While Tennessee Williams set Streetcar Named Desire in the year it was written (1947), it is shaped by tragic conventions written long ago. These tragic conventions were outlined by Aristotle (384-322 B.C) in Poetics and can be seen in tragedies from Shakespeare to Williams.

A tragic hero is the protagonist of the tragedy. Aristotle feels we must observe this hero go from happiness to misery, like Blanche, who begins the play hopeful of the possibilities that could come from visiting her sister, but is ultimately abused by Stanley and abandoned by Stella.

The tragic hero is is someone who is noble and likeable enough for us to care about - like our dear sweet Blanche - who has survived her husband’s suicide and the loss of her family fortune after caring for her elderly parents.

A tragic hero comes with a flaw, normally a result of their hubris, or exaggerated pride. Blanche DuBois is seriously flawed: she is ridiculously vain, attempts to use sex to secure her status (financial, emotional, social), and is an alcoholic (but doesn't recognise it).

Her demise is foreshadowed in Scene 1 when she takes a streetcar named Desire to Elysian Fields (a reference to the final resting place of Greek Gods). So basically in the first scene Blanche rides a train called desire (sex) to a place called death.

Remember the exhaustingly complicated multiple strands of action in Twelfth Night?

I have good news for you - you won't find them in a tragedy like SND which follows Aristotles’ unities - we are in one setting, following one simple plot. Time... I'm not so sure about.

In short, SND follows single simple strand of action, Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields, loves, loses, is raped and betrayed all within a short period of time in one place. The good news for you is you don't need to remember too many characters or settings.

This is the moment in a play when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood for.

Anagnorisis is the hero's sudden awareness of a real situation, the realisation of things as they stood, and finally, the hero's insight into a relationship with an often antagonistic character in Aristotelian tragedy. Blanche has a lot of these “aha “ moments - one in scene 3 when she realizes Stella will not leave Stanley, when she realizes Mitch won't marry her, and again, right before she is raped by Stanley.

Peripeteia is the climax of the tragedy. In SND the Poker Game can be seen as the night that changes Blanche's circumstances - she meets Mitch, and realises that Stella is never going to leave Stanley and that she has no influence over Stella.

But, the real turning point - the point of no return for Blanche - is when Stanley rapes her.

The nemesis is the source of the hero's ruin, and often the punishment does not match the crime - tragic heroes always lose more than they should.

Blanche's crime... too much desire? Her punishment...

... for her vanity and promiscuity is her rape and final imprisonment in a mental institution.

All in all, tragedies sound pretty... well... tragic. So why do we love them? For their cathartic endings. Aristotle felt catharsis was a form of purification, when we watch a tragedy we experience pity and fear, and through experiencing this, the audience learns to feel emotions at deeper levels. You lived through the downfall of Blanche DuBois, and you leave having learned from that experience, and are relieved it has ended. You are relieved that it isn't you!

Want to compare tragedy and comedy. Check out this link that breaks it all down for you:

http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/comedytr.htm

Some important conceptual differences are captured here. Think about how each of the ideas is played out in the plot, characterisation or themes of the play.