Desire: it drives you, pushes you forward in life, and only by satisfying this yearning will happiness be possible. Blindness: some choose to ignore reality and bring this upon themselves, while others are simply unable to see life in its true light. When examined closely, the main characters in A Streetcar Named Desire each have individual desires, and each exhibits a type of blindness. The theme of A Streetcar Named Desire is the search for fulfillment, but these searches are misguided, because the characters are unable to grasp reality. Blindness to reality and desire for fulfillment play a crucial role when analyzing A Streetcar Named Desire. These two elements are especially vital to understand the main protagonist, Blanche Dubois.
Analyzing Blanche Dubois is fascinating, yet difficult, because of the complexity of her character. First seen clothed in a manner fit for a high-society afternoon tea, her dress starkly contrasts with the part of town in which she arrives. Tennessee Williams describes her appearance as "incongruous- to the setting of the play (Scene 5). She is dressed completely in white, a symbol of innocence and purity. Yet the drama occurs at Elysian Fields, a low-class section of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Blanche is portrayed as delicate, sensitive, and refined, while her surroundings are dirty, run-down, and anything but sophisticated. The contrast between the settings of the play .
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and manner in which Blanche dresses provides the reader with his first glimpse of a major conflict in the drama: the true reality of life versus created illusion. Tennessee Williams is famous for dressing his most degenerate characters ironically in all white, so this provides readers with another clue about Blanche. We learn that Blanche refuses to see life realistically, and prefers fantasy, or as she calls it, "magic."" She says in scene nine, "I don't want realism! I want magic! Yes, yes, magic!" (Williams, Scene 9).
