Have you ever heard the quote, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers?” If so, do you know where it comes from? Good for you if you do. The quote has been repeated and parodied in movies, television shows, and cartoons. I have heard it for years in entertainment media and have never known where it originated from until I listened to an e-audiobook of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. The e-audiobook sounded like an audio recording of an actual performance, being acted out, so there are no descriptions of the characters’ actions for me to interpret. The quote mentioned above was the last line of dialogue by major character, Blanche. If you have not read, listened to, or watched the play, I highly recommend you do. Without reading, listening to, or watching the play, you may not understand the context of the quote. This story will make you angry. Also, it can fuel discussions in classes and book clubs over socially relevant topics.
There are four major characters in the play: (1) Blanche DuBois, (2) Stella, (3) Stanley, and (4) Mitch. There are other characters, but their dialogue and roles are limited. Blanche and Stella are sisters. They grew up in wealth and luxury, because their family owned a plantation. Stanley is Polish-American. He is working-classed. His wife, Stella, does not work even though they had no children when Blanche arrived at their apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Blanche has been living in Laurel, Mississippi and had a career as an English teacher. Unfortunately, she was unable to financially maintain the family’s plantation, The Belle Reve, due to her having to pay for loved ones’ funerals and multiple mortgages on the property. Mitch is Stanley’s friend and Blanche’s love interest. Blanche is middle-aged and widowed. Mitch is her last chance to get married and have a family.
The conflict exists mainly between Stanley and Blanche. Stanley desires Stella and Blanche’s plantation by inheritance through his marriage to Stella. Blanche desires a new life, a husband, and a family. Stanley hated Blanche and what Blanche represents. Blanche is a single, widowed, highly-educated woman with a career in teaching. Blanche presents herself as a genteel lady. Blanche represents “old money” wealth by inheritance in America that Stanley expected to inherit through his wife, Stella. When Stella told Stanley that Blanche lost the plantation, he accused Blanche of selling the property and buying expensive clothes. He used a friend, who drives deliveries to Laurel, Mississippi, to launch an investigation into Blanche, so he can find out what happened to the plantation or the money from its presumed sale.
Mitch, Stanley’s friend, is also a blue-collar, impoverished man, but he is single and lives with his mother. At the beginning, he will present himself as a gentleman and “Momma’s boy.” He was so impressed with Blanche, he sought Blanche as a love interest. Blanche is middle-aged. She was married and widowed very young. Once Blanche tells people that she is widowed, men know that she is already sexually experienced and expects her to have premarital sex with them. Blanche presented herself in the best way possible to attract Mitch as a potential husband without having premarital sex with him. Mitch was her last chance to re-marry and have a family. By marrying Mitch, Blanche would be able to leave Stella and Stanley’s apartment and start a new life in New Orleans. Unfortunately, Stanley robbed that future from her out of spite, evil, and envy.
Stanley’s friend, who travels to Laurel, Mississippi on deliveries, told Stanley that Blanche lived at the Hotel Flamingo, which has a bad reputation, after she lost the plantation. The dialogue was not clear about the reputation, but it suggested that people go there to have premarital sex or to solicit prostitutes. Stanley and his friend really did not learn much about the financial problems associated with The Belle Reve plantation. They mostly collected negative gossip about Blanche, who had to live at a hotel after losing the plantation and becoming homeless. According to Stanley and his friend, the superintendent fired Blanche for her promiscuity and having sex with a seventeen-year-old boy. Stanley also said the mayor kicked Blanche out of Laurel. Stanley bought Blanche a bus ticket to return to a town, where he knows she cannot return just to demean and hurt her even more. In addition, Stanley told Mitch about all of the negative gossip he heard about Blanche in Laurel from his friend. Therefore, Mitch no longer wants to marry Blanche. Stanley created a high stress situation for Blanche that resulted in her mental breakdown. Stanley knows Blanche is penniless and he bought her a ticket to go back to town where she is unwelcomed. Then, Stanley destroyed her chances to marry Mitch and create a new life in New Orleans. Stanley believes Blanche robbed him of an inheritance that neither he nor Stella was willing to financially maintain, so Stanley decided to rob Blanche of a new life with a husband, family, and possibly a new teaching career in New Orleans. Thanks to Stanley, there is no place Blanche can go. Stella is the last remaining family Blanche has.
Stella had no children with Stanley prior to Blanche’s arrival to their apartment. Towards the end of the play, Stella went to the hospital to give birth to her first child with Stanley. Mitch came to the apartment to confront Blanche about her sexual past in Laurel and accuse her of lying and misrepresenting herself as a genteel lady. Mitch told Blanche that she is too dirty to bring into a house with his mother, but she is good enough to have premarital sex with him. Mitch sexually assaulted Blanche and tried to rape her. Mitch is a criminal. Isn’t Mitch too dirty to live in a house with his mother? Now that Mitch knows Blanche’s bad sexual reputation, he does not believe she has the right to deny him or any man of sex if they demand it from her. Blanche had previously told Stella that she worried about potential husbands, who want premarital sex from a mature woman like herself. Blanche is middle-aged and a widow. Men expect to have premarital sex with a sexually experienced woman and not wait until marriage. That sexist and misogynistic logic exists even now in American society. Blanche screamed, “Fire,” as a call for help when Mitch sexually assaulted her. Then, Mitch ran out of the apartment. If Blanche screamed, “Rape,” no one would help her.
After Mitch sexually assaulted Blanche, Stanley returned to the apartment and he sexually assaulted and raped Blanche. Based on the dialogue towards the end of the play, Stella’s conversation with a neighbor suggests that Blanche told Stella about Stanley’s raping her. Stella did not want to believe her sister over her husband. Instead of protecting her sister, helping Blanche to report the crime, and perhaps, leaving Stanley, Stella helped Stanley to send Blanche to a mental institution. Stanley walks free while his rape victim is imprisoned in a mental institution. Stanley and Stella destroyed Blanche’s life for the rest of her life, because Blanche told Stella about the rape. Stanley and Stella allowed Blanche to believe that a rich man from her past was coming to pick her up, so she can live with him instead of them. When Blanche realized that her rich friend was not there, she resisted. The doctor calmly led her out of the apartment to be taken to the mental institution. That is when Blanche said, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” because she clearly can’t depend on family. Blanche’s brother-in-law destroyed her reputation in New Orleans, destroyed her chances to marry Mitch, raped her, and destroyed the rest of her life to be imprisoned in a mental institution. Blanche’s sister refused to believe Blanche about the rape and assisted Stanley in destroying her sister’s life.
Throughout the play, you will notice dialogue from Blanche that indicates that she may suffer from depression or manic-depression upon arriving at Stella and Stanley’s apartment. Sometimes her dialogue begins jovial, but it ends in tears. What do most of us think about people, who are mentally ill? If a mentally ill or a neurologically disabled person accuses someone of molestation, sexual assault, and/or rape, would you believe them? Why so? Why not? Blanche was already fragile and vulnerable when she arrived in New Orleans. Then, Stanley discovers Blanche’s bad sexual reputation in Laurel and he tells Stella and Mitch about it. If a promiscuous woman or a prostitute accuses a man of rape, would you believe her? Would you empathize with her? Why so? Why not? Contrary to what most of us may think, sexually experienced women, promiscuous women, and prostitutes are raped. Just because a woman may be sexually experienced, promiscuous, or even works in the sex industry, it does not mean she wants to have sex with every man, who demands sex from her. All women have a right to say, “No,” regardless of their sexual reputation. We should all consider whether our perception of a credible witness is biased by a person’s gender, mental illness, neurological disability, reputation, sexual experience, wealth, poverty, prestige, fame, popularity, education, and profession. Educators can use A Streetcar Named Desire to ask their students to think about these controversial issues.
At the beginning of the play, Blanche appeared very snobby, criticizing Stella’s living conditions, the small size of the apartment, and accusing Stella of abandoning her to bury their loved ones alone and pay mortgages on the plantation by herself with her teacher’s salary. Maybe Blanche did feel desperate enough to have premarital sex with potential suitors in Laurel, attempting to land a husband, who could help her pay the mortgages on the plantation. Maybe Blanche prostituted herself in an attempt to save the family’s plantation. The dialogue surrounding Blanche’s bad sexual reputation is vague, so we don’t really know the details. Whatever the reasons Blanche built a bad sexual reputation in Laurel, she was right to criticize Stella for abandoning her to carry the financial burden of the family and the family’s plantation alone while Stella ran off with Stanley. Perhaps, if Stella and Stanley sent Blanche money to pay the mortgages on the plantation, she would not have had to engage in premarital sex with potential suitors or prostitute herself. Blanche is loyal to family and did whatever she could to maintain the family’s plantation. Stanley and Stella just simply wanted to inherit The Belle Reve without doing any work, without paying the mortgage, and without prostituting themselves to pay for mortgages on The Belle Reve.
Regardless of her sexual past and mistakes in Laurel, Blanche is a strong heroine. Blanche may have appeared snobby about poverty, had sex with a seventeen-year-old boy, and may have slept around with numerous men or even prostituted herself, but she was loyal to family, highly educated, earned her own income as a teacher, paid for her loved ones’ funerals, and paid for the plantation for as long as she could. Stella and Stanley wanted to inherit a plantation without working for it. How many old men in your community or in the entertainment industry that you know of have gotten away with statutory rape of a female minor? These days, the American media only reports statutory rape of a minor when the adult is a woman and the teenager is a boy. Statutory rape by old men against a female teenager seems to be socially and legally acceptable in American society, because it is widely practiced and it never makes the news. Despite her flaws, Blanche is a modern woman. Stella is a weak-minded housewife, whose functions are limited to providing her husband with sex, housekeeping, babies, and an inheritance from her wealthy family. Stanley is a stereotypical “sexist pig.” Near the early part of the play, Blanche describes Stanley as a stereotypical “caveman,” who has not evolved and the rape at the end of the story reveals her assessment to be true. Underneath his “Momma’s boy” image, Mitch is a “sexist pig” just like Stanley. However, Mitch conceals his true nature, presenting himself to Blanche as something better than what he really is. Despite Blanche’s flaws and mistakes, she is morally superior to Stanley and Stella, because she is loyal to family. Blanche is morally superior to Mitch, because she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex with him. Mitch’s sexual assault on her exposed him as being unworthy of her or any woman.
Stanley may be employed, but he is lazy. Stanley married up by marrying Stella. He didn’t marry her, because he loved her. He married her, because he wanted her family’s inheritance. Stanley has nothing to offer Stella. He took a rich woman off of her pedestal to live in poverty with him until Stella inherits The Belle Reve plantation, so he can take control over it, improving his lot in life. That is why he hates Blanche so much for losing the plantation. Stella’s plantation was his meal ticket to a better quality of life without having to earn it. It is not just Blanche’s appearance of “old money” wealth and mannerisms that offend Stanley. Blanche’s education, independence, and power as a working woman offends him as well. Stella mentioned to Blanche that Stanley does not give her an allowance, which means every financial decision is controlled by him. Despite her emotional frailty, Blanche is a strong, independent woman. That is why Stanley worked so hard to bring Blanche down to his level by telling both Stella and Mitch about her bad sexual reputation in Laurel. Stanley’s hatred of Blanche is motivated by class, culture, educational, and gender inequalities. Perhaps, your assessment on the conflict between Stanley and Blanche will be different if you read A Streetcar Named Desire on your own and formed your own conclusions.
Stanley and Blanche were not attracted to each other. Stanley’s rape of Blanche was not motivated by a desire for her. Stanley hated Blanche. Men rape to feel powerful. When Stanley raped Blanche, he exerted power over a woman, who controlled her family’s plantation, her own income, and her own body. However, Blanche’s loss of her job and plantation put her in a situation like Stella where her shelter and food are controlled by Stanley. Stanley is working-classed and impoverished. He wasn’t good enough for Stella and was counting on her inheritance to lift him out of poverty. Stanley can’t compete with Blanche’s ancestry, class, culture, education, and prestige, so he had to demean her by spreading negative gossip about her in New Orleans and raping her. Blanche represents the things Stanley can’t have, because he can’t inherit Stella’s plantation now. Blanche lost The Belle Reve to the banks and Stanley is not going to work to attain the level of wealth his wife is accustomed to living in. The rape was about taking something from Blanche that he felt he was entitled to, The Belle Reve. Well, he can’t have the plantation, so he took Blanche’s reputation, her future, her mind, her body, and her freedom instead. Stanley believed Blanche robbed him of a future inheritance of wealth and an easy quality of life, so he robbed her of a future life as Mitch’s wife, a family of her own, and possibly, a new teaching career in New Orleans.
It is clear from the things Stanley say and do to destroy Blanche that he is clearly an evil villain in this story. However, I propose that Stella is as well. Stella moved away with Stanley. She allowed Blanche to pay for the family’s funerals alone. She allowed Blanche to pay for the plantation’s mortgages alone. When Blanche told Stella that Stanley raped her, Stella chose her husband over her sister. Stella is a flake. She is just as complicit in Blanche’s rape and mental breakdown as her husband. It is no wonder that Blanche had to depend “on the kindness of strangers,” because she cannot depend on her last remaining family member to help her and to protect her. On one occasion prior to the rape, Stella told Blanche that she doesn’t pay attention to anything her sister says. This means that Stella has always been apathetic to Blanche’s pain, suffering, struggles, or need for help. Blanche did not lose the plantation, because she did anything wrong. She lost the family’s plantation, because Stella, the only other heir to the plantation, refused to help her pay the mortgages. Stella is an unreliable family member, who will always abandon and betray Blanche in any situation. Blanche has no other choice but to depend “on the kindness of strangers.” If you haven’t read A Streetcar Named Desire, I encourage you do so and come to your own conclusions about Stella’s role in the destruction of Blanches life.
I highly recommend teachers assign A Streetcar Named Desire to their high school students. In college, sometimes professors assign fiction to students in classes outside of English and literature as a soft read to illustrate something in history, culture, philosophy, or society. This play can fuel discussions over socially relevant topics such as class inequality, gender inequality, culture, society, sexism, misogyny, working women, stay-at-home wives, law enforcement, crime, prostitution, sexual assault, rape, gossip, credibility, and reputation. For example, do you think a married man with children can rape a prostitute or a promiscuous woman? If you were on a jury and a prostitute or a promiscuous woman said a married man with children raped her, whom would you believe? Should reputations matter? Why so? Why not? Many people have bias in favor of men, who are perceived as being “well-respected,” because he is married, wealthy, famous, or a member of the clergy, law enforcement, and government. There can be no real justice in such a society that tolerates rapes of women by supposedly “well-respected” men. A Streetcar Named Desire is a timeless work of literature that forces us to see American society for what it really is.
I encourage everyone to read A Streetcar Named Desire. The “desire” part of the title is not what you think in terms of romance, lust, or attraction. Do not be fooled by literature or the entertainment industry; rape is not romantic. The “desire” part of the title is about Stanley’s desire for power. He couldn’t attain that power through Stella’s inheritance of her family’s plantation and wealth, so he attains power, both sexually and financially, over his wife, Stella, and her sister, Blanche. Both women are the symbols of wealth. Blanche lost the plantation, so he ruined her reputation in New Orleans with negative gossip from Laurel, raped her, and, with Stella’s help, sent her to a mental institution. A Streetcar Named Desire is not a great work of literature, because it is a great story. It is a great work of literature, because it is a horrible story, a tragedy, and a commentary on real life. For students of literature, you could compare and contrast this play with Antigone by Sophocles and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in an academic report. This is a great story, because it will make you angry. It will fuel debates over socially relevant topics and force people to see our society as it is. American society is unfair and unjust. Stanley, Stella, and Mitch mistreated Blanche and Stanley and Stella destroyed her life for the rest of her life. Blanche is morally superior to Stella and Stanley due to her loyalty to family. Blanche is morally superior to Mitch, because she wanted to wait until marry Mitch before having sex with him. Despite her flaws and mistakes, Blanche is a good person and deserved a better life than what Stanley and Stella created for her in the end. This story is so powerful, because the events unfolded as they would in real life. Bad things happen to good people. If you work hard, you can still fail in life. Victims of rape are called “liars” or “crazy.” The people, who are closest to us such as family and friends, have the power to use our secrets as weapons to destroy us. A Streetcar Named Desire may be fiction, but there are real-life lessons to learn from it. If you haven’t already read A Streetcar Named Desire in high school or college, I hope that many of you decide to read this classic work of literature now, come to your conclusions about this story, and post your comments below. If any of you are members of a book club, I hope that you would propose A Streetcar Named Desire for your club’s reading list and have a lively debate. Perhaps, your book club can read the play and then, view a live performance of the play at a local theater or college.
Reference
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Harper Collins Publishers, 2009. E-audiobook. Hoopla.
Links:
Performances of A Streetcar Named Desire by Ubuntu Theater Project, Oakland, CA, Feb 2-25, 2018
The Danger of Gossip, Dawson’s Blog, The Hope Line
Sexual Assault is About Power, an article by Lyn Yonack, Psychology Today
Myths about rape by Southern Arkansas University
Causes of Sexual Assault by Men Against Abuse Now
Stranger Rape by Men Against Abuse Now
Myths about one’s right to say ‘no’ by Men Against Abuse Now
Myths about false accusation by Men Against Abuse Now
Myths about rape criteria by Men Against Abuse Now
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