A Streetcar Named Desire - Chapter 15: Chapter 15 Summary

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A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams

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Chronology 1907 June 3: Cornelius Coffin Williams marries Edwina Estelle Dakin in Columbus, Mississippi. 1909 November 19: Their daughter Rose Isabelle Williams is born. 1911 March 26: Thomas Lanier Williams III (later Tennessee Williams) is born in Columbus, Mississippi. 1918 July: The Williams family moves to St. Louis, Missouri. 1919 February 21: Son Walter Dakin Williams is born in St. Louis. 1928: Williams publishes the short story “The Vengeance of Nitocris” in Weird Tales. Summer 1928: His grandfather Walter Edwin Dakin takes him on a European tour. 1929 September: Begins studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. 1930: Writes one‑act play Beauty is the Word. 1932 Summer: Fails ROTC, is removed from college by his father and works as a clerk at International Shoe Company. 1936 January: Enrolls in extension courses at Washington University, St. Louis. 1937 March 18‑20: First full‑length play Candles to the Sun produced by the Mummers in St. Louis. September: Transfers to the University of Iowa; November 30 & December 4: Fugitive Kind performed by the Mummers. 1938: Graduates from Iowa with an English degree and completes Not About Nightingales. 1939: Story magazine publishes “The Field of Blue Children,” first using the pen name “Tennessee Williams.” Receives a Group Theatre award for American Blues, leading to his long‑term agent Audrey Wood. 1940 January‑June: Studies playwriting with John Gassner at the New School, New York. December 30: Battle of Angels, starring Miriam Hopkins, fails on its Boston out‑of‑town tryout. 1942 December: Meets James Laughlin at a Lincoln Kirstein cocktail party; Laughlin becomes his lifelong friend and publisher (New Directions). 1943: Drafts screenplay The Gentleman Caller for MGM; later rewrites it as The Glass Menagerie. October 13: Co‑writes You Touched Me! with friend Donald Windham; it premieres at the Cleveland Playhouse. 1944 December 26: The Glass Menagerie opens in Chicago starring Laurette Taylor; also publishes poetry “The Summer Belvedere.” 1945 March 25: Stairs to the Roof premieres in Pasadena; March 31: The Glass Menagerie opens on Broadway, winning the Drama Critics Circle Award. September 25: You Touched Me! opens on Broadway. December: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays published. 1947 Summer: Meets Frank Merlo in Provincetown; they become lovers and companions from 1948‑1962. December 3: A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Elia Kazan opens on Broadway, starring Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden; it wins the Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award. 1948 October 6: Summer and Smoke opens on Broadway (three‑month run). 1949 January: One Arm and Other Stories published. 1950: Novel The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone published; film of The Glass Menagerie released. 1951 February 3: The Rose Tattoo opens on Broadway, winning the Tony; film of A Streetcar Named Desire released with Vivien Leigh as Blanche. 1952 April 24: Off‑Broadway revival of Summer and Smoke directed by José Quintero, starring Geraldine Page; Williams elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. 1953 March 19: Camino Real opens on Broadway, closes after two months. 1954 August: Hard Candy (story collection) published. 1955 March 24: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens on Broadway, directed by Elia Kazan, starring Barbara Bel Geddes; later wins Pulitzer and Drama Critics Circle Award; film version released (Anna Magnani wins Oscar). 1956: Film Baby Doll (screenplay by Williams, directed by Kazan) released, causing Catholic controversy and blacklisting; June: In the Winter of Cities (first poetry book) published. 1957 March 21: Orpheus Descending (revised Battle of Angels) opens on Broadway, directed by Harold Clurman, closes after two months. 1958 February 7: Suddenly Last Summer and Something Unspoken open off‑Broadway as “Garden District”; film of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof released. 1959 March 10: Sweet Bird of Youth opens on Broadway (three‑month run); film of Suddenly Last Summer released (screenplay by Gore Vidal). 1960 November 10: Period of Adjustment opens on Broadway (four‑month run); film version of Orpheus Descending released as The Fugitive Kind. 1961 December 29: The Night of the Iguana opens on Broadway (ten‑month run); film versions of Summer and Smoke and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone released. 1962: Film versions of Sweet Bird of Youth and Period of Adjustment released. 1963 January 15: The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore opens on Broadway starring Tallulah Bankhead, closes due to blizzard and newspaper strike; September: Frank Merlo dies of lung cancer. 1964: Film version of Night of the Iguana released. 1966 February 22: Slapstick Tragedy runs on Broadway < week; December: novella and stories published as The Knightly Quest. 1968 March 27: Kingdom of Earth opens on Broadway (as The Seven Descents of Myrtle); film version released as Boom! 1969 May 11: In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel opens off‑Broadway (three‑week run); Williams is committed to Barnes Hospital psychiatric division by his brother Dakin; receives Doctor of Humanities from University of Missouri and Gold Medal for Drama from American Academy of Arts and Letters. 1970 February: Dragon Country (plays) published. 1971: Breaks with agent Audrey Wood; representation taken over by Bill Barnes then Mitch Douglas. 1972 April 2: Small Craft Warnings opens off‑Broadway; receives Doctor of Humanities from University of Hartford. 1973 March 1: Out Cry (revised The Two‑Character Play) opens on Broadway. 1974 September: Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed (stories) published; receives Entertainment Hall of Fame Award and Medal of Honor for Literature. 1975: Novel Moise and the World of Reason published; Williams’s Memoirs published by Doubleday. 1976 January 20: This Is (An Entertainment) opens in San Francisco; June: The Red Devil Battery Sign closes in Boston; November 23: Eccentricities of a Nightingale (opened NY); April: second poetry volume Androgyne, Mon Amour published. 1977 May 11: Vieux Carrè opens on Broadway (two‑week run). 1978: Tiger Tail premieres at Alliance Theater, Atlanta; revised version next year in Gainesville. 1979 January 10: A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur opens off‑Broadway; Kirche, Kutchen, und Kinder premieres off‑Broadway; Williams receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Kennedy Center Honors presented by President Jimmy Carter. 1980 January 25: Will Mr. Merriwether Return from Memphis? premieres limited run in Key West; March 26: Clothes for a Summer Hotel opens on Broadway (15 performances). 1981 August 24: Something Cloudy, Something Clear premieres off‑Broadway. 1982 May 8: A House Not Meant to Stand (second version) opens limited run at Goodman Theater, Chicago. 1983 February 24: Tennessee Williams is found dead in his hotel room at the Hotel Elysee, New York; autopsy determines death by asphyxiation from choking on a plastic medicine cap; he is later buried in St. Louis. 1984 July: Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays published. 1985 November: Collected Stories (with intro by Gore Vidal) published. 1995: Lyle Leverich’s biography Tom : The Unknown Tennessee Williams published. 1996 September 5: Rose Isabelle Williams dies in Tarrytown, NY; The Notebook of Trigorin (revised by Williams) opens at Cincinnati Playhouse. 1998 March 5: Not About Nightingales premieres at Royal National Theatre, London (directed by Trevor Nunn), later moves to Houston and opens on Broadway November 25, 1999. 1999 November: Spring Storm published. 2000 May: Stairs to the Roof published; November: The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams Vol I published. 2001 June: Fugitive Kind published. 2002 April: Collected Poems published. 2004 August: Candles to the Sun published; November: The Selected Letters Vol II published. 2005 April: Mister Paradise and Other One‑Act Plays published.

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Miller recounts his first viewing of A Streetcar Named Desire in New Haven, his friendship with director Elia Kazan, and the powerful impact of the original production, especially Marlon Brando’s performance. The 1947 New York production opened at the Barrymore Theatre on December 3, directed by Elia Kazan and produced by Irene Selznick, featuring Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski, Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski, and Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois, with scenery and lighting by Jo Mielziner and costumes by Lucinda Ballard. Blanche DuBois arrives at the Elysian Fields flats in New Orleans, seeking her sister Stella Kowalski. She is let in by neighbor Eunice, reunites with Stella, and the two exchange heated dialogue about Blanche’s lost plantation Belle Reve and Stella’s marriage. Stanley Kowalski returns home with friends Steve and Mitch, meets Blanche, and begins to assert his dominant, crude presence. Stanley interrogates Stella and Blanche about the loss of the plantation Belle Reve, citing the Napoleonic code and demanding to appraise Blanche’s furs, jewelry and clothing. Blanche reveals a box of papers showing that Belle Reve was lost through mortgage debts and hands the documents to Stanley. Stella announces she is pregnant and prepares to leave for a drug‑store. The poker night guests arrive, and the household prepares for the party. During the poker night, the men (Stanley, Steve, Mitch, Pablo) play cards while Stella and Blanche arrive; Blanche reveals she is a high‑school English teacher from Laurel, and Mitch is a plant worker in the precision‑bench department caring for his sick mother. Tensions erupt as Stanley violently assaults Stella, leading to a chaotic fight, Stanley’s temporary incapacitation, and his desperate calling of Eunice for his “baby.” Stella is revealed to be pregnant; she and Blanche clash over Stanley’s cruelty and discuss a desperate plan to solicit money from the wealthy oilman Shep Huntleigh. Stanley returns home in the morning with packages, unaware of the women’s conversation, and embraces Stella, while Blanche continues to protest his brutish nature. Blanche writes a frantic letter to Shep Huntleigh, anxiously rehearses her flirtations, and confesses her fears about aging and losing her allure; Stanley continues his aggressive posturing while a violent argument erupts between Eunice and Steve. Blanche briefly kisses a newspaper collector who stops by for a subscription, and later Mitch arrives with roses, raising Blanche’s hope for rescue. Blanche and Mitch spend the late‑night hours together after an outing to the Lake Pontchartrain amusement park. Mitch shows a plaster Mae West statuette, reveals his membership in the New Orleans Athletic Club, discloses his weight (207 lb) and height (6′1½″), and tells Blanche that his mother is gravely ill and expected to die soon. He mentions that Stanley and Stella have gone out with Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell to a midnight preview at Loew’s State. Blanche, exhausted, confides a traumatic backstory: she is a low‑paid summer schoolteacher who came to New Orleans for financial reasons, and she recounts a past marriage that ended in a suicide at Moon Lake Casino, detailing the night’s chaotic events and the shooting of “Allan.” Stanley spreads scandalous rumors about Blanche’s past in the town of Laurel—her fame at the Flamingo hotel, a high‑school expulsion after a scandal with a seventeen‑year‑old boy—and declares he has bought a bus ticket to force her to leave on Tuesday; he also reveals Mitch is his longtime friend from the engineering plant and bowling team, and Stella prepares a birthday cake with twenty‑five candles for Blanche. Blanche leaves a phone message for Mitch and receives a Greyhound ticket back to Laurel; Stella, pregnant, asks Stanley to take her to the hospital after a violent confrontation. Mitch arrives at Blanche’s apartment late at night; their dialogue reveals that Mitch has heard rumors about Blanche’s past from a merchant named Kiefaber, Stanley, and a man called Shaw. Blanche confesses a series of desperate affairs after Allan’s death, acknowledges lying about her reputation, and briefly proposes marriage, which Mitch rejects, saying she isn’t clean enough for his mother. A blind Mexican flower‑seller appears briefly, offering “flores para los muertos.” Mitch leaves in panic; Blanche collapses, crying “Fire!” Blanche, drunk and packing, imagines a telegram from oil‑millionaire Shep Huntleigh promising a Caribbean cruise; Stanley reveals the telegram and the millionaire are figments, taunts her, and forces a violent struggle that ends with him carrying her to the bed. Blanche is forcibly removed from the Kowalski apartment by a doctor and a matron and taken to a mental institution; Stella, now holding a newborn baby, watches as Stanley attempts to console her. Williams' self-interview, first published in the London Observer on April 7 1957, reveals his view of his work as personal psychotherapy and his belief that humanity must confront its own tensions. The chapter provides a comprehensive chronology of Tennessee Williams’ life, detailing his family background, education, early writing attempts, the creation and production of his major plays, major awards, personal relationships—including his partnership with Frank Merlo—and his later years up to his death in 1983.

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