American Actors: Character Research

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams

This is a character study of the character Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire. During this moment in time Blanche is on a 'date' with Harold Mitchell (Mitch)

Given Circumstances

Blanche DuBois, the protagonist of the play, has recently left her family home in Belle Reve to visit her sister Stella in New Orleans. In New Orleans she meets a man named Mitch and during this scene they are on an evening out together. Mitch has asked Blanche how old she is and after this question she relives her previous life and tells him about her unsuccessful marriage to a man named Alan. 

Back Story

Blanche has a very complex back story which is why she wanted to escape Belle Reve as there were too many memories.
After her eviction from the family home in Belle Reve, Blanche becomes a woman of loose morals, taking up residence in a hotel in Laurel. With loose morals in tact she begins an intimate affair with one of her seventeen year old students at the school in which she teaches.

In a heated scene between Blanche and Mitch, Blanche says that "I used to sit here and she used to sit there. And death was as close as you are. Death. The opposite is Desire." (Filmsite Movie Review: unknown) 

The reason as to why Blanche becomes the way she is is due to the fact that she has been constantly surrounded by death- her family and then her ex-husband Alan. During the date scene with Mitch, Blanche opens up about her marriage with Alan. "When I was sixteen, I made the discovery love." (Film Experience Blog: 2009) However she later says that Alan "wasn't the least effeminate looking." (Film Experience Blog: 2009) and tells him of how Alan was gay with a friend of theirs. When Blanche caught them together she told Alan of her disgust towards the idea of homosexuality and after that Alan committed suicide, feeling ashamed that he was a gay man in the 1940's.  The death of Alan haunts Blanche for the rest of her life.

Relationship to other characters

Stella: Blanche's relationship to Stella is the strongest within the play. Stella is five years younger than Blanche therefore Blanche feels it necessary to stand up for Stella when Stanley takes his anger out on them during the play. When Blanche arrives in the play Stella's loyalty to Stanley and Blanche is tested and in the end she chooses Stanley, who domestically abuses her, over Blanche. Even though she loves Blanche she cannot come to terms or believe Blanche's accusations that Stanley raped her. Stella's denial at the end of the play makes her more like her sister than she thinks.

Stanley: is the husband of Blanche's sister Stella. He is a proud family man who fought in the second world war. He is loyal to his friends, 'passionate' yet abusive to his wife and wants to ruin Blanche's new life through revealing her past. Towards the end of the play it is suggested that Stanley rapes Blanche but feels no remorse to it. Blanche then becomes an outcast in society but Stanley remains the family man in which he cleverly portrays.

Mitch: is an army friend of Stanley and is introduced to Blanche through Stanley. Mitch and Blanche court until Mitch finds out, from Stanley, about Blanche's past. Mitch and Blanche are an unlikely couple as Blanche always dreams of a hero rescuing her from her life. Towards the end of the play when Blanche is taken away by doctors Mitch is the only one, other than Stella, who shows some sort of despair towards the tragedy.

Objectives and Obstacles

Blanche escapes her previous life to start a new one and try and forget. She does this by moving in with her younger sister who does love her. 

However, slowly through her mental decline she begins to show how her past has seriously affected her with the added obstacle of Stanley knowing about her past through a work friend. Blanche's main obstacle throughout the whole play is her secretive past which is made worse by her mentality as well as alcohol problem.

Contextual Research

A Streetcar Named Desire was written between the years of 1944-1945. When the play was opened in America the characters resonated the culture of the time due to the end of World War II. During the war men were sent to fight whilst the women were left to run and support the country and consequently when men returned there was a Gender struggle as women were once again seen as second class citizens in comparison to the men. This is a constant theme throughout the play with the character of Stanley dominating both Stella and Blanche. However, Blanche, in this sense, is seen as a stronger person than Stella due to the fact that Stella allows Stanley to bully her but Blanche stands up to Stanley.

The theme of homosexuality was a taboo subject during the 1940's and was not widely discussed or mentioned especially in plays. When the play was placed on stage and even during the film production, directors were faced with how to stage the strong themes. In the film version the director Kazan, turns Blanche's monologue to Mitch into a confession "where Blanche reveals how 'she killed' her husband." (Film Experience Blog: 2009) Williams makes no point of hiding the fact that Blanche's husband was gay. Audiences across the world would have been reminded of suicide and death after World War II during this play making it a hard hitting play.

Audiences would have also been reminded of violence during the war when looking at the character of Stanley. The rage in which Stanley feels could have come from his time in the war "once you understand the distress that soldiers face during war, they find it hard to be the same, emotionally, ever again." (The Emotional Effects of War on Soldiers: unknown) As Stanley fought in the war this could explain why his emotions are so unstable and many soldiers would have been the same and represented through the character of Stanley.

unknown. (unknown). A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Available: http://www.filmsite.org/stre.html. Last accessed 20th Nov 2012.

Rogers, N. (2009). Monologue, He was a boy.... Available: http://filmexperience.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/he-was-boy.html. Last accessed 20th Nov 2012.

Tian, S. (unknown). The Emotional Effects of War on Soldiers.Available: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/11261/1/The-Emotional-Effects-of-War-on-Soldiers.html. Last accessed 20th Nov 2012.