1. A Streetcar Named Desire{ }
A Streetcar Named Desire
LECTURE 3

2. Construction of Identity, Gender
{Introduction to men}
[Two men come round the comer, Stanley Kowalski and Mitch. They are about twenty-eight or thirty years old, roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes. Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher's.]
Age, class, colours.
Colour contrasts is being set up here. Connotations of the colour red- passion, virility, sensuality. When we are later introduced to Blanche, the colour White is set against the red, forebodes Stanley’s ultimate crime of passion against her.
Construction of Identity, Gender

3. {Stanley Kowalski}
Age: 25 Origin: Polish Descent Marital Status: Married Occupation: Factory Worker Hobbies: Bowling, Poker, Drinking
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4. {Introduction to Stanley}
Stanley [bellowing]: Hey, there! Stella, Baby!
Note stage directions + exclamation, register
Language – 2 levels, Stanley is introduced and then followed by Stella…

5. {Introduction to Stanley}
More laughter and shouts of parting come from the men. Stanley throws the screen door of the kitchen open and comes in. He is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine, and strongly, compactly built. Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens. Branching out from this complete and satisfying centre are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humour, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer. He saw women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.
Note stage directions + exclamation, register
Language – 2 levels, Stanley is introduced and then followed by Stella…

6. {Stella Kowalski}
Symbolic Meaning: Star Age: 25 Hometown: Laurel, Mississippi Marital Status: Married Occupation: Housewife
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7. {Introduction to Stella}
Stars - the light which breaks through the darkness.
Light - opposite of darkness, symbol for high ideals or goals set too high
Stella represents Blanche’s ideal concerning the fact that she is leading a contented life.
Stella’s position in play: light, hope and stability.
Stabilising element of the play - negotiator between the two so very different characters.
Ironic – stability is not sustained and does nothing but witness her sister’s tragic end
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, etc, colours

8. {Introduction to Stella}
[Stella comes out on the first-floor landing, a gentle young woman, about twenty-five, and of a background obviously quite different from her husband's.]
Stella [mildly]: Don't holler at me like that. Hi, Mitch.
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, etc, colours

9. {Introduction to Stella}
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, colours, etc
Stella subtly attempts to assert herself – this assertion appears to intensify with the arrival of Blanche, much to the annoyance of Stanley.
Blanche is a threat to Stanley’s overt masculinity
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, etc, colours

10. {Introduction to S+S}
[He heaves the package at her. She cries out in protest but manages to catch it: then she laughs breathlessly. Her husband and his companion have already started back around the corner.]
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, etc, colours

11. {Introduction to S+S}
Contrasts have been set up within the first five minutes of the play.
Contrast will be extended throughout the play – character, gentility, etc, colours
What is significant about the dramatic action here?
Heaving – suggests some sort of aggression, weight
Traditional gender roles constructed here
Hunter/Gatherer; Provider/Nurturer dichotomy set up

12. {Introduction to S+S}
Stella [calling after him}: Stanley! Where are you going?
Stanley: Bowling!
Stella: Can I come watch?
Stanley: Come on. [He goes out.] (p4)
---
Eunice: Well, that’s where she’s at, watchin’ her husband bowl. (p5)
Construction of gendered spaces. Note that Stanley is going out, to play bowling. Stella is not invited and the most she can do is watch, the role of the observer. Similar to the poker games, bowling is also a sport that the women are excluded from. Later on in the play when Blanche wants to play, she too is explicitly told that she is not to join.

13. {Introduction to S+S} Games – construction of gendered spaces.
Construction of gendered spaces. Note that Stanley is going out, to play bowling. Stella is not invited and the most she can do is watch, the role of the observer. Similar to the poker games, bowling is also a sport that the women are excluded from. Later on in the play when Blanche wants to play, she too is explicitly told that she is not to join.
Games – construction of gendered spaces.
Stella is not invited and plays the role of the observer.
Similar to the poker games, bowling is also a sport that the women are excluded from.

14. {Stanley+Stella} Gender dynamics in post-war America presented in play
Power dynamics in marital relationships
Stanley’s position threatened

15. {Blanche DuBois}
Age: 30 Hometown: Laurel, Mississippi Marital Status: Widow (married at 16) Occupation: English School Teacher Traits: Averse to light Past: Shady
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16. {Blanche DuBois} Blanche – White/Fair
DuBois – French origin, made of wood
Blanche’s entire name is heavily symbolic - it reflects her true nature in a very clear way.
Blanche’s character is revealed in the same way in order of her first and last name.
Appearance/Reality: Even though she initially appears to be innocent and pure, her past and true nature reveals itself as the play progresses.
At first she seems to be innocent and pure, but later her past and her true nature can be discovered.

17. {Blanche DuBois} Scene 1: development of Blanche’s character Blanche:
Aware of social distinctions [note interaction with Eunice and neighbour’s acts]
Vanity, need of flattery
Pathos: fear of ageing, vulnerability
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18. {Blanche DuBois} Awareness of social distinctions:
Monosyllybalic responses to Eunice and the Negro woman
Blanche [wanting to get rid of her]
Awareness of Stella’s apparent social regression:
Eunice [defensively, noticing Blanche’s look]: It’s sort of messed up right now but when it’s clean it’s real sweet.
Blanche: Is it?
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19. {Blanche DuBois}
“There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth”
Moth:
creature of the night,
averse to light,
lacks colours
symbolic of her living in the dark, living in ignorance and denial

20. {Blanche DuBois}
Blanche [with faintly hysterical humour]: 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!
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21. {Blanche DuBois}
Has a tendency for hysterics and histrionic outbursts that has to be moderated by Stella
Given her literary background, her sense of humour may indicate an awareness of the irony in her own literal journey
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22. {Contrast in Setting}
LAUREL Belle Reve
NEW ORLEANS French Quarter
Laurel is a real town in southeastern Mississippi
Had a genteel, aristocratic Old South culture that was fast disappearing in the face of industrialisation
Industrialised and urban
A shabby part of the neighbourhood situated near railway tracks – evidence of rapid industrialisation and expansion of cities
A conglomeration of cultures and migrants

23. NEW ORLEANS French Quarter
{Contrast in Setting}
LAUREL Belle Reve
NEW ORLEANS French Quarter

24. {Displacement}
Blanche’s displacement from Laurel to New Orleans makes her an outsider in Stanley’s and Stella’s world
Blanche: symbol of the plantation era which must inevitable bow to industrialization and newly confident “ethnic” adversaries – embodied in the Polish Kowalski
Additionally, Williams exposes a patriarchal society in which women ceased to be valued once they lost their physical attractiveness or failed to conform to social and generally sexist mores
A character who is stubbornly holding on the the values of the past and is unable to assimilate into her new environment
A society that embraces values that she is far from familiar with

25. {Elysian Fields} Irony: Literally means the Greek paradise
But here, it is no ethereal heaven, but a noisy, active place filled with vital, lusty, ‘macho’ life
A character who is stubbornly holding on the the values of the past and is unable to assimilate into her new environment
A society that embraces values that she is far from familiar with

26. {Streetcars Significance}
Blanche [with faintly hysterical humour]: 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: What you are talking about is brutal desire—just—Desire! The name of that rattle-trap street-car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another… Stella: Haven’t you ever ridden on that street-car? Blanche: It brought me here. ( )
There is an actual streetcar named “Desire” that Blanche takes on her way to the Kowalskis’. She mentions it twice. First, in Scene One, she tells Eunice that “they told [her] to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!” (1.16). Later, she berates Stella for her obsession with Stanley and mentions the streetcar again. Take a look:
metaphorical meaning of the title. Blanche is literally brought to the Kowalski place by “Desire,” but she is also brought there by desire; her sexual escapades in Laurel ruined her reputation and drove her out of town. Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen sex do destructive things in Williams’s play. In fact, go back to Blanche’s first reference to the streetcar that we opened this discussion with. Desire, then Cemeteries, then Elysian Fields. Sex, death, the afterlife. It’s like a linear progression. Sex leads to death, or at least some heavy-duty wreckage. Don’t believe us? Here are a few examples:
Blanche herself seems to recognize some sort of connection here with this line, one that is key to understanding the role that desire plays in Streetcar: “Death […], death was as close as you are. […] The opposite is desire” ( ). Blanche is somehow under the impression that sex is her escape from death. She turned to sex to comfort herself after her husband died, and after her relatives passed away one by one. Unfortunately, as we already know, Desire leads to Cemeteries leads to the Elysian Fields. Blanche has actually gotten herself into a vicious cycle. Something dies, so she turns to sex, which causes something else to die, which makes her turn to sex, and on and on...

27. {Streetcars}
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28. {Streetcars Significance}
There is an actual streetcar named “Desire” that Blanche takes on her way to the Kowalskis’.
Blanche is literally brought to the Kowalski place by “Desire,” but she is also brought there by desire
Desire > Cemeteries > Elysian Fields.
Sex, death, the afterlife?
A linear progression? Desire leading to destruction?
It began service in 1835, with cars pulled by mules. Steam power began around 1860, and the streetcars were electric by the 1890s. By 1922, the streetcar line covered 225 miles in New Orleans. The streetcars themselves were designed by Percy Thomas, and they have largely remained the same over the years, featuring wooden seats, brass handgrips, and a characteristic side-to-side swaying motion.
There is an actual streetcar named “Desire” that Blanche takes on her way to the Kowalskis’. She mentions it twice. First, in Scene One, she tells Eunice that “they told [her] to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!” (1.16). Later, she berates Stella for her obsession with Stanley and mentions the streetcar again. Take a look:
metaphorical meaning of the title. Blanche is literally brought to the Kowalski place by “Desire,” but she is also brought there by desire; her sexual escapades in Laurel ruined her reputation and drove her out of town. Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen sex do destructive things in Williams’s play. In fact, go back to Blanche’s first reference to the streetcar that we opened this discussion with. Desire, then Cemeteries, then Elysian Fields. Sex, death, the afterlife. It’s like a linear progression. Sex leads to death, or at least some heavy-duty wreckage. Don’t believe us? Here are a few examples:
Blanche herself seems to recognize some sort of connection here with this line, one that is key to understanding the role that desire plays in Streetcar: “Death […], death was as close as you are. […] The opposite is desire” ( ). Blanche is somehow under the impression that sex is her escape from death. She turned to sex to comfort herself after her husband died, and after her relatives passed away one by one. Unfortunately, as we already know, Desire leads to Cemeteries leads to the Elysian Fields. Blanche has actually gotten herself into a vicious cycle. Something dies, so she turns to sex, which causes something else to die, which makes her turn to sex, and on and on...

29. {Stanley + Blanche} Scene 1:
Two individuals from different societies and cultures who are set in sharp contrast
Blanche: a refined woman from an southern aristocratic background,
Stanley: a down-to-earth working man with crude manners, animal-like qualities
Inability to empathise with each other set from the start
They are from completely different worlds

30. {Stanley + Blanche} Scene 1:
Blanche: represents the dying aristocratic culture, an upper class that threatens Stanley’s role as patriarchal head
Stanley: embodies a crude, lower class which threatens her class superiority
Essentially, in conflict with each other on almost every level
Yet, there is a certain baser, animal attraction between each other
Predator/Prey model would work, but is also complex
They are from completely different worlds

31. {Scene 1}
Scene introduces two of the prominent themes of the play, sex and death.
Stella and Stanley – basis of love is sexual passion.
Stanley - “male chauvinist” ? BUT they are happy in their own way, bound together by physical love.
Blanche’s longest speech in this scene – death; note of morbidity continues throughout the play; excessive use of imagery of death in her speech
Scene introduces two of the prominent themes of the play, sex and death.
The basis of the love between Stella and Stanley is sexual passion.
Although Stanley is what today might be called a “male chauvinist,” they are happy in their own way, bound together by physical love.
On the other hand, Blanche’s longest speech in this scene is all about death. She gives Stella a long catalog of the deaths at the Belle Reve plantation, emphasizing the heartrending nature of death and the details of people’s last moments. The note of morbidity continues throughout the play.

32. {Scene 1} Important symbolic and visual elements in the opening scenes
Stanley – undressing: signifying his elemental, animal-like strength and virility
Blanche - bathing: a symbol of her attempts to wash away her past and project image of being beautiful and refined [in scene 2]
Appearance/Reality; Illusion/Truth
NOTE: However, she is associated with the sound of cats, undermining her attempts to present herself in this way
There are also some important symbolic and visual elements in the opening scene. Stanley removes his shirt (which he will do often), signifying his elemental, animal-like strength and virility, whereas Blanche spends a lot of time bathing and freshening up, a symbol of her attempts to wash away her past and live up to her image of being beautiful and refined. However, she is twice in this scene associated with the raucous sound of cats, which tends to undermine her attempts to present herself in this way.

33. {Stanley+ Blanche} Aristocratic Old South White, Light, Purity Airy
Feminine
New Industrial Age
Dark (but realistic)
Masculine
Solid
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34. {Stella + Blanche} Blanche resents Stella:
“In bed with a Polack”
A double insult:
Insinuates Stella’s sexual appetite
Disdain for a Southern aristocrat for a vulgar immigrant
Stella’s defence of Stanley:
“That’s enough!”
She passively listens to Blanche’s attack but jumps to Stanley’s defence
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35. {SCENE 1 dramatic function}
Opening Scene
Sets tone, mood and atmosphere
Contextualises play through setting
Introduces main protagonist and antagonist
Constructs contrasts and conflicts
Primes the audience by introducing key concerns and issues
..all of which contribute to the audience’s understanding of the rest of the play
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36. {SCENE 1 dramatic function}
Blanche: “Well, I never had your beautiful self-control.”
Scene 1: Sets up contrasts between all three characters
Blanche: self-confesses that she lacks some form of control and discipline over herself
Truth? Or her guilt at her inability in being able enough to manage family property
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37. { }
Scene 2
Revelations:
Loss of Belle Reve
Stella’s pregnancy
Stanley’s antagonism towards Blanche increases
Laying ground for the motive behind Blanche’s tragic end

38. { } Scene 2 Structure: 2 parts Foundation for later conflicts is set
1. Stella and Stanley
2. Blanche and Stanley
Foundation for later conflicts is set
New motif: Bathing
Extended in the course of the play
Repetitive and intrusive
Symbolic of Blanche’s attempt to purify herself from guilt and her sexual history

39. { } Scene 2 Napoleanic Code
Further construction of a patriarchal society
Napoleanic Code
Class antagonism
Central conflict:
Blanche’s unrealistic view of the world and Stanley’s realistic one

40. {Scene 2 - Setting}
It is six o’clock the following evening. BLANCHE is bathing. STELLA is completing her toilette. BLANCHE’S dress, a flowered print, is laid out on STELLA’s bed.” CONTRAST [STANLEY enters the kitchen from outside, leaving the door open on the perpetual ‘blue piano’ around the corner.] Note: Use of spaces and props important in understanding themes and concerns.
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41. {Scene 2 - Blanche}
Stella: And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness!
QN: What is Blanche’s weakness/flaw?
Obsessive nature
Preoccupation with her youth and her appearance
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