Streetcar

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). Here we see Blanches lack of morality already. 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 "The opposite (of death) is desire" (Williams, 179). She escaped death in her use of desire.
             However, she could not escape "death" for long. She was a teacher at a high school, and at one point she had intimacies with a seventeen year old student. The superintendent, "Mr. Graves", found out about this and she was fired from her job. Her image was totally destroyed and she could no longer stay there. "Mr. Graves" sent her on her next stop of the symbolic journey- "Cemeteries". Her final destination was "Elysian Fields". This is the place of the living dead. Blanche came to Elysian Fields to forget her horrible past, and to have a fresh start in life (Quirino 63). In fact, Blanche admits in the fourth scene that she wants to "make myself a new life" (Williams 135).
             By understanding the circumstances that brought Blanche to Elysian fields, it is easy to understand the motives behind many of Blanche's actions. One such action is that during the play Blanche is constantly bathing. This represents her need to purify herself from her past (Corrigan 53). However, it is important to note that Blanche's description of her traveling came before she actually settles into Elysian Fields. The description, therefore, represents the new life Blanche hoped to find, not what she actually did find.
             From the beginning we see that Blanche does not fit in with the people of her new community, nor her physical surroundings in h
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Streetcar. (2000, January 01). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 16:13, September 25, 2026, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/33746.html