In the 17th century, the Puritans of America regarded the theater as the devil's playground. They saw it as a place where people played false characters and found themselves in dishonest situations: a hidden form of lying and deceptive action. Blanche Dubois of Tennessee William's play, A Streetcar Named Desire, brings this Puritan idea to life. She poses as the pure Southern belle as she criticizes her brother-in-law as crude and uncivilized. Yet, like the Puritans, Blanche is not as perfect as she pretends to be and her lies, however romantic and idyllic, come to light. A Streetcar Named Desire is a work of social criticism of the 1940s, relating to the modernization of American culture and the traditional ways of the Southern states. Stanley Kowalski is part of a new America, made up of immigrants with greater equal opportunities. Blanche represents the aristocratic traditions of the Old South. Blanche's tragic fate at the end of the play signifies the destruction of the Old South by the new industrialized American way of life, represented by a descendant of Polish immigrants, Stan...