Summary Tram “Desire”
T. Williams
Tram “Desire”
The scene of the play is a wretched outskirts of New Orleans; in the very atmosphere of this place, according to the remark of Williams, there is something “lost, spoiled.” It is here that the tram with the symbolic name “Desire” is brought by Blanche DuBois, who, after a long chain of failures, adversities, compromises and loss of the patrimonial nest, hopes to find peace or get at least temporary shelter – to arrange a respite from her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche arrives to Kowalski in an elegant white suit, wearing white gloves and a hat – as if secular acquaintances from the aristocratic district are waiting for a cocktail or a cup of tea. She is so shocked by the misery of her sister’s home that she can not hide her disappointment.
In the ten years that Stella lives separately, Blanche has survived a lot: her parents died, they had to sell their
Suspicious of everything alien, Stanley does not believe Blanche’s story about the inevitability of selling “Dreams” for debts, believes that she appropriated all the money by buying expensive toilets on them. Blanche acutely feels the enemy in him, but tries to put up, not to pretend that he has discovered, especially when he learns of Stella’s pregnancy.
In the house Kovalskih
Meanwhile, Stanley looks warily at Blanche, reminding the beast that is about to jump. Having overheard an unpleasant opinion about himself once expressed by Blanche in a conversation with her sister, when she found out that she considered him a miserable ignoramus, almost an animal, and advised Stella to leave him, he harbored evil. And such as Stanley, it’s better not to hurt – they do not know pity. Afraid of Blanche’s influence on his wife, he begins to make inquiries about her past, and it turns out to be far from flawless. After the death of her parents and the suicide of her beloved husband, whose involuntary culprit she became, Blanche sought solace in many beds, as Stanley was told by a traveling salesman who also used her favors for a while.
It is Blanche’s birthday. She invited to dinner Mitch, who shortly before that practically made her an offer. Blanche is singing fun while taking a bath, and in the meantime Stanley in a room not without malice announces to his wife that Mitch will not come – he finally opened his eyes to this slut. And he did it himself, Stanley, telling me what she was doing in her native city – in what beds just did not stay! Stella is shocked by her husband’s cruelty: marriage with Mitch would be a salvation for her sister. Leaving the bathroom and dressing up, Blanche wondered: where is Mitch? He tries to call his home, but he does not go to the phone. Not knowing what was going on, Blanche was nevertheless preparing for the worst, and then Stanley maliciously presents her with a “birthday present” – a return ticket to Laurel, the city from which she came. Seeing the confusion and horror on her sister’s face, Stella warmly sympathizes with her; from all these shocks, premature birth begins…
Mitch and Blanche have a last conversation – the worker comes to a woman when she was left alone in the apartment: Kowalski took his wife to the hospital. Afflicted with the best of feelings, Mitch ruthlessly tells Blanche that he has finally figured out her: and her age is not what she called, it was not for nothing that she strove to meet him in the evening, somewhere in the half-darkness, and she was not as touchy as she was I built myself, he himself made inquiries, and everything that Stanley said was confirmed.
Blanche does not deny anything: yes, she was confused with anyone, and there is no number for them. After the death of her husband, it seemed to her that only the caresses of strangers could somehow calm her devastated soul. In a panic she rushed from one to another – in search of support. And when he met him, Mitch, thanked God that she had finally been sent a safe refuge. “I swear, Mitch,” says Blanche, “that in my heart I have never lied to you.”
But Mitch is not so spiritually high to understand and accept the words of Blanche, He starts clumsily pestering her, following the eternal male logic: if it is possible with others, why not with me? Offended Blanche drives him away.
When Stanley returns from the hospital, Blanche has already managed to thoroughly embrace the bottle. Her thoughts are scattered, she is not completely in herself – she all seems to be about to appear a familiar millionaire and take her to the sea. Stanley at first is good-natured – Stella should have a baby by the morning, everything is going well, but when Blanche, painfully trying to preserve the remains of dignity, reports that Mitch came to her with a basket of roses to apologize, he explodes. But who is she to give her roses and invite to cruises? She’s lying all! There are no roses, no millionaire. The only thing she’s good for is to sleep with her once. Realizing that it takes a dangerous turn, Blanche tries to escape, but Stanley intercepts her at the door and carries her to the bedroom.
After all that happened, Blanche’s mind got muddled. Returning from hospital Stella under the pressure of her husband decides to place her sister in the hospital. Believe the nightmare of violence, she simply can not – how then would she live with Stanley? Blanche thinks that her friend will come for her and take her to rest, but when she sees the doctor and her sister, she becomes frightened. The softness of the doctor – an attitude she has already lost her habit of – still reassures her, and she obediently follows him with the words: “It does not matter who you are… all my life I depended on the kindness of the first person I met.”
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