A Streetcar Named Desire

1. A Streetcar Named Desire

2. Mr. Williams • Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911

3. Cont… • The family lived for several years in Clarksdale, Mississippi, before moving to St. Louis in 1918. • At the age of 16, he encountered his first brush with the publishing world when he won third prize and received $5.

4. First Success • In 1929, he entered the University of Missouri. His success there was dubious, and in 1931 he began work for a St. Louis shoe company.

5. College… • After a brief encounter with enrollment at Washington University, St. Louis, he entered the University of Iowa and graduated in 1938. • Then the 2nd World War broke out

6. Near the close of the war in 1944, what many consider to be his finest play, The Glass Menagerie, had a very successful run in Chicago and a year later burst its way onto Broadway.

7. Received the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for Streetcar. • Williams reached a larger world-wide public in 1950 when The Glass Menagerie and again in 1951 when A Streetcar Named Desire were made into motion pictures.

8. So Sad! • Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City.

9. What is Streetcar Named Desire? • A Streetcar Named Desire is a stage play with elements of tragedy and pathos. It was published and performed in 1947

11. Definitions of desire: • the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state • feel or have a desire for; want strongly; "I want to go home now"; "I want my own room" • hope: expect and wish; "I trust you will behave better from now on"; "I hope she understands that she cannot expect a raise" • an inclination to want things; "a man of many desires" • something that is desired • express a desire for

12. Characters Blanche DuBois:  Neurotic central character who lives in a fantasy world of Old South chivalry but cannot control her carnal desires.  

13. Stella Kowalski: Blanche’s down-to-earth sister who seems satisfied with her life as the wife of a factory worker  

14. Stanley Kowalski: Stella’s churlish husband and the bane of Blanche’s existence

15. Stanley’s World: Hens v. Wolves

16. Other characters to note: Mitch, Steve, Pablo: Stanley’s poker partners. Mitch, Stanley’s best friend, woos Blanche until he finds out about her past   Eunice: Stanley and Blanche’s upstairs neighbor 

17. Allen Grey: Deceased husband of Blanche. His homosexual affair and suicide deeply scarred Blanche.  Young Man: Collector for The Evening Star newspaper. 

18. Negro Woman Mexican Woman Shep Huntleigh: Imaginary beau of Blanche.  Doctor, Matron Physician and nurse from a mental hospital  

19. Type of Dialogue • Blanche’s educated speech and literary allusions contrast with Stanley’s down-to-earth language and crude–but often effective and amusing–imagery. • The dialogue is rich in imagery, including the commonplace clichés of Stanley and the literary allusions and quotations of Blanche.

20. Your Movie Trailer • A Streetcar Named Desire centers on a desolated woman named Blanche DuBois.

21. Reared in Old South aristocratic traditions, she lived elegantly in the family homestead,

22. married a man she adored (her best friend), and pursued a career as an English teacher

23. But her life fell apart when she discovered that her husband, Allen Grey, was having a homosexual affair. He killed himself.

24. Blanche sought comfort in the arms of other men, many men.

25. After she had relations with one of her students, a 17-year-old, authorities learned of the encounter and fired her.

26. Meanwhile, relatives died and she could not keep up the family home. Eventually, creditors seized it.

27. The play begins when Blanche arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and her crude, outspoken husband, Stanley Kowalski.

28. Though scarred by her past, Blanche still tries to lead the life of an elegant lady and does her best, even lying when necessary, to keep up appearances.