Tennessee Williams was once quoted as saying "Symbols are
nothing but the natural speech of drama...the purest
language of plays" (Adler 30). This is clearly evident in "
A Streetcar Named Desire", one of Williams's many plays. I
n analyzing the main character of the story, Blanche
DuBois, it is crucial to use both the literal text as well
as the symbols of the story to get a complete and thorough
understanding of her.
Before one can understand Blanche's character, one must
understand the reason why she moves to New Orleans and
joins her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. By
analyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one can
understand what prompted Blanche to move. Her appearance in
the first scene "suggests a moth" (Williams 96). In
literature a moth represents the soul, so it is possible to
see her entire voyage as the journey of her soul (Quirino
Portrait of Marlon Brando, "Streetcar Named Desire...
English: Last Will and Testament of Tennessee Will...
Cropped 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 then
transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and
get off at Elysian Fields" (Quirino 63). Taken literally
this does not seam to add much to the story; however, if
one investigate Blanche's past one, can truly understand
what this quotation symbolizes. Blanche left her home to
join her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck in
her former place of residence. She admits, at one point in
the story, that "after the death of Allan (her husband)
intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my
empty heart with" (Williams, 178). She had sexual relations
with anyone who would agree to it. This is the first step
in her voyage-"Desire". She said that she was forced into
this situation because death was immanent and...