Blanche Dubois Mental Illness Essay

Every person wants to portray a seemingly perfect life, whether it’s the real or not. Blanche DuBois, a character in Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar named Desire” lived a delusional lifestyle. While it is no secret that Ms. DuBois had dealt with her fair share of difficulty, her underlying mental illness greatly impacted her everyday choices. Her once perfect world is now in shambles and she will do anything to rebuild the life she used to have. Blanche’s fantasy world is shattered when Stanley, her realist brother-in-law sees through her lies. Ms. DuBois’ unwillingness to accept the truth and vanity throws her into a downward spiral and draws her even further away from reality. Ms. DuBois was visiting her sister Stella, and her brother-in-law …show more content…
Again, because of her self-confidence issues they only went out after it had gotten dark for the day and when light was always extremely dim. After conversing for a while, Blanche brought up a man from her past, her ex-husband. When she was young she got married and fell in love with a man who ended up becoming gay with a male acquaintance of his. Unfortunately, shortly after he acted upon his sexual urges, he took his own life. For most people this would be a devastating incident and to some extent it was for Blanche. That being said she also never let herself really deal with the issue at hand, she says “Afterward we pretended that nothing had been discovered” (Page 96). It was after the loss of her husband that Blanche’s mental stability really began to decline. After telling Mitch about the incident, Blanche is found in the bathtub singing a song called Paper Moon. “Say, it’s only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea- But it wouldn’t be make believe If you believed in me!” (Page 99). These lines are important because that song is specifically based off a fantasy that becomes real when you fall in love. Blanche wants that fantasy and bend the truth until she can get …show more content…
After Blanche lost Belle Reve, she moved into the Flamingo hotel and became a prostitute. Not long after she moved in, her actions got so bad that she was forced to move out. Stanley also says “All this squeamishness she puts on! You should just know the line she’s been feeding to Mitch. He thought she had never been more than kissed by a fellow! But Sister Blanche has no lily! Ha-ha! Some lily she is!” (Page 98). Not only did Blanche make up this illusion that her life since losing Belle Reve was perfectly okay, she also had lost her job. Before moving into the Flamingo, Blanche got physically involved with a student and when his parents found out she was forced to stop teaching. Everything Ms. DuBois has been telling the people closest to her was a completely fictional idea she had made up in her