A Streetcar Named Desire Williams

In Modern Drama, Leonard Berkman gives us a critical interpretation of heroine of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, in The Tragic Downfall of Blanche duBois. Berkman's purpose is not to give us an interpretation of the tragic nature of the drama or Blanche. Instead, he focuses on one question of tragic stature: "The terms according to which victory may be considered within the heroine's grasp, the course of her struggle toward victory, and the pivotal moment in which the struggle turns to defeat" (Berkman 1).

Berkman argues that Blanche has victory in her grasp even at the end of the play as she walks away into madness. At any time, he notes, she could still accuse Stanley of raping her, or she could deny it in order to remain behind with Stella. However, because she does neither, she becomes pathetically helpless as she allows herself to be led away by the doctor. Yet, as Berkman (3-4) notes "Although her hopes for her own future have been crushed, and although she is moving through a siege of terror, she remains free, up through her last moment on stage, to affirm that ideal toward which she has always striven".

Berkman argues that what causes Blanche's breakdown or fall is her inability to develop intimacy with others. He supports this contention by giving us a review of her family relations. We know almost nothing about Blanche's or Stella's relationship with their parents, but we do see that Stella of

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ke further truthful admissions that will only, in Mitch's eyes, condemn her. Mitch, after Blanche's second confession, of course does not embrace her tenderly again; he calls her dirty and demands his sexual due" (3). She is only thought of as a whore, not as someone in need of compassion, tenderness, and empathy. Blanche recognizes that sex and her past will continue to rob her of intimacy. She longs for the kind of intimacy shared by her sister and Stanley, as primitive as she may find it. Blanche is helpless at the end of the play because she recognizes that from now on there will be only strangers in her life, kind ones if she is fortunate. Blanche's upbringing, past experiences, and broken attempts at intimacy condemn her in the here-and-now to a lack of intimacy. She cannot escape this conditioning or experience, so she wanders off with the doctor knowing her struggle to achieve intimacy has been in vain. Blanche becomes heroically tragic to Berkman at this point, because she is now willing to accept the kind of life from which she tried so hard with Mitch to escape "Blanche attains this acceptance with tragic dignity, forsaking her anguish but not forsaking, as the reverberations of her final statement tell us, he

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