Williams, Tennessee: 1911-1983

A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947 - Information about the Book

  • General Information
    • The play is a study of the mental and moral ruin of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle, whose genteel pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law. It also presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women's lives.
    • Information from Wikipedia
    • Information from StageAgent
  • Facts
    • Williams called the streetcar the “ideal metaphor for the human condition.” The play's title refers not only to a real streetcar line in New Orleans but also symbolically to the power of desire as the driving force behind the characters' actions.
    • Awards
    • Characters
    • Character Analysis of Blanche Dubois
    • Relationships of the characters
    • The Role of Stella, BWO English Literature
    • The Role of Mitch, BWO English Literature
    • Motifs
  • Articles
    • Audio (1:26)
      Introduction to the play. With more videos. John McRae, Nottingham University
    • Commentary
      A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the greatest and most influential literary works of the 20th century. Volumes have been written about the author’s use of poetic imagery and the play’s superb balance between humor and tragedy. In addition, we have in the character of Blanche Dubois a fully realized, perfectly convincing case study in psychopathology. This was surely influenced by the author’s sister Rose, who provided inspiration as well for his earlier The Glass Menagerie, and who, following a prefrontal lobotomy, spent the remainder of her life institutionalized.
      From the outset of the play, Blanche is aware she has got to “keep ahold of myself” (p. 10). She won’t be seen in the light, indulges in a nip (or two) of liquor, and soothes herself with therapeutic baths (hydrotherapy had been a popular 19th-century treatment for anxiety). Later, she fantasizes herself in a relationship with an old college beau, Shep Huntleigh, who, she claims, is now an oil millionaire. As the tension in the house escalates, her fanciful notions multiply. The author increasingly employs descriptions such as “hysterically,” “nervously” and “neurasthenic.” We witness Blanche in an inappropriate sexual encounter with an underage delivery boy; soon afterwards she employs the ego defense mechanism of reaction formation in her prudish behavior towards Mitch. We also see her experience a traumatic flashback of her husband’s suicide. Finally, we watch her regress to a childlike state, and her rescue by the fatherly, benevolent figure of the doctor.
      Glass, Guy
      Excerpted, with permission, from the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database at New York University School of Medicine, © New York University.
    • Video (6:47)
      Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy took to the stage for the Broadway premier of A Streetcar Named Desire. We hear the two actors in an excerpt from the legendary 1947 production. NPR Radio; December 3, 2005
      Transcript
    • Audio (8:30)
      Debbie Elliott explores the origin of the play. With its raw sexuality, A Streetcar Named Desire broke taboos on stage and screen. It also brought one of the most famous lines ever shouted on film: "Stellaaaaa!". NPR Radio; September 23, 2002
    • How "A Streetcar Named Desire" traveled beyond Elysian Fields to the entire world: "The play's reflection of a crumbling social order appealed as much to Latin America, postwar Europe, and beyond as it did to US audiences. Productions in Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico were immediately staged in 1948, and within 10 years, important productions had appeared in Greece, Italy, London, Paris, Sweden, Japan, and Korea, and Farsi and Arabic translations were published." Mark Cave; March 17, 2022
    • "Streetcar" is not a text—it is a play that electrifies the theatre. Will Norman, University of Kent; April 20, 2021
    • Literary and Social Context
    • A Lecture on Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. John Pistelli, Contemporary American Literature; Spring 2021
      • Part One
      • Part Two