A Streetcar Named Desire Research Paper

Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in a Southern rural town of Mississippi. He grew up with an abusive father, a flighty sister, and a Southern Belle religious mother. Williams adolescent life and how he grew up prominently influences his work. Most of his characters and their struggles mirror someone of his family; so, Williams was known for using his life as an influence in his works. A Streetcar Named Desire was one of his most successful plays. In this play Williams exposes the struggle human beings have by clinging to fantasies and not accepting reality which ultimately destroys them. Williams does this by embedding location symbols throughout the play.
Williams reveals through the progression of locations, Belle Reve, The Flamingo Hotel, and The

She first arrives to her sister’s apartment by “taking a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!” (Williams 15). The journey on these streetcars are a true representation of her life travels. Williams uses desire all throughout the play to symbolize a sexual reference. She starts on desire where she leaves Laurel and The Flamingo Hotel after being shamed for her sexual actions. She thinks coming to Elysian Fields with a clean slate will right her wrongs. However, sex drives her to an ultimate death as she takes Desire to Cemeteries. Elysian Fields follows Cemeteries which is a mythological term referencing the afterlife. She fixes her problems with sex which leads to more despair. Allan, her husband, commits suicide and Blanche retreats to the Flamingo Hotel. She sleeps with a student, then gets fired. She gets raped by Stanley, then goes insane. Blanche’s denial of her problems continues to lead to hardships; yet she continues to ride the streetcar of desire to her