Death… the opposite is desire.
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 9. Blanche believes that desire is the opposite of death. After her parents pass and her husband commits suicide, she chooses a life of uncontrolled sexual desire in order to feel alive. She seeks "intimacies with strangers" as a refuge from all the death that has haunted her life. Ironically, instead of saving her, this leads to her own metaphorical death and self-destruction of her character. Blanche suffers ostracization, her reputation is destroyed and she eventually loses her sanity.