a streetcar named desire
DESCRIPTION
A streetcar named desireTRANSCRIPT
A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
Major Themes in the Play The old south and the new south Cruelty The primitive and the primal Desire Loneliness Romance vs. Realism
Outline of This Session
Fantasy/ Illusion
Blanche / Illusion Fantasy / Liberating magic /
Fantasy is her primary means of self-defense
Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism
Fantasy/ Illusion
The old south
The new south
Stella and Blanche come from a world that is rapidly dying
Two sisters are the last living members of their family
Old South and General Sherman's army The old south can only live on in a
diluted, bastardized form
The old south and the new south
Blanche's comments Stanely as primitive.
Stanely is a representative of unrefined manhood
Stanely's unrefined nature also includes a terrifying amorality.
Blanche finds Stanley's primitivism so threating because it is something she sees and hides within her
The primitive and the primal
Desire
Desire is the central theme of the play Blanche seeks to deny it Desire, is her driving motivations. Her desire becomes the cause of her
driving out of town Desire is also Blanche’s undoing
Desire
Loneliness
The companion theme to desire is loneliness Blanche is lost among these two She seeks companionship and protection in
the arms of strangers Blanch never recovers from her tragic and
consuming love of her first husband She needs a defender.
Loneliness
Romance
Romance
Realism
The fundamental tension of the play is romance and realism
There is a parallel between lust and death Blanche, the romantic and Stanley the realist Blanche’s previous sexual encounters are
tangled up with death Blanche / Streetcars named desire and
cemeteries / symbolize run together to Blanche's final Destination
Romance VS Realism / Desire VS Cemeteries