Essay- “Escaping the Past in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’”
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Course
Unit AS 1 - The Study of Drama
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CCEA
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Tennessee Williams\'s A Streetcar Named Desire
“In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ it’s impossible to escape the past”- through analysis of dramatic methods used in the play, and drawing. On relevant contextual information, show to what extent you agree with this statement.
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Unit AS 1 - The Study of Drama
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“In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ it’s impossible to escape the past”- through analysis of
dramatic methods used in the play, and drawing. On relevant contextual information, show to
what extent you agree with this statement.
At the beginning of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Blanche attempts to outrun her past
in Laurel. However, by the play’s end, her history has consumed her, leading to her spiritual
doom. In this way, Blanche’s doom seems inevitable, as though she cannot elude her past.
Through this, Williams accentuates the tragedy which defines the play, and builds sympathy
towards his protagonist.
In Laurel, Blanche is surrounded by decay, and she laments “All of those deaths!…
Why the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep!”. The exclamatory language
demonstrates Blanche’s frustration to the audience, indicating her desperation to escape the
death of her past. The metaphor emphasises the extensive role of death in Blanche’s past,
and creates a foreboding tone. This implies to the audience that Blanche wants to escape
the influence of constant death.
However, Blanche is unable to avoid the past, as death continues to follow her
throughout the play. In fact, similar to the Grim Reaper, symbols of death haunt Blanche,
such as the Mexican woman who calls “Flores para los muertos”. The woman serves as a
personification of death, indicating Blanche’s inability to evade the decay which destroyed
the rest of Belle Reve, and foreshadows her own demise.
Furthermore, Blanche exclaims that “Death is expensive, Miss Stella!”. Williams
employs a short exclamation to convey a matter-of-fact tone to the audience, which
demonstrates how Blanche inextricably links poverty in death. This implies to the audience
that Blanche’s history, and her previous experience of death, follows her into the present in
the form of her destitution. Blanche “[…snatches her purse open]” with “Sixty-five measly
cents in coin of the realm”. The stage direction implies a level of desperate instability to the
audience through the use of the verb “snatches”. This desperation highlights Blanche’s lack
of funds, representing a symbolic “death” of her aristocratic origins.
From the opening scene, Williams indicates that Blanche’s past is inescapable, as
she is doomed to be destroyed. Blanche is instructed “to take a streetcar named Desire, and
then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at- Elysian Fields”.
Williams spent time living in New Orleans, and uses the genuine streetcar names to
foreshadow Blanche’s destruction. The symbolism of the streetcars indicate that desire will
lead to Blanche’s metaphorical death. This is supported by the allusion to the Ancient Greek
Underworld in “Elysian Fields”, which implies to the audience that Blanche’s final destination
of ruin is inevitable as a result of Blanche’s desire. Later, Blanche explains how her
forefathers’ “epic fornications” led to the death of Belle Reve. With the foreshadowing of
death, and the title of the play, it is implied that Blanche is destined to repeat the past and fall
victim to the damaging impact of desire.
This is confirmed in the final scene, with “‘…transported her soul to heaven’ [the
cathedral chimes are heard]”. The stage direction marks the mount of Blanche’s spiritual
death, as the cathedral chimes are typically associated with funerals. Williams’ reference to
an afterlife with “heaven” further reinforces the idea that Blanche has lost her old life,
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