What does Williams convey about human sexuality in "A Streetcar Named Desire?"
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts sexuality as an inescapable and destructive force which benefits only heterosexual males. Each of the main characters succumbs to sexual desire in a way that suggests that humans have little to no control over their sexual impulses. When Blanche states, "Death—the opposite is desire," she establishes the proposition that as long as one is alive, he or she will act on desire. Blanche herself indulged in sexual promiscuity as a way to escape the atmosphere of death at Belle Reve created by the repeated succession to the graveyard for funerals of her dying relatives. All the characters in the play seem to give in to their sexual urges without putting up much fight. Thus Williams seems to indicate that sexuality is a normal part of life.
Although sexuality is normal, it is also destructive according to this play. Blanche's husband, Alan,...
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kills himself because of his homosexuality. Blanche destroys her reputation by being promiscuous, and she gets fired from her job as a schoolteacher for engaging in sexual activity with one of her students. Stanley destroys Blanche's sanity—what is left of it—by acting on his sexual impulses and raping her. Mitch would also possibly have tried to force himself on Blanche in the scene when he confronts her with what he knows of her past. At least he shatters her hopes of marriage and protection. Stella's sexual desire led her to marry a boorish, selfish person and keeps her under the thumb of an uncultured, poker-playing, violent man. She is content to live a lower-class lifestyle as long as she can have those "colored lights" flashing. Stella's account of her wedding night when Stanley smashed all the light bulbs in the flat with a slipper is ametaphor for the destructiveness sexuality.
Despite the destruction it causes, sexuality can benefit some—if they are male and heterosexual. Thus Stanley faces no repercussions from forcefully using Blanche for his sexual desires. Mitch also presumably has no qualms about sex outside of marriage for himself, even as he condemns Blanche for having engaged in it. Alan, the homosexual, and Blanche and Stella, the women, are left to suffer the consequences of their sexual desires while the men, Stanley—and to a lesser degree, Mitch—can go on with their lives without feeling any negative effects.
From the experiences Williams portrays in the play, he seems to present human sexuality as inescapable, destructive, and beneficial only to male heterosexuals.
Tennessee Williams, in his play A Streetcar Named Desire, alludes to human sexuality through the characterizations provided through the strong use of gender roles.
Stanley is characterized as the stereotypical strong male. His dominant male sexual nature is seen through his abuse of Stella and the rape of Blanche. Through both, Stanley is able to control his home. (He is able to manipulate Stella into doing as he wishes--by getting her to continually take him back. He is also able to rid himself of Blanche by raping her (which results in her complete mental breakdown).)
Blanche, on the other hand, is a very sexual creature as well. She has used sex in the past in order to survive (as seen through her history as a prostitute). Not only does her sexual past ooze into her present (through her seduction of both Stanley and Mitch), she believes herself to be far more sexually attractive than she really is (given her aging).
Essentially, Williams is stating that human sexuality can be seen as a tool of power. Both Stanley and Blanche use sex to gain the things they need (Stanley to control his home and Blanche to control her desire to stay young).
How does Williams address homophobia in "A Streetcar Named Desire"?
The crucial revelation in the play, made by Blanche to Mitch, is that Blanche had been married to a gay man. Blanche recounts her having told her husband, after discovering him together with another man, that she was "disgusted" by him. The "boy," as Blanche refers to him, then committed suicide.
Though Blanche's reaction is an instance of homophobia, it needs to be understood in the context of her having been in love with the man and then stunned by seeing that not only is he being unfaithful to her, but it's with another man. By the standards of the time (the 1940s), Blanche's attitude is not unusual. In fact, her regret over being responsible for the young man's death is one factor that sends her life into a downward spiral. A "conventionally" homophobic person would probably have reacted in a colder, harsher way to the entire situation.
Blanche states that she sensed there was something different about the young man before she married him but that she wanted to help him. It is arguably the general condemnation of gay people that was typical of the time that allows the situation to develop as it does between Blanche and the young man, with tragic results. For dealing in such a revelatory way with this subject, Williams, a gay man himself, was a pathbreaker in American literature.