History Theatre / AStreetcarNamedDesire

* ANounReferredToAsX: ''A Steetcar Named Desire''

Creator/TennesseeWilliams' ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a 1947 play about a hundred different things. Reality vs. the imaginary, the old US vs. the new, insanity, abuse, violence, appearances and purity. Most people are familiar with the 1951 movie directed by Creator/EliaKazan and starring Vivien Leigh, Creator/MarlonBrando, and Kim Hunter, which was of course Oscar-tacular.[[note]]Although the best remembered performance - Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski - was passed over on Oscar night in favour of Humphrey Bogart in ''Film/TheAfricanQueen''.[[/note]] But there have been many adaptations including a made for TV movie starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange, an opera and even a ballet. Stuffed full of imagery and complex characters, it may be considered Williams' best known work, and the character of Blanche has been considered the most difficult female role in all of English literature.

* DownerEnding: For the play: [[spoiler:Blanche is dragged off to an insane institution after her rape, completely destroyed, while Mitch can only simmer in anger at what he's done. Stella stays with Stanley, despite it clear from Stanley fondling her at the end that he now only sees her as a sex object.]] There's also something not obvious to modern audiences: [[spoiler:back then, the number-one treatment of insane people was lobotomy.]]

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Stanley is more smart than he lets on. He knows the laws of New Orleans like the back of his hand. Rather than simply accept Blanche into his home he does a background check, uncovering her sexual history in the process. He even manages to have Stella wrapped around his little finger and fools Blanche into thinking he is a common ape. He later reveals everything he knows about her before the [[spoiler:rape scene.]] To add insult to injury, he violently corrects Blanche verbally when she called him a [[FantasticRacism "Pollack"]] one too many times.

Note: The title of the movie has nothing to do with human emotion. Back before there were buses for public transit, there were streetcars, what we now call "light rail" or "trams." They were usually named for the street they ran on. And one of the streetcars ran along a street in New Orleans named "Desire." It probable sounds more exciting than "A Streetcar Named Broadway," or "A Streetcar Named 42nd Street."

* InLoveWithYourCarnage: The reason Stella doesn't leave Stanley, though violence toward other people crosses the line for her. [[spoiler: Not enough to side with her sister after Stanley rapes her in the play, [[DownerEnding unfortunately]].]]

* TheIngenue: How Blanche ties to present herself.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Stanley's whole investigation into Blache's past (and general dislike of her) is provoked because, due to New Orleans being run under the "Napoleonic Code", he ''might'' have ''indirectly'' lost a little bit of money if Blanche made a bad deal when selling her childhood home.

* RapeAsDrama:
** [[spoiler:The climax of the story revolves around Blanche going insane after being raped and Stella's decision to exile Blanche to a mental institution rather than believe her husband raped her sister (while she was giving birth to their first-born son no less)!]]
** [[spoiler:There is a strong implication that Stella knows that Blanche is telling the truth and that she is constantly trying to make herself believe the lie that Blanche had imagined the entire thing. She can't do much else, because she has nowhere else to go, especially with a newborn baby, and she couldn't stay with Stan if she admitted the truth. The entire affair of Blanche being taken to a mental hospital may have been more traumatic for Stella than Blanche by this point (as Blanche had already made the dive into her delusions and she was calm leaving with the doctor).]]

->''"In 1947, when MarlonBrando appeared on stage in a torn, sweaty T-shirt, there was an earthquake; and the male as sex object is still at our culture's center stage. In the age of Calvin Klein steaming hunks, it must be hard for'' [kids today] ''to realize that there was ever a time when a man was nothing but [[StandardFiftiesFather a suit of clothes, a shirt and tie, shined leather shoes, and a gray, felt hat]]."''

* DownerEnding: For the play: [[spoiler:Blanche is dragged off to an insane institution after her rape, completely destroyed, while Mitch can only simmer in anger at what he's done. Stella stays with him, despite it clear from Stanley fondling her at the end that he now only sees her as a sex object.]] There's also something not obvious to modern audiences: [[spoiler:back then, the number-one treatment of insane people was lobotomy.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a way. Blanche [[spoiler:kissing the paperboy and]] drinking is foreshadowing [[TheReveal revelations]] about her past.

* InLoveWithYourCarnage: The reason Stella doesn't leave Stanley, though violence toward other people crosses the line for her.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Near the end Stanley delivers an epic one to Blanche that would have made us cheer for him. [[spoiler:That is if he didn't rape her afterwards.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Stanley fits the bill; he's definitely [[CompleteMonster worse]] than a Jerkass by the end of the play.

* {{Jerkass}}: Stanley fits the bill; he's definitely worse than a Jerkass by the end of the play.

* MoodLighting: All of Blanche's borderline crazy moments have blue lighting. This is used extensively in the 'Poker Night' scene, which is lit in 'raw, primary colours' to represent the men's coarse, powerful nature.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Stanley effectively gets away with rape. Less so in the film.]]

* DissonantSerenity: Blanche heads to the asylum as if for a coronation. Reportedly, this was [[ThrowItIn a last-minute change]] during rehearsal. In the film, Blanche goes psycho whens he realizes where she's going, but with the orderly indulging her fantasy, she's convinced she's off to the cruise again.

TennesseeWilliams' ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a 1947 play about a hundred different things. Reality vs. the imaginary, the old US vs. the new, insanity, abuse, violence, appearances and purity. Most people are familiar with the 1951 movie directed by Creator/EliaKazan and starring Vivien Leigh, Creator/MarlonBrando, and Kim Hunter, which was of course Oscar-tacular.[[note]]Although the best remembered performance - Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski - was passed over on Oscar night in favour of Humphrey Bogart in ''TheAfricanQueen''.[[/note]] But there have been many adaptations including a made for TV movie starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange, an opera and even a ballet. Stuffed full of imagery and complex characters, it may be considered Williams' best known work, and the character of Blanche has been considered the most difficult female role in all of English literature.

* MoodLighting: All of Blanche's borderline crazy moments have blue lighting. This is used extensively in the 'Poker Night' scene, which is lit in 'raw, primary colours' to represent the men's coarse, powerful nature.

* ColorMotif:

* EnvironmentalSymbolism

* TheGhost: Shep. [[spoiler:He may or may not exist.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Literally! The lighting changes, the music swells, [[spoiler:and Stanley carries Blanche off to the bedroom.]]

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Blanche, though the play and movie subvert it by having Blanche compare her time as a hooker to being a tarantula, preying on the flesh of men.
** She was being sarcastic, because she was angry at Mitch.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Blanche is represented by a blue piano coming from the bar around the corner, while Stanley is usually associated with a more boisterous jazz. Memories of Allan are accompanied by the Varsouviana polka.
** Interestingly, the Varsouviana actually plays ''in Blanche's head'' during those scenes.
* MeaningfulName: Blanche [=DuBois=] means "white woods" in French - a dreamlike and old-world scene. Belle Reve is French, too - for "beautiful dream." Also, Blanche's closeted husband was named Allen Grey. [[Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray Remind you of anyone?]]
** Or rather "white ''of the'' woods". Also, Belle is feminine whereas rêve is masculine (it should be "Beau Rêve").

* MoodLighting: All of Blanche's borderline crazy moments have blue lighting.
** This is used extensively in the 'Poker Night' scene, which is lit in 'raw, primary colours' to represent the men's coarse, powerful nature.
* MrFanservice: Marlon Brando.
** How much so? Brando caused tee shirt sales to spike astronomically.

* StepfordSmiler: Blanche and Stella.
** Blanche is defined by this trope, though. The thing with her husband when she was a teenager broke her permanently, and she has been empty ever since, circling the drain around neurosis and finally psychotic delusions.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Stella, [[spoiler: to the point where she denies that Stanley's rape of Blanche ever happened.]]
* AuthorAppeal: An entire paragraph devoted to Stanley's handsome looks, great physique and animalistic drive? Tick. Young gay man struggling with his sexual identity in a repressive society that maligned any sign of cultural or sexual diversity to the point where it was taboo? Tick. [[spoiler: Young woman with mental illness issues who finally had to go to a mental institution? Tick.]] So we've got wish fulfillment, personal projection, and taking inspiration direct from your family. Yep, it's a Tennessee Williams play, all right.

* BittersweetEnding: The film teeters between this and DownerEnding. [[spoiler:Blanche is still dragged away to the asylum and Mitch is helpless, but Stella realizes how much of a horrible human being Stanley is, and appears to leave him, taking the baby with her.]]
** [[spoiler: What makes is arguable is that it ends in such a way that Stella going back to Stanley is still very much a possibility.]]

* CloudCuckoolander: Blanche. She prefers the world of her own creation, where she still is a chaste lady of refinement and she still can win the favors of men like Shep Huntleigh (whom we never meet [[spoiler: and might not exist]]). This is highlighted when Stanley is revealing her falsehoods to Stella and Blanche is singing in the bath: "Say, its only a paper moon/Sailing over a cardboard sea/But it wouldn't be make-believe/If you believed in me." [[spoiler: Unfortunately, by the end of the play this make-believe world is the only world she can stand to live in.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a way. Blanche [[spoiler: kissing the paperboy and]] drinking is foreshadowing [[TheReveal revelations]] about her past.

* TheGhost: Shep. [[spoiler: He may or may not exist.]]
* GrievousBottleyHarm: [[spoiler: Before the rape scene, Blanche smashes a whiskey bottle so she can "twist the broken end in [Stanley's] face." Stanley calls her bluff.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Literally! The lighting changes, the music swells, [[spoiler: and Stanley carries Blanche off to the bedroom.]]
* HotForStudent: [[spoiler: Blanche, in the backstory. He reminded her of Allen.]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Stanley effectively gets away with rape. Less so in the film.]]

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Stanley is more smart than he lets on. He knows the laws of New Orleans like the back of his hand. Rather than simply accept Blanche into his home he does a background check, uncovering her sexual history in the process. He even manages to have Stella wrapped around his little finger and fools Blanche into thinking he is a common ape. He later reveals everything he knows about her before the [[spoiler: rape scene.]] To add insult to injury, he violently corrects Blanche verbally when she called him a [[FantasticRacism "Pollack"]] one too many times.

* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:The climax of the film/play revolves around Blanche going insane after being raped and Stella's decision to exile Blanche to a mental institution rather than believe her husband raped her sister (while she was giving birth to their first-born son no less)!]]
** [[spoiler: There is a strong implication that Stella knows that Blanche is telling the truth and that she is constantly trying to make herself believe the lie that Blanche had imagined the entire thing. She can't do much else, because she has nowhere else to go, especially with a newborn baby, and she couldn't stay with Stan if she admitted the truth. The entire affair of Blanche being taken to a mental hospital was arguably more traumatic for Stella than Blanche by this point (as Blanche had already made the dive into her delusions and she was calm leaving with the doctor).]]

* ReallyGetsAround: [[spoiler: Blanche, that's why she lost her job.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Near the end Stanley delivers an epic one to Blanche that would have made us cheer for him. [[spoiler: That is if he didn't rape her afterwards.]]

* RevisedEnding: The 1951 film [[spoiler: implies that Stella has finally had it with Stanley, and that she and the baby are leaving him. Whether it'll stick or she'll end up going back eventually is another question...]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: The Varsouviana is a happy, upbeat polka tune. It is Blanche's "crazy music" and plays whenever she is losing it and[[=/=]]or her [[spoiler: husband's suicide comes up]].

* AbilityOverAppearance: Stanley was originally written as an older man, but Elia Kazan realized Brando would be perfect for the part and Tennessee Williams agreed, saying it gave the character more dimension for his violence to seem to come from youthful ignorance rather than aged spite.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Not for nothing does everybody remember Brando's Stanley -- not Blanche, the alleged star. The film version didn't help; Vivien Leigh is all nervous tics, while Brando dominates every scene.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The Varsouviana is a happy, upbeat polka tune. It is Blanche's "crazy music" and plays whenever she is loosing it and[[=/=]]or her [[spoiler: husband's suicide comes up]].