Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

1962 Words4 Pages

Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams, an American playwright, has been known as the most prominent American southern dramatist. He won his first Pulitzer Prize with Streetcar Named Desire. In this play, Williams shows the need for belief in human value against the natural realistic world. He uses symbols to develop the characters and theme of illusion verses reality within Streetcar Named Desire. The two main characters are Blanche DuBois, an aristocrat southern belle, and Stanley Kowalski the "gaudy seed-bearer." Blanche lives in the superficial world she has made for herself while Stanley lives in the harsh realistic world. The confrontation between Blanche and Stanley is shown throughout the play and is so severe that one must be destroyed.

Williams uses specific names to describe his characters. The name Blanche comes from a French word meaning white and her last name Dubois meaning woods. This corresponds with Blanches character because she uses the French language to charm Mitch and to seem more intelligent. White being the color of purity suggests that she is pure and innocent although it will soon be shown that this is an illusion that she has engrossed in. She has come from Belle Reve, also of French descent meaning a beautiful dream, which is the plantation where she and Stella grew up. She has lost the plantation and in a since she has lost the dream she once had. The arrival at Stella's is her last hope to recapture this dream.

She is described as wearing white and having a moth like appearance. In literature a moth represents soul. So it is possible to see her entire voyage as the journey of her soul. She describes her voyage: "They tol...

... middle of paper ...

...ler 94-102.

Harris, Laurilyn. "Perceptual Conflict and the Perversion of Creativity In A Streetcar

Named Desire." Kolin 83-103

Kazan, Elia. "Notebook for A Streetcar Named Desire." Miller 94-102.

Kernan, Alvin. "Truth and Dramatic Mode in A Streetcar Named Desire." Bloom 17-19.

Kolin, Philip. " It's only a paper moon": The Paper Ontologies in Tennessee William's A

Streetcar Named Desire." Modern Drama 40 (1997) : 454-467.

Kolin, Philip, ed. Confronting Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Miller, Jordan, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. New

Jersey: Prentice -Hall, 1971.

"Signs in Detail: Virgo." 11 November 2000

.

"Tennessee Williams." 10 November 2000 .

Adcock 10

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Penguin Group, 1974

Open Document