Williams, Tennessee: 1911-1983

A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947 - Thematic Parallels: Desire

Desire is a strong feeling of wanting something or wishing for something to happen.
Williams, Tennessee: A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947
The play’s topic is humanity’s struggle for survival across time, highlighting both its vulnerability and its persistent will to endure.
The following books are thematically simliar. They lend themselves well to being read in groups, compared with one another, or used to teach a similar topic over an extended period with a class:
- Clark, Brian: Whose Life Is It Anyway?, 1978, ~80pp
  This play focuses on personal autonomy, power over a vulnerable body, and institutional versus individual control; like Blanche, the protagonist struggles with who gets to decide over a damaged life.
  - Both plays dramatize the tension between individual autonomy and the power of others to restrict it. They explore how humans cope with suffering—whether through rational acceptance (Ken) or imaginative escape (Blanche)—and show the limits of each approach. The plays question whether those who claim to “help” are actually serving their own values or comfort.
- Foer, Jonathan Safran: Everything Is Illuminated, 2002, ~110pp
  This novel Deals with trauma, memory, and the attempt to reconstruct or escape the past, which parallels Blanche’s flight from her history and her fragile mental state.
  - Both depict characters whose emotional lives are shaped—and limited—by past trauma they cannot resolve. Each character struggles to reconcile old identities with new realities and changing social worlds. Both works show how violence—systemic or intimate—shapes relationships and identity.
- Miller, Arthur: Death of a Salesman, 1949, ~110pp
  This play explores psychological tension and societal conflict.
  - In both plays, outdated dreams clash with harsh reality, leading the protagonists to psychological breakdowns. Reality ultimately shatters their illusions, causing their final downfalls. Both playwrights suggest that the postwar American ideology leaves certain individuals behind.
- Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men, 1937, ~100pp
  This work focuses on mental health, human desires, and social struggles.
  - Both works expose the illusion of the American Dream. The individuals suffer because of larger social forces they cannot control. Both endings reflect how society fails to protect the vulnerable — instead, it destroys them.
List of general discussion questions on Desire (pdf)
List of essay prompts on Desire (pdf)