Gandhi Street Car Named Desire

Gandhi

Street Car Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams is a classic play containing strong characters, themes and important values. The purpose of this discussion is to explore the issues of character, themes and values presented in "A Street Car Named Desire" and the manner in which Tennessee Williams infused these ideas into this classic play.

Character

In an effort to examine the character traits presented in the play, individual characters must be examined. The characters that will be discussed for the purposes of this discourse are Blanche DuBois, Stella Kowalski and Stanley Kowalski. These three were chosen because they are the primary characters in the play and their character traits vary greatly.

As it pertains to Blanche Dubois, her character was superficial. Blanche thought that certain people were inferior to her if they were not rich, or if they actually had to work hard to make a living. Granted, Blanche's family was fairly wealthy and she had grown up in nice surroundings and her family was well-known in Mississippi (Tischler). Blanche is intriguing because even though she has lost everything and has to move in with her younger sister (Stella) she still has an heir of superiority. It is also interesting to note that Blanche was promiscuous and lived in much worse conditions than her sister lives in, yet she still complains. It seems as if she has become the very person she despises. Blanche's criticisms of her sister's surroundings are evident in the first scene during the following exchange,

Blanche:...You sit Down, now, and explain this place to me. What are you doing in a place like this Stella: Now Blanche

Blanche: I'm not going to be hypocritical I am going to be honestly critical about it. Never, never, never in my worst dreams could I picture -- Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe! -- could do it justice!(Williams, Scene 1)

It is apparent that Blanche is astonished at her sisters living conditions and she does not hide her irritation. She states that it would take the literary genius of Edgar Allan Poe to describe the deplorable surroundings.

This is the case even though Blanche herself is homeless, having lost the family estate. This is a prime example of her vain character. An analysis of Blanche by John mason Brown describes her best, it states that her tragedy is "from her pathetic pretensions to gentility even when she is known as a prostitute in the little town in which she was brought up. From her love of the refined when her life is devoted to coarseness... Most particularly, from her selfishness and her vanity, which are insatiable" (Brown quoted in Bloom, 34)

Stella Kowalski seems to be the most grounded, but she is also extremely accommodating even at the point of doing great harm to her own personal welfare. Stella seems to focus on the good in people and does not think that working class people and poor people are beneath her. She is loyal to her husband although he is abusive and she loves her sister even though she is superficial. Stella's tolerance is best displayed in the fourth scene of the play when she states "...I am not in anything that I have a desire to get out of... People have got to tolerate each other's habits I guess" (Williams Scene 4).

Stanley Kowalski has very poor character -- he is a bully. He is abusive towards his wife, threatens to reveal Blanche's secret and eventually rapes Blanche. His deplorable character is also made evident when he encourages his wife to send Blanche to an insane asylum, knowing that he did indeed rape her. Stanley's lousy character is also evident when he reveals Blanche's secrets to Mitch and ruins their relationship. One critic explains this further stating, "Stanley cannot allow his best friend to be lured into this snare. In his code, women are divided into two categories, sluts and virgins. Only virgins are allowed to marry his buddies; sluts must be exploited and exposed" (Tinschler,43).

Themes

There are several apparent themes present in this play. The most pronounced theme is sex. Tennessee Williams presents sex as one of the primary reasons why Stella and Stanley remain together (Brownstein). Although Blanche is initially presented as chaste, it is then revealed that she has been involved in some promiscuous behavior, and it is one of the reasons why she does not have a place to live (Brownstein). In addition, Stanley is presented as this lusty mean man who eventually rapes his wife's sister. Indeed, this theme of sex is pervasive throughout the play.

Williams also projects a theme of helpless women who are completely dependent upon men. This is evident in Stella's desire to remain with Stanley even though he is physically and emotionally abusive. Although she leaves for a short period of time she returns to him. This theme of dependent women can also be seen in Blanche, who concocts a story of a rich ex-lover who will come and rescue her from the poor living conditions of New Orleans.

Fantasy is also a major theme throughout the play (King). This is particularly true as it pertains to Blanche. She does not seem to accept that her life is no longer what it used to be and that she has lost everything. She believes that she will be rescued by some rich man who will be able to provide for her. Blanche's inability to leave this fantasy world ultimately drives Stella to place her in a mental institution. The ironic aspect pf this fantasy theme is that the rape is real, but no one believes her because she is fantasizing about everything else.

Values

As it pertains to the values presented in a Streetcar Named Desire, there is an obvious tug of war between the conventional values both Blanche and Stella grew up with and the unconventional values that they have been presented with as a result of life experiences (Saal). For Stella this means that her husband is not the provider that her father was, which means that she is living in a manner that is much different from the wealthy surroundings of her childhood. In addition, her husband is abusive and she has been taught that men are to be gentle and honorable.

On the other hand, Blanche was taught these same traditional (even Southern) beliefs of chasteness and only associating with gentlemen worthy of her social status. However, she falls in love with Mitch who is not wealthy, who might not be able to provide for her in a way that she would want or expect. In addition, Blanche is guilty of engaging in promiscuous sex which is a major conflict as it pertains to those traditional values she was taught.

In some ways it seems that Blanche can see that her sister has strayed away from these traditional values but she cannot see her own abandonment of these same values. Blanche's ability to see the errors of her sister are most apparent when they are discussing Stanley. In fact a line in scene four of the play is a perfect example e of this, describing Stanley Stella says: "He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something -- sub-human -- something not quite to the stage of humanity yet!" (Williams, scene 4).