The purpose of this research is to compare and contrast the characters of Stella and Blanche DuBois in Tennessee WilliamsÆ A Streetcar Named Desire.
Tennessee WilliamsÆ A Streetcar Named Desire, set in the Elysian Fields district of New Orleans, opens to the sound of a tinny piano playing Negro blues tunes, music that according to the author ôexpresses the spirit of the life that goes on here" (p. 13). This spirit is one of desire, suppressed passions, and illusions played off against a sordid reality. These themes are embodied in the characters of Stella Kowalski and Blanche DuBois,
who are sisters. Stella is a gentle young woman from a
background obviously quite different from that of her husband,
Stanley, whose first act in the play is to throw his wife a
package of bloody meat. BlancheÆs delicate beauty and dainty
attire and uncertain manner suggesting a moth appear incongruous
in this setting. But we quickly learn that BlancheÆs Southern
gentility and innocence are feigned, that she is living in a
world of illusion, while Stella has made her peace with reality.
The crude presence of Stanley Kowalski allows Stella few
illusions about her own life and the compromises that are
necessary, while Blanche continues to couch her desires in self
delusion. Eventually illusion and desire are BlancheÆs undoing,
and Stella emerges as the stronger character.
In the opening scene we learn through Eunice, the landlady, that Blanche is from Mississippi, that she teaches school, and that she lives on a plantation, Belle Reve, "a great big place with white columns" (p. 18). But as soon as she is alone, Blanche takes a drink of whiskey, revealing the fear and unhappiness beneath the careful surface of gentility. When Stella returns from watching Stanley bowl, Blanche monopolizes the conversation with a stream of nervous chatter, most of it directed against StellaÆs shabby surroundings and a...