What is the role of old lady in the play A Streetcar Named Desire? She is dressed in black that Blanche hallucinates, selling flowers for funerals,...

The old
woman in "" is walking around selling flowers to mourn the dead. She is a seemingly
minor character of little importance, but her presence here is figurative and mirrors the events
of the story.

Blanche is struggling to come to grips with her past life,
trying to reconcile with herself the prostitution she undertook to make ends meet. However, she
says she can no longer live with itessentially, she is killing her former self. The woman on the
street is echoing this sentiment, offering up a chance to "mourn the dead", which is
Blanche, figuratively.

As she deteriorates in the moment, she becomes more
fragile and less cohesive, echoing the woman speaking in Spanish that is not understood by the
people around themBlanche is no longer coherent and is having a difficult time understanding
herself and her life.