Blanche's destruction in A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicting characters. Set in the crucial years immediately following World War II, Tennessee Williams imbues Blanche and Stanley with symbols of opposing classes and different attitudes towards sex and love, then takes a step back as the power struggle between them begins They. Yet there are no clear lines between good and evil, no character is either completely good or evil, because the main characters, (especially Blanche), are so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. As such, the play has no clear winner, everyone loses something, and this fact is what gives the play its tragic character. In a broader sense, Blanche and Stanley, individual characters as well as symbols of opposing classes, historical periods, and lifestyles, struggle and find a new balance of power, not because of ideological rights and wrongs, but as a matter of history. inevitability. Interestingly, Williams finalizes the resolution of this fight at the lowest possible level. In scene ten, Stanley subjugates Blanche and everything she represents, the same way men have subjugated women for centuries. Yet, however shocking, this is not at odds with the themes of the play since, in all matters of power, force is its ultimate manifestation. And Blanche isn't entirely against it, she has her own desires that draw her towards Stanley, like a moth towards the light, a light she avoids, even hates, but longs for. A first reader of scene ten of the play might conclude that the sex between Stanley and Blanche seems out of place. It may not seem true given the above circumstances. There is not much overt sexual tension... at the center of the card... mechanism, and desire is only a function of reproduction. Yet this is not the case. Individual human destiny is much stronger than the force of history if only individuals face what they are and the forces that drive them and have the courage to face the mass wave head on. Maybe no one in this play does, but the desire is there and we can learn from their failure. Works Cited Bloom, Herald (ed.). Tennessee Williams. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Donahue, Francis. The dramatic world of Tennessee Williams. New York: Frederic Ungar Publishing Co., 1964.Hirsch, Foster. A Portrait of the Artist: The Comedies of Tennessee Williams. London: Kennikat Press, 1979.London, F.H. Tennessee Williams. New York: Frederic Ungar Publishing Co., 1979. Williams, Tennessee. A tram called Desiderio. Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam, 1988.