Aim+of+Elysian+Fields

**Researched by: Kassie Notbohm **
 * ELYSIAN FIELDS: AIM **

The aim of Elysian Fields, the street where Stella and Stanley live in //A Streetcar Named Desire//, is to serve as an allusion to the Elysian Fields in Book VI of Virgil’s //The Aeneid//, which is a part of the underworld and a place of reward for the virtuous dead (Thompson). As Virgil describes, the inhabitants “breathe, in ample fields, the soft Elysian air. / Then are they happy, when by length of time / The scurf is worn away of each committed crime; / No speck is left of their habitual stains, / But the pure ether of the soul remains” (Virgil I. 994-1012). The same can be said for Elysian Fields in New Orleans. Residents of Elysian Fields can leave behind “their habitual stains,” or their past mistakes, and live “happy,” knowing that they can move forward and maneuver their way through life. Furthermore, in both //The Aeneid// and //A Streetcar Named Desire//, the Elysian Fields is the journey of the characters. Elysian Fields is the place where the souls of the honorable dead reside before they come back to earth, and it is also the third step of the journey of Blanche’s soul, with Desire and Cemeteries being the first two steps. In //A Streetcar Named Desire//, Elysian Fields is described as a remarkably active place, connecting back to the liveliness and happiness present in the Elysian Fields Virgil illustrates. According to Judith J. Thompson, an American moral philosopher and author, Elysian Fields is “a very lively area where sounds of the streets, the locomotive, and the street vendors are constantly present” (32). Because Elysian Fields is “a very lively area” and home to various “street vendors” and “the locomotive,” it is the major setting of //A Streetcar Named Desire//. All in all, characters, such as Stanley, Stella, and Blanche, are able to experience the busy life on Elysian Fields, connecting them to the Elysian Fields of the underworld and fulfilling the overall purpose that Elysian Fields has in the novel, //A Streetcar Named Desire//.

Works Cited

Thompson, Judith J. Tennessee Williams’ Plays: Memory, Myth and Symbol. University of Kansas Humanistic Studies. Vol. 54. New York: Peter Lang, 1987. Print.

Virgil. The Aeneid. Trans. John Dryden. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909. Print.