Playwright Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire, a play by a Southern playwright Tennessee Williams, presents the problems of the United States after both wars and the Great Depression. It also touches on the issues of immigrant families and the old settlers. Although the play is situated in the South, the compelling way he provides themes makes it rather universal. A Streetcar Named Desire has two strong characters – Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski – that are concurrently similar and different. Both try to hide their own weaknesses and try to get rid of their inner and outer problems but in a different ways.
Blanche DuBois arrives to her sister’s apartment to escape from her unpleasant reality. She and her sister, Stella Kowalski, are descendants of the old Southern aristocracy. Even at the beginning of the play, Blanche DuBois is a fallen woman in the eyes of others. She lost all the family fortune and she was present when her husband committed suicide. Her history of sexual relationships is very rich, and she also has a serious drinking problem; which she tries to cover up. Blanche is the opposite character to her sister Stella. According to their individual past, they symbolize dark and light. Blanche has a very rich personal history; which is a heavy burden on her. In the play, Blanche undertakes a process of cleaning herself, and she tries to brush her life from every mistake she made. Underneath all the “dirt” and sins, there is an insecure individual. In A Streetcar Named Desire, there are several processes and actions for that purpose. The “cleaning” is her personal history, reputation, and her body. Also, relationships and the way she is treated.
Blanche’s problems with men started when she got married too young. He was a hidden homosexual, who committed suicide after the confrontation with his sexuality. During her career as a teacher, she seduced many of her male students. Although she probably never was alone in her hometown, she was certainly lonely. Because of all her dirty and bad history of her, she wants to make a relationship in the right way. For Blanche, a vision of marriage with Mitch means to escape from dirty and sinful past, to clean herself from the other men. In this case, the wearing of the white dress, which is a color of innocence, as a bride would symbolically clean her history with men. Men’s exploitation of her sexuality has left her with a very poor reputation and with that came destitution. She believes she is an honorable lady of the South who deserves to be treated that way, but with all the gossip she cannot be. She tries to find a typical Southern gentleman who can save her and take care of her. This chivalric man is in the play represented by a non-existing millionaire, Shep Huntleigh. Blanche is depending on the sexual admiration of men for it brings her almost lost self-esteem. Despite every attempt for gaining normal marriage and dignity, she fails again. Blanche will never be able to clean herself from the past and men because of her relying on them and putting her fate in their hands. The dependency and inability to see things realistically lead to inevitable downfall rather than purging.
The strongest motif of the cleaning process is bathing. Blanche bathes throughout the whole play. She claims that the hot water calms her nerves and in Scene Two she says, “All freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand-new human being!” The cleaning is taken as a physical symbol metaphorically and literally. Her sexual experiences made her a “dirty” person and subconsciously she wants to get rid of her odious history. Her efforts to forget and clean herself cannot erase her past and because of that her bathing takes a long time, it is almost never done. In scene two, Stanley and Stella are talking about the loss of Belle Reve. Stella is satisfied with Blanche's answer that it had to be sacrificed. However, pragmatic Stanley wants to see all the papers concerning the family estate. He seemed to always hope of owning the estate or taking advantage from its sale. Stanley checks clothes in Blanche’s trunk and accuses Blanche that money from the sale is in her wardrobe. While Blanche is bathing, facts about her history are being revealed. She bathes to wash her guilt of losing Belle Reve. Behind her, back others are deciding of her future. During bathing, Blanche is singing.
In scenes two and seven there is a popular ballad “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” The lyrics “It’s a Barnum and Bailey world / Just as phony as it can be / But it wouldn’t be make-believe / If you believed in me,” describe a world where love is turned from reality into a phony fantasy. Love doesn't exist in the real world and it is only imagined. It narrates Blanche’s life and her strong belief that her future happiness is with Mitch. Blanche thinks that if she would try hard enough, the hope would have become reality. The song well accompanies the process of cleaning herself during bathing. Tennessee Williams uses a juxtaposition of Blanche’s perception of her love life and the cruel reality. Williams creates an ironic dramatic situation where Blanche is singing about nonsense. As Blanche takes a bath, Stanley tells Stella about her sister’s sexual history. Another important thing is taking place behind Blanche’s back. Stanley tells Stella that he also told the whole history not only to her but also to Mitch. Stella is now sure that Mitch will never marry Blanche because of that. While Blanche is bathing, other important information about her reveals. On the outside, Blanche appears to be fresh and temporarily renewed. However, she fails in the process of cleaning herself from the past and her reputation again. Stanley has objections against Blanche’s constant bathing. On a metaphorical level, he shows his rejections towards Blanche’s processes of cleaning and purification.
There is another song Blanche is using to get rid of her past and to become as innocent as she was when she was still married. The Varsouviana Polka is the tune which she hears in her head. It is also a tune which she was dancing with her husband when she last saw him alive. The song reminds Blanche of times of innocence and the time when the decline of her life became. The day when Allen Grey committed suicide, she saw him with another male friend in bed and pretended that nothing happened. However, during dancing to the tune of Varsouviana Polka, she told him that she found him disgusting. The polka represents Blanche’s longing for innocence which is already lost. First Blanche hears it during the meeting of Stanley in scene one. Another appearance of the tune accompanies Blanche’s narration of her young husband’s death. Since her mental decline begins, she can hear the Varsouviana Polka constantly. For the purposes of the process of cleaning she tries to move her miseries out of reality and focuses on her imaginary dream past world, she focuses on becoming innocent again. In fact, her insanity is a token of regression to an ideal imaginary environment.
In conclusion, Blanche tries through various ways to get rid of the past, sins, mistakes, memories, and reputation. She arrived in Elysian Fields, which is the place where souls come before they can come back to our world. We can assume that her journey will start all over again. From the beginning, Blanche is going to fail. Her problems go hand in hand. Her troubles with men would be cleaned by the wearing of a white dress at her wedding with Mitch. Blanche’s obsessive bathing resembles the plunging of souls, the processes of cleaning are very psychic because she hopes to get away from her “habitual sins”, and alcohol does not wash away memories. Also, the songs which accompanied washing of the sins away does not help. Blanche is forced to leave with all her mistakes, back to the rough reality, to the same stained history, and reputation.
