Explore the presentation of tragedy in “A Streetcar Named Desire”.
Make reference to context in your response.
Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a modern American tragedy,
whereby Blanche, the tragic heroine, is used by Williams as an archetype to explore the
inevitable death of the Old South, following the industrialisation of America post WWII.
In the opening of the play, Williams establishes Blanche as a tragic hero through costume and
setting, portraying her as a relic of the Old South incompatible with the new Cosmopolitan
America, foreshadowing her inevitable tragic downfall. Blanche’s social outcast status is
established from the outset, evidenced through Williams’ introduction of her as contrasting to
her environment, appearing “incongruous to the setting.” Her disparity with the mundane
surroundings of New Orleans not only conveys a sense of estrangement but also places
Blanche in a vulnerable position within the society she now finds herself in. The tension
between Blanche and New Orleans foreshadows impending conflicts that erode Blanche’s
agency and disrupt her place within the play. Blanche’s introductory attire, described as “daintily
dressed in a white suit” implies a superficiality aligning with Southern Belle ideals of innocence
and purity. Reflected within this choice of attire are Blanche’s aristocratic origins which starkly
contrast that of the poker players, donning “solid blues, purple,” and that of Stanley, who appears
“roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes” symbolising the fading Old South and the rising
prominence of New America, a world of violence and competition. However, the spectral quality
of her appearance is indicative of her decaying, liminal existence between the past and the fated
tragic future, catalysed by the antiquated traditions of her distinguished beginnings and the
harsh realities of a changing society post-war. Depicted as a “faded white atmosphere of decay”,
New Orleans evokes connotations of destructive dissolution and becomes the focal point of
Blanche’s attraction. Williams employs the setting as a microcosm for the future of
industrialised America, demonstrating Blanche’s inability to assimilate into this evolving world -
a society that seems to have no place for her. Therefore, Blanche, embodying the decadent, old
plantation culture rooted in the slavery system of the Old South, becomes an emblem of a dying
civilisation, forced to exist in a world that has discarded all adherence to her tradition. As argued
by Thomas Porter, she becomes the invader in an unfamiliar world that resents her and will
ultimately destroy her, mirroring the unpreventable eradication of the Old South amidst the rise
of New America.
Williams exposes Blanche's tragic flaw in "A Streetcar Named Desire" as hubris - her distaste
for the evolving societal norms, which materialise through her classist and racist views,
becomes the catalyst for conflict with Stanley, who perceives her as a threat to social order and
prompts his quest to overpower her. During her minimal birthday celebrations, Blanche
marginalises Stanley through derogatory expressions such as “Pig-disgusting-vulgar-greasy!”
Her rhetoric echoes the historical lexicon used to justify the enslavement of people of colour in
the South, revealing her deeply ingrained racist views aligned with the upper class. Through her
condescending views, Blanche not only verbally degrades Stanley but also emasculates him,
directly challenging the emerging New American way of life which rejects such attitudes,
