A Streetcar Named Desire is set in a run-down part of New Orleans, in America’s Deep South, during the 1940s. The play opens on a warm evening outside a house split into two, grandly named Elysian Fields. Stanley and Stella Kowalski live in the downstairs apartment, and their neighbours Eunice and Steve Hubbel live on the first floor.
Stella’s sister, Blanche DuBois, arrives. Stella returns and greets her sister warmly. Blanche asks Stella for a drink of liquor and criticises the conditions she believes Stella to be living in. Stanley returns. He seems quite amiable towards Blanche at first, but questions her about her past.
The following evening, Stanley questions Stella about Belle Reve being lost. He also reveals to Blanche that Stella is pregnant. The sisters go out, and when they return, Stanley and his friends are still playing poker and drinking. Blanche catches the eye of Mitch, one of the men, and they flirt. But Stanley becomes increasingly agitated by Blanche’s presence disturbing the game, and eventually he erupts in a fit of anger. When Stella tries to stop him, he hits her. Blanche and Stella escape while the other men douse Stanley in a cold shower to sober him up. He is immediately wracked with guilt and remorse and yells at Stella to come back to him, which she does.
The next morning, Stella is calm and content, while Blanche cannot believe that Stella wants to stay with Stanley. Blanche and Mitch begin to date, and Blanche reveals to Stanley that she was once married to a young boy whom she later discovered with another man. Her young husband then killed himself. Mitch and Blanche come to an agreement to marry.
The action moves on to September and Stella is preparing a birthday dinner for Blanche. Stanley comes in to tell Stella that he has learnt the truth about Blanche. Stella is distraught that Stanley has also revealed all of this to Mitch, who does not turn up for Blanche’s birthday meal. Stanley cruelly gives Blanche her “birthday present” – a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel, her hometown. Stella is upset but then goes into labour and Stanley takes her to the hospital.
Alone in the apartment, Blanche is drinking when Mitch arrives and challenges her about lying to him. Blanche defends herself but does not deny it. Mitch tries to have sex with her, but she forces him to leave as she knows he will no longer marry her. Stanley returns from the hospital. He and Blanche fight and Stanley rapes Blanche.
The final scene takes place a few weeks later, after the baby is born. Stella and Eunice are helping Blanche pack, while Stanley plays poker with his friends in the front room. A doctor arrives with a nurse to take Blanche away. The doctor treats Blanche gently and convinces her to accompany him, and he leads her away, leaving Stanley, Stella and their new baby.