In A Streetcar Named Desire, the gripping play by Tennessee Williams, Blanche Dubois, a rapidly aging, washed up Southern belle, desperately struggles to come to terms with her status as an alcoholic harlot in the eyes of society. Blanches past haunts
In A Streetcar Named Desire, the gripping play by Tennessee Williams, Blanche Dubois, a rapidly aging, washed up Southern belle, desperately struggles to come to terms with her status as an alcoholic harlot in the eyes of society. Blanche’s past haunts her; she can never get away from the psychological damage, nor the reputational damage it inflicted. The play follows her on the slippery slope to insanity; her attempts to cover up her past and turn it into a pretty pink paramnesia eventually led to her downfall.
Blanche’s young adulthood was bright; she was from a very well off family in the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, and, we can assume, was very beautiful. This beauty led to popularity, especially with males. Blanche was married young and got a job as a school teacher; however both began to crumble when she found out her husband was having a homosexual affair and that she was the one responsible for his suicide. Bella Reve, her ancestral estate, was foreclosed on, she moved into a hotel, her extreme alcohol consumption and promiscuity began, and soon she was fired from her teaching job because of an affair with a student. With nowhere else to turn, Blanche decided to stay with her sister and her husband in New Orleans.
