A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis Essay

Hannah Syed March 8, 2017 Gemini English 101 Literary Analysis Essay Fading Beauty
A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, is a complex apologue of conflicted characters and themes. It is set during the 1940s in New Orleans, Louisiana. The characters including Stella, Stanley and Blanche struggle to cooperate and act as symbols of opposing class and power. Each individual character expresses their personality from a different approach. Blanche, however is the most complex character in Streetcar. Throughout the majority of the play, the content was focused around Blanche and her background. The audience learns that she is emotionally traumatized and sensitive. Blanche struggles

This is an attempt at “washing away” and forgetting her corrupt past. After the death of her husband, Blanche tries to avoid the guilt by having “intimacies with strangers”(Williams 55). She involved herself with numerous sexual partners because she does not want “realism, only magic”(Williams 116). As Blanche grows older, she has come to realize that her bad reputation is expanding, which may hinder the beauty of her ability to become sexually involved with one stable partner. After being introduced to Stanley and his buddies, Blanche found interest in a man named Mitch. He can be described as innocent and soft-hearted, due to the high concerns he has for his sick mother. Mitch is different though. He behaves and reacts adversely from Stanley and the other men during game nights of poker. It seems as if Mitch shows minor affection for Blanche when they are together. In the beginning of the play, Mitch was awkward and shy, but develops a special bond with the audience. Soon, the audience creates sympathy for Mitch after the tragic events that occurred in his past. Throughout the scenes of Streetcar, he serves as a gentleman towards Blanche. Both Mitch and Blanche can be described as being in a codependent relationship that is founded on desperation and loneliness from the emotional damage in which they have suffered. However, the romance slowly vanishes when Stanley advises Mitch about Blanche’s past in Laurel in addition to witnessing Blanche kiss a young man, whose job is to collect money for their local