Themes in a Streetcar Named DesireA Streetcar Named Desire is a pessimistic work which is “the culmination of a vision of life in which evil, or at least undiminished insensitivity, it conquers everywhere, no matter what the protagonist forces do” (Szeliski 69). In other words, sensitive individuals all meet the same fate: crushed under the heels of those who lack sensitivity. This play is about Blanche DuBois; the main themes of the drama therefore concern her directly. In Blanche we see the tragedy of an individual caught between two worlds - the past world of the gentle Southern lady and the present world of crudeness and decadence - unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of his character, to reach any solution. terms with the present (Falk 94). The end result is its destruction. This process began long before his confrontation with Stanley Kowalski. It began with the death of her young husband, a weak and perverted boy who committed suicide when she taunted him with her disgust upon discovering his perversion. In retrospect, she knows that he was the only man she ever loved, and from this first catastrophe was born her promiscuity. She is alone and scared and tries to fight this illness with sex. Desire fills the void when there is no love and desire blocks the inexorable movement of death, which has already wasted and rotted Blanche's ancestral home, Belle Reve. For Blanche, Belle Reve was the remaining symbol of a life and tradition she knows in her heart. have disappeared, but to which she clings with desperate tenacity. In doing so, she is “both a person and a representative of her society, the emblem of a lost tradition” (Krutch 39). It is dated. His speech, manners and habits...... middle of paper ......Adler, Thomas. A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and the Lantern. New York: Twayne, 1990. Baym, Nina et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: WW Norton & Co. 1995. Falk, Signi. Twentieth-century interpretations of a streetcar named Desire. “The Southern Gentlewoman”. Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Krutch, Joseph Wood. Twentieth-century interpretations of a streetcar named Desire. "Streetcar Named Desire review". Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Szeliski, John T. von. Twentieth-century interpretations of a streetcar named Desire. "Tennessee Williams and the tragedy of sensitivity". Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Williams, Tennessee. The Tennessee Williams Theater. “A Streetcar Named Desire”. New York: Laughlin, 1971.