Book Club Guide

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Tennessee Williams · 1947 · Classics

Key themes

Illusion versus reality — and the cost of demanding the truth
Desire, violence and the body's authority
Class, refinement and the world that leaves the delicate behind

About this book

Blanche DuBois arrives at her sister Stella's apartment in New Orleans, retreating from a life of loss and delusion into the rough, sensual world of her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski. Williams's play is a study of the violent collision between illusion and reality, desire and destruction, and what it means to depend on the kindness of strangers.

Premiered on Broadway in 1947 and immediately celebrated, A Streetcar Named Desire won the Pulitzer Prize and made Marlon Brando famous in the original production. Williams drew on his own experience of a genteel Southern world in economic and psychological decline.

Discussion questions

Blanche and Stanley represent two visions of American life — the Southern gentility of the past and the brutal immigrant energy of the present. How does Williams refuse to side simply with either?
Blanche depends on the kindness of strangers. Is this naivety, survival strategy or the only form of agency available to her?
The play's treatment of sexual violence has been extensively discussed. Does the ending present Blanche's fate as tragedy, as the inevitable result of her choices, or as an indictment of the world that surrounds her?
Stanley is a compelling villain — magnetic, vital, frightening. How does Williams make him comprehensible without exonerating him?
The play is saturated with light, music and the sounds of the French Quarter. How does Williams use this sensory environment to tell the story?