Tennessee Williams vividly describes mid-twentieth century New Orleans, as he perceived it, through his play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. His primary goal in the first scene seemed to be to portray the vast difference between the inhabitants of a city, New Orleans, and the more country-inclined folk, like the main character, Blanche Dubois. However in order to effectively do this, he was sure to set a striking scene.
The stage directions in the play reveal much about Williams’ intentions. His opening leads the audience instantly round to a particular opinion of the scene, using mainly positive adjectives while describing the setting, such as ‘The section is poor but unlike corresponding sections in other American cities, it has a raffish charm.’ This extract reveals Williams’ intention of leading the audience away from looking down upon the scene, taking the emphasis off the word ‘poor’ and making it seem written merely in passing, while the main point is the ‘raffish’ charm the section possesses. Another example, taken from the same passage is; ‘The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue…’ Once again we see the over-shadowing of a negative phrase ‘the dim white building’ by a positive one, ‘a peculiarly tender blue.’
It is not merely imagery that Williams uses to draw the audience into the play. He also describes the smells the characters would encounter; ‘…faint redolences of bananas and coffee.’ These two smells on their own would be very open to individual interpretation were it not for the words preceding it. The author’s choosing of ‘faint’ over alternatives such as ‘hanging’ or ‘intrusive’ and ‘redolences’ as opposed to ‘odours’ suggests a deliberate attempt to once again win the audience over to admiring this scene, with their more positive connotations. Also, Williams’ description of the background noise in the scene follows the trend of a quaintly flawed environment, as the ‘tinny piano being played’ gently encourages the audience’s pessimistic reaction, closely followed by ‘played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers,’ strongly provoking the audience’s pleasured response.
The characters are then stirred into the scene. The first snatches of dialogue are completely incomprehensible, and are obviously there to ensure the audience realises the urban atmosphere by emphasising its business. The parts of dialogue we do catch are rather incriminating, as hey suggest an indecency about the inner-city areas. As the sailor says ‘Where’s the Four Deuces?’ followed by ‘I’ve got a date there!’ we become enlightened as to this establishment and its questionable reputation. However, we also realise the openness, and general friendliness about the place, as the Negro Woman, obviously a stranger to the sailor, still offers him the advice ‘Don’t let them sell you a Blue Moon cocktail or you won’t go out on your own feet!’ This friendliness is further exposed with the entrance of Blanche Dubois, and Eunice’s willingness to aid her in finding her sister.
That line cues one of the main characters’ entrances. Stanley walks around the corner carrying a sack of meat from the butchers, still soaked in blood, talking casually with his friend Mitch. It becomes immediately apparent that Stanley is not the type of man to be led, as he demands information from his friend that he probably sent him out to acquire as well. ‘Well, what did he say?’ Then, when told bad news (‘He said he’d give us even money.’), instead of accepting it as a fact he simply accepts it as a challenge to be dealt with, ‘Naw! We gotta have odds!’ He is also shown to be somewhat less than delicate, firstly in his attracting of Stella’s attention, (‘Hey there! Stella, Baby!’) and then his hurling of the bloody package he’s carrying up to his wife on the first floor. Stanley is a world away from the stereotypical, top hat wearing ‘gentleman.’

Stanley’s wife Stella however is slightly more refined. As Williams himself puts it, she is ‘of a background obviously quite different from her husband’s.’ Stella’s character is mostly revealed in her dealings with her sister, Blanche. When Blanche arrives and finds Stella her attention demanding ways and what would be to me infuriating mannerisms are tolerated, if not entertained, by Stella. ‘turn that over-light off… …I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!’ Stella ‘laughs and complies’. Even after Blanche’s tactless ‘I thought you would never come back to this horrible place! What am I saying… …I meant to be nice about it and say – Oh what a convenient location and such…’ Stella refuses to react at all, instead choosing to simply placate Blanche. It is also apparent that Stella is very much in love with her husband Stanley and is excited by his boyish charms, as demonstrated by her ‘breathless laughter’ after he’s tossed a blood-soaked carcass at her.
Finally, Blanche Dubois, Stella’s sister. Blanche, the main character, is introduced to the play by Eunice asking her ‘Are you lost?’ Blanche seems just that, throughout the entire first scene. She clings to Stella like a lifeline when she finally finds her, and seems capable of even mild comfort only in her presence. Blanche is out of place in New Orleans, and coupled with her unstable character she’s the epitome of feebleness. Blanche is introduced in a very ambiguous way, as the audience doesn’t know whether to pity her or merely disapprove. She lies to her sister about her alcohol consumption in her sister’s own home, as after already drinking a bit ‘on the sly’ as it were she pretends not to know of its existence. ‘I know you must have some liquor in the place! Where could it be I wonder?’ However, although this sort of behaviour is little short of despicable, one can’t help but pity Blanche. Her insecurities and childish mannerisms provoke in some the want to simply appease her like one would a child, or pity her for her obviously helplessly shallow mind. She immediately starts fishing for compliments as it were with Stella, when she says ‘You haven’t said a word about my appearance.’ She continues with this later with ‘I want you to look at my figure. You know I haven’t put on an ounce in ten years, Stella?’ And so we, the audience, are introduced to Blanche’s nature and left to form our own opinions of her.
In the first paragraph I outlined the two possible opinions to take on the setting of the play, and how the author blatantly favoured one over the other. I perceive the two opinions to be Stella’s and Blanche’s, with the author obviously preferring Stella’s. We, the audience, are shown that it is possible to see the place in such a light, but we are also shown how shallow and superficial it is to do so. Williams' introduction draws the audience not only into the atmosphere of the play, but also into enjoying the atmosphere. He was obviously a talented author.

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