In Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, there are extreme themes of sexual desire and eroticism. This is especially apparent in the characterization of Blanche DuBois, a pretentious upper class southern belle with strong erotic tendencies and an ostentatious personality. Coming from a rich life to having no money and no one to love has caused a complete shift in her personality. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois’ overt sexual desires, inability to accept reality, and unwillingness to let go of the past leads to her ultimate undoing.
Blanche DuBois first came to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella Kowalski. She told her sister she was only visiting, but her large suitcase implied otherwise. Her sudden appearance is strange, as she and Stella have had minimal contact with one another since Stella left home. Blanche explained that she has lost the family estate, Belle Reve, due to finances and had been let go of her English teaching position because of her nerves. We later find out that this is not the case. Instead, Belle Reve was lost because of her sexual escapades and alcoholism. Blanche had been lying all along. She had really been fired when the principal gained knowledge of her intimacy with a seventeen-year-old boy. At
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The death of her relatives causes a downward spiral in Blanche’s financial situation. Her mannerisms show a woman trapped in the lifestyle of fortune, one she refuses to leave behind even after the money has been lost. The loss of Belle Reve is devastating to Blanche and is one reason she spins out of control. As Susan Hawthorne described in her analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire, “She hangs on to what vestiges of gentility she can, but this serves only to alienate rather than to shield her. Tender and delicate, like the moth she resembles, Blanche is unable to survive in the harsh reality of modern society”