A Streetcar Named Desire 1157strongest relationships are with the innumerable
glass figurines she collects. Laura, in her mother’s
estimation, must either learn a trade or find a hus-
band. However, the adult world proves too much for
this psychologically damaged young woman, whom
others mistake for being merely shy. Ultimately, the
attempt to find a job ends with Laura secretly leav-
ing business college in shame over failing a typing
test. Her single date is an even larger disaster, as
her intended beau is already betrothed. She retreats
into her world of glass animals, unable to meet the
responsibilities of adulthood.
Amanda represents failed expectations. A former
southern belle now toiling in a harsh city, she lives
with the regret that she was unable to meet the
duties of a wife and mother; her husband left the
family well before the time in which the play is set.
Amanda feels tremendous cultural shame, as aban-
donment for a traditional southern woman in the
early 20th century was virtually unthinkable. Her
attempt to make amends is nearly maniacal as she
becomes obsessed with finding Laura a husband.
Although misguided, Amanda’s actions are oddly
heroic; still, Laura’s rejection by Jim ultimately
destroys whatever fragile spirit she possesses, leav-
ing Amanda even more dejected over her incessant
failures.
The character who struggles the most with
responsibility, however, is Tom, the play’s narrator.
Cleverly, Williams crafts the play as a figment of
Tom’s memory, one haunted by the choice Tom had
to make in order to live a free life. Like his mother,
Tom possesses a romantic spirit. Unlike his mother,
Tom seeks to escape domesticity, which he finds
imprisoning. He finds his model for escape in his
father, who shamelessly left the family, sending a
postcard from Mexico with the simple message
“ ‘Hello—Goodbye!” and no address. However, Tom
struggles more than his father. Although his mother
tortures him emotionally with her constant badger-
ing that he must fill the role voided by his father,
Tom’s love for Laura initially holds him in place.
One suspects that his reluctant participation in
Amanda’s scheme to find Laura a husband stems
from a desire to see his sister comfortably situated
before he makes his exit from the family. When he
learns that Jim, the man he brings home to meet
Laura from his job at a shoe warehouse, is engaged,
Tom’s guilt overwhelms him. He recognizes Laura’s
failed attempt at love will have no second act. With
his sister trapped in a state of arrested develop-
ment and his mother trapped by the inability to
adapt to the modern world, Tom finally makes his
escape. However, unlike his father, the young man
remains tortured about abandoning his sister, for he
is haunted everywhere he goes by the memory of his
failure to provide a secure place for her.
Chris BellwiLLiamS, TENNESSEE A Streetcar
Named Desire^ (1947)
First produced in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire
is widely regarded as Tennessee Williams’s master-
piece. The play focuses on the downfall of Blanche
DuBois, a faded southern belle clinging hopelessly
to the nearly dead vestiges of chivalry and grace that
dominated the pre-Civil War South. Blanche finds
her way to the French Quarter in New Orleans
after leaving Laurel, Mississippi, in disgrace because
she slept with everybody in town and could not pay
her bills. Already in a fragile psychological state,
Blanche is no match for the brash, down-market
French Quarter. Blanche’s foil is Stanley Kowalski,
husband of her sister Stella, who understands his sis-
ter-in-law’s true nature. Stanley refuses to accept the
various illusions Blanche crafts to make her desper-
ate situation less evident. Ultimately, he consciously
breaks her down by telling his friend Mitch, who it
seems will marry Blanche and provide the stability
she needs, about his sister-in-law’s sordid past. He
then rapes her, nailing shut the coffin that symbol-
izes the tragic descent into madness that leads her
to an asylum.
Dramatically, Williams builds on the expres-
sionistic techniques of his preceding play, The
glaSS menagerie, using various stage techniques
such as light and shadow to complement Blanche’s
downfall. Furthermore, he imbues the stage with
barker’s cries, jazz music, and other lively aspects
of the French Quarter to heighten the atmosphere.
The playwright is so successful that the city itself
becomes a character in the play.
Chris Bell