A

“Take a streetcar named Desire and

transfer to one called Cemeteries …

and get off at - Elysian Fields!” p.5

How do the street cars embody the play’s interlinked themes of desire and death?

The Desire and Dream for a Better Life

• What do the characters in both plays desire or dream for? • What does Blanche/Stella/Stanley/Mitch desire? • Blanche dreams of a better life not unlike the immigrants who have

come to Elysian fields. • She desires more than sexual companionship…she desires a

respectable life - human dignity and reputation are also key concerns in Othello – Iago strips Othello of his dignity and his reputation…he hides behind the curtain of shame after he murders Desdemona, Blanche avoids a strong light like a moth p. 5

• Blanche is haunted by the very thing she runs away • Desire to make a life, jobless there is struggle to survive at the most

fundamental level• Her past is depicted as a liability to herself. She does not know how

to survive? To what extent is Othello’s past presented as a liability to himself?

COMMODIFICATION / INDUSTRIALISATION AND THE GRADUAL REMOVAL OF THE INDIVIDUAL FROM SOCIETY

gradual removal of the individual from rural community into urban isolation

focus of production deflected from the human being, making him a minor part of the process => displacement, alienation, despondency and finally despair

{Conflict between the Old and New}

• Subtle hints of urban industrial life: • Commodification of Sex “ You’ll hear them tapping on the

shutters”• Commodification of food: Street Vendors: “Red Hot! Red Hot”• Commodification of space: rooms/spaces rented out • Symbolises also the Mexican immigrant in search of the

American Dream, Mexican flower seller • “Warm breathe of the brown river…” subtle hints of the decay

from industrial life• The lyricism is like a smoke screen that deflects our attention

from the atmosphere of decay…

The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams coined the phrase the American dream, which is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…It is a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”

The Great American Dream

The Great American Dream

• May strip man of his humanity and dignity in spite of the promise of the great American Dream.• Suggests perhaps that the desire,

the dream comes at a cost.

Is the lure of the American dream presented as a destructive force rather than life giving one by Tennessee?

{Stanley Kowalski}Age: 25Origin: Polish DescentMarital Status: MarriedOccupation: Factory WorkerHobbies: Bowling, Poker, Drinking

Stanley Kowalski Embodies the Paradox of the new urban life

• Stanley Kowalski is a symbol of the new urban life: he is also portrayed as having a raffish charm; his crude ways are engaging and even attractive (compare with Iago and his banter with Desdemona with all the sexual connotations)

• But his actions are brutal and devoid of humanity as he violates Blanche sexually – “emblem of a gaudy seed bearer” p.14

• His detachment and his lack of sympathy is evident as he strips the paper lantern to expose Blanche: stripping her of all her dignity in a final blow as she gets booted out of the Kowalski household. p.87

Yet, Stanley has a force of character which has been interpreted as excitingly life-giving on the one-hand, and brutally destructive on the otherThe child of immigrants, he is the new, untamed pioneer, who brings to the South, Williams seems to be saying, a power more exuberant than destructive, a sort of Power that the South may have lost. (J.H. Adler, in Tennessee Williams, A tribute, p.41)

{Ambiguity}

{Life giving yet life denying}More laughter and shouts of parting come from the men.

Stanley throws the screen door of the kitchen open and comes in. He is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine,

and strongly, compactly built. Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since

earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak

indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens. Branching out from this complete and satisfying centre are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humour, his love of good drink and food

and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer. He saw women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.

How is Alienation presented?

• What is the nature of alienation in the 2 texts?

• Is the alienation real or perceived, psychological or due to societal forces?

• How are characters alienated?• To what extent do individuals have control

over their lives?

alienation from own communities?

alienation from closer connections, including family and loved ones?

alienation by religious institutions?

most extreme form of alienation lies in those who feel alienated from everything: family, society, and the whole of modern life?

alienation from God himself?

{Blanche DuBois}Age: 30Hometown: Laurel, MississippiMarital Status: Widow (married at 16)Occupation: English School TeacherTraits: Averse to lightPast: Tragic

• Blanche – White• DuBois – French origin, p. 30• Dubois “means woods and Blanche means

white, so the two together means white woods. Like an orchard in spring!”

• Blanche’s name is symbolic. • It symbolises the struggle faced by the

Bourgeoisie as they lose their land and their entitlement…

{Blanche DuBois}

{Displacement}

• Blanche’s physical displacement from Laurel to New Orleans makes her an outsider in Stanley’s and Stella’s world

• Blanche: symbol of the plantation era which must inevitably bow to industrialization and newly confident “ethnic” adversaries – embodied in the Polish Kowalski

• Additionally, Williams exposes a patriarchal society in which women ceased to be valued once they lost their physical attractiveness or failed to conform to social and generally sexist mores

{Displacement/Alienation/Desire and Death}LAURELBelle Reve

• Laurel is a real town in southeastern Mississippi

• Had a genteel, aristocratic Old South culture that was fast disappearing in the face of industrialisation

NEW ORLEANSFrench Quarter• Industrialised and urban• A shabby part of the

neighbourhood situated near railway tracks – evidence of rapid industrialisation and expansion of cities

• A conglomeration of cultures and migrants

{Contrast in Setting}LAUREL

Belle ReveNEW ORLEANSFrench Quarter

- Scene 1: development of Blanche’s character

- Blanche:- Aware of social distinctions [note

interaction with Eunice and neighbour’s acts]

- Vanity, need of flattery- Pathos: fear of ageing, vulnerability

{Blanche DuBois}

Awareness of social distinctions:-Monosyllybalic responses to Eunice and the Negro womanBlanche [wanting to get rid of her]

Awareness of Stella’s apparent social regression:Eunice [defensively, noticing Blanche’s look]: It’s sort of messed up right now but when it’s clean it’s real sweet.Blanche: Is it?

{Blanche DuBois}

Awareness of social distinctions:-Monosyllybalic responses to Eunice and the Negro womanBlanche [wanting to get rid of her]

Awareness of Stella’s apparent social regression:Eunice [defensively, noticing Blanche’s look]: It’s sort of messed up right now but when it’s clean it’s real sweet.Blanche: Is it?

{Blanche DuBois}

{Stanley + Blanche}Scene 1:• Two individuals from different societies and cultures who are

set in sharp contrast• Blanche: a refined woman from an southern aristocratic

background, • Stanley: a down-to-earth working man with crude manners,

animal-like qualities• Inability to empathise with each other set from the start

{Stanley + Blanche}Scene 1:•Blanche: represents the dying aristocratic culture, an upper class that threatens Stanley’s role as patriarchal head•Stanley: embodies a crude, lower class which threatens her class superiority•Essentially, in conflict with each other on almost every level•Yet, there is a certain baser, animal attraction between each other•Predator/Prey model would work, but is also complex

{Scene 1}

• Scene introduces two of the prominent themes of the play, sex and death.

• Stella and Stanley – basis of love is sexual passion.

• Stanley - “male chauvinist” ? BUT they are happy in their own way, bound together by physical love.

• Blanche’s longest speech in this scene – death; note of morbidity continues throughout the play; excessive use of imagery of death in her speech

{Scene 1}• Important symbolic and visual elements in the

opening scenes• Stanley – undressing: signifying his elemental,

animal-like strength and virility• Blanche - bathing: a symbol of her attempts to

wash away her past and project image of being beautiful and refined [in scene 2]

• Appearance/Reality; Illusion/TruthNOTE: However, she is associated with the sound of

cats, undermining her attempts to present herself in this way

{Stanley+ Blanche}Stanley

• Aristocratic Old South• White, Light, Purity• Airy• Feminine

Blanche

• New Industrial Age• Dark (but realistic)• Masculine• Solid