A Steercar Named Desire - Blanche's Psychological Breakdown.
A Steercar Named Desire - Blanche's Psychological Breakdown
In Tennesse Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire" the readers are introduced to a character named Blanche DuBois. In the plot, Blanche is Stella's younger sister who has come to visit Stella and her husband Stanley in New Orleans. After their first meeting Stanley develops a strong dislike for Blanche and everything associated with her. Among the things Stanley dislikes about Blanche are her "spoiled-girl" manners and her indirect and quizzical way of conversing. Stanley also believes that Blanche has conned him and his wife out of the family mansion. In his opinion, she is a good-for-nothing "leech" that has attached itself to his household, and is just living off him. Blanche's lifelong habit of avoiding unpleasant realities leads to her breakdown as seen in her irrational response to death, her dependency, and her inability to defend herself from Stanley's attacks.
Blanche's situation with her husband is the key to her later behavior. She married rather early at the age of sixteen to whom a boy she believed was a perfect gentleman. He was sensitive, understanding, and civilized much like herself coming from an aristocratic background. She was truly in love with Allen whom she considered perfect in every way. Unfortunately for her he was a homosexual. As she caught him one evening in their house with an older man, she said nothing, permitting her disbelief to build up inside her. Sometime later that evening, while the two of them were dancing, she told him what she had seen and how he disgusted her. Immediately, he ran off the dance floor and shot himself, with the gunshot forever staying in Blanche's mind. After that day, Blanche believed that she was really at fault for his suicide. She became promiscuous, seeking a substitute men (especially young boys), for her dead husband, thinking that she failed him sexually. Gradually her reputation as a whore built up and everyone in her home town knew about her. Even for military personnel at the near-by army base, Blanche's house became out-of-bounds. Promiscuity though wasn't the only problem she had. Many of the aged family members died and the funeral costs had to be covered by Blanche's modest salary. The deaths were long, disparaging and horrible on someone like Blanche. She was forced to mortgage the mansion, and soon the bank repossessed it. At school, where Blanche taught English, she was dismissed because of an incident she had with a seventeen-year-old student that reminded her of her late husband. Even the management of the hotel Blanche stayed in during her final days in Laurel, asked her to leave because of the all the different men that had been seeing there. All of this, cumulatively, weakened Blanche, turned her into an alcoholic, and lowered her mental stability bit-by-bit.
Her husband's death affects her greatly and determines her behavior from then on. Having lost Allan, who meant so much to her, she is blinded by the light and from then on never lights anything stronger than a dim candle. This behavior is evident when she first comes to Stella's and puts a paper lantern over the light bulb. Towards the end, when the doctor comes for Blanche and she says she forgot something, Stanley hands her her paper lantern. Even Mitch notices that she cannot stand the pure light, and therefore refuses to go out with him during the daytime or to well lit places. Blanche herself says "I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than ...". A hate for bright light isn't the only affect on Blanche after Allan's death - she needs to fill her empty heart, and so she turns to a lifestyle of one-night-stands with strangers. She tries to comfort herself from not being able to satisfy Allan, and so Blanche makes an effort to satisfy strangers, thinking that they need her and that she can't fail them like she failed Allan. At the same time she turns to alcohol to avoid the brutality of death. The alcohol seems to ease her through the memories of the night of Allan's death. Overtime the memory comes back to her, the musical tune from the incident doesn't end in her mind until she has something alcoholic to drink. All of these irrational responses to death seem to signify how Blanche's mind is unstable, and yet she tries to still be the educated, well-mannered, and attractive person that Mitch first sees her as. She tries to not let the horridness come out on top of her image, wanting in an illusive and magical world instead. The life she desires though is not what she has and ends up with. Blanche is very dependent coming to Stella from Belle Reve with less than a dollar in change. Having been fired at school, she resorts to prostitution for finances, and even that does not suffice her. She has no choice but to come and live with her sister; Blanche is homeless, out of money, and cannot get a job due to her reputation in Laurel. Already in New Orleans, once she meets Stanley, Blanche is driven to get out of the house. She needs get away from Stanley for she feels that a Kowalski and a DuBois cannot coexist in the same household. Her only resort to get out, though, is Mitch. She then realizes how much she needs Mitch. When asked by Stella, Whether Blanche wants Mitch, Blanche answers "I want to rest...breathe quietly again! Yes-I want Mitch...if it happens...I can leave here and not be anyone's problem...". This demonstrates how dependent she is on Mitch, and consequently Blanche tries to get him to marry her. There is though Stanley who stands between her and Mitch.
Stanley is a realist and cannot stand the elusive "dame Blanche", eventually destroying her along with her illusions. Blanche cannot withstand his attacks. Before her, Stanley's household was exactly how he wanted it to be. When Blanche came around and drunk his liquor, bathed in his bathtub, and posed a threat to his marriage, he acted like a primitive animal that he was, going by the principle of "the survival of the fittest". Blanche already weakened by her torturous past did not have much of a chance against him. From their first meeting when he realized she lied to him about drinking his liquor, he despised her. He attacked her fantasies about the rich boyfriend at a time when she was most emotionally unstable. He had fact over her word and forced her to convince herself that she did not part with Mitch in a friendly manner. Further, he went on asking her for the physical telegram to convince him that she did receive it. When Blanche was unable to provide it, he completely destroyed her fantasies, telling her how she was the worthless Queen of the Nile sitting, on her throne and swilling down his liquor. This wild rebuttal by Stanley she could not possibly take, just as she could not face a naked light bulb. Further when Stanley went on to rape her, he completely diminished her mental stability. It was not the actual rape that represents the causes for her following madness, but the fact that she was raped by a man who represented everything unacceptable to her. She couldn't handle being so closely exposed to something that she has averted and diluted all of her life - reality, realism, and rape by a man who knew her, destroyed her, and in the end made her something of his. She could not possibly effectively refute against him in front of Stella. Blanche's past and present actions & behavior, in the end, even in Stella's eyes depicted her as an insane person.
All of Blanche's troubles with Stanley that in the end left her in a mental institution could have been avoided by her. Stanley and she would have gotten along better if she would have been frank with him during their first encounter. Blanche made a grave mistake by trying to act like a lady, or trying to be what she thought a lady ought to be. Stanley, being as primitive as he was, would have liked her better if she was honest with him about drinking his liquor. Blanche always felt she could give herself to strangers, and so she did try to flirt with Stanley at first. After all like she said to Stella "Honey, would I be here if the man weren't married?", Stanley did catch her eyes at first. But being brutally raped by him in the end destroyed her because he was not a starnger, he knew her, he made her face reality, and in a way he exposed her to the bright luminous light she could not stand all her life.
A Streetcar Named Desire - Complexity of the Characters
It is the complexity of the main characters and their interactions that make A Streetcar Named Desire such a successful and challenging play.
The play A Streetcar Named Desire made playwright Tennessee William's name and has deservedly since had over half a century of success. This remarkable success can be credited to the intricate characters and their interactions with each other.
Sisters, Stella and Blanche have had an enjoyable upbringing on the family plantation, "Belle Reve". As the name suggests Stella and Blanche's time at "Belle Reve" was near perfect. Like all things perfect it had to come to an end. While Stella did the logical thing and left the 'beautiful dream' and married Stan, Blanche hung on to it unable to move on and face reality. Blanche comes to Stella in an unbalanced state of mind in need of her sister's aid. The impression is given that this isn't the first time Stella has been there to help Blanche through a time of trouble. As much as she needs her help and as much as she respects her, Blanche strongly disapproves of her sister's new life. Stella tolerates Blanche's continual criticism of her husband, home and friends very well. From this and many other incidents throughout the play we see what a tolerant and adaptable person Stella is.
Stan and Stella's relationship is far from ideal. Stan is a violent man. On occasions he hits Stella, but comes after her to satisfy his sexual needs. This is not to say that Stella is unhappy in her marriage to Stan. She has adapted to the way of life in "Elysian Fields" where it's accepted that women have arguments with their husbands and as a result are hit by them. Eunice and Steve have a similar relationship it is normal. Despite their violent relationship Stella relies on Stan as much as he does on her. Stella really does ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Stan and Stella's relationship is far from ideal. Stan is a violent man. On occasions he hits Stella, but comes after her to satisfy his sexual needs. This is not to say that Stella is unhappy in her marriage to Stan. She has adapted to the way of life in "Elysian Fields" where it's accepted that women have arguments with their husbands and as a result are hit by them. Eunice and Steve have a similar relationship it is normal. Despite their violent relationship Stella relies on Stan as much as he does on her. Stella really does need Stan and the security he provides, especially with a baby on the way. Even if she weren't expecting a child Stella would have a lot of trouble leaving Stan. She admits to Blanche that, "I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night...and when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby".
From the moment Blanche first came to stay at Stella and Stan's home she posed a threat to Stan. He was used to being the only one Stella cared for, the one who ruled her. He wasn't happy that somebody he had never met could move into his own territory and while residing there, treat him as an inferior and call him "a survivor of the Stone Age". He felt so threatened by her presence that he competed for dominance over Stella, unfairly. He overstepped the boundaries on several occasions. He went through Blanche's personal belongings, he spread malicious gossip about Blanche's past ruining any hopes she had for a future with Mitch and in one last final act to ensure he had won he raped her. Stan appears not to feel any guilt whatsoever for his acts that led to the complete mental destruction of Blanche.
Stella had to choose between her sister and her husband. There is no way that two people as incompatible as Stan and Blanche could live comfortably around each other. For a considerable amount of time Stella did her best to support both Blanche and Stan, negotiating middle ground. However, this couldn't last for long because they were forever competing with each other, the ultimate prize being Stella. Stella chooses to ignore the truth about Stan's sexual assault on Blanche. This could either be a result of his incredible power over her, or the fact that she sees the future would be a lot easier for her, her child and Blanche should she stay with Stan and let Blanche be committed to a mental asylum.
A Streetcar Named Desire would hardly have a story if the characters weren't so complex and didn't interact with each other in the way in which they do. It's the intriguing fragile character of Blanche, the amazing tolerant, adaptable Stella and the power and sex driven Stanley that makes the play so interesting. And then tension between Stan and Blanche, Stella's test of what is thicker: water or blood? -All of these things brought up by the strong personalities of the main characters and their interactions add to the play making it hugely appealing, this resulting in it's success.
A Streetcar Named Desire - Symbols
Tennessee Williams was once quoted as saying "Symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama...the purest language of plays" . This is clearly evident in A Streetcar Named Desire, one of Williams's many plays. In analyzing the main character of the story, Blanche DuBois, it is crucial to use both the literal text as well as the symbols of the story to get a complete and thorough understanding of her. Before one can understand Blanche's character one must understand the reason why she moves to New Orleans and joins her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. By analyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one can understand what prompted Blanche to move. Her appearance in the first scene "suggests a moth" (Williams 96). In literature a moth represents the soul. So it is possible to see her entire voyage as the journey of her soul (Quirino 63). Later in the same scene she describes her voyage: "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields" (Quirino 63). Taken literally this does not seam to add much to the story. However, if one investigate Blanche's past one can truly understand what this quotation symbolizes. Blanche left her home to join her sister, because her life was a miserable wreck in her former place of residence. She admits, at one point in the story, that "after the death of Allan (her husband) intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with" (Williams, 178). She had sexual relations with anyone who would agree to it. This is the first step in her voyage-"Desire". She said that she was forced into this situation because death was immanent and "The opposite (of death) is desire" (Williams, 179). She escaped death in her use of desire. However, she could not escape "death" for long. She was a teacher at a high school, and at one point she had intimacies with a seventeen year old student. The superintendent, "Mr. Graves", found out about this and she was fired from her job. Her image was totally destroyed and she could no longer stay there. "Mr. Graves" sent her on her next stop of the symbolic journey-"Cemeteries". Her final destination was "Elysian Fields". The inhabitants of this place are described in Book six of the Aenied: ""They are the souls," answered his [Aeneas'] father Anchises, "Whose destiny it is a second time To live in the flesh and there by the waters of Lethe They drink the draught that sets them free from care And blots out their memory."" (Quirino 61) This is the place of the living dead. Blanche came to Elysian Fields to forget her horrible past, and to have a fresh start in life (Quirino, 63). In fact Blanche admits in the fourth scene that she wants to "make myself a new life" (Williams 135). By understanding the circumstances that brought Blanche to Elysian fields it is easy to understand the motives behind many of Blanches actions. One such action is that during the play Blanche is constantly bathing. This represents her need to purify herself from her past (Corrigan 53). However, it is important to note that Blanche's description of her traveling came before she actually settles into Elysian Fields. The description therefore represents the new life Blanche hoped to find, not what she actually did find. From the begging we see that Blanche does not fit in with the people of her new community, nor her physical surroundings in her new home. We can see that she did not fit in with the people of the community by comparing the manner in which women in the story handle their social life with men. In the third scene, Stella, who is pregnant at the time, is beaten by her husband Stanley. She immediately runs upstairs to her friend's apartment, upstairs. But, soon Stanley runs outside and screams "Stell-lahhhhh" (Williams 133). She proceeds to come down, and they then spend the night together. The next morning Stella and Blanche discuss the horrible incident. Blanche asks "How could you come back in this place last night?" (Williams 134). Stella answers "You're making much too much fuss about this" and later says that this is something that "people do sometimes" (Williams 134). One sees that this is actually a common occurrence by the fact that the same exact thing happens to the neighbors a few scenes later. Later in the story Mitch, Blanche's boyfriend, yells at her and tries raping her, but she does not let him. Afterwards, she tells Stanley that she would never forgive him because "deliberate cruelty is unforgivable" (Williams 184). Blanche also does not fit into her surroundings. Tennessee Williams describes the place as having a "raffish charm" (Corrigan 50). But, this eludes Blanches. She describes it as a place that "Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allen Poe!-could do it justice!" (Corrigan 50). The person whom Blanche is most directly contrasted with is Stanley. Blanche loves living in an idealistic world, while Stanley strictly relies on facts. In the story Blanche makes up a good portion of her past for the majority of the play. When she was young she lived an eloquent life in a mansion, but she eventually lost it due to unpaid bills. She tells everyone this part of her history but neglects to tell them what she had done during the interim period, before she came to Elysian Fields. Ms. DuBois never told them about the promiscuous life she lived before she came. Stanley, on the other hand, persisted in trying to find out her true past throughout the story. Considering that this is Stanley's house, his domain, it is easy to see that this spells doom for Blanche. The difference between Blanche and Stanley would not be so bad if it were not for one of Blanche's flaws. This harmful trait is Blanche's inability to adapt to her surroundings. This is seen by noting a play on words used by Williams. In the first scene Blanche is described as "daintily dressed" and mentions that she is "incongruous to her setting" (Williams 96). Blanche cannot adapt to her surroundings, but instead tries to change them. Later in the story she says "You saw it before I came. Well, look at it now! This room is almost-dainty!" (Williams 176). By using the word dainty in both places Williams shows us how Blanche tries to change her surrounding to match her, instead of adapting to them. This will not work with Stanley. Blanche deceives everyone for a good portion of the play. However, Stanley is continually trying to find her true history. Blanche says "I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, Magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth." (Williams 177). Stanley does not enjoy "magic", he says that "Some men are took in by this Hollywood glamour stuff and some men are not" (Williams 114). Stanley never believes Stella's act (i.e. her "Hollywood glamour") he only likes the truth. This difference of philosophy creates much tension between the two. The climax of the tension between them is in the seventh scene. While Stanley is revealing to Stella Blanche's promiscuous life, Blanche is singing the following song: "Say it's only a paper moon. Sailing over the cardboard sea- But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me! It's a Barnum and Bailey world. Just as phony as it could be-But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me!" (Corrigan 53) The louder Stanley gets on insisting on the undeniable facts about Blanche, the louder Blanche sings (Corrigan 53). This is a symbolic collision of their two philosophies. Stella, the link between the two, must listen to the facts given to her by Stanley, and the virtues of idealism given to her by Blanche. Light plays a crucial part in the struggle between Blanche and Stanley. From the beginning Blanche insists "I cannot stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark" (Corrigan 54). She then puts an artificial lantern on the light bulb. Light represents truth, and Blanche wants to cloak the truth by covering it up. Later in the play Stanley "brings to light" the true facts of Blanche's life (Corrigan 54). When Mitch, Blanche's boyfriend, is "enlightened" by Stanley about her history he proceeds to rip off the paper lantern from the light bulb, and demands to take a good look at her face (Corrigan 54). The scene when Stanley rapes Blanche is the beginning of the end for Blanche. Sex is her most obvious weakness. That is the reason why she ran to New Orleans in the first place. Since she had come to New Orleans she had tried to avoid it. But, once again, Stanley is in direct contrast to this. Williams describes him: "Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, . . . He sizes them up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them." (Corrigan 57) It is only fitting that he destroys her with sex because sex "has always been her Achilles heel. It has always been his sword and shield" (Corrigan 57). After he has sex with her, she is taken to another asylum, a psychiatric hospital (Quirino 63). The cycle is started again. "Desire" has once again sent her off to "Cemeteries". Throughout the book it is possible to describe the confrontation between Blanche and Stanley as a poker game. The importance of the poker game in the play is proven by the fact that Tennessee Williams was thinking of calling the play "The Poker Night". In the first four scenes of the play, Blanche plays a good bluff. She tricks everyone into believing that she is a woman of country-girl manners and high moral integrity (Quirino 62). Stanley asks her to "lay her cards on the table", but she continues her bluff (Adler 54). However, Stanley then goes on a quest for the truth. He then discovers and reveals Blanche's true past. Once he knows her true "cards" he then has the upper hand. Stanley caps his win by raping her. It is interesting to note that in the last scene of the play, when Blanche is being taken away, Stanley is winning every hand in a poker game he is playing with friends. This symbolizes his victory over Blanche. The card game can be viewed as fate, in which skillful players can manipulate his cards to his advantage (Quirino 62). The music in the background, plays a key part in the play, in describing Blanche's emotions. In fact at one point it says of Blanche that "The music is in her mind" (Corrigan 52). The Blue Piano represents Blanche's need to find a home. She is always extremely lonely and needs companionship. This music is apparent during scene one when she is recounting the deaths of her family at Belle Reeve, and when she kisses the newsboy in scene five. The music is the loudest during the scene when Blanche is being taken away to the asylum. The Varsouviana Polka represents death, and to Blanche immanent disaster. This music is heard as she explains the suicide of her husband in scene six. It is also in the background when Stanley gives her a Greyhound ticket to go home (i.e. back to cemeteries) in scene eight. It also fades in and out of the scene where Mitch confronts Blanche about her true past (Corrigan 52). In studying the main character of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois, it is necessary to use both a literal translation of the text as well as interspersed symbolism to have a complete understanding of her. Tennessee Williams the author of the play wrote it this way on purpose. In fact he once said that "Art is made out of symbols the way the body is made out of vital tissue" (Quirino 61). This is a wonderful quotation to show just how necessary it is to incorporate symbolism in an interpretation of a story.
A Street Car Named Desire
Irony: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected results. Huh? Well take the short story "Lady with a Dog" written by Anton Chekhov as an example. First let's get a look at our main characters, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, and how they met. Then we will take a look how the story has an ironic turn of events.
We first meet Dmitri Gurov, a married middle aged man with children, who has been unfaithful to his wife many times. He has a great contempt for women and refers to them as "the lower race". But strangely can't get enough of them, " It seemed to him that he had been so schooled by bitter experience that he might call them what he liked, and yet he could not get on for two days together without the lower race". He is a player, a playboy. He doesn't feel comfortable around men so he focuses his energies on the ladies, "In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free, and knew what to say to them and how to behave; and he was at ease with them even when he was silent". He tells women what they want to hear so he can get them to bed, " In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature, there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed then in his favour; he knew that, and some force seemed to draw him, too, to them." This keeps life simple for him.
Anna Sergeyevna is a young woman alone on vacation with her dog. We know she is married but the author doesn't go into her character a great deal, at least not to the extent of Dmitri. Perhaps it's not important.
They met while dinning alone at the same place, and spent the rest of the evening walking and talking. At the end of the evening while back in his room, Dmitri thought about her there and was confident that she would get there. " Afterwards he thought about her in his room at the hotel - though she would certainly meet him next day; it would be sure to happen."
A week later they meet again, they spend the day and evening together, he asks her if she may want to go for a drive, she doesn't answer, they kiss, "Let us go to you hotel." And it was as simple as that.
Anna's reaction to what has happened is what we expect. She feels guilty and "dirty", "God forgive me, it's awful." She explains how she has wronged herself for many years staying with a husband she didn't respect. "I am a bad woman; I despise myself and don't attempt to justify myself. It's not my husband but my self I have deceived. And not only just now; I have been deceiving myself for a long time. My husband may good be a good, honest man, but he is a flunky!"
Dmitri admits that this time feels a little different; "But in this case there was still the diffidence, the angularity of inexperienced youth, an awkward feeling; and there was a consternation as though someone had suddenly knock at the door." But still reacts how we expect him to, "Gurov felt bored already, listening to her. He was irritated by the naïve tone, by this remorse, so unexpected and inopportune; but for the tears in her eyes, he might have thought she was jesting or playing at part."
They met everyday at noon and spent the day together. She was scared he was persistent. The one-day Anna had to go home. Her husband was sick. She didn't cry but she was so sad she was almost sick. Dmitri was sad to but looked at it as another chapter of his life was over. "And he thought, musing, that there had been another episode or adventure in his life, and it, too was at an end, and nothing left to it but a memory...He was moved, sad, and conscious of a slight remorse. " They will never see each other again. And it was as simple as that. Or was it?
Both Anna and Dmitri went home. The author doesn't talk of Anna at all during this time but focuses again on Dmitri. Perhaps, again, it is not important.
Now this is the ironic part. He becomes absorbed in Moscow's social life trying to forget Anna but he just can't. "In another month, he fancied, the image of Anna Sergeyevna wold be shrouded in a mist in his memory, and only from time to time would visit him in his dreams with a touching smile as others did. But more than a month passed, real winter had come, and everything was still clear in his memory as though he had parted with Anna Sergeyevna only the day before." He goes to where Anna lives and walks around the town aimlessly for while but decides to go to the theatre on the off chance she may be there. She is and they meet again. Anna is horrified. He begs her to go way with him at that very moment and she finally agrees to meet him in Moscow. They rendezvous like this for months, maybe years. And with no plan for their future they decided to be together. Dmitri is truly in love, "And only now when his head was gray he had fallen properly, really in love - for the first time in his life."
Not how you expected the story to end is it? Of course not! We expected Dmitri to just go on with his life as a womanizer with no second thoughts for Anna. To pursue the easy life he loved so much. And Anna to stay with husband and pretend she had never betrayed him. But instead he chose the hard road to be with the woman he actually loves. "And it seemed as though in a little while the solution would be found, and then a new and splendid life would begin; and it was clear to both of them that they had still a long, long road before them, and that the most complicated and difficult part of it was only just the beginning".
The Character of Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire
Blanche, Stella's older sister, until recently a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi. She arrives in New Orleans a loquacious, witty, arrogant, fragile, and ultimately crumbling figure. Blanche once was married to and passionately in love with a tortured young man. He killed himself after she discovered his homosexuality, and she has suffered from guilt and regret ever since. Blanche watched parents and relatives, all the old guard, die off, and then had to endure foreclosure on the family estate. Cracking under the strain, or perhaps yielding to urges so long suppressed that they now could no longer be contained, Blanche engages in a series of sexual escapades that trigger an expulsion from her community. In New Orleans she puts on the airs of a woman who has never known indignity, but Stanley sees through her. Her past catches up with her and destroys her relationship with Mitch. Stanley, as she fears he might, destroys what's left of her. At the end of the play she is led away to an insane asylum. This is indeed the story of what happened to Blanche in the play but what flaws in her own character were to blame for her subsequent tragedy. Blanche is by far the most complex character of the play. An intelligent and sensitive woman who values literature and the creativity of the human imagination, she is also emotionally traumatised and repressed. This gives license for her own imagination to become a haven for her pain. One senses that Blanches own view of her real self as opposed to her ideal self has been increasingly blurred over the years until it is sometimes difficult for her to tell the difference. It is a challenge to find the key to Blanche's melancholy but perhaps the roots of her trauma lie in her early marriage. She was haunted by her inability to help or understand her young, troubled husband and that she has tortured herself for it ever since. Her drive to lose herself in the "kindness of strangers" might also be understood from this period in that her sense of confidence in her own feminine attraction was shaken by the knowledge of her husband's homosexuality and she is driven to use her sexual charms to attract men over and over. Yet, beneath all this, there is a desire to find a companion, to find fulfilment in love. She is not successful because of her refusal or inability to face reality, in her circumstances and in herself. Blanche has a hard time confronting her mixed desires and therefore is never able to sort them out and deal with them. She wants a cultured man but is often subconsciously attracted to strong, basic male characters, perhaps a response to her marriage with a cultured, sensitive man which ended in disaster. So although Blanche dislikes Stanley as a person, she is drawn to him as a type of man who is resoundingly heterosexual and who is strong enough to protect her from an increasingly harsh world. This seems to be the reason for her brief relationship with Mitch, but it becomes clear to Blanche that Stanley is the dominant male here and she begins to acknowledge that fact. When Blanche tells the operator in Scene Ten that she is caught in a trap, part of her realises she has set herself up via her desires. Stanley is the embodiment of what she needs, yet detests, and, because of her sister, can never have. After Stanley has stripped her of her self-respect in this scene, she becomes desperate, unable to retreat to her fantasies and so this deeper layer of her desires is revealed. Yet, Blanche does not know how to face these feelings and she senses to give into them could be disastrous for her. As Stanley advances towards her, she tells him, "I warn you, don't, I'm in danger!" but Stanley has made sure that this time there is no where for her to hide. In her final act, she silently acknowledges that her own desires have also led to this date. It is interesting that neither Blanche nor Stanley seriously seem to consider Stella as Scene Ten reaches a climax. They both recognise that somehow they are drawn together and also repelled by forces that are directly between them and that have little to do with Stella. Things come to a head so quickly that it is as if tensions have been bubbling beneath the surface to such an extent that they erupt immediately and Stella is out of the picture. As the last scene testifies, Stanley emerges the survivor from the encounter while Blanche is even more emotionally and mentally crippled than before. Yet, Stanley and by extension Stella, are not clear victors. Like Blanche, Stanley is also revealed to be capable of deceit, he does not admit the truth of what happened between him and Blanche to his friends, to Stella, and maybe not even to himself. Stella makes a conscious decision to believe Stanley instead of her sister because to do otherwise would be both emotionally and economically difficult with a new baby so she, too, is engaging in a measure of self-deception. Stanley survives because of sheer physical presence, not because of any innate superiority. Blanche suffers overall on many fronts in her new environment, but in conclusion although one does feel pity for Blanche she has to a large extent with her own weaknesses brought her own downfall. Blanche can not compete in the new household she is placed in Stella has already claimed her territory and ultimately will choose her marriage over her sister. Blanches past erupts into the present and without at the forefront is the contradiction to the facade Blanche has put up over her sexual needs and desires. So confused is Blanche over sex the one weapon she has to gain a husband her sexuality she can no longer use. In the end Blanche is living in a era which was smashed a hundred years before this moment of time in the play. This era Blanche lameness in is the gentile society of Southern America with wealthy European colonials engaging politely in society. For Blanche this refusal to let go of the past and adjust to her new surroundings and the love life she possesses are the key frailties which bring such a strong yet ultimately helpless character to her knees.
The Character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire
"Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" is to some extent living an unreal existence." Jonathan Briggs, book critic for the Clay County Freepress. In Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire" the readers are introduced to a character named Blanche DuBois. Blanche is Stella's younger sister who has come to visit Stella and her husband Stanley in New Orleans. After their first meeting Stanley develops a strong dislike for Blanche and everything associated with her. Among the things Stanley dislikes about Blanche are her "spoiled-girl" manners and her indirect and quizzical way of conversing. Stanley also believes that Blanche has conned him and his wife out of the family mansion. In his opinion, she is a good-for-nothing "leech" that has attached itself to his household, and is just living off him. Blanche's lifelong habit of avoiding unpleasant realities leads to her breakdown as seen in her irrational response to death, her dependency, and her inability to defend herself from Stanley's attacks. Blanche's situation with her husband is the key to her later behavior. She married rather early at the age of sixteen to whom a boy she believed was a perfect gentleman. He was sensitive, understanding, and civilized much like herself coming from an aristocratic background. She was truly in love with Allen whom she considered perfect in every way. Unfortunately for her he was a homosexual. As she caught him one evening in their house with an older man, she said nothing, permitting her disbelief to build up inside her. Sometime later that evening, while the two of them were dancing, she told him what she had seen and how he disgusted her. Immediately, he ran off the dance floor and shot himself, with the gunshot forever staying in Blanche's mind. After that day, Blanche believed that she was really at fault for his suicide. She became promiscuous, seeking a substitute men (especially young boys), for her dead husband, thinking that she failed him sexually. Gradually her reputation as a whore built up and everyone in her home town knew about her. Even for military personnel at the near-by army base, Blanche's house became out-of-bounds. Promiscuity though wasn't the only problem she had. Many of the aged family members died and the funeral costs had to be covered by Blanche's modest salary. The deaths were long, disparaging and horrible on someone like Blanche. She was forced to mortgage the mansion, and soon the bank repossessed it. At school, where Blanche taught English, she was dismissed because of an incident she had with a seventeen-year-old student that reminded her of her late husband. Even the management of the hotel Blanche stayed in during her final days in Laurel, asked her to leave because of the all the different men that had been seeing there. All of this, cumulatively, weakened Blanche, turned her into an alcoholic, and lowered her mental stability bit-by-bit. Her husband's death affects her greatly and determines her behavior from then on. Having lost Allan, who meant so much to her, she needs to fill her empty heart, and so she turns to a lifestyle of one-night-stands with strangers. She tries to comfort herself from not being able to satisfy Allan, and so Blanche makes an effort to satisfy strangers, thinking that they need her and that she can't fail them like she failed Allan. At the same time she turns to alcohol to avoid the brutality of death. The alcohol seems to ease her through the memories of the night of Allan's death. Overtime the memory comes back to her, the musical tune from the incident doesn't end in her mind until she has something alcoholic to drink. All of these irrational responses to death seem to signify how Blanche's mind is unstable, and yet she tries to still be the educated, well-mannered, and attractive person that Mitch first sees her as. She tries to not let the horridness come out on top of her image, wanting in an illusive and magical world instead. The life she desires though is not what she has and ends up with. Already in New Orleans, once she meets Stanley, Blanche is driven to get out of the house. She needs get away from Stanley for she feels that a Kowalski and a DuBois cannot coexist in the same household. Her only resort to get out, though, is Mitch. She then realizes how much she needs Mitch. When asked by Stella, whether Blanche wants Mitch, Blanche answers "I want to rest...breathe quietly again! Yes-I want Mitch...if it happens...I can leave here and not be anyone's problem...". This demonstrates how dependent she is on Mitch, and consequently Blanche tries to get him to marry her. There is though Stanley who stands between her and Mitch. Stanley is a realist and cannot stand the elusive "dame Blanche", eventually destroying her along with her illusions. Blanche cannot withstand his attacks. Before her, Stanley's household was exactly how he wanted it to be. When Blanche came around and drank his liquor, bathed in his bathtub, and posed a threat to his marriage, he acted like a primitive animal that he was, going by the principle of "the survival of the fittest". Blanche, already weakened by her torturous past, did not have much of a chance against him. From their first meeting when he realized she lied to him about drinking his liquor, he despised her. He attacked her fantasies about the rich boyfriend at a time when she was most emotionally unstable. He had fact over her word and forced her to convince herself that she did not part with Mitch in a friendly manner. This wild rebuttal by Stanley she could not possibly take, just as she could not face a naked light bulb. Further when Stanley went on to rape her, he completely diminished her mental stability. It was not the actual rape that represents the causes for her following madness, but the fact that she was raped by a man who represented everything unacceptable to her. She couldn't handle being so closely exposed to something that she has averted and diluted all of her life - reality, realism, and rape by a man who knew her, destroyed her, and in the end made her something of his. She could not possibly effectively refute against him in front of Stella. Blanche's past and present actions & behavior, in the end, even in Stella's eyes depicted her as an insane person. All of Blanche's troubles with Stanley that in the end left her in a mental institution could have been avoided by her. Blanche made a grave mistake by trying to act like a lady, or trying to be what she thought a lady ought to be. Stanley, being as primitive as he was, would have liked her better if she was honest with him. But being brutally raped by him in the end destroyed her. He knew her, he made her face reality, and in a way he exposed her to the bright luminous light she could not stand all her life.
Blanche Dubios the main character of the play a A Streetcar Named Desire is a neurasthenic, hypersensitive, faded southern belle who after some rough times back in her home town of Laurel moves to New Orleans to live with her sister Blanche and brother-in-law Stanley. To fully understand Blanche's character you must understand her reason for moving to New Orleans and the heart of her problems. She left her home because her life there was a miserable wreck. After the death of her husband, she had huge void in her life to fill. She escaped the death of her husband with sexual desire. She admitsto this, at one point in the story, "that after the death of Allen (her husband) intimacies was the only thing that seemed to be able to fill her empty heart" (pg.178). She had sexual relations with anyone who agreed to it.
Blanche was a very friendly and flirtatious woman; those very characteristics got Blanche into even more problems. At one juncture while a high school teacher, she had intimacies with one of her students a seventeen-year-old boy. The superintendent found out about this from the boy's father and Blache was immediately fired. Her image was totally destroyed and reputation gone down the tubes. She was called the town slut for sleeping around. Like Amanda from The Glass Menagerie, Blanche often went fishing for compliments an example of this is when she says to Stella, " You're all I've got in the world, and you're not glad to see me." (pg.20) Blanche says this knowing what Stelle's response will be, " Why Blanche, you know that's not true." (pg.20) Blanche seemed to be insecure and needed other people- (especially men) and other things to make her feel important. Blanche liked to criticize everyone to hind her own problems. In this quote Blanche is criticizing her sister about her husband Stanley after he had yelled and beat her. " In my opinion? You are married to a madman! "(pg.64)
The person whom Blanche is most directly contrasted with is Stanley. Blanche loves living in an idealistic world, while Stanley strictly relies on facts. In the story Blanche makes up a good portion of her life and deceives everyone at one time or another throughout the play. Yet, from the start Stanley does not fall for Blanche's outrageous lies and from the beginning of the story to end the story Stanley is insistent on discrediting her stories. Eventually Stanley does crack her stories, he tells his wife Stella the truths about Blanche's past, " This is after the home-place had slipped through her lily-white fingers! She moved to the Flamingo, a second class hotel that has the adventure of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all kinds of going-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche! That they requested that she turn in her key-for permanently! This happened a couple of weeks before she showed here." (pg.90) Stanley also explains how Blanche lost her job, " She's not going back to teach school! In fact I am willing to bet you that she never had no idea of returning to Laurel! She didn't resign temporarily from high school because of her nerves! No, siree, Bob! She didn't. They kicked her out of that high school before the spring term ended-and I hate to tell you why the reason that step was taken! A seventeen-year-old boy-she's gotten mixed up with! " (pg.126)
Blanche's saucy and brass ways brought many men into her life and it was men that eventually drove her over the edge. She feels she needs a male figure to help her through life even though all they really bring her is distress and hardships. Blanche's world completely collapses when Stanley ruthlessly exposes the truth of her past and when he rapes her. The rape is Blanche's final disintegration. In the end Stella with no other way to turn puts Blanche into a sanitarium.
The two characters Blanche and Amanda both escape by living in illusionary worlds and by reminiscing about the past. Both women rely heavily on men and are desperate to get one. They drive everyone crazy causing their own families to slowly drift away from them. While these characters stay the same, the rest of the world around them is continually changing. This explains the twos repeated failures in life. The major characters in these plays are so warped and their lives so distorted and perverted by fantasies that each is left with only broken fragments of what might have been. They use various escape mechanisms to avoid the truths and realities of their own lives. Society as a whole is at fault because it is us that put these high expectations on people and force people to hide in a world of fallacy and delusions.
.