Paper Summary:

Analysis of the Tennessee Williams play. Centers on main character of Blanche as a symbol of tradition and idealism. The conflict between Blanche and Stanley. Stanley as a symbol of the new culture. Themes of loss, denial. Brutality. Belief in magic vs. reality. Blanche as an intiricate and complex character; her flaws. Tragedy of the play.

From the Paper:

"Funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths--not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go." As if you were able to stop them! --Blanche, A Streetcar Named Desire, Act 1, scene 1.

Blanche is a symbolic representation of tradition and the idealism of old southern culture. She sees herself as she would like to be all the while denying what she actually is by trying to seem special or different than everyone else. Stanley, is her opposite, the symbolic representation of the new South through his sexuality, his violence, his overall brutishness. The conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorizes the struggle between old-style culture and new, crass, hands on blue-collar strength."

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