A full, in-depth A* essay plan exploring the theme of tragedy, and specifically Aristotelian Tragedy in Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire", for the Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature.
Explore the extent to which Williams presents A Streetcar Names
Desire as tragedy
Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” is widely considered to be a tragedy,
attributable to its typically tragic features such as hamartia and hubris. This derives from
Aristotelian “Poetics”, where Aristotle outlines his ideas on what features a play requires to
classify as a tragedy. Williams explores many of these tragic features through the character
of Blanche, the protagonist and the play’s tragic heroine. Despite the play’s multitude of
tragic features, it lacks a moment of anagnorisis; Blanche never quite manages to face
reality for what it is, as she continues to live on in her fantasy world right up until the play’s
close.
Williams allocated the play a tragic heroine, Blanche. A tragic hero or heroine is a prominent
feature of an Aristotelian tragedy. This character is typically one of high class, who is
respected and valued by the people around them. Although Blanche originates from an
upper-class family, she’s not respected by her peers in the way that a tragic heroine typically
would be. This may be Williams communicating to the audience that, unlike the fifteenth
century where status would positively correlate with reputation, there has been a rise of a
new society, of which, Blanche is no longer respected simply due to her wealth. The other
characters view her as sexually promiscuous: when Blanche explains that she’s “Virgo the
Virgin”, Stanley exclaims “hah!”. Although Blanche doesn’t possess many typical
characteristics of a tragic heroine, the fact that Williams clearly presents her as a tragic
figure allows the play to be a tragedy while simultaneously reinforcing the Williams’s ideas
about the rise of a new society.
Williams includes one of the main components of a tragedy in his play - fate. The theme of
determinism runs throughout the play, as Blanche’s fate is set in stone from the start. This is
typically seen in Greek tragedies, such as Oedipus, in which his fate is set in stone, despite
his best efforts to diverge from it. Fate drives the play’s plot, as Williams gives hints to the
audience that Blanche’s downfall has been predetermined. The play is opened by the train
motif: “a streetcar called Desire” that drives between “Cemeteries” and “Elysian Fields”.
Williams implies not only that desire is the driving force behind all actions, but that downfall
is inevitable due to the streetcar physically driving Blanche through the plot: Blanche’s
unmatched desire for appreciation foreshadows the path to defeat, like the streetcar leads
to “cemeteries”. This streetcar is symbolic of the theme of fate, foreshadowing Blanche’s
downfall, and confirming the tragic, deterministic nature of the play.
Williams presents the play’s tragic nature through tragic foils. Stanley acts as the foil
character to the protagonist. Foil characters are common features of tragedy, used to
highlight flaws of the protagonist – in this case, Stanley highlights Blanche’s insecurity and
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