Symbols and Metaphors in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Paper Summary:

Williams's play, "A Streetcar Named Desire," is the story of the final decay of Blanche DuBois, a woman who fell from grace until finally losing her mind. This paper focuses on Blanche's lies and how Williams symbolized them in several different ways, including the use of light. It shows how, throughout the entire play, Tennessee Williams uses light to symbolize Blanche's deceptions as they differentiate from the actual truth that is slowly revealed.

From the Paper:

"A Streetcar Named Desire is a great play, where Tennessee Williams uses many different types of symbols and metaphors for other things in the play, and his usage of light to show Blanche DuBois' artificial realism was incredible. The way that each event in the story where Blanche was involved directly with lighting led up to a later important event in the story keeps the reader interested. Blanche's lies were eventually her undoing, if she had gone to visit her sister and been able to stand in the open light and face the truth about her life, she may have been married to Mitch. However she was scared of what she would see if stayed in the light, and more scared of what other people would see in her, so she hid in the metaphorical shadows created by Tennessee Williams and tried, unsuccessfully, to live in her false reality."

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