Victims in Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams is a “dramatist of lost souls,” writing in the milieu of the faded antebellum South
where lonely and vulnerable misfits are presented as “losers who were never meant to win” (Leavitt
3)
Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace
and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in
the garden district. She is about five years older than Stella. Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light.
(Page 3)
BLANCE …you left and I stayed and struggled . You came to New Orleans and looked out for yourself I stayed at
Belle Reve and tried to hold it together! I'm not meaning this in any reproachful way, but all the burden
descended on my shoulders.
…
I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths I The long parade to the graveyard! Father,
mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! So big with it, it couldn't be put in a coffin! But had to be burned like
rubbish ! You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths.
Funerals are quiet, but deaths-not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and
sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go!" Even the old, sometimes, say, "Don't let me go." As if
you were able to stop them! But funerals are quiet, with pretty flowers. And, oh, what gorgeous boxes they pack
them away in! Unless you were there at the bed when they cried out, "Hold me!" you'd never suspect there was
the struggle for breath and bleeding. You didn't dream, but I saw! Saw! Saw! And now you sit there telling me
with your eyes that I let the place go! How in hell do you think all that sickness and dying was paid for? Death is
expensive, Miss Stella!
(pages 11-12)
STEVE [going upstairs]: I told you and phoned you we was playing. [ To the men] Jax beer!
EUNICE: You never phoned me once.
STEVE: I told you at breakfast-and phoned you at lunch ...
EUNICE: Well, never mind about that. You just get yourself home here once in a while.
STEVE: You want it in the papers?
(page 13)
, STANLEY: Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in! What's this here?
A solid-gold dress, I believe And this one! What is these here? Fox-pieces [He blows on them]
Genuine fox fur-pieces, a half a mile long I Where are your fox-pieces, Stella? Bushy snow white
ones, no less! Where are your white fox-pieces? STELLA: Those are inexpensive summer furs that
Blanche has had a long time. STANLEY: I got an acquaintance who deals in this sort of merchandise.
I'll have him in here to appraise it. I'm willing to bet you there's thousands of dollars invested in this
stuff here !
(pages 18 -19)
Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as
his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games,
his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.
He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and
determining the way he smiles at them.
(page 13)