A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is another work of writing that explores the loss of meaning and hope in the life of a character during the 1950s. The way in which the loss is overcome is also examined. Tennessee Williams analyzes realism of human behavior into the characters of the play and thus, contributes to an exploration of the reality of experience. Therefore, a great amount of modernist attributes can be discovered in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The character whom Tennessee Williams most afflicts pain and suffering upon is Blanche. This affliction is evident in the death of many family members:

Blanche: I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way (261)!

However, Blanche is also the character whom Tennessee most sympathizes for and whose actions are justified. The much detailed character of Blanche thus reflects realistic behaviors of people in society. Blanche, an insecure and superficial woman, loses the meaning and hope in her life at a young age. She is only 16 when her husband is caught cheating on her with another man and ultimately commits suicide due to the overbearing pressure:

Blanche: Then I found out. In the worst of all possible ways. By coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty– which wasn’t empty, but had two people in it . . . the boy I had married and an older man who had been his friend for years ( 354). . .

After Blanche whispers into the boy’s ear that she knew about his homosexuality,

Blanche: Suddenly in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later– a shot (355)!

From then on, the life that Blanche tries to grasp seems to slip from her hands as her family members all die. Her loss of hope and meaning in life results in multiple attempts to “fix” young men or at least please them, for she felt she could not do so for Alan, her dead husband. Thus, when Blanche finally loses all elements of herself, she still realizes that she has “always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Williams 418). That “kindness of strangers” is symbolized as the sexual encounters of Blanche with strangers, which Stanley reveals to Stella:

Stanley: She moved to Flamingo! A second-class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche! In fact they was so impressed by Dame Blanche that they requested her to turn in her room key– for permanently (360)!

Blanche tries to overcome the losses in her life by having sexual encounters with young men. Her continuous attempts to re-live the past and to right her “wrongs” are, in reality, what most human beings do. The fact that Stanley has to tell Stella about Blanche is due to the limited truths that Blanche feeds to Stella. These limited truths reflect the way human beings make impressions on people that are important to them and, therefore, exhibit a reality of experience in the story.

Although all hope for Blanche seems to be lost, a glimpse of it is restored when Mitch asks Blanche to be his:

Mitch: You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be– you and me, Blanche (356)?

Unfortunately, all hope is lost when Mitch learns of her multiple sexual encounters with younger men back in Laurel.

Mitch: I don’t think I want to marry you any more.

Blanche: No?

Mitch: You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother (390).

Blanche loses all meaning and hope in her life after Stella and Mitch do not trust her. It seems as though nobody believes in her. She is not able to face these losses successfully because she becomes mentally ill. The continuous attempts of Blanche to be accepted into society are also found in the natural human behavior. Much of these realistic themes contribute to the buildup of a realistic experience. Finally, when Blanche is not given another chance at true love, the meaning of her life collapses and mental fragility predominates.

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams: Volume 1. New York: New Directions Books, 1971.