Welcome to A Streetcar Named Desire: Understanding Tragic Aspects
Hello! Get ready to explore Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. This chapter is vital because it moves beyond traditional tragedy (like Shakespeare) into the realm of Later Dramatic Tragedy. You'll see how Williams uses modern settings and ordinary characters to achieve the same powerful effects of pity and fear.
We will break down how Williams incorporates—and sometimes deliberately changes—the key aspects of tragedy, ensuring you have the tools to ace your essay questions on Unit 1.
I. The Type of Tragic Text: Domestic Tragedy
The syllabus asks you to consider the type of tragic text. Williams’ play is a prime example of a Domestic Tragedy.
What is Domestic Tragedy?
Traditionally, tragedy focused on public figures—kings, queens, or high-ranking generals—whose downfall affected the entire state (think of King Lear). Domestic tragedy shifts the focus inward.
- Focus: It concentrates on ordinary people (or people who were once "high society" but are now reduced) and their suffering within the family or home environment.
- Key Characters: Blanche DuBois, Stanley, and Stella are relatable, non-noble figures.
How Williams uses Domesticity to Heighten Tragedy
Williams takes the "ordinary" setting (a cramped apartment in New Orleans) and fills it with immense, intense conflict.
- The tragedy is about the collapse of an individual (Blanche) and the breakdown of relationships (Blanche and Stella; Stanley and Blanche).
- Syllabus Link: Williams shows us tragedy concerning "representations of ordinary people," making the pain feel incredibly immediate and personal to the audience.
Quick Review: A Streetcar Named Desire is a Domestic Tragedy. Its power comes from seeing great suffering inflicted upon an emotionally fragile woman within the close, confined space of a home.
II. The Tragic Protagonist: Blanche DuBois
The syllabus requires you to analyze the protagonist's journey, including their flaws, pride, folly, blindness, and insight.
1. The Journey Towards Death (Spiritual Demise)
Blanche’s journey is geographically and spiritually downward:
Prosperity (Past Order) (Belle Reve, meaning "Beautiful Dream") → Disorder (Present Reality) (Elysian Fields, a reference to the mythical resting place for heroes, used ironically) → Catastrophe (Insanity/Removal).
Did you know? Blanche’s arrival coincides with the Mardi Gras season, a time of festive chaos, perfectly mirroring the psychological chaos she brings.
2. Flaws, Pride, and Folly (The Fatal Flaw)
Blanche’s primary tragic flaw is her desperate adherence to Illusion and her refusal to accept reality.
- Folly (Mistake): Her reliance on alcohol and lies to maintain her delicate mental state.
- Pride (Hubris): Her deep-seated belief in her superior status, clinging to the fading Southern aristocracy ("I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"). This pride makes her unable to compromise with Stanley's raw modernity.
Analogy: Imagine trying to fight a storm while wearing a fragile silk dress. Blanche tries to survive the rough reality of New Orleans using the fragile tools of her past—manners, poetry, and deception.
3. Blindness and Insight
Blanche is deeply blind to her own situation, particularly her vulnerability and her dwindling options. She genuinely believes Mitch could be her saviour.
However, she also demonstrates flashes of Insight:
- She recognizes Stanley as a primal, animalistic threat ("He’s not a human being. He’s an animal.").
- She sees the truth of the new American reality, which has no place for her illusions.
Memory Aid: Blanche’s Light and Shadow
Remember that Blanche always tries to soften the light (covering the naked light bulb with a paper lantern). The lantern is the perfect symbol for her blindness—it hides reality but also keeps her trapped in darkness. Stanley rips off the lantern, forcing the brutal light of truth upon her.
Key Takeaway: Blanche is a modern tragic hero whose downfall is caused by her inability to survive without the comforting lie of the past, culminating in a mental "death."
III. The Tragic Opponent: Stanley Kowalski
Stanley fulfills the role of the Opponent (or sometimes seen as the villain) who "directly affects the fortune of the hero, who engages in a contest of power."
1. The Contest of Power
The conflict between Blanche and Stanley is not just personal; it is a battle between two immense forces:
- Blanche: Represents the dying Old South, aristocratic refinement, tradition, and illusion.
- Stanley: Represents the vibrant, crude, and brutal New America, working-class power, realism, and instinct.
The tragedy arises because Stanley is the inevitable winner. He embodies the future; Blanche embodies the past.
2. Stanley as the Catalyst for Demise
Stanley is not necessarily "evil" in the classical sense, but he acts as the destructive force of reality. His actions drive the tragedy to its climax:
- He relentlessly investigates her past, destroying her credibility (and her relationship with Mitch).
- He asserts his dominance over the apartment and Stella, culminating in the violent rape, which destroys Blanche’s final hold on sanity.
Crucial Point: Williams makes us question who the real victim is. Stanley acts out of self-preservation and protecting his marriage, but his methods are unforgivably brutal. He is the agent of catastrophe, responsible for Blanche's complete breakdown.
Common Mistake to Avoid: Don't call Stanley a classic villain like Iago. He is better described as a Primal Force—an unstoppable, animalistic representative of a social order that crushes the fragile beauty Blanche represents.
Key Takeaway: Stanley is the instrument of fate/reality, whose contest for dominance over the domestic space and Stella leads directly to Blanche’s tragic end.
IV. Structure, Setting, and Fate
1. The Structural Pattern of the Text
The play follows the classic tragic structure, moving relentlessly from order to disorder and complication to catastrophe.
- Order/Prosperity (Initial State): Stanley and Stella have a crude but stable, passionate life. Blanche attempts to establish a new "order" by finding a suitor (Mitch).
- Complication/Rising Action: Stanley begins his investigations; the poker game fight; the growing tension over Belle Reve.
- Climax/Catastrophe: The rape in Scene 10, which represents the complete victory of Stanley’s world over Blanche’s.
- Resolution (The Tragic End): Blanche is committed to an asylum. Order is seemingly restored for Stanley and Stella, but the audience is left with a sense of profound disturbance and pity.
2. Significance of Settings (Place and Time)
The setting is crucial, often acting as an active force in the tragedy.
- New Orleans (Elysian Fields): The working-class, vibrant, and hot environment is hostile to Blanche’s delicate nature. The apartment is small, forcing the characters into unavoidable, claustrophobic conflict.
- The Names: The streetcars Blanche takes—"Desire" and "Cemeteries"—symbolize her life journey: pursuing reckless desires often leads to spiritual death (the cemetery).
3. The Presence of Fate
Is Blanche's end inevitable? Yes, the play strongly suggests a fatalistic outlook.
From the moment Blanche steps off the streetcar "Desire" at the corner of "Cemeteries," her path is predetermined. Her history (loss of Belle Reve, the suicide of her husband, Allen) already weighs her down. Stanley merely speeds up the inevitable collapse.
Encouraging Phrase: Don't worry if defining "fate" feels tricky. In Streetcar, fate is less about divine prophecy and more about psychological inevitability—Blanche is too fragile and the world is too harsh for her to survive intact.
Key Takeaway: The tight setting and the structural movement from the fragile lie to the brutal truth ensure that Blanche’s tragedy feels both inevitable and overwhelming.
V. Language, Violence, and Audience Effect
1. Dramatic Language to Heighten Tragedy
The contrast between language styles emphasizes the fatal conflict:
- Blanche's Poetic Language: Full of alliteration, metaphor, and euphemisms. This language builds the illusion she lives in, often describing harsh reality through soft, romantic filters.
- Stanley's Practical Language: Blunt, realistic, and often monosyllabic ("I am the king around here!"). His language is a tool of truth that breaks down Blanche's fabrications.
Williams uses sound effects (e.g., the Polka music, The Varsouviana) and non-naturalistic elements (e.g., the shadows and jungle noises during the rape scene) to visually and aurally heighten the psychological terror of the tragedy.
2. Significance of Violence and Revenge
Violence is both physical and psychological:
- Physical Violence: Stanley hits Stella (showing his volatility) and rapes Blanche (the ultimate destructive act). This contrasts sharply with classical tragedy, where violence often happens offstage. Williams forces us to confront it.
- Psychological Violence: Stanley's cruel exposure of Blanche's past to Mitch is an act of revenge for her disdain and her attempts to disrupt his marriage. This intellectual cruelty is arguably more damaging than the physical blows.
3. Affecting the Audience: Pity, Fear, and Understanding
The tragedy ultimately affects the audience by evoking the classical emotions of pity and fear, leading to a modern understanding of the human condition.
- Pity: We feel pity for Blanche because her suffering is immense, and her flaw (the need for illusion) is deeply human and understandable. We see her crushed by a world that values brute strength over fragility.
- Fear: We fear the power Stanley represents—the unbridled masculinity and the destructive nature of absolute reality. The audience fears that fragility and beauty will always be overcome by crude power.
- Understanding: Williams offers a commentary on the real world: the difficult position of women dependent on men, the clash of social classes, and the cost of trying to escape time and aging.
Final Key Takeaway: Williams creates a profound modern tragedy by focusing the traditional elements of flaw, fate, and violence onto the intimate, volatile stage of the home, forcing the audience to grapple with the cruel reality of the American Dream.
Quick Review: Linking Key Terms to Syllabus Aspects
Aspect of Tragedy → Key Concept in Streetcar
Type of Text: Domestic Tragedy
Protagonist’s Flaw: Illusion/Pride
Opponent's Role: Agent of Reality/Primal Force
Structural Pattern: Order (Stella/Stanley) → Disorder (Blanche's presence) → Catastrophe (Rape/Removal)
Presence of Fate: Inevitable Psychological Collapse
Setting: Elysian Fields (Claustrophobia, Hostility)
Violence: Physical and Psychological (Destruction of sanity)