies that he is a working man, thus he does not belong to any refined social class. As
7
Unless nothing else is referred to, all page references in this section will be from Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar
Named Desire and Other Plays, 2000.
8
Elysian Fields is the Greek mythical name for heaven or paradise. A lot of cemeteries around the world are named
after Elysian Fields. (Simon Goldhill (in Willis),1996:146)
15
expressed by Williams, his wife Stella (at whom he is bellowing) is “of a background obviously
quite different from her husband’s" (116) this is also implied when she tells him that she does not
like him to holler at her (116). Before informing the reader that Stella is from a different
background than Stanley, Williams writes that she is “a gentle young woman, about twenty-five”
(116), but otherwise Williams does not give any description of her outer appearance. However,
Stella’s gentleness contradicts Stanley’s rough appearance: he is carrying a packet of red-stained
meat which he throws at Stella. The meat can be seen as an implication of Stanley’s bestiality, in
the sense that he resembles an animal who brings home the prey to its mate. The bestiality is also
mentioned later when Blanche tells Stella that all Stanley has to offer is animal force and that there
is “something downright – bestial- about him!” (161-163)
The entrance of Blanche is a diametric contrast to those of Stanley and Stella. When we first
meet Blanche it is clear that she does not belong to the neighbourhood in which she appears or as
Williams puts it himself: “her appearance is incongruous to this setting.” (117) In the stage
directions Williams writes that Blanche is “daintily dressed […] as if she is going to a summer tea
or a cocktail party in the garden district.” (117). About the first encounter with Blanche Adler
writes: “If Stanley enters in power and glory, Blanche arrives in New Orleans from Belle Reve wan
and defenceless.” (Adler,1990:28) This claim from Adler indicates that Blanche is very insecure
about her arrival in New Orleans, because this part of the city is very different from where she
comes from. That she asks Eunice for directions on page 117, makes the reader assume that she is
not from the city. Her way of doubting whether she is in the right place or not suggests that she
would not immediately acknowledge Elysian Fields as a place where anyone of her class, let alone
her sister Stella, could actually live.
Indeed, Blanche’s background is contradictory to the setting and thereby also to the Stanley’s
background as he seems to belong to the neighbourhood. This is revealed on page 119 where
Blanche is waiting for Stanley and Stella in their downstairs flat. Whether in attempt to seem
interested or out of curiosity, Eunice wants all her knowledge about Blanche (given to her by Stella
of course) confirmed. Through Eunice’s inquiries about Blanche the reader is informed that Blanche
is a school teacher from Mississippi whose home-place is the plantation Belle Reve. Eunice then
inserts a remark that has great importance “A place like that must be awfully hard to keep up”.
(119) As Griffin puts it, this particular remark from Eunice is “underlying the humor of her
observation is the truth that will come out shortly. Throughout the play the symbol of the old South,
16
the plantation Belle Reve, will be contrasted with the harsh reality of the Kowalski dwelling”.
(Griffin,1995:47)
Though Stanley is the first really strong character we meet in the opening, Blanche is the
protagonist. The fact that Williams lets Stanley enter Scene One first and then lets him disappear
after only a few seconds, might serve the purpose of raising the reader’s expectations to the
encounter with the protagonist. In agreement with this Adler writes: “Williams’ characterisation of
Stanley at the opening of A Streetcar Named Desire and the audience’s [or reader’s] partiality
toward his liveliness and vital sense of fun must not blind them to the realization that this is
Blanche’s play.” (Adler,1990:35) Like Adler I see Streetcar as a play that revolves around the
development of Blanche’s “arrival to her expulsion” (Adler,1990:35) as the play opens with her
arrival and ends with her departure.
As this section covered the appearances and first impressions of the characters in the opening, the
following section will dseal with the characters in terms of actions and interactions throughout the
whole play.
2.2 The Characters
Through the opening the reader is informed that Blanche is very elegant looking and that she comes
from a plantation mansion in Mississippi. Otherwise no direct indications are given to determine her
personal circumstances. Thus the looks of Blanche might trick the reader to believe that she as
opposed to Stanley, who seems rather brutish, is thriving from economical success and is a person
who is self-composed. Her outer appearance, though, is merely a façade covering her emotional
tragedy which is her loneliness and anxiety due to the loss of her home and family.
Already in scene one the reader becomes familiarized with a frailness in Blanche’s character
which presupposes that her life has not been trouble-free at all. The initial signs of frailty are to be
found in Scene One after Blanche has met with her sister Stella. Her continuous abrupt talk signals
insecurity because she jumps from one topic to another, always looking for complimentary remarks
about her looks and commenting on Stella’s, as if to find some sort of self-affirmation.
BLANCHE:
I was so exhausted by all I’ve been through my- nerves almost broke. [Nervously
tamping cigarette] I was on the verge of lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves- Mr. Graves is the
high school superintendent- he suggested that I take a leave of absence. I couldn’t pull all of
those details into the wire…[She drinks quickly] Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels so
good! (122)
17
This extract underlines the indication that Blanche’s mental state is so frail that her nerves “almost
broke” on “the verge of lunacy- almost”. It is striking that Blanche uses the word “almost” as if to
indicate that she has now recovered from her mental disturbances, when in fact the reader will
discover that she has not. Her way of welcoming the buzzing effect of the alcohol also presupposes
that Blanche is seeking to find some sort of peace of mind. It is notable that in every scene of the
play Blanche drinks alcohol and is generally rather intoxicated by it, though she herself states that
“I rarely touch it” (129). I believe that Blanche’s drinking can be seen as a gothic representation of
a character whose “behaviour is in the periphery of the acceptable” (cf. theory,10), because her
consumption of alcohol is extreme and thereby deviates from the social norms of drinking alcohol
with moderation. Moreover, her way of drinking also becomes uncanny, as it affects her mind and
makes her even more mentally disturbed through the play. By saying that, I believe that Blanche’s
consumption of alcohol is a proof of her aberrant psychological state. (cf. theory,10)
Considering Williams’ gothic depictions in terms of aberrant psychological states, I believe
that Stella, in contrast to Blanche, is depicted with a fair share of normality. Through the opening,
Williams has not provided the reader with as much detail concerning the appearance of Stella as
with Blanche’s. Stella’s primary role in the play, thus seems to be a devoted sister and wife of
Blanche and Stanley respectively. When Stella comes home to find her sister Blanche sitting in the
kitchen it is obvious that she is very pleased about her arrival as she joyfully calls out:
“Blanche!”(120) Stella is by nature politely interested in other people and whereas Blanche’s
ambiguous and continuous talk signals that her personality is enigmatic and powerful, Stella is able
to listen and her personality seems to be more open and unpretentious. When Blanche tells Stella
that she has not said a word to her when they have just met, Stella replies: “You haven’t given me a
chance to, honey!” (120) Stella, being a little frightened maybe, patiently lets Blanche continue her
eager and ambiguous talk also because Blanche has the tendency to dominate, Stella gets “in the
habit of being quiet” around Blanche. This habit of being quiet around Blanche presupposes that
their relationship has always been one in which Blanche is the garrulous sister and Stella is the
unobtrusive sister. The communication between the two sisters is occasionally constructed with
small hints of compassion and sisterly bonding as when Stella reassures Blanche that she will find
rest in her life “[kissing BLANCHE impulsively]: It will happen!” (171)Their interaction, however
is more typically filled with Stella’s frustration, sorrow and reluctance to confront Blanche with her
issues as on page 126 when the purpose of Blanche’s visit is revealed. As Blanche reveals to Stella
that the childhood estate Belle Reve is lost, it is obvious that her nerves are on the edge of a
18
hysterical breakdown as she gets more and more hysterical whereas Stella gets frustrated about her
way of talking:
BLANCHE:
I know, I know. But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and
fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!
STELLA: Stop this hysterical outburst and tell me what’s happened? What do you mean you
fought and bled? What kind of –
BLANCHE: I knew you would take this attitude about it!
STELLA: About-what?- please!
BLANCHE [slowly]: the loss- the loss…
STELLA: Belle Reve? Lost, is it? No!
BLANCHE: Yes, Stella.
(126)
As Blanche puts it she has both fought and bled for Belle Reve, whereas Stella had just left it.
Evidently, this signals that Blanche’s attachment to Belle Reve is stronger than Stella’s because she
stayed at the estate whereas Stella left to make her own living. It is notable that Stella’s relationship
to Belle Reve is not as passionate as Blanche’s; she has rejected the harsh realities of her childhood
home in order to get the energetic and vivacious New Orleans in return. Though Stella’s
background is in fact the same as Blanche’s, Stella is not very particular about where she lives, it is
actually “not that bad at all” (121). Her thankfulness of her living-conditions is most likely
instigated by Stanley, whom she is unconditionally in love with.
Stanley, having no relation to the refined culture of the South is not at all impressed by or
otherwise respectful of the sisters’ upbringing; he merely refers to Belle Reve as “the place in the
country?” (131) Also when Stella tells Stanley that he must remember that she and Blanche grew up
under different circumstances than he did, he replies: “So I’ve been told. And told and told and
told!” (185) Obviously, Stanley does not care for embellishment or politeness as indicated on page
136 when Stanley tells Blanche that he is not into paying a woman compliments. He also tells her
that “some men are took in by this Hollywood glamour stuff and some men are not”. Stanley, as
rightly detected by Blanche, belongs to the second category. For a woman to evoke any interest in
Stanley she has to “Lay…her cards on the table.” (137) Stanley’s straightforwardness contradicts
the false and superficial identity of Blanche, whose lies he consciously tries to uncover. One could
say that Stanley, though he seems very confident and patronizing, is actually at the same time
showing insecurity, because he is so controlled by the thought of being swindled. This idea
becomes evident on page 133 where he tells Stella about the Napoleonic code:
STANLEY: Let
STELLA: Yes?
me enlighten you on a point or two, baby.
19
STANLEY:
In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what
belons the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa. For instance if I had a piece of
property, or you had a piece of property(133)
Obviously, the fact that Stanley enlightens Stella on “a point”, signifies his superiority to his wife,
but the extract also indicates that Stanley is a man of principles who is very aware of his
entitlements no matter how they will affect others. According to Kelly the code itself is not as
significant as Stanley’s willingness to cite it: “Stanley’s citing of the code is proof of his interests in
his “rights”, like his resourcefulness in finding out the truth of Blanche’s history…” (Kelly (in
Kolin),1993:124). Not only does the Napoleonic code suggest that Stanley is above all interested in
his own rights, but it also shows that he is not really worried about hurting others (perhaps only
Stella, but this only vaguely). In his repeating reference to the Napoleonic code, Stanley is clearly
showing signs of insecurity in his fright for being swindled, but as I see it, Stanley’s insecurity is
not only based on money-matters. However, it appears that the very arrival of Blanche calls forth a
fear in him. She is a great threat to Stanley, as she can make Stella turn against him and thereby
overturn his territorial domination and weaken his manhood.
Stanley is the dominating patriarch of the little family and he gets extremely territorial and
defensive when he feels that his position is threatened:
STELLA:
Your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy. Go and wash up and the help me
clear the table.
[He hurls a plate to the floor]
STANLEY: That’s how I clear the table! [he seizes her arm.] Don’t you ever talk that way to
me! ‘Pig- Polack- disgusting –greasy!’ –them kind of words have been on your tongue and
your sister’s too much around here! What do you think you are? A pair of queens? Remember
what Huey Long said – ‘Every man is a King!’ and I am the king around here, so don’t forget
it! [he hurls a cup and saucer to the floor] (194)
As Stanley is not as verbally strong and articulate as Blanche or Stella, he turns to physical
violence. This is indicated when he grabs Stella’s arm to emphasize that he will not be ridiculed by
two women. This is also evident during the poker-night:
[She backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow. STELLA
cries out. Blanche screams and runs into the kitchen. The men rush forward and there is
grappling and cursing. Something is overturned with a crash] (152)
By depicting a character like Stanley Williams develops a gothic “atmosphere of gloom and terror”
(theory,10) because Stanley can act so brutal and violent that he frightens those around him. As
Stanley is very deliberate in his actions he embodies the malice in people. Seen from a broad
20
melodramatic perspective, Stanley is the quintessence of the savage villain that engage in the
“eternal battle between good and evil” together with Blanche and Stella (cf. theory, 5).
In the theory section McConachie explains that melodrama presented as “reactionary
nostalgia” as it sought to portray an “illusionary image of pre-revolutionary bliss when families
lived together in faith and peace” (theory, 4). In Streetcar Williams depicts the “reactionary
nostalgia” by transposing it to Blanche’s relationship to the South. Her mind is soaked with guilt
from loosing Belle Reve, and thus she cannot accept the fact that she is no longer part of the
Southern gentry Belle Reve represented. To underline Blanche’s attachment to the South Williams
presents a macabre and gothically bizarre account of how Belle Reve “slipped” through her fingers:
“Death is expensive, Miss Stella! And Old Cousin Jessie’s right after Margaret’s, hers! Why, the
Grim Reaper had suddenly put up his tent on our doorstep!…Stella. Belle Reve was his
headquaters! Honey - that’s how it slipped through my fingers!” (127). Apparently, Blanche finds it
compulsory to recount the circumstances in such a macabre way in order to decrease her own
feeling of guilt. The guilt, though, never disappears in Blanche’s mind, she is in more than one way
absorbed with guilt. This can be deduced from another event of her past which she reveals to Mitch
after their night at the amusement park on Lake Ponchartrain. When Blanche was young, only
sixteen, she made a discovery of “love. All at once and much, much too completely” (182). The
object of her love was the young man Allan Grey whom she married, “he wasn’t the least bit
effeminate-looking – still - that thing was there…. He came to me for help. I didn’t know that”.
(183) Blanche did not see the young man’s “cry for help”, his homosexuality, until she found him
with another man. In the Moon Lake Casino, very drunk and dancing to the Varisouviana Polka
(She keeps hearing the Varisouviana Polka in her head as a symbol of her guilt). Blanche was
unable to stop herself and scoffed at him: “I know! I know! You disgust me…” (184) The young
man then ran out and shot himself. Adler writes that “having lost her sense of worth and her selfrespect, yet needing somehow to counter Allan’s death affirm life through its opposite- desire- she
turns with confusion to brief sexual encounters”. (Adler,1990:45) I believe, however, that Blanche
not only tries to counter Allan Grey’s death but also resuscitate him in the shape of young men
through sexual encounters. This, I believe, is implied in scene five where Blanche tries to seduce
the young paper boy:
BLANCHE: […]Come here! Come on over here like I told you! I
want to kiss you- just once- softly and sweetly on your mouth.
[without waiting for him to accept, she crosses quickly to him and
presses her lips to his] Run along now! It would be nice to keep you,
but I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children. Adios! (174)
21
Moreover, the fact that Blanche was involved with a seventeen-year-old school boy also signals
how desperately Blanche is trying to obliterate her guilt for Allan’s death, and thus attempt to
resurrect her past and get to the pre-guilt stage when she was young and innocent. She cannot do
that, though, because time ran out for her, the minute she married Allan Grey she had lost her
innocence. Because Blanche cannot escape the guilt she feels for loosing Belle Reve and for Allan
Grey’s death, she constantly tries to ease her pain by refusing the present and embracing the past.
One could say that she builds a dream world around her in order to escape the harsh realities of her
present. This idea is consistent with Boxhill’s utterance that Williams was a “poet of nostalgia who
laments the loss of a past idealised in the memory” (theory,11). As I see it, this is evidently
represented through Blanche. Blanche’s memory of Belle Reve is both idyllic and demonic, in the
sense that she tries to uphold her aristocratic background but is at the same time controlled by the
horrid memory of how she lost the place. However, her memory of Allan Grey is merely demonic
because the fact that he was homosexual and consequently killed himself overshadows every other
memory of him.
Moreover, Blanche tries to avoid telling Stanley, Stella, and Mitch the complete truth about
her life story, though her attempt is debilitated by Stanley (and indeed his “scouts”), who with a
realistic attitude refuses to believe her already from the beginning. Her lies are naturally endeavours
to cover up her promiscuous past. She tells Stella that she took a leave of absence from Laurel High
School instead of telling her that she was actually fired for having been involved with the
seventeen-year-old boy. Ironically, she tries to maintain her purity by telling Mitch that she has
“old-fashioned ideals” (180) when it comes to being with a man. In the above, I presume that the
gothic element of Blanche’s promiscuity and her maintenance of the opposite work as well as her
alcoholism as indication of her aberrant psychological state. This is evidently signalled in Mitch’s
transition from the naïve admirer to his denial of her as a future wife because of her promiscuity: “I
was fool enough to believe you was straight”. (204)
As touched upon there are several indications in Streetcar that Williams is attracted to “the
extreme and even gothically bizarre”. (theory,10) I believe, however, that the culmination of these
indications can be found in Stanley’s rape of Blanche. The rape serves the purpose of depicting
Stanley’s male strength and power over Blanche. Adler writes that “in his rage and self-disgust, he
is to Blanche as she was to Allan, but with a central distinction: whereas Blanche’s cruelty was
unthinking and, therefore, forgivable, Stanley’s is malevolent, and therefore not.” (Adler,1990:53)
If following this line of thought, Stanley works as Blanche’s “executioner” (as she did with her
22
young husband) in the sense that his sexual violation of her is the expulsion that will lead her to her
death. It is my contention that Stanley is an intentional ruler and therefore violates and destroys the
things that threaten him, that is both Blanche’s belongings and her body. Thus, in disagreement
with Adler there seem not be any self-disgust in Stanley as he is very deliberate about his actions:
“We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” (215)
The “execution” of Blanche is evident in the ending where Blanche is taken away by the
doctor and matron at Stanley’s request. Thus, the ending is unconventional in terms of traditional
melodrama since the good is not triumphing over evil (cf.theory,4). However, I find it problematic
to distinguish completely between the good and the evil, because as far as I see it, Stanley is the
antagonist and a picture of a melodramatic villain in Streetcar. Yet Blanche is more ambiguous, she
has both good and evil traits, thus I would claim that Blanche is the protagonist, since the play
revolves around her, but simultaneously an anti-heroine because she is evidently inadequate in
heroic virtues. It can be discussed, however, if Stella is the real heroine of Streetcar because of her
goodness and loyalty, but I contend, that she is not. I claim that Williams uses Stella as an
underlining of the other characters’ aberrant behaviour, so that the contrasts appear. Thus, Streetcar
is highly deviant from traditional melodrama.
.
2.3. Symbolism and Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire
The atmosphere of Streetcar can only fully be understood when linking it to the presence of the
characters because as Griffin puts it “the dramatic tensions of A Streetcar named Desire are built on
contrasts - in theme, in setting, in characters, in language, in action. The structure of the play is that
of a journey or quest.” (Griffin,1995:45) When following Griffin’s line of thought I contend rather
that the play is larded with contrasts that can be seen as thematic, but represented through
characters, setting and language.
The most conspicuous contrasts that leap to the eye are the characters of Blanche and Stanley.
The fact that they are so diametrically opposed in their way of dressing and behaving suggests that
each character is representative of ideals that are binarily opposite each other’s. Blanche is a faded
Southern Belle, whose ancestors were part of the refined old southern slave-owning society,
whereas Stanley’s ancestors were Polish immigrants from the North. Williams, I presume,
presented the contrasting images of ancestry in order to create a tension between the characters in
terms of identity and belonging. Kelly writes that “in any case Kowalski is not “at home” where he
23
is: He is merely there, in a past that is not documented, and in relation to a future that remains a
possibility, so that in his case, past and future are untenanted sites (unlike the case of Blanche)”.
(Kelly (in Kolin),1993:124) When considering Kelly’s remark that Stanley is “not at home” it is
important to emphasize that insofar as Stanley has no home in terms of ancestry, I contend that he is
at home everywhere. As Kelly writes, both the past and the future are “untenanted sites”, which
means that he has the whole world at his feet. He can do what he wants not because he is a genius,
but because he has a certain “drive” that makes Stella have faith in Stanley as “the only one of his
crowd that’s likely to get anywhere”.(146) This “drive” can be applied only to Stanley, because
Blanche constantly embraces the past and refuses to acknowledge the present and future world
around her. All the opposing representations of the past and the future in the play show that time is
a crucial theme in Streetcar. Blanche and Stanley, respectively, can be seen as symbols of the past
and the future. The future is also implied in Stanley’s pride for his country when he angrily corrects
Blanche as she derogatorily calls him polack:
STANLEY: I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a
hundred per cent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell
of it, so don’t ever call me Polack. (197)
The above quote signals that Stanley is an embodiment of fresh wave of new labour in the
mechanical and industrialised North, he is that kind of man the future of America is depending on,
whereas a woman like Blanche embodies the mere spiritual and poetic nostalgia that the industrial
world rejects. Naturally, the future’s rejection of Blanche or vice versa signals a degree of
loneliness as she does not fit in the new world. Therefore, I consider that the human emotions or
conditions of “loneliness and insecurity”, as implied by Berkowitch earlier (cf. theory 12), can be
thematically applied to Streetcar.
It is also significant that Streetcar seems to be representative of an ambiguous world within
which almost each character inhabits his or her own little microcosm. Griffin writes that Williams’
structure is “frequently that of a visit by his protagonist to a microcosm of the world itself” (theory,
12). I do believe that Griffin’s observation as implied in the above can be applied to Streetcar, but I
am not content with her utterance that only the protagonist represents a microcosm, as I consider
that nearly all the main characters inhabit a little world of their own, articulated in different ways.
Blanche inhabits a dream world in which nothing except for Stanley shakes her from the believe
that the past has gone or at least can be recreated. Her dream world is primarily symbolized by
Belle Reve (French for beautiful dream) and her name Blanche Dubois (French for white woods).
These names have mythic connotations that signify that the character of Blanche is a product of the
24
bygone South. I claim that Blanche (with her name meaning white woods) resembles a ghost from
the past who cannot, but desperately tries to, find rest in the new world. Additionally, I will refer to
Lionel Kelly who writes that “the mythic implications of Blanche’s name seem to enlarge the sense
of distance between herself and Stanley” (Kelly in Kolin,1993:122) because her dream world
contradicts Stanley’s sense of reality. It is my belief, thus, that reality is a continuous element
throughout the play, because Blanche and Stanley have very different ideas of what reality is.
Blanche’s reality is her illusionary world, as symbolically illustrated her singing in the on page 186
“say its only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea – But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you
believed in me” (186). Stanley’s reality, however, is the bare facts and the idea that he has power
over his world.
Earlier I quoted Griffin who claimed that Williams has structured Streetcar as a journey or
quest, this I believe is correct. Already in the opening it is clear that Blanche is on a voyage from
desire to death, a proof hereof is also the end of the play in which Blanche says “I’m only passing
through”. (221) The streetcars she takes to get to the Kowalski home in Elysian Fields are
symbolically named Desire and Cemeteries. Blanche enters the play with desire, her own
illusionary version of how life should be, symbolised by the streetcar named Desire. She leaves the
play, however, with the realisation that her desire of capturing the illusion of the past leads to death,
symbolised by her change of streetcars from the one named Desire to the one named Cemeteries.
The streetcar named Desire symbolically refers to Blanche’s life as a quest for her bygone past,
whereas the streetcar named Cemeteries symbolises death and strengthens the contention that
Blanche’s past is merely an illusion, a dream. It is also signified in the decay and loss of Belle
Reve; the estate cannot be saved, nor reconstructed because all relatives are dead and the money is
gone. All that is left for Blanche to inherit is the cemetery and the memory of the dead. Thus,
reliving the past and thereby also resuscitating the dead cannot possibly happen and it is an illusion
to think so.
As Blanche tries to uphold the vision of the refined and naive past, I agree with Adler who
writes that her “self-theatricalization is only successful as long as the illusion is not examined too
closely”. (Adler,1990:38) This can be detected on page 208 where Blanche inspects herself in the
mirror9: “Tremblingly she lifts the mirror for a closer inspection. She catches her breath and slams
the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks…” (208) By making Blanche inspect
herself in the mirror, as opposed to the many passages where Blanche avoids letting anyone look at
9
According to American superstition breaking a mirror means seven years of bad luck.
25
her in the direct light, Williams leads the reader to predict the forthcoming closing scene in which
Blanche’s realisation that time has gone is portrayed. Not only do the ageing features in her face
shock her, but they also symbolise that she cannot uphold her past. The mirror signals that she is no
longer young.
When returning to Adler’s point about Blanche’s self-theatricalization, it seems that Blanche’s
whole life is an illusion or performance that she stages. As we know her past is not as elegant as she
pretends to be, she mediates between her illusionary refined identity and her real brutish identity.
The latter identity of Blanche, can be compared with Stanley’s brutality, because they are in fact
both as brutal as each other. In terms of reality, thus, I claim that the opposition between the two is
rather vague insofar as they both abuse other people’s trust for their own winning.
Finally, it is my assertion, that Williams uses contrasting themes in an attempt to create a
melodramatic conflict between the different "worlds" of the characters in Streetcar. Moreover, in a
larger context Streetcar is about the "ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate, by savage
and brutal forces of modern society." (Tennesse Williams (in Adler),1990:86)
26
Conclusion
Williams was very concerned with the social conditions of the South, as he depicts the domestic
experience of people inhabiting the South. Their personal ways of interacting indicates that
Williams was interested in depicting the emotional burdens of ordinary life of people affected by
the outside world. In Streetcar Williams depicts the domestic experience of characters affected and
altered by America’s economic and political condition. He does that by using fourth-wall realist
representation to enter the private sphere of the Kowalski home as the reader is invited to look into
the flat in New Orleans where the Kowalskis live. One could argue that the fourth wall realist drama
only can be fully understood if the play is watched during performance rather than read as a text.
However, I claim that the reader just as well as the observer can establish an adequate
understanding of the setting when reading the stage directions, though this demands the use of one’s
imagination.
When considering dramatic realism in Streetcar it is important to emphasize that Williams
presents characters or incidents that do not violate the laws of nature (they do not have supernatural
or otherwise unrealistic qualities), thus I claim that Williams was concerned with the maintaining
the verisimilitude of dramatic realism in Streetcar. Simultaneously with realist representation
Williams was attracted by the gothic, which can be seen in his depiction of characters whose
behaviour are in the periphery of the acceptable, for example through violence, promiscuity, or
alcoholism. Whereas the original and typical literary term gothic presented a gloomy atmosphere
through the setting. Williams re-creates the use of gothic by presenting a gloomy atmosphere
through the characters’ aberrant psychological states and behaviours. Nevertheless, when
considering the gothic in relation to the South, I claim that Streetcar is a reflection of the Southern
Gothic and Williams was a “poet of nostalgia who laments the loss of a past idealised in the
memory”. Williams portrays a bizarre and grotesque picture of the South, in shape of Blanche, the
decaying houses of New Orleans and indeed the family estate Belle Reve. Thus in Blanche’s
longing for the past he presents a myth of the South as dying and romantic culture.
When bearing in mind all the implications given in the above, it is important to emphasize that
Streetcar is a melodrama, although deviant from the traditional conventions of melodrama, as it
does not end with the good defeating the evil. But it is a melodrama in form, though, because it
depicts an eternal battle, not between merely good and evil, but between different perceptions of life
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of an evil villain and an ambiguous anti-heroine and indeed between contrasting themes of past and
future, illusion and reality, North and South, death and life.
Conclusively, it is my claim that Williams can be seen as an innovative playwright within the
genre of melodrama. He uses the overall melodramatic form but simultaneously applies new aspects
of domestication, realism and the gothic, none of which are dispensable.
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Fleche, Anne (1997). Mimetic disillusion : Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and U.S.
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Griffin, Alice (1995). Understanding Tennessee Williams. Columbia: University of South
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Kolin, Philip C. (ed.) (1993). Confronting Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named DesireESSAYS IN CRITICAL PLURALISM. Greenwood Press: Westport and London
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Robinson, Marc (1997). The other American drama. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins
University Press
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Roudané, Matthew C. (ed.) (1998). The Cambridge companion to Tennessee Williams.
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Tischler, Nancy M. (2000). Student companion to Tennessee Williams. Greenwood Press:
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Thompson, Judith J. (1987). Tennessee Williams’ Plays: Memory, Myth, and Symbol. Peter
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Sambrook, Hana (2000). A Streetcar Named Desire: Tennessee Williams. Longman: London
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Williams, Tennessee (2000). A Streetcar Named Desire and other plays. Penguin Books:
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Willis Roy (ed.) (1996). WORLD MYTHOLOGY- The Illustrated Guide. London: Duncan
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World Wide Web:
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www.LitEncyc.com
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www.amatecon.com/gd/gdtimeline.htm
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