Symbols

1. Belle Reve as a symbol for beautiful dream

    Belle Reve is the name of the sisters' family's plantation in their hometown Laurel. The name is of French origin and means beautiful dream, which emphasises Blanche's tendency to cling to her illusions, and which has once existed, but faded away.  

2. Light as a symbol for truth and reality    

Throughout the play, Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light, especially in front of her suitor, Mitch. She also refuses to reveal her age, and it is clear that she avoids light in order to prevent him from seeing the reality of her fading beauty. In general, light also symbolizes the reality of Blanche's past. She is haunted by the ghosts of what she has lost—her first love, her purpose in life, her dignity, and the genteel society (real or imagined) of her ancestors. 

3. Desire, Cemeteries and Elysian Fields

In scene one, Blanche describes her journey to her sister's place: “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields”    Desire is her first step, just as it was the first step of her life after her husband Allan had died. Still struggling with this loss, she was desperately longing for love and companionship, but ended up leading a life which was filled with sex with random men, who never cared about her: At this time she was hence obsessed by desire. 

4. Bathing    Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche bathes herself. Her sexual experiences have made her a hysterical woman, but these baths, as she says, calm her nerves. In light of her efforts to forget and shed her illicit past in the new community of New Orleans, these baths represent her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history. Yet, just as she cannot erase the past, her bathing is never done.

 

5. The Blue Piano       There are two main types of music used in the stage directions: the blue piano and the Varsouviana Polka. Each one appears in scenes which are occupied by a certain emotional state of the main character Blanche. Throughout the play, the blue piano always appears when Blanche is talking about the loss of her family and Belle Reve, but it is also present during her meeting and kissing the young newspaper man. The blue piano thus stands for depression, loneliness and her longing for love, which the adjective blue already suggests.

 

6. The Varsouviana Polka     The Varsouviana is the polka tune to which Blanche and her young husband, Allan, were dancing when she last saw him alive. The polka music plays at various points in A Streetcar Named Desire, when Blanche is feeling regretful for Allen's death. The first time we hear it is in Scene One, when Stanley meets Blanche and asks her about her husband. Its second appearance occurs when Blanche tells Mitch the story of Allen Grey. From this point on, the polka plays increasingly often, and it always drives Blanche to distraction. Then, the polka represents death and disaster. 

Famous Quotes

1. “Physical beauty is passing - a transitory possession - but beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit, tenderness of the heart - I have all these things - aren't taken away but grow! Increase with the years!”  

2. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”  

3. “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.”

 4. “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!”  5. “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.”  

( She may have lied about her past, but she never lied about her feelings. Her heart was always honest. Although Blanche may tell lies, she is emotionally honest with the people she cares about.)