by Marilyn Justine

Created on: September 20, 2008   Last Updated: April 22, 2009

Controversy seems to be what Tennessee William's thrives on in his plays, and A Streetcar Named Desire is not exception. The 1947 play encompasses rape, homosexuality, domestic abuse, alcoholism and suicide (among other things) and the following year won Williams the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Most of the plot is based in a cramped apartment in New Orleans after the arrival of Blanche Dubois, a highly strung Mississippi school teacher. The apartment belongs to her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski. Blanche has recently lost the family home and has been given leave from her job, due to her nerves, so intends to stay with Stella for the foreseeable future.

Blanche believes she is a high class lady and expects to be treated like such. She mocks the Kowalski's two-room apartment in a nosy working-class neighborhood. She particularly dislikes Stella's Polish-decent husband who makes his living as an auto-parts supply man.

Stella is the complete opposite of Blanche, she was happy to leave her social position behind for the small apartment she shares with the man she loves. She also has a baby on the way. However, all is not well with the marriage and the strains are first shown when Stanley hosts a drunken poker party for his friends. Blanche starts to flirt with Stanley's close friend Mitch which causes Stanley to act wild. He bursts into the bedroom where Blanche and Mitch are talking and throws her radio out of the window. Stella tries to defend her sister and Stanley then beats his pregnant wife. The women run to a neighbor for shelter, but it is not long before Stella is back in Stanley's arms, much to Blanche's dismay.

Blanche tries to set Stella up with a man of a better social standing, hoping she will leave Stanley, but Stella just laughs it off. Blanche then reveals to her sister that she is completely broke. Stanley walks in only to overhear Blanche making fun of him and later on reveals that he has heard about her sordid past which shocks Blanche.

We are informed about the darkest part of Blanche's life when she has a heart to heart talk with Mitch and she tells him how her young husband killed himself when she found out her was a homosexual and repeatedly taunted him over it. Mitch has also lost a former love and tells Blanche they are good for each other.

About a month later, Stella is preparing a birthday dinner for Blanche when Stanley walks in and reveals the details he has learned about Blanche's past. He tells everyone how she was evicted

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