Streetcar Named Desire

Marie Gordon Studying a Modern Play

What does the play’s setting contribute to its dramatic effect?

A Streetcar Named Desire shows the extent to which the American South is less a geographical expression than an entire way of life. Even today, the South’s distinctive culture, food, literature and music have influenced the rest of the country immensely. Tennessee Williams explored the cultural and spiritual experience of the South, to which he belonged and in Streetcar he dramatizes a brutal culture clash between New Orleans industrial worker, Stan Kowalski, representing the new America and his aristocratic, intellectual rival, Blanche Dubois, representing the old.

The dramatic effects of Streetcar are obvious in the settings
The flat is cramped, even for two people, with just curtains dividing the bedroom and living area, the only privacy being provided by the bathroom, in which Blanche takes refuge for long periods, taking long hot baths, symbolic of her attempts to wash away the sins of her life. It is also symbolic that she sleeps on a collapsible bed, a sign of the transient nature of her stay. It is impossible for Blanche to hold on to her fantasies of the past gentility and wealth of her family in a two roomed apartment with her sister and her brutish brother-in-law. Blanche tried to soften the interior of the flat, hanging paper lanterns by the bare light bulbs in an attempt to look younger, to shield herself from the stark reality of advancing age. She also hopes to create a sense of magic and charm in the apartment. Her loss of youth and looks and her steady decline into impoverishment and madness mirrors the decline and loss of her ancestors’ former plantation home, with herself and Stella the only remaining family. Stella has moved forward into the new reality of post war America but Blanche still clings pitifully to the past, which is only another illusion. The total lack of privacy, together with the conditions and the character of the players, provides an immediate feeling of conflict and
It is used in the form of bright sunlight, on the morning following Stella’s beating by Stanley, indicating they have settled their grievances. Candlelight is used for the amorous isolation of Mitch and Blanche in scene six but most importantly, it is used as a foil for Blanche. She has been aware of the bright searchlight of the world being extinguished from the time of her husband’s death and from that time, life for her has been nothing more than the flicker of a candle. She intends to keep it that way to protect herself from the harsh realities of life. Blanche covers every bare light bulb for fear that her life of illusion will be