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A Streetcar Named Desire
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Plot Summary of A Streetcar Named Desire
"Blanche Du Bois is an heiress who lost the family fortune and via a streetcar named desire arrives at her sister Stella's house. Stella is married to Stanley, a blue-collar worker with a mean streak and she is pregnant.   She lies to Stella and Stanely about her situation and indeed her past. She is has a borderline personality and struggles to accept reality. Stanley does not accept her however and sets out to destroy the fantasy that she has created. He ultimately destroys Blanche in a scene of unrestrained violence. Stella returns after having given birth and does not believe Blanche's story that Stanely hurt her. Blanche is then removed and placed in a facility for the mentally ill while Stella remains with Stanley having lost only the possible love of a sister despite the possiblity that she could have lost her husband and family home. The reader is left pondering what exactly Stella benefited and what she sacrificed to do so."
Shel, Resident Scholar

" After losing a plantation in her family for decades, Blanch Dubois goes to the elesian fields in New Orleans. To stay with her sister and brother-in-law. Blanch has a drinking problem,and often creates illusions to hide herself from her harsh reality, such as her ex-husband's suicide. Stella, Blanch's sister, puts her in a mental hospital.
"

Jose Florez, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Family, struggle with Yes
Struggle with: - Brother
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - vague finding self/purpose in life (i.e. no plot to book) - eccentric nature
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Druggie/Wino problems? - alcohol
Brain/Body disability? - mental illness

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - unemployed - teacher
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - mentally ill - deluded - emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - trader
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount - throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - bulging muscles - very athletic

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Deep South
City? Yes
City: - New Orleans

Style
Person - mostly 3rd - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - rape/molest (yeech!)
Is this a play? Yes
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
Most similar books to A Streetcar Named Desire
The Alcoholics by Jim Thompson
Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
Farmer by Jim Harrison
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas


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Tennessee Williams Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Augusto Wong Campos  

SCHOLARS:
Marie Thomas  loveandsqualor9  Jose Florez  Shel  David Loftus  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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