I think that if you are aware of her past, you can understand why she acts the way she does. She has come to Stella not only because she had nowhere else to go, but for her help and love. Instead of this, she finds hostility and rejection, especially from Stanley.
To compensate for her loneliness and despair, she creates illusions. She wants to be seen for what she wishes to be, instead of who she really is. This is why she is constantly bathing and she puts up a paper lantern – to cover the harshness of reality, and create her world of illusion. When she meets Mitch, she shows him her world of illusion and he falls in love with it. However the illusion is shattered when Stanley tells Mitch of the real Blanche. I think Mitch tries to tell Blanche this but Blanche is too upset and makes him leave. In the last scene, she goes to the doctor because he is so kind to her and acts like a proper gentleman. This is explained and reflected in her last line: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. She is a complex person, and throughout the play I felt different emotions towards her, ranging from sympathy to snobbishness and disapproval. She is also very vain and conscious of her age, as shown throughout the play. At the end of the play, I felt Blanche was a tragic victim of life and she did not deserve her fate. As the play opens out, we see Blanche’s past slowly revealed and her slowly losing the little sense she had left.
Mitch, on the other hand, is not very intelligent but extremely trusting and sensitive. He falls in love with Blanche but feels it’s over and the love has been crushed when he finds out who Blanche really is. His sensitivity comes mainly from two people in his life: the death of the girl he loved in his youth and the illness of his mother. This is demonstrated on the first poker night we see. Mitch is worried about his mother so much so that it takes the enjoyment out of the card game. However his mother told him to go out and have fun, so he cannot go home. He has a good relationship with her.
Blanche says Mitch is “capable of great devotion” and notices his sensitivity the first time they meet saying to Stella: “that one seems – superior to the others”. He is a gentleman and is conscious of his manners. Because he is not very intelligent he does not see through Blanche’s lies and the fact that he had never suspected her dishonesty makes his pain worse, when he finds out. The pain is also worsened because he knows his mother is not going to see him married before she dies. He does not believe Stanley when he first reveals the truth about Blanche, but is deeply hurt when he checks the story and realises that it is true. On the whole Mitch is trustworthy, reliable and straightforward.
I think that their characters compliment each other well, and they would have made a great couple. Mitch is so eager to please his mother, that he would love Blanche not only for her character but also for making his mother happy. He very quickly becomes a rescuer for Blanche. She sees him as a place where she can hide away, and can fill her empty head. For her he is her safety, someone who will protect her from reality. In a way he is symbolised as the paper lantern, which covers reality for Blanche. She also sees him as a way out of the Kowalski household. Behind this, I think she wants him and loves him. She would a good substitute for his dying mother. In the relationship, Mitch is the simple, straightforward person and Blanche adds the imagination and romance.
However, the limitations in his personality become more apparent as the play progresses. There is a big difference their education and nature. Mitch is honest, stable and loyal but Blanche is exactly the opposite. She prefers to tell what ought to be the truth, instead of what the truth is, and she has a nervous disposition because of her past.
I think that one of the things that went wrong was how shocked Mitch was that Blanche could be so deceptive. He had never even suspected that she was dishonest and it came as a blow because it was so unexpected. Also, he is extremely truthful himself and it is such a contrast to what he believes. I think that at the end he realises that it didn’t work because he did not appreciate how sensitive and delicate she is.
Another thing that went wrong was speed at which it was all happening. They both wanted things to move quickly-Mitch because his mother would die soon and Blanche because she couldn’t bear to stay with Stanley. Therefore, things were too rushed and they did not have time to find out enough about each other. By going too fast they missed out on the first few months of love where they learn things about each other and find them exciting.
They failed each other because they both needed each other so much. Blanche’s last words were: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. She reached out to Mitch, because he needed somebody too, and tried to depend on his kindness but in the end he didn’t save her and she drowned. Blanche failed Mitch because she betrayed him. He loved her like no one else and needed her, but she threw it back in his face by lying to him in the end. I think that although he can understand why she lied, he cannot forgive her because he cannot get over the sense of betrayal. He felt a fool for believing her for such a long time and this experience will change him by making him less trusting. Blanche was one of his few girlfriends and he loved her deeply. After he confronts her with her past, he embraces her, which shows that he still loves her, however. I think that he feels he deserves to sleep with her because she wouldn’t sleep with him when he thought she had “old-fashioned ideals” but now he knows she doesn’t she should sleep with him.
Their relationship is based on need, more than love but in the end they fail each other. It is a tragedy because they both end up lonely and alone when they could have had each other and lead a happy life together. They are two of the most tragic characters in the play, as one ends up in a mental institution and the other leads a lonely life, alone and scarred.