150 million years ago, a brontosaurus that roamed Pangea died, decayed, and was eventually buried. After the Brontosaurus bones were isolated from the elements, the calcium leaked out and was replaced by sedimentary rock. Later, when a paleontologist unearths the fossil, he discovers not a real bone, but a facsimile of a bone. In a way, it's a false approximation of the truth of that brontosaurus. Desire works in the same way as the process of fossilization. Desire also blinds people from reality and isolates them from the elements around them. Likewise, desire replaces reality with a false approximation of it. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the power of desire blinds them to their problems or what they originally wanted and replaces them with a false representation of their dilemmas and goals. the power of desire to blind and replace is present in physical and carnal relationships. In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle's relationship with Tom is filled with loss and violence; In “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Stella's marriage to Stanley is also passionate and chaotic. In both relationships, men beat their women, but the women don't leave. Stella's lust for Stanley blinds her to his barbarity. After Stanley punches Stella and screams her name, Stella seems ecstatic with lust: the low-pitched clarinet moans... Stella slides down the rickety stairs in her robe. Her eyes shine with tears and her hair loose around her throat and shoulders... Then they join in with low animal moans... Her eyes go blind with tenderness as she grabs his head and lifts him to her level. (Williams 67) Stella's lust, symbolized by the clarinet......in the center of the card......for those unaware of the difference between right and wrong. If he could have tempered his desire for Daisy, he might have prospered, but since he failed to do so, he died as a result. Desire shapes characters by blinding them to their true goals and the real truth and replacing them with false approximations of the truth and their dreams. For Stella and Myrtle, desire blinds them to Stanley and Tom's violence and replaces the truth with the false one of a perfect relationship. Desire drives Blanche crazy, forcing her from one hopeless relationship to the next. In Gatsby, desire blinds him to his illegal actions and replaces his goal of a better life with Daisy. The Great Gatsby and “A Streetcar Named Desire” illustrate how desire can be ambiguous; desire can provide a dream that can bring great wealth, or it can blind, replace and destroy.