A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams draws heavily from his own life and times in his work, creating a rich historical and cultural background to the action. Exploring the setting and cultural references that Williams incorporated into can give the play a whole new sense of context, depth, and realism. {*style:<b>NEW ORLEANS </b>*} The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, was, in many ways, Tennessee Williams's principle literary muse. He lived there off and on for a good deal of his life; New Orleans was his "favorite city of America . . . of all the world, actually.
" New Orleans, nicknamed "The City That Care Forgot" and "The Big Easy," has a well-earned reputation for excess. {*style:<b>Map of the French Quarter (click to enlarge) </b>*} Als o known as the Vieux Carr é ("Old Square"), the French Quarter is the most famous section of New Orleans. Although it is called the Quarter, the architecture in this area of New Orleans is primarily Spanish. The Desire line was established in 1920. {*style:<b> A Streetcar Named Desire: Themes, Motifs & Symbols. Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Fantasy’s Inability to Overcome Reality Although Williams’s protagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire is the romantic Blanche DuBois, the play is a work of social realism. Blanche explains to Mitch that she fibs because she refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her. Lying to herself and to others allows her to make life appear as it should be rather than as it is. One of the main ways Williams dramatizes fantasy’s inability to overcome reality is through an exploration of the boundary between exterior and interior. Though reality triumphs over fantasy in A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams suggests that fantasy is an important and useful tool.
The Relationship between Sex and Death. Streetcarnameddesire.wikispaces. Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire. Mitch and Blanche are an example of a co-dependent relationship that is founded on mutual loneliness and the desire to be with someone – anyone – to distract themselves from previously suffered emotional damage.
The only reason these two are together at all is out of mutual need. Or, as Mitch says, “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be — you and me, Blanche?” (6.121). Mitch might have his own reasons for liking Blanche, but we have a hard time believing that she harbors any real feelings for him. The big tip-off as to Blanche’s real motives comes when Stella asks her, “Do you want him?” Mitch Timeline. Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Unlike Blanche, whose past we learn about to some extent, we really don't have much back-story on Stanley, so we're left to learn about him from his actions during the present instead of finding out how he's grown and changed over time.
Quickly we gain a picture of him as aggressive, dominant, and very sexual. He's a man of habit and structure, and his desires in life are quite simple: 1) he enjoys maintaining stereotypical gender roles in his home, with himself as the respected head of the household; 2) he likes spending time with his male friends; and 3) his sexual relationship with his wife is very important to him. For Stanley, Blanche's arrival overturns all three aspects of his structured life: she acts as a disruptive force in every way.
Stanley and Gender Roles Let's start with the gender roles in the Kowalski household. Problems arise when Blanche shows up with her elitist notions and criticism of Stanley. Not to mention, he feels that his wife is looking down on him. Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche DuBois is a tragic figure.
She’s out of place both geographically and temporally (that is, she's stuck in the wrong time). Blanche is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her own fantasies. Blanche and Her Retreat From Reality Discussing Blanche's retreat from reality is interesting because it’s difficult to distinguish between when she has lost her grip on reality, when she’s simply imagining a better future for herself, and when she’s immersed in fiction and indulging in romantic fantasies.