In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams the word desire is used both literally and figuratively in many ways. Each character has things that they long for, such as love, money, or both and they cannot get what they want out of those things. This play can be related to any persons everyday life because we too have things that we want or think we need, and those things may be just out of reach.
The first example is Stella. She has a kind heart but is blind to how Stanley treats her. She pines for love and a family of her. The only person left in her immediate family is her sister Blanche, which plays a part in why she desires a family of her own so much. Stanley provides her with her basic needs, such as money to put food on the table, money of her own, and a house to live in, but he misses out on the key ingredient to Stellas heart which would be real true love. Stella gives her sister Blanche an example of how Stanley has had a temper since the day they were married (and probably even before) when she states, Stanleys always smashed things .Why, on our wedding nightsoon as we came in herehe snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing lightbulbs with it (Willams 1184). Blanche asks how she would let him do that, and Stella replied I wassort ofthrilled by it (Williams 1185). This just shows that even though Stella truly does love Stanley, she can do much better than the things that he puts her through.
Stella is also blinded by her sister. Because she is her sister, she wants to see the best in her. This is when Stanley comes in and makes Stella see that Blanche is not everything she is making herself out to be, and for a while Stella would not believe it. She kept telling Stanley to give her chances, and tell her she looks nice, and so on and so forth. Finally, the only thing that made her truly see that Blanche was hiding things was when she told Stella the story of Stanley raping her, and the one time it is the truth Stella chooses to believe Stanley because she is in too deep. She is stuck in between a rock and a hard place during the whole play and all she really desires is love, happiness, and the truth would have been nice.
The next example of someone who desires something would be Stanley. Stanley desires power. He likes to be in control of situations know what is going on and if he has to do something for a situation to be fixed to his likely then so be it. He shows many examples of this by the way he finds out all of the gossip on Blanche and tells not only Stella, but also Stanley, which ruins Blanches chance of marrying someone sincere. When he first asked Blanche about the ordeal he asked her if she knew a Shaw and she said everyones knows a Shaw. He replied with, Well this somebody named Shaw is under the impression he met you in Laurel, but I figured he must have got you mixed up with some other party because this other party is someone he met at a hotel called the Flamingo (Williams 1190). He also shows his power by the way he acts around his men, for example how he throws the radio out the window on poker night because he did not want to listen to it, and Blanche did. Nobody else seemed to mind the music. Most importantly he shows it by the way he treats Stella, physically. Stanley desires power and once he gets it he strives on it.
Mitch also desires love in this play. He wants someone who he can love and who can love him back with honesty and respect. One problem with this is that he takes care of his mother full time and never gets out much to meet anyone. The other problem with this is that he had once loved, and then lost his love to death. It shows that he is looking for the real deal because he tells Blanche that they both need somebody and maybe they could be each others somebody. Then when he finds out all of the lies that Blanche has been telling he is furious because all he wanted was the truth. He would have been more than willing to forgive and forget but not after being lied to.
Last but certainly not least is Blanche. Blanche desires everything from love to money to security. She wants someone to love her inside and out. She lies about her age, her job, and her money just to make herself look better. She cannot even go out in public during the day scared that people may figure out her real age and know that she is older than Stella. She distorts her everyday reality with alcohol which she tries hiding from everyone. She also needs somewhere to live, and someone to live with. She tells her sister Stella What I mean ishe thinks Im sort of prim and proper, you know! I want to deceive him enough to make himwant me (Williams 1192). This shows that she wants Mitch and she wants him to want her no matter what it takes. This is where her longing for Mitch could work out for her. While they were on their date out on the town Mitch says to Blanche You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it beyou and me, Blanche? (Williams 1200). She then gets taken away by this, until of course he hears about her lies and ends it. At the end of the play Blanche finally tells the truth about Stanley and nobody believes her because of his power. They put her in an asylum and she never ends up getting anything she desires, while the rest of them go on with their everyday life like nothing happened.
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