Ready Reference Treatise: A Streetcar Named Desire

By Raja Sharma

Blanche comes from a very refined background. The Old South is gradually dying. They have lost their ancestral house and land. The life in New Orleans seems to be of low standard to Blanche. She can’t accept the world of the New South. She still believes in jeweled shoes and exotic dresses. She believes that by applying powder to her face, she will be able to hide her age. The conflict between the old and the new world is one of the significant themes of the play. She wants to live in the past which is irrevocable.

Blanche DuBois is a fading Southern belle, though she is still attractive. She lives in alcoholism and delusions of grandeur though she pretends to care for virtue and culture. She seems to be hiding behind the masks, trying to be shielding herself from her reality. Though she is losing the charm of her youth, she continues to try to make herself still attractive to new male suitors.

Her sister Stella Kowalski lives in her apartment in the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue. Blanche visits her sister. To reach her sister’s house, she takes a local transportation that includes a streetcar route named “Desire.”

She is shocked to find herself in the steamy and hot ambiance of the city. Stella, her sister, greets her with a little trepidation. She is worried how her husband Stanley will react.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301324576

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: A Streetcar Named Desire

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2012 Raja Sharma

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Chapter 1: An Introduction to A Streetcar Named Desire

The play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams was first launched in the year 1947. It was launched on Broadway on 3rd December 1947. It was an instant success and it brought the ultimate admiration for the playwright.

Tennessee Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in the year 1948.

The London production of A Streetcar Named Desire opened in the year 1949.

It was made into a movie in the year 1951 and it proved to be a grand success. The director of the film was Elia Kazan. Four Academy Awards and many other prestigious awards were won by the movie.

Chapter 2: A Brief Summary

The story of the play opens in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the Second World War. The play basically deals with a culture clash between two major characters Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski.

Blanche is from the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski is an upcoming member of the industrial, urban working class.

Blanche DuBois is a fading Southern belle, though she is still attractive. She lives in alcoholism and delusions of grandeur though she pretends to care for virtue and culture. She seems to be hiding behind the masks, trying to be shielding herself from her reality. Though she is losing the charm of her youth, she continues to try to make herself still attractive to new male suitors.

Her sister Stella Kowalski lives in her apartment in the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue. Blanche visits her sister. To reach her sister’s house, she takes a local transportation that includes a streetcar route named Desire.

She is shocked to find herself in the steamy and hot ambiance of the city. Stella, her sister, greets her with a little trepidation. She is worried how her husband Stanley will react.

She explains to her sister that their ancestral southern plantation, Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi, has been lost owing to epic fornications of their ancestors. By epic fornications she seems to be pointing to the debauchery of her ancestors. Owing to that they had to suffer financial loses.

She informs her sister that she has been given time off by her supervisor from her job as an English teacher, but the fact is that she has been fired from her job. She had an affair with a seventeen year old student. Actually, she has been involved in various other seductions. That is why she has escaped to Laurel.

For a short period Blanche was married to