UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS

Departamento de Letras Modernas
Introdução ao Teatro – FLM0589
Professor Responsável: Marcos Cesar de Paula Soares

Mariana Zacarias Pilatti N° USP 9881330

An Analysis of A streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is a famous play written by the author
Tennessee Williams in 1947. The play tells a story of characters that represent
social types, like in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
One of the first aspect we can realize in the play is the tension between
a reminiscing Southern woman (Blanche) and a man who represents the
working class (Stanley). The name “Blanche” suggests the “white ideology” (a
sort of elitist obsession) of this character while the blue piano compounds the
setting of a simple neighborhood where there is a good racial coexistence.
Blanche is a woman who lives in constant illusion about herself and the
reality. Then, there is two levels of interpretation of this character. The first
corresponds to own Blanche and the second is a character played by the
character Blanche, to support her lies and daydreams. Blanche is an antique
decadent society’s lady. We see it, for example, when she talks to Mitch (her
wooer and Stanley’s best friend).
“MITCH: Deal me out I'm talking to Miss--
BLANCHE: DuBois.
MITCH: Miss DuBois?
BLANCHE: It's a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so
the two together mean white
woods. Like an orchard in spring! You can remember it by that.
MITCH: You're French?
BLANCHE: We are French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were
French Huguenots.
MITCH: You are Stella's sister, are you not?
BLANCHE: Yes, Stella is my precious little sister. I call her little in spite of the
fact she's somewhat older than I. Just slightly. Less than a year. Will you do
something for me?
MITCH: Sure. What?
BLANCHE:I bought this adorable little colored paper lantern at a Chinese shop
on Bourbon. Put it over the light bulb! Will you, please?
MITCH: Be glad to.
BLANCHE: I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark
or a vulgar action.”

Which is in vogue in this play is the tension between some symbols, for
instance: wealth versus poverty, miscegenation versus purism, brutality
versus delicacy, etc. Because of that, we tend to stand against Blanche.
However, over the play, we realize that Blanche is suffering of a psychological
disease and many traumas. Soon we discovered she was married with a boy
who was homosexual and who killed himself.
In this following excerpt, she is telling to Mitch this trauma, which is one
of the most important for her disease.
“BLANCHE: He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I
was sixteen, I made the discovery--love. All at once and much, much too
completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that
had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me. But I
was unlucky. Deluded. There was something different about the boy, a
nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn't like a man's, although
he wasn't the least bit effeminate looking--still--that thing was there.... He
came to me for help. I didn't know that. I didn't find out anything till after our
marriage when we'd run away and come back and all I knew was I'd failed him
in some mysterious way and wasn't able to give the help he needed but
couldn't speak of! He was in the quicksands and clutching at me--but I wasn't
holding him out, I was slipping in with him! I didn't know that. I didn't know
anything except I loved him unendurably but without being able to help him or
help myself. Then I found out. In the worst of all possible ways. By coming
suddenly into a room that I thought was empty--which wasn't empty, but had
two people in it... the boy I had married and an older man who had been his
friend for years....
[…]
I ran out--all did!--all ran and gathered about the terrible thing at the edge of
the lake! I couldn't get near for the crowding. Then somebody caught my arm.
"Don't go any closer! Come back! You don't want to see!" See? See what!
Then I heard voices say--Allan! Allan! The Grey boy! He'd stuck the revolver
into his mouth, and fired--so that the back of his head had been--blown away!”

In addition, the music is important to conduct the viewer about

delusions and tensions during the play. Whenever Blanche remembers what
happened with ex-husband, Varsoviana Polka plays on the stage (and only
stops after the sound of gunshot). Likewise, the way Blanche deals with
enlightenment reveals how much she feels the need to conceal that she really
is. Little by little, the truth about Blanche is revealed to us. There is a
suggestion that she is a prostitute and instead of being on leave, she was
actually dismissed from the school where she taught. This culminates in
Mitch's disinterest for her and in the definitive deterioration of her mental state

Personal Comment
As some classmates have said, I hated Blanche at the first reading, but
after, I have been thinking well about her condition and about the cruelty of
the rape she suffers by Stanley, I started to see her with other eyes, in a more
comprehensive way.
Although she has an elitist speech and represents something we do not
usually applaud, she is still a woman cruelly mistreated and judged for her
sexual conduct.
However, perhaps the duality between being and seeming of Blanche
is very current. If we think about how people deal with social networks, for
example, we will find dozens of Blanches in our daily lives. It makes me
wonder that living by appearances is a strong shield to face a very difficult
reality.