tation symbolizes. Blanche left her home to join her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck in her former place of residence. She admits, at one point in the story, that "after the death of Allan (her husband) intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with" (Williams, 178). She had sexual relations with anyone who would agree to it. This is the first step in her voyage-"Desire". She said that she was forced into this situation because death was immanent and "The opposite (of death) is desire" (Williams, 179). She escaped death in her use of desire. However, she could not escape "death" for long. She was a teacher at a high school, and at one point she had intimacies with a seventeen year old student. The superintendent, "Mr. Graves", found out about this and she was fired from her job. Her image was totally destroyed and she could no longer stay there. "Mr. Graves" sent her on her next stop of the symbolic journey-"Cemeteries". Her final destination was "Elysian Fields". The inhabitants of this place are described in Book six of the Aenied: ""They are the souls," answered his [Aeneas'] father Anchises, "Whose destiny it is a second time To live in the flesh and there by the waters of Lethe They drink the draught that sets them free from care And blots out their memory."" (Quirino 61) This is the place of the living dead. Blanche came to Elysian Fields to forget her horrible past, and to have a fresh start in life (Quirino, 63). In fact Blanche admits in the fourth scene that she wants to "make myself a new life" (Williams 135). By understanding the circumstances that brought Blanche to Elysian fields it is easy to understand the motives behind many of Blanches actions. One such action is that during the play Blanche is constantly bathing. This represents her need to purify herself from her past (Corrigan 53). However, it is important to note that Blanche's description of her traveling came before she actually settles into Elysian Fields. The description therefore represents the new life Blanche hoped to find, not what she actually did find. From the begging we see that Blanche does not fit in with the people of her new community, nor her physical surroundings in her new home. We can see that she did not fit in with the people of the community by comparing the manner in which women in the story handle their social life with men. In the third scene, Stella, who is pregnant at the time, is beaten by her husband Stanley. She immediately runs upstairs to her friend's apartment, upstairs. But, soon Stanley runs outside and screams "Stell-lahhhhh" (Williams 133). She proceeds to come down, and they then spend the night together. The next morning Stella and Blanche discuss the horrible incident. Blanche asks "How could you come back in this place last night?" (Williams 134). Stella answers "You're making much too much fuss about this" and later says that this is something that "people do sometimes" (Williams 134). One sees that this is actually a common occurrence by the fact that the same exact thing ha

Some common words found in the essay are:
Blanche Stanley, Elysian Fields, Stanley Blanche, Fields Quirino, Blanche DuBois, Orleans Orleans, Tennessee Williams, Poker Night, Mitch Blanche's, Barnum Bailey, elysian fields, streetcar named desire, named desire, quirino 63, tennessee williams, streetcar named, blanche stanley, light bulb, corrigan 54, poker game, true past, blanche elysian fields, wouldn't make-believe believed, mitch blanche's boyfriend, lantern light bulb,
Approximate Word count = 2059
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)