Streetcar Named Desire Essay: Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire

Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire    A Streetcar Named Desire is a pessimistic work that is the â€Å"culmination of a view of life in which evil, or at least undiminished insensitivity, conquers throughout no matter what the protagonistic forces do†(Szeliski 69).   In other words, sensitive individuals all meet a similar fate-crushed under the heels of those who lack sensitivity. This play is about Blanche DuBois; therefore, the main themes of the drama concern her directly. In Blanche is seen the tragedy of an individual caught between two worlds-the past world of the Southern gentlewoman and the present world of crudeness and decay-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present (Falk 94). The final result is her destruction. This process began long before her clash with Stanley Kowalski. It started with the death of her young husband, a weak and perverted boy who committed suicide when she taunted him with her disgust at the discovery of his perversion. In retrospect, she knows that he was the only man she had ever loved, and from this early catastrophe evolved her promiscuity. She is lonely and frightened, and she attempts to fight this condition with sex. Desire fills the emptiness when there is no love and desire blocks the inexorable movement of death, which has already wasted and deca yed Blanche's ancestral home Belle Reve. For Blanche, Belle Reve was the remaining symbol of a life and tradition that she knows in her heart have vanished, yet to which she clings with a desperate tenacity. In doing so, she is â€Å"both an individual and a representative of her society, an emblem of a lost tradition† (Krutch 39). She is dated. Her speech, manners and habi... ... Adler, Thomas.   A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and the Lantern.   New York: Twayne, 1990. Baym, Nina et al, eds.   The Norton Anthology of   American Literature.   New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1995. Falk, Signi.   Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire.   â€Å"The Southern Gentlewoman†.   Ed. Jordan Y. Miller.   New Jersey:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prentice-Hall, 1971. Krutch, Joseph Wood.   Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. â€Å"Review of Streetcar Named Desire†.   Ed. Jordan Y.   Miller.   New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Szeliski, John T. von.   Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. â€Å"Tennessee Williams and the Tragedy of Sensitivity†.   Ed.   Jordan Y. Miller.   New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Williams, Tennessee.   The Theater of Tennessee Williams.  Ã‚   â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire†.   New York: Laughlin, 1971.