Character Analysis of Blanche through Text and Symbolism in A Streetcar Named DesireTennessee Williams once said, “Symbols are nothing more than the natural speech of drama. .. the purest language of plays" (Adler 30). This is clearly evident in A Streetcar Named Desire, one of Williams' many plays. When analyzing the story's protagonist, Blanche DuBois, it is essential to use both the literal text and the symbols of the story to have a complete and in-depth understanding. Before we can understand Blanche's character, we need to understand why she moved to New Orleans and joined her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley. By analyzing the symbolism of the first scene we can understand what pushed Blanche to move. His appearance in the first scene “suggests a moth” (Williams 96). In literature, a moth represents the soul. So it is possible to see his whole journey as the journey of his soul (Quirinus 63). Later in the same scene he describes his journey: “They told me to take a streetcar called Desiderio, then transfer to one called Cemeteries, walk six blocks and get off at Campi Elisi” (Quirino 63). Taken literally this doesn't seem to add much to the story. However, if you investigate Blanche's past, you can truly understand what this quote symbolizes. Blanche left her home to join her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck in her previous place of residence. She admits, at one point in the story, that “after Allan (her husband) died intimacy with strangers was all I seemed to be able to fill my empty heart with” (Williams 178). He had sexual relations with anyone who agreed. This is the first step of his journey: "Desire". She......middle of paper......n. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Corrigan, Mary Ann. “Memory, Dream, and Myth in the Works of Tennessee Williams.” Dialogue in American drama. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971. Engle, Paul. “A Locomotive Called Reality,” The New Republic, CXXXII (January 24, 1955), 26, 27. Falk, Signi. Tennessee Williams. Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. New York, 1961. Jackson, Esther M. The Broken World of Tennessee Williams. Madison and Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin, 1965. Quirino, Leonard. "The cards indicate a ride on a streetcar called Desire." Modern Critical Interpretations: A Streetcar Named Desire. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988. Vowles, Richard B. “Tennessee Williams: The World of His Imagery,” Tulane Drama Review, III (December 1958), 51-56. Williams, Tennessee. A tram called Desiderio. New York: Viking Penguin, 1976.