A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis Essay

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Sauvez-la d'elle-même: Save her from herself
In his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennessee Williams masterfully employs a wide array of literary archetypes and symbols including specific colors, sounds, and place names. These contribute greatly in exemplifying the deep significance of every scene, and providing a thoughtful and thorough characterization of Blanche DuBois. All of this ultimately aids the development of a major theme. It is the inability of Blanche DuBois to overcome the harsh realities with romanticized fantasies.
Miss Dubois’s first name is highly symbolic. “It’s a French name. It means woods and blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods. Like an orchard in spring!” (Williams 48) The color white has long …show more content…
This technique is effective at creating a unique atmosphere for the events that occur. The Varsouviana music heard by Blanche carries a great deal of symbolic significance. This creepy sounding music is permanently stuck in her head. It is no coincidence that this is the very same tune that was playing when her husband killed himself. She feels responsible for his suicide, so the guilt that comes along with this memory and the music is debilitating. Blanche’s inability to escape her husband’s death, the music, and her scandalous past eat her alive. This paranoia climaxes at the end of the story when Blanche, Stanley, and Eunice carry out a plan to have her taken away to a mental institution. Blanche’s hysteria is full blown at this point. Her mind is filled with the disturbing Varsouviana music along with threatening whispers and inhuman cries. With no more fantasies to hide behind, she is utterly helpless. She has no choice but to give in and be escorted away by the doctor and the matron. These symbols, especially the sounds, ultimately exemplify Miss DuBois’s inability to use her fantasies to escape the harsh reality that she has
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