Johann James Zachariah
Professor J. Mignano Brady
Literature For The Soul
20 March 2023
Symbolism in “A Streetcar Named Desire”
In the play “A Street Car Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, we are taken to a character named Blanche who’s dealing with her past troubles as she moves in with her sister who’s in New Orleans, in the 1940s. The problems only got worse for Blanche due to the conflicts between her and her sister’s husband making it hard for Blanche to cope and resolve her past and present problems. Throughout the play, we can see objects, structures, literary devices, etc. such as light, darkness, and drunkenness which help to develop and let the audience understand the situation these portrayed characters are in by using these symbols.
Light is bright and darkness is dull. The light brightens the path to a safe and pleasant life and if you lose that light, darkness can dull that path leaving you to wander around in a rocky and unpleasant life. Blanche’s light was Allen Grey, her beloved husband whom she had loved endurably. That light gave her a safe and pleasant life, but not for long as that same light was taken away from her by betrayal and death. Blanche’s safe and pleasant life suddenly came to a stop when she caught her husband with an older male friend of his in bed, that shock made her act like nothing happened while they were heading to a party the same day when she finally let herself go with her words while dancing on the dancefloor. In scene six, Blanche unconsciously said that “I saw! I know! You disgust me…” (Blanche, Scene 6). This prompted him to run away and shoot himself in the mouth because of the guilt and the words that came from Blanche. This was the turning point to her downfall in darkness as the light that paved the way for her had disappeared forever. In scene six, Blanche tells Mitch, “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this- kitchen- candle…” (Blanche, Scene 6). Furthermore, this proves how much of a great impact the loss of the light in her life had on her as she compared a bright shining light to a kitchen candle. After the death of her husband, the guilt and the panic caused her to have intimacies with strangers to fill her empty heart (Blanche, Scene 9). She moved from one to another in search of protection, comfort, and happiness that the light -Allan- gave her. She was in a search of a light that could grant her all of the above and she found Mitch, but she could not keep that light with her because of Blanche’s lies to get Mitch and Stanley’s cunningness to rip off Blanche’s fantasy.
Ever since moving in with Stella and Stanley -Blanche’s sister and her husband- Blanche has only been spouting lie after lie to give the people the truth that they wanted to hear and to maintain an elegant young lady style to persuade Mitch into marrying her after finding him to be light like Allan. But all of this facade falls apart when Mitch confronts her about the truth after hearing everything from Stanley, wavering in his mind and having second thoughts about marrying Blanche and keeping her in his life. Blanche finally explains the truth to Mitch after being confronted about it and she says, “ I was played out. You know what played out is? My youth was suddenly gone up the water-spout, and -I met you. You said you needed somebody. Well, I needed somebody, too” (Blanche, Scene 9). This shows how Blanche was a young naive woman who lost everything and had no idea how to move on when she blamed herself for Allan’s death prompting her to make immature decisions due to how young she was causing disarray in her life. Throughout the play, we can see Blanche avoids coming out to the light to hide how old she might look to everyone, especially Mitch. Whenever they went out together Blanche would always choose night, dark places where he couldn’t fully see her out in the light. For example, in scene 9, where Blanche and Mitch are having a conversation, Mitch says,
“ I don’t think I ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact!”
“ Is it?” Blanche asks,
“ I’ve never seen you in the afternoon.”
“ Whose fault is that?”
“ You never want to go out in the afternoon” Mitch continues (Williams 116).
This proves how she had been avoiding Mitch during the day to hide her appearance. While Mitch was confronting Blanche about the truth he wanted to turn on the light to see her but she had used a paper to cover the light and as he tears it and turns on the light, she suddenly cries and covers her face (Williams 117). Therefore, as her illusions are falling apart she forces to make it stay by making Mitch turn off the light so she wouldn’t expose herself to him and make him not need her anymore because of her appearance.
Blanche and Stanley can both lose themselves as they get excessively drunk and the outcome for both of them are different. As you go through the play we can see Stanley as a social drunk who drinks with his friends and often it leads to violence between either his friends or his wife. He gets extremely violent if something irritates him and when no one listens to him, for example, in scene 3, things get intense when Stella stood up against Stanley for throwing the radio out the window because it irritated him and as Stella was starting to stand against him he rushed towards her and next thing we hear Stella crying out loud as Stanley delivered a blow to her (Williams 57). Blanche is an anti-social drinker who drinks only to cope with her negative thoughts and problems only to delude herself even more. Even though drinking leads to them both having destructive behaviors, Stanley can rebound back from the drunkenness, unlike Blanche who relies on it to get away from reality making her lose her sanity bit by bit. Blanche drinks to get away from the reality of guilt as she can’t stop blaming herself for Allan’s death, she can’t find a way to move past the guilt and to get away from that pain and guilt she deludes herself by drinking and creates illusions of her being happy and okay while in reality, it’s all just a facade put for other people to not judge her. In “Coping with grief” by Claire Picton, she says, “Grief, after all, is 'a part of life, and should not be denied expression' (Weston et al 1998). If you ever experience such feelings after traumatic incidents, I urge you to acknowledge that you have been affected” (Picton 1). Overcoming obstacles require maturity but Blanche lacked it as she was nothing but a young woman who lost her light in a night, if only she had the courage and wisdom to face her obstacles.
Symbols and motifs are present in all of our lives, sometimes we just fail to comprehend them because we try to go through them alone, when we have a companion with us who can help us comprehend the way to understand ourselves, the chance to become happy and living a life without regrets is way higher than when you do it alone. All Blanche had was her light -Allan- who gave her a safe life but when she lost it she had no one to help her overcome it so she tried to find it by herself by jumping one another for protection and warmth that she missed. Overcoming your obstacles and not running from reality shows your maturity and the wisdom you have.
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