Blanche's Destruction: A True Tragedy

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams illustrates the themes of reality and constructed reality, love and desire, social and economic classes, feminism, tragedy, and some would argue comedy. Among many techniques, Williams develops the themes in his play through the use of light and dark symbolism, the set, detailed stage instructions, and constant conflict between characters. While there are infinite ways to view and analyze the play, A Streetcar Named Desire is a true tragedy with a failed attempt at comedy. In fact, the attempt at comedy only strengthens the tragedy in Blanche Dubois' story.

Mentally unstable and driven by desire, Blanche arrives at Elysian Fields looking for her sister, only to come to the realization that Stella left "Beautiful Dream" for a place "Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe" (12) could do justice.  From the moment Blanche meets Stella's husband Stanley, the play is a battle between man and woman, harsh realism and deceptive fantasy, brute strength and aristocratic eminence. Woman, deceptive fantasy, and aristocratic eminence slide down a steep hill as man, harsh realism, and brute strength ascend to the top. Tragedy defines Blanche's life from the moment she hears the gunshot. What was once a blinding light is now only the flicker of a candle, a flicker of reality.

One of Williams' many purposes is to show how the conflicting lifestyles and social statuses in the play ultimately close in on and cause the destruction of Blanche, the protagonist. From the very beginning, Stanley was aware that Blanche's aristocratic presence was a threat to his life with Stella and made it his mission from then on to show his dominance and cause Blanche's tragedy in the process. Williams not only does this through the plot but also through the descriptions of and stage directions for Stanley. For example, the very first description of Stanley perfectly reveals his repulsive demeanor, "He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them" (25). From the very beginning, the audience gets a clear idea of Stanley's sexist, harsh personality that continues to progress and ultimately ruins a hope for Blanche's future. During the rape scene, Stanley declares, "We've had this date with each other from the beginning" (162), showing that he immediately had a plan from the start on how to win, how to prove his authority with brute strength.

While A Streetcar Named Desire clearly exhibits the story of a tragedy, some critics argue that it is a blend between tragedy and comedy. However, the seemingly comical elements in the play only portray Blanche as a weaker, more pathetic character that is quickly losing the Kowalsi Dubois battle. For example, Blanche drunkenly slurs to Mitch: ". . .I’ll show you shuperficial--Listen to me! My tongue is a little--thick! You boys are responsible for it. The show let out at eleven and we couldn’t come home on account of the poker game so we had to go somewhere and drink. I'm not accustomed to having more than one drink. Two is the limit–and three! [She laughs] Tonight I had three" (59). This is supposedly meant to be a comical scene, but it only serves to further emphasize Blanche's instability while also making it clear that she herself is aware of her vulnerability. The comical failures strengthen the play as a tragedy, as they further reveal Blanche as the losing victim and Stanley as the dominant one.

Williams does an extremely effective job of demonstrating many of the other themes–reality versus constructed reality, social class conflicts, feminism, and tragedy–but does a completely inadequate job of portraying humor throughout the play, which has caused many different interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. Is it a tragedy? Is it a comedy? Or is it a combination of both: a tragicomedy? Personally, the intended comical elements in the play only confirmed my opinion that it is nothing but a true tragedy.