Explore how Williams presents characters’ inner lives in A Streetcar Named Desire. You must
relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (20187)
Utilising plastic theatre techniques in order to get “closer to the truth”, Williams is able to strikingly
telegraph the inner lives of his 3 principal characters – Blanche, Stanley and Stella. In Blanche, he
depicts a failed Southern Belle clinging to a decaying antebellum identity and her eventual descent
into madness. He portrays the inner life of Stanley to be one of aggressive manhood and working-
class pride while he presents Stella as an abused pragmatist who must declare herself in order to
survive. Together, Williams is able to tell an immensely personal story that is also emblematic of the
problems facing the south in the 1940s.
Williams opens “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Streetcar) by emphasising that Blanche’s inner life is at
odds with the reality she faces. She appears in Scene ii “daintily dressed in a white suit with fluffy
bodice” and her appearance is described as “incongruous to this setting”. Williams uses costume to
suggest that Blanche still clings to her identity as a Southern Belle and presents herself as such,
despite this being “incongruous” to both the “setting” and her own personal destruction. In the
tradition of the Southern Gothic, Williams both creates a sense of unfamiliarity in the familiar to
unnerve the audience and highlights the futility of the Southern Aristocracy clinging to an identity
that has almost disappeared in the postbellum south.
Additionally, Blanche’s slow, unavoidable descent into madness draws upon tragic elements to
prevent the destruction of her inner life and the death of the old South. Williams establishes the
“Varsouviana“ as a motif for Blanche’s inner suffering, first introducing it in scene ii when Stanley
mentions her husband. The dated polka tune once again offers the audience to a glimpse into her
affinity with the past and her inability or unwillingness to embrace the present in her inner life. It
goes on to become a symbol of her madness, growing harsher and adopting a “major key” in scene
6, where it becomes diegetic only to Blanche. This allows the audience to experience pathos for
Blanche as they are given a glimpse into her perturbed and crumbling mental state. As well as
fostering a sense of tragic inevitability, Williams presents the total collapse of Blanche’s inner life in
the rape sequence in scene 10 where “lurid reflections appear on the wall”. Using plastic theatre,
Williams creates a great deal of empathy for Blanche that stresses the complexity and consequences
of social change. Even if, as was the case in the postbellum south, that change was merited.
Through stage directions and dialogue, Williams presents the inner life of Stanley as one dominated
by aggressive desire and contemporary political and gender ideals. Williams introduces Stanley as
someone whose ”animal joy in his being is important in all his movements” and who “fires woman
up at a glance……determining the way he smiles at them.” While Williams’ lyrical stage directions
might not transfer verbatim these ideas to the audience, his predatory, almost primitive mind-set is
certainly demonstrated in his treatment of Stella and the way that he “stalks” across stage. Indeed,
his animalistic, predatory desire is evident in scene 3 in his melodramatic cry “STELLL-AHHHHH” His
passionate outburst certainly demonstrates to the audience both his strength of feeling and his
domineering, abusive personality. Additionally, Williams presents Stanley, in opposition to Blanche,
whose identity is rooted in contemporary American exceptionalism. He fiercely rejects Blanche’s
bigotry in calling him a “Polack” and describes himself as “100% American” and born in the “greatest
country on Earth”. Compounded by his references to “Huey Long” (a progressive populist politician)
and the “Napoleonic code”, Williams constructs Stanley to be the complete New American and
representative of the triumph of the urban working class over a faded southern aristocracy. He views
himself as a “King” and indeed many contemporary audiences felt affinity with Stanley as a man
righteously defending his home. However, that Williams chooses the representative of New
