A Streetcar Named Desire: Character & Key Quotes: Shep Huntleigh

Shep Huntleigh: A peripheral character in the play who exists primarily in Blanche’s narratives and fantasies.

Wealthy and Successful: Shep is often described by Blanche as a wealthy oil tycoon from Dallas, Texas, symbolising her aspirations and desperate need for escape from reality.
Absence: Despite his perceived importance, Shep never physically appears throughout the play, enhancing the theme of reality vs illusion.
Relic of the past: Shep, as a beau from Blanche’s past, represents her clinging to the genteel, refined times that are long gone.

Though unseen, Shep’s character is vital. He embodies Blanche’s illusions, her unattainable dreams and her ultimate attempts for escape.

“After the death of Allan – intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with… I think it was Panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection – here and there, in the most – unlikely places – even, at last, in a seventeen-year-old boy… But somebody wrote Stanley a letter…* I’d laugh, but it isn’t a funny story.*” - Blanche. Her confessions here indirectly reference Shep as one of these ‘intimacies’, a failed attempt at finding protection.
“I’ve got to keep thinking of Shep, Shep, Shep! I’ve got to keep dreaming and hoping and praying for Shep.” - Blanche. This quote directly shows Blanche’s desperation and reliance on the idea of Shep Huntleigh, despite his non-existence in her present life.

Shep Huntleigh symbolises the downfall of decaying Southern values and gentry, and the denial of harsh realities. He embodies the futility of Blanche’s unattainable fantasies of salvation and rescue.