A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanche DuBois

Stella Kowalski

Stanley Kowalski

Mitch

Steve

Eunice

Pablo

Allen Grey

Shep Huntleigh

Shaw

A Mexican Woman

A Young Collector

A Negro Woman

A Doctor

A Streetcar Named Desire

Fantasy Cannot Overcome Reality

• Refuse to accept fate
• Lie to one's self
• False appearances
• Attempts to remake life
• Exterior vs. interior

Relationships between Sex and Death

• Aging = loss of beauty
• Adults desire past teenaged bliss
• Sexual history = downfall
• Denial of homosexuality leads to suicide
• Desires lead to forced departures and unwanted ends

Women's Dependence on Men

• Men's means to restrict women's lives
• Women's means to achieve "happiness"
• Men = sustenance and positive self-image
• Men = secure futures & escaped destitution
• Women have no realistic conception of how to rescue themselves.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Light vs. Darkness

• Blanche avoids the light to hide her age
• Dates all happen at night
• Covered light = lies and false reality
• Marriage is like revealing a bright light
• Death and solitude is like darkness

Bathing

• Calms nerves
• Attempts to wash away the past
• Attempts to undo a misdeed
• Soothes a violent temper

Drunkenness

• Social
• Celebratory
• Antisocial
• Creates a false reality
• Destructive

The Varsouviana Polka

• Tune to which Blanche and her young husband, Allen Grey, were dancing when she last saw him alive.
• Drives Blanche to distraction
• Symbolizes Blanche’s loss of innocence and lost grip on reality

The End