Explore Williamss presentation of illusion and reality in A Streetcar Named Desire

One of the methods in which Blanche attempts to conceal the reality of her ageing appearance is through the use of the “coloured paper lantern”. The paper lantern is used to mask the revealing “naked light”, however the reality is that it is only made of paper, which is symbolic of the instability and fragility of Blanche’s fantasy and indeed of her “delicate” nature. Moreover Blanche posits this fantasy unconsciously as a defense mechanism to distort reality. Fantasy, just like the lantern, can disguise Blanche’s insecurities and show Blanche’s efforts to create a beautiful dream to gloss over the ugly reality (represented by the “naked light bulb”) that she “can’t stand”. It is, at this point, important to note that Blanche does not outright hate light, just the harsh intensity of it.  Indeed, one of the reasons she seems to detest it, is because the “blinding light” is symbolic of her passionate love towards her first lover and his suicide and Blanche’s repressed guilt is why she now views light as destructive. Blanche only wants the light to be at an intensity that suits her. In this way the paper lantern, along with her clothes, is a method employed by Blanche to try to glamourise the ugly reality of her world. Blanche is symbolic of the “rhinestone” she wears; it seems expensive but in reality is “next door to glass”.

Light, as a tool of truth, is in many ways symbolic of Blanche’s demise. The “blinding light” which emphasises the passion of her love for Allan, is also suggestive of how Blanche was blind to the reality of Allan’s sexuality. The “blinding light” was her downfall, and as the moth motif implies, light is her fatal attraction.  Blanche also unconsciously compares herself to the paper lantern when “she cries out as if the lantern was herself”. This Freudian slip is important when we consider the fate of the paper lantern. Mitch, in scene nine, “tears the paper lantern off the light bulb”. This causes Blanche to release a “frightened gasp”. And just as the protective illusion of the paper lantern is destroyed, Blanche’s illusions fall down as well when she goes on to admit that she does not “want realism” but “magic!” We can see clearly that the paper lantern is a way in which Blanche creates an illusion to protect herself from the reality of her situation. This violent intrusion could also be symbolic of the rise of the working class, and how Blanche’s illusion of cultural superiority is no longer compatible with the new social actuality in which she finds herself. However, this metaphorical encroachment also foreshadows Stanley’s physical desecration of Blanche, which is the ultimate act of destroying her illusion in this play.

Stanley represents, in its harshest form, the intrusive and destructive nature of reality symbolised by light imagery. Stanley’s brutal honesty denotes the harsh reality of light. Stanley in the very first scene “holds the bottle [of liquor] to the light to observe its depletion”. Williams demonstrates how light in alliance with Stanley is used to reveal the truth that is Blanche’s alcoholism and to expose her lies. Furthermore, like the depleting liquor bottle, Blanche’s illusion is running out of time. Her visual and moral “ruin” cloaked by the “comforting” dark is “exposed” by the “daylight” which Stanley epitomises. Blanche wants “magic” not realism. Her magical pretense is what she uses to try and lay claim to Stella, enticing her in, by trying to invoke a sense of cultural superiority (reminding Stella of her past stature), she tries to “deceive” Stella and Mitch to make them like her (she believes that “a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion”). However Stanley, and his realism, shown through his financial focus towards the plantation (and direct elocution and simplified locution) focusing on empirical and materialistic evidence – “papers”, overcomes Blanche. Her illusion becomes delusion. The journey on the “streetcar named desire” through “cemeteries” to reach “Elysian Fields” is an allegorical conceit foreshadowing Blanche’s mental descent (a result of her experience of reality), as portrayed by the genuine place names, which connote her proleptic death and fall, in the denouement of the play. “Elysian Fields” is the heavenly final resting place of souls for heroes in Greek mythology. This illusion is shattered by the reality of her surroundings – the “dim” building and the “atmosphere of decay”, accentuated by the sematic field of deterioration – “weathered”, “rickety” and “faded”. The reality away from the literature connections is symbolic of Blanche’s isolation from her surroundings, the reality is that people do not care for “Hawthorne and Whitman and Poe”. This is another example of how Blanche is “incongruous” to the reality of her new setting. However, it is the rape of Blanche that is the definitive act of reality overcoming illusion.

The rape of Blanche is the physical embodiment of reality penetrating the veil of illusion. Blanche’s reality of her mental instability in shown through the non-diegetic phonetic interjections at the start of scene 10. The “honky-tonk” music which coincides with the entrance of Stanley not only represents the vibrant spirit of the quarter which is a threat to Blanche, but also shows that she hears sounds which do not comply with reality, demonstrating her madness. The diegetic sounds in scene 10 of the “approaching locomotive” highlights Blanche’s insecurities to the real world and, as it is used to herald the entrance of Stanley, is used to symbolise the defeat of the upper class by the industrial working class (a societal fear of the upper class at that time). The stage directions of “lurid reflections” (which is accentuated by its repetition) and “inhuman voices like cries in a jungle” show not only the brutality and bestiality of the reality facing her, but also her impending insanity and the destruction of her illusion. A destruction that is confirmed by the symbolic theatrical metaphor of the walls becoming “transparent”, which represents her walls of security and illusion being destroyed. The succeeding descriptions of the New Orleans street figures (“prostitute…drunkard…policeman…negro woman”) are physically personified analogues of all that reality represents to Blanche. Williams’s concluding description of Blanche’s “inert figure” is the culmination of the conflict between illusion and reality, a battle which reality wins.

The conflict between Stanley and Blanche is an effective externalisation of the inner turmoil of Blanche’s mind, the battle between illusion and reality. The illusion is the innocent, pure and “soft and attractive” Southern Belle figure. The reality is the lonely desperation of an ageing woman, indulging in sexual contact driven not necessarily by a brutish desire, as some scholars have argued, but a longing for human contact, appreciation, security and a restoration of all that once was. This brutish desire, which is underpinned in the play’s title however, is not necessarily the reason for Mitch overlooking Blanche’s reality at first. Mitch is also a lonely man seeking solace in a marital relationship that would satisfy his mother. Although, this desire is most likely the reason for Stella overlooking Stanley’s reality and for believing him over her sister. This overarching theme of reality versus illusion, represented symbolically in many different forms, is concluded with reality overcoming illusion.  As Williams himself said the meaning of the play is “the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate (Blanche and her illusion), by the savage and brutal forces of modern society (Stanley and his realism). Yet, interestingly, as shown by the relationship of Stella and Stanley which is epitomised in the final scene with Stanley’s fingers finding “the opening of her blouse”, desire can overcome reality.