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The streetcar represents how Blanche's desires lead to her death. Blanche rides on a streetcar named Desire, then on one named Cemeteries, and gets off at Elysian Fields. She acts on her desires, like sleeping with her students, which precipitates her metaphorical death. Stella asks Blanche if she's ever ridden on that streetcar named Desire, to which Blanche replies, "It brought me here.--Where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be..." (Williams 81). Blanche slept around and it caused her to hit rock bottom.

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Light symbolizes the truth about Blanche; which she is constantly hiding from.  The light reveals her old age, so she puts her best efforts into staying in the dark.  Blanche tells Stella, "And turn that over-light off!  Turn that off!  I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!" (Williams 11). Blanche cannot forgive herself for causing her husband's suicide, or for her sexual desires that caused her to lose her job and get kicked out of Laurel. Blanche cannot love her true-self, so she conceals it to make her more desirable to other people.

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Drinking is an escape mechanism for Blanche; she uses it to distance herself from reality and her past.  The stage directions read, "On the table beside chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass.  The rapid, feverish polka tune, "The Varsouviana," is heard.  The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her..." (Williams 139). Blanche is unable to cope with her shame and self-loathing, and uses Southern Comfort as a pacifier.

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Bathing is a way for Blanche to cleanse herself of her past and calm her nerves. The first time she is seen in the bath tub is in the beginning of scene two after the mention of her husband's death in scene one. "She's soaking in a hot tub to quiet her nerves. She's terribly upset." (Williams 29). Blanche was reminded of her husband's death and wants to rid herself of that terrible memory so she resorts to bathing.

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In scene three, Blanche has Mitch place a Chinese paper lantern over the light. This was an attempt to conceal her past sins. However, a paper lantern is not a sturdy mask, and is eventually ripped off by Mitch. The stage directions read, "He tears the paper lantern off the light bulb.  She utters a frightened gasp." (Williams 144).  The paper lantern represents Blanche's fragile sense of self.

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Blanche DuBois is Stella Kowalski's older sister, and the protagonist of the play.  Blanche takes on the archetype of a tragic hero, as well as a southern belle. Her husband committed suicide when they were young, and she has blamed herself ever since. She became a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi, until she was fired for sleeping with her students.  After getting kicked out of Laurel for sleeping with the entire town, she "visits" Stella because she has nowhere else to go.  Throughout the play, Blanche's mental state deteriorates.  After being raped by Stanley, Blanche reaches complete madness and hits rock bottom, so Stella sends her to a mental institution.