page_title: A Streetcar Named Desire
section_title: Inspirations
hierarchical_section_title: A Streetcar Named Desire / Inspirations
caption_attribution_description: "DESIRE" street name tiles, New Orleans.
context_page_description: A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams that was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves behind her privileged background to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans that her younger sister and brother-in-law have rented.
  Williams' most popular work, A Streetcar Named Desire, is considered one of the finest and most critically acclaimed plays of the twentieth century. It still ranks among his most performed plays, and has inspired many adaptations in other forms, notably producing a critically acclaimed film that was released in 1951.
context_section_description: The Desire Line ran from 1920 to 1948, at the height of streetcar use in New Orleans. The route ran down Royal, through the Quarter, to Desire Street in the Bywater district, and back up to Canal. Blanche's route in the play—"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!"—is allegorical, taking advantage of New Orleans's colorful street names: the Desire line itself crossed Elysian Fields Avenue on its way to Canal Street. There, one could transfer to the Cemeteries line, which ran along Canal, blocks away from Elysian Fields.
  The character of Blanche is thought to be based on Williams' sister, Rose Williams, who struggled with mental health problems and became incapacitated after a lobotomy. The success of the play enabled Williams to finance his sister's care.
  The theatre critic and former actress Blanche Marvin, a friend of Williams, says the playwright used her name for the character Blanche DuBois, named the character's sister Stella after Marvin's former surname "Zohar" (which means "Star"), and took the play's line "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers" from something she said to him.
caption: The streetcar took its name from Desire Street in the 9th Ward of New Orleans
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