The Smbolisms of the Name, Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire

In the first few scenes of "A Streetcar Named Desire", Tennessee

Williams shows us a complex woman, named Blanche Dubois. This

paper will explore the symbolisms of her name.

The name Blanche is French and means white or fair. Her last name

DuBois is of French origin as well and translates as “made of wood”.

The name suggests that Blanche is a very innocent and pure person.

When she appears in scene one, “she is daintily dressed in a white

suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white

gloves and a hat…” (Sc.1 p. 2073). White is also the color of light

and represents perfection and virginity but throughout the play it

becomes obvious that Blanche cannot call any of the traits of her name

her own. She is a seductive and promiscuous woman. Only the illusory

image, which she tries to create for herself, suggests these traits,

but her true nature is not like that at all. She constantly tries to

hide her embarrassing past from her new acquaintances, because she

fears that they might not accept her anymore. In order to maintain

her apparent social status among her new neighbors and friends, she

builds an intertwined net of lies, which creates a false image of

her. She believes in this imaginary world, and as soon as there is

the slightest sign of destruction, she seems to be lost, and her

nervous condition worsens. Therefore all she cares about is to keep

that image alive. Her first name is therefore quite ironic since it

means the exact opposite of Blanche’s true nature and character.

Her last name, however, stands in contrast to her first name. Made of

wood suggests something solid and hard, which is the exact opposite of

her fragile nature and nervous condition. Wood can also be associated

with forest or jungle, and regarding her past, the connection becomes

clear. Blanche indulges in a rather excessive lifestyle. She has sex

with random strangers and is known throughout her hometown of Laurel

for that. Her former life is more like a jungle or a forest, because

it is hard to see through all this and detect the real Blanche. As in

a jungle, Blanche cannot find a way out of this on her own. The term

jungle appears in the play as well. In scene ten, when Stanley is

about to rape Blanche, “the inhuman jungle voices rise up” (Sc.10 p.

2130). The jungle can be associated with wildness, brutality and

inhuman behavior. As mentioned about, wood represents something hard,

or hard working. The Du in front of that however, suggests something