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Desire in A Streetcar Named Desire
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A full, in-depth A* essay plan exploring the theme of desire in Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire", for the Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature.
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By: graceelizabethsothcott • 8 months ago
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DesireIntroduction
- Drives plot, explored by motif of the streetcar
- Pregnancy, alcoholism, rape, female sexual desire – all taboo yet W explores them, sets tone
- Freud’s psychodynamic perspectives on personality theory - Stanley = id (primal and desire-driven),
Blanche = superego (an id affected by upbringing)
- Stanley and Blanche’s relationship = external representation of Blanche’s mental state: fighting between
primal desires and the sophistication - during the rape scene, Stanley wins the battle for power, reflective of
Blanche’s orectic nature taking over her mental state
- Title - ‘streetcar’ is a physical thing with mundane concreteness, ‘desire’ is an abstract impulse
Sexual desire
- Stella, desire so strong she's oblivious to violence, refers to him as “lamb” - innocence juxtaposes S's brutal
animalistic urges. Stella's desire prominent, makes her blind to his abusive ways. B says “married to a
madman” - even B sees reality of situation – domestic abuse is commonplace
- Blanche, asks M if he has 'any cigs?' - cigarettes have sexual and arousing connotations. Slips on “dark red
satin wrapper” - dark red satin has, once again, sexual and intimate connotations - this presents Blanche's
strong sexual desire for Mitch
Constant male desire - omnipresence of desire in men
- Before saying bye to B, M enquires whether 'that streetcar named Desire is still grinding around the tracks'
– presence of desire in scene with none shows it’s utterly intertwined into society
- Portrait of Mae West is “upside down”, M gives B a portrait of Mae West - a figure of sexual independence.
However it is 'upside down', reversing the meaning, suggesting although appears gentlemanly, he is as
animalistic as S, W implies that ultimately, all men are filled with sexual desire
- “meat”, “heaving” bag of meat – sexual, primitive desire
- 'if [he] didn't know [Blanche was his] wife's sister, [he'd] get ideas about [her]!', foreboding and ominous -
presents his intense desire and animalistic traits to point of cheating on wife
- 'pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it” enjoys non-consensual sex, strong desire
Desire used as a tool to express fate
- Play is opened by train motif: “a streetcar called Desire” drives between “Cemeteries” and “Elysian Fields”
- implies not only desire is the driving force behind all actions, but downfall is inevitable due to streetcar
physically driving Blanche through the plot: B’s unmatched desire for appreciation foreshadows the path to
defeat, like the streetcar leads to “cemeteries”
Sexual desire to the Old South
- Mitch says to Blanche 'I guess it must be pretty late - and you're tired' - Mitch doesn't want to sleep with
Blanche; shows signs of being gentlemanly by masking his desire
- “the devil is in you” - demonises sexual desire to Stella – pushes traditional views of innocence and
modesty onto Stella that they would have been raised to follow (clings onto old south)
- “Hello [he stares at her]” – civilised greeting dichotomous to Stanley’s colloquiality (also a stare of
admiration rather than sexual desire – appreciates her class in a way that nobody else does)
- Separates Mitch from sea of masculine animalistic men in New Orleans
- “Could it be, you and me?”, dead, simple rhyme reinforces doomed relationship born out of loss and grief
rather than love, desperate to find someone due to societal expectation of women in 1940s – husbandless
older women seen as “loose women” – Blanche desperate since Stella “is going to have a baby!” – B’s
desire makes her blind to reality
Blanche’s impulsive desire
- Although a moth is a delicate, it’s ultimately an animal with instinctive/ impulsive traits. Likewise, despite
being beautiful and sophisticated she is filled with desire and primitive/instinctive traits, e.g. being
automatically drawn to wealth
- “Blinded by all the brass”, theme of light draws B in, which is inevitable as she's compared to a moth -
instinctive urge. Although moth is a delicate, ultimately an animal w instinctive/ impulsive traits. Likewise,
despite being beautiful and sophisticated she is filled with desire and primitive/instinctive traits, e.g. being
automatically drawn to wealth
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