Explore how Conflict of the past is presented in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’

Extract of Essay Answer:
Appearance only exists in the past for Blanche so the emphasis on the one thing Blanche attempts to maintain in the play reinforces the concept that her lies will also fade. Tensions between the past and present, analysed through the scope of feminist theories, portrays the conflicting nature of a modern woman trapped and, to some extent, hurt by the traditional past she has fought and fights to protect. Blanche may be an independent and liberated woman, free from patriarchal marriage and able to live a somewhat sexually promiscuous lifestyle, asserting her dominance, (“sprays him with it [atomizer]”), yet her hamartia and downfall all centre on the “young man” Allan, to a certain extent cementing her fate, an outcome rather the opposite of what would be expected if she was as autonomous as her actions may suggest. As with Blanche, society is on the brink of change, yet it is the past that prevents momentum from speeding up.
As with gender, there is a similar push-and-pull centred around Blanche concerning class and, to a greater extent, the clash of the old south and new America. This is represented through reference to events preceding the novel, “I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it,”. The simple past tense of “pulled” syntactically emphasises how Stanley succeeded in removing Stella from upper class to working class life. This forceful verb reflects Stanley’s brutish and often animalistic-described behaviour which is some way moves back in time rather than forwards. Furthermore, the architectural feature of, “columns” connotes high status, prominence, and power, as well as represent particularly old and ancient buildings. The noun refers to the schema of civilisations such as the ancient Greeks and aristocracy (the DuBois are descendants of French Huguenots), and therefore, old money. The synecdoche, “columns” coupled with the forceful past tense “pulled” sets up the conflict between the current and the past. Allusions to the past in a negative light frequent the play and act as a surface on which other collisions occur. Intertextuality to a historic event is apparent at the height of tension in the play: scene 10. “the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile! Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor!” the reference to Cleopatra pragmatically references and foreshadows the quickening downfall of Blanche. Cleopatra’s hamartia can be said to be her desire for a man which leads to her death as she takes the only escape, suicide by snake bite. This reference perhaps highlights a cyclical structure within the play: Blanche’s actions that lead her to Elysian Fields and eventually her fall can be argued as the fault of desire – a very likely interpretation as Williams stated in his private letters that desire was a demon – and from her first moment in the Kowalski’s flat, it is evident she is an alcoholic and on the verge of breakdown. It is key to note the original departure of Blanche would be suicide under the very streetcar that brought her to Elysian Fields. Allan’s death was also suicide brought on by desire and affairs. The past and present have an interwoven relationship in which tensions of the past reflect tensions in the present and future like a death and life instinct, as identified by Freud, which work as both dichotomies and in conjunction with one another. Death is always in the past and future while life remains in the present, and this is particularly true with Blanche as death affects her present which foretells her future.