A Streetcar Named Desire What’s Up With the Ending? (2024)

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A Streetcar Named Desire What’s Up With the Ending? ›

A Streetcar Named Desire ends with the aftermath of Stanley's climactic rape of Blanche. Stella, now a mother, has committed Blanche to a state-run mental institution, taking the rape accusation as evidence her sister has gone insane.

During the final scene of "A Streetcar Named Desire," the audience witnesses Stella adopting the delusion that her husband is trustworthy—that he did not, in fact, rape her sister. When Eunice says, "No matter what happens, we've all got to keep going," she is preaching the virtues of self-deception.

The play depicts reality versus fantasy, and it ultimately ends with the rape of Blanche and her institutionalization while Stanley and Stella go on to raise their child. It is desire that ultimately leads to the demise of Blanche, the fading Southern belle.

The play chronicles the subsequent crumbling of Blanche's self-image and sanity. Stanley himself takes the final stabs at Blanche, destroying the remainder of her sexual and mental esteem by raping her and then committing her to an insane asylum.

Blanche's final comment is ironic for two reasons. First, the doctor is not the chivalric Shep Huntleigh type of gentleman Blanche thinks he is. Second, Blanche's dependence “on the kindness of strangers” rather than on herself is the reason why she has not fared well in life.

Audiences in the 1940s and '50s might have recognized Stanley's hypersensitivity to insult or threat and his violent overreactions (as well as Blanche's loose grip on reality) as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), though that medical diagnosis wouldn't be adopted for decades.

Blanche DuBois, the tragic heroine of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, has always been read as either "mad" from the start of the play or as a character who descends into "madness." We argue that Streetcar adumbrates elements of trauma theory, specifically symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as ...

Stanley feels threatened by Blanche's presence from the start, as she represents a class and society he cannot fully comprehend and does not belong to. The threat becomes even larger when he realizes that Stella is easily influenced by her sister and he hears Blanche's words from Stella's mouth when they fight.

Stella and Stanley love each other but Blanche intrudes into their lives and tries to make Stella see Stanley as a crude, lower-class, uneducated type who is beneath her and unworthy of her.

A Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women's lives. Williams uses Blanche's and Stella's dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South.

Why does Blanche sleep with her student? ›

Blanche constantly tries to relive her youth—as it was when she was truly happy— and seems to be stuck in the loop, she slept with young soldiers and her young student in the past, and we see her kiss the young newspaper boy during the play which links back to her need to feel young again.

She bathes constantly so as to soothe her nerves. But this is also a cleansing symbol. By her baths, she subconsciously hopes to cleanse her sins away.

An offstage announcement that another poker game (“seven-card stud”) is about to commence ends the play with a symbol of the deception and bluffing that has taken place in the Kowalski house. The play's last line also serves as a subtle reminder that the nature of the game in the Kowalski household can always change.

Conflict, in turn, leads to a climax which then demands dénouement in the final scene to give the audience a sense of closure. You can't get to the exciting point then leave readers guessing! It is also the part where we discover the moral of a story, or we learn the lesson. Human beings love to see good beat evil.

Blanche: "I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action." Blanche: I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

A Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of postwar America placed restrictions on women's lives. Williams uses Blanche's and Stella's dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South.

However, in the film adaptation, it is shown that Stella leaves him and takes their child (although it is ambiguous if she goes back to him). This, however, was required under the censorship code then in force. Later television versions restored the original stage version, which always has her staying with him.

Also, the tears Mitch sheds after Blanche struggles to escape the fate Stanley has arranged for her show that he genuinely cares for her. In fact, Mitch is the only person other than Stella who seems to understand the tragedy of Blanche's madness.

It ends with her brother in law raping her, the final nail in the coffin, after which she is taken to a mental institution, presumably, never to be seen again. She tells her sister what happened but her sister just decides to live in denial, ultimately mirroring Blanche and also living in a fantasy.