A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee William is one of the most popular plays in American history. The play contains this theme of the Old South versus the New South, where the old ideals and ways of life of the South collide with the newly formed ideals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The distinctions between the Old South's emphasis on tradition, class, and segregation and the New South's emphasis on hard work can be seen throughout the play. This is manifested in the main characters of the play. The civilized and refined nature of Blanche DuBois makes her a symbol of the Old South while the brutal, direct and provocative nature of Stanley Kowalski represents the New South. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in his play to present a picture of the social, gender, and behavioral distinctions that existed between the Old South and the New South. Furthermore, the two settings offered in the play, Belle Reve and Elysian Fields, can also be seen as different representations of the old versus the new, in that the two locations are fundamentally different. of the New South appears to have been drawn during the post-Civil War period of the United States of America. This period saw many people move away from life in the south and establish new lives in the north. The main reason for the mass migration from the south to the north was mainly due to the industrial advancements of the country. As America industrialized, the plantation-based agrarian system became less economically attractive. People sought to work and earn a better living by working in factories, which led the nation as a whole to become more urbanized and less rural. A streetcar named desire pulls in and throws a...... middle of paper ......antation. Blanche tells Stella, “I take it for granted that you still have enough memories of Belle Reve to find this place and these poker players impossible to live with” (657). Belle Reve is this beautiful place where the class system was alive and people only interacted with others of the same class as them. The loss of Belle Reve represents the dying south. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses Blanche and Stanley to emphasize the different characteristics of the two periods, old and new. At the end of the play, when Stella chooses to trust Stanley rather than her sister Blanche. This essentially means that the New South will win in the end. Blanche, who represents the beautiful, rich Southern beauty of the Old South, is somehow excluded from society. Stella, for her part, was able to adapt to the social evolution of the south and mingle with Stanley to create a new life..