Themes of Death and Desire in A Streetcar Named Desire

" Desire, unreined, leads to death" To took what extent to Tennessee Williams's plays lend support to such a proposition? Speaking to a reporter in 1963 Tennessee Williams said, " Death is my best theme, don't you think? The pain of dying is what worries me, not the act. After all, nobody gets out of life alive. "1 The themes of death and desire are central in the play A Streetcar Named to Desire. When the play was released …

…anxiety throughout the rest of his life. The mental illness of his younger sister also plagued him with worry and fear. It is certainly clear that in this play, Williams is interested in the results of 'unbridled desire'. What is also equally clear is that these 'desires', untempered by reason, lead inexorably, like a streetcar running along its tracks, to death, both literal, yet more importantly, to metaphors and representations of the 'pain of death'.