A Streetcar Named Desire: Reading Journal. Blogpost N°3 - After reading the whole play.

October 18, 2009 at 1:30am

I think the most important ideas or themes behind the play have to do with longing for something you're not - or something that you haven't got many chances to be - and with how different people manage - or not - to live their lives under the circumnstances that condition them.
The following is one of the quotations which reflect this longing and everything Blanche is capable of doing in order to get it:

- I don't want realism. I want magic! (Mitch laughs) Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that's sinful then let me be damned for it! - Don't turn the light on

These lines show that Blanche goes as far as creating an imaginary world and trying to "sell" it to the people around her just because she thinks that that's the way her world should be.

As regards the title, I think the name of the streetcar reflects that longing and that the streetcar itself might be interpreted as the medium through which Blanche thought she could get those things that she desired, like starting over, finding a husband, etc.
The play made me think about the different social classes and how people inside a same social class are also different from each other, see life from different points of view and give priority or importance to different things too.
I don't know yet what I'd ask the author if I had the chance, as soon as I think of something I will post it.