Reading Order
A Streetcar Named Desire Reading Order
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams is the most theatrical American play — Blanche DuBois arriving at the Elysian Fields apartment in New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, and the progressive revelation of Blanche's past (the loss of Belle Reve, the death of her young husband Allan, the multiple sexual affairs) as Stanley strips away every lie she has maintained. The play is organized around the confrontation between Blanche's world (southern gentility, romance, illusion, the world of 'magic' that Blanche explicitly prefers to realism) and Stanley's world (brute physicality, brutal honesty, the animal vigor of the new America). Williams insisted that both worlds are necessary and that neither can exist without the other, but the play's end — Blanche committed to an asylum, Stanley returning to Stella — suggests that the war is always won by the Stanleys. The original production with Marlon Brando as Stanley and Jessica Tandy as Blanche made both actors famous overnight and established the Method acting tradition in American theater.
Where to start
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) — the complete play. Most editions include Williams's production notes, which are essential for understanding his atmospheric intentions. Best Tennessee Williams reading order: The Glass Menagerie → A Streetcar Named Desire → Cat on a Hot Tin Roof → Suddenly Last Summer
Complete A Streetcar Named Desire Book List
- 1Buy
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams·1947·The most theatrical American play — Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, Stella, and Mitch in New Orleans. Won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; the original production made Marlon Brando a star and established the Method acting tradition - 2Buy
The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams·1945·The companion and the earlier Williams play — Tom Wingfield's memory of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire are companion investigations of the Southern belle unable to adapt to the world that has replaced hers (Amanda; Blanche), and both are organized around a male protagonist's attempt to escape the trap that his connection to a fragile woman has set for him - 3Buy
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller·1949·The companion American tragedy — Willy Loman's self-deception and its consequences. A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman are the two great American plays of the late 1940s and are organized around the same confrontation: between a romantic self-conception (Blanche's southern gentility; Willy's belief he is well-liked) and a brutal reality (Stanley; the actual facts of Willy's career) that eventually destroys the romantic - 4Buy
Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill·1956·O'Neill's companion in the tradition of the American family tragedy about the past in the present — the Tyrones' terrible day and night. Long Day's Journey into Night and A Streetcar Named Desire are companion investigations of the romantic self (Mary Tyrone's image of herself as a convent girl; Blanche's image of herself as a southern belle) that the present can no longer support - 5Buy
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald·1925·Fitzgerald's companion in the tradition of the American romantic's destruction by the world that cannot accommodate their vision — Jay Gatsby's invented self and its collision with the Buchanans' careless brutality. The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire are companion investigations of the romantic self-creator destroyed by the world's indifference: Gatsby by Tom Buchanan's carelessness; Blanche by Stanley Kowalski's deliberate brutality - 6Buy
Suddenly Last Summer
Tennessee Williams·1958·Williams's 1958 companion — Catharine Holly's account of what happened to her cousin Sebastian Venable the previous summer, and Violet Venable's attempt to silence her through a lobotomy. Suddenly Last Summer is the most extreme of Williams's plays and the most directly confrontational about homosexuality (Sebastian's 'devouring of the poor') and the violence of social conformism. Reading it alongside A Streetcar Named Desire shows the range of Williams's dark vision - 7Buy
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry·1959·Hansberry's 1959 companion in the tradition of the American play about family, aspiration, and the confrontation with the forces that deny the protagonist's vision — the Younger family's attempt to move out of their cramped apartment. A Raisin in the Sun and A Streetcar Named Desire are companion investigations of the gap between the American dream of self-realization and the forces (racism; sexuality) that prevent its fulfillment - 8Buy
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams·1955·Williams's 1955 companion — Brick and Maggie and Big Daddy in a Mississippi Delta mansion on Big Daddy's birthday, with the question of Brick's relationship with his dead friend Skipper at the center. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire are companion explorations of sexuality, family, and the past in Tennessee Williams's work: both are organized around a revelation about a sexual secret, and both use the heat and physicality of the American South as the setting for that revelation
A Streetcar Named Desire — Frequently Asked Questions
What does Blanche DuBois represent in A Streetcar Named Desire?
Blanche DuBois represents several overlapping things: the romantic tradition of the American South (the world of Belle Reve, of the antebellum plantation, of gentility and beauty and the 'old ways'); the fragility of the self-constructed identity when confronted with brutal reality; the position of the woman in a patriarchal society who has no resources except her sexuality and her charm; and, more broadly, the principle of art, illusion, and imagination as against the principle of brute material reality. Williams described Blanche as representing 'the remains of the aristocratic tradition' in conflict with the 'new America' that Stanley Kowalski represents. But Williams was also clear that Blanche's romanticism is not simply admirable: her lies about herself, her drinking, her multiple affairs, and her complicity in the loss of Belle Reve are all presented with the same honesty as her poetry and her vulnerability. The play holds both her beauty and her damage simultaneously.
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