The Tainted Blanche DuBois

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is arguably the greatest American tragedy ever written, this is undoubtedly to do with Williams’ skills as a playwright and the subtlety of the techniques he uses to draw the audience in, keep them guessing, engaged and mainly; to help further evoke catharsis and show that the protagonist, “Miss Dubois”, was tainted right from the very beginning.

One of the main techniques used by Williams’ is his skill at writing in a poetic style, this, for a number of reasons, helps intensify the tragedy and further suggest that Blanches clearly flawed character will have her tragic comeuppance. The poetic style in which Tennessee Williams writes in, apart from allowing him to impart his play without the interference of censorship at the time, also helps shed a different light on what would have otherwise have been too bluntly written; there is no single moment where Williams says that Blanches’ deceased husband was homosexual- instead he simply chooses to leave subtle hints in the mind of the audience which “suggests” as a pose to “informs” them “there was something different about the boy, a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn’t like a mans at all”. By leaving much of what happens to interpretation the mind cannot help but wonder; the audience is forced to form an opinion- this helps intensify the tragedy as the audience are being encouraged to form a viewpoint, helping evoke sympathy for Blanche as the audience can see deeper into her character and are being drawn further into the play. This gets and keeps the audience thinking and helps show that Blanche will become a tragic victim in the end as it helps outline her flaws in a way which can be interpreted in many ways, showing that each of her fla...

... middle of paper ...

...gesture.” The stage directions illustrate that Blanche is not of a normal disposition- she seems to be nervous and not in her right mind.

Seeing Blanche by herself is an effective way for the character to be

presented: we see her as an individual entity, what she is like

without the influence of other characters or the boundaries of her

social morals; this helps to outline how vulnerable she is underneath the contestant “act” she is putting on for the other characters.

In conclusion many of the dramatic techniques used by Williams are aimed at and do very much help to outline the fact that Blanche, due to many external factors eating away, aggravating and widening her already exposed dramatic flaws, will have her downfall and was always going to- her tragic downfall from grace down into madness was inevitable; it was just catalysed by fate from day one.