Question

When we first meet Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, she has traveled to see her sister Stella. She took two streetcars to arrive at her sister's apartment. What are the names of the streetcars and what might these names suggest?

Answer 1

In the play Blanche says,

“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”

Blanche is full of desire after her husband Allen dies. She craves love and companionship. 

Cemeteries symbolizes death. Blanche's promiscuous lifestyle and various affairs had got her into trouble and killed part of her. Williams says that :“The opposite (of death) is desire”