A number of commentators have pointed out the irony of Blanche' s spending several months on a street in New Orleans named Elysian Fields--in Greek mythology the dwelling place of virtuous people after death--and the further irony of her having previously lived in Laurel, Mississippi (laurel wreaths, of course, were used by the ancient Greeks to crown the victors in athletic contests, military battles, and artistic competitions). These ironies are compounded in the play by the namesof the people who surround Blanche, with the important exception of Stanley: Mitch (derived from Michael, meaning "someone like God" in Hebrew), Stella (from the Latin for "star"), Eunice (from the Greek for "good victory"), and Steve (from the Greek for "crown" ). Critics regard these various names as ironic because in fact Blanche DuBois--"white woods"--finds herself, not in heaven, but in what amounts to bell ("Redhot!" the tamale Vendor cries out at the end of scene 2 [44]) in a conflict with stone-age Stanley the blacksmith (whose first name derives from the Old English "stone-lea" or stone meadow, while his last, Kowalski, is Polish for "smith"); and, these critics argue, this conflict will obviously not send her to an eternal life of bliss in any Elysian Fields, but rather to the misery of a living death without chance of redemption in the madhouse.