Thursday, November 7, 2019
A streetcar named desire by Tenessee Williams.
A streetcar named desire by Tenessee Williams. Tennessee Williams was once quoted as saying "Symbols arenothing but the natural speech of drama...the purestlanguage of plays" (Adler 30). This is clearly evident in "A Streetcar Named Desire", one of Williams's many plays. In analyzing the main character of the story, BlancheDuBois, it is crucial to use both the literal text as wellas the symbols of the story to get a complete and thoroughunderstanding of her.Before one can understand Blanche's character, one mustunderstand the reason why she moves to New Orleans andjoins her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. Byanalyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one canunderstand what prompted Blanche to move. Her appearance inthe first scene "suggests a moth" (Williams 96). Inliterature a moth represents the soul, so it is possible tosee her entire voyage as the journey of her soul (QuirinoCropped screenshot of Vivien Leigh from the traile...63). Later in the same scene she describes her voyage:"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and thentransfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks andget off at Elysian Fields" (Quirino 63). Taken literallythis does not seam to add much to the story; however, ifone investigate Blanche's past one, can truly understandwhat this quotation symbolizes. Blanche left her home tojoin her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck inher former place of residence. She admits, at one point inthe story, that "after the death of Allan (her husband)intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill myempty heart with" (Williams, 178). She had sexual relationswith anyone who would agree to it. This is the first stepin her voyage-"Desire". She said that she was forced intothis situation because death was immanent and...
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