Blanche

Blanche DuBois: Functioning through Fantasy “We 're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we 're not alone.” This statement from Orson Welles perfectly sums up Blanche’s philosophy about life in A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche DuBois is a young woman from a formerly rich southern family. Her life has been full of mistakes and tragedies that she can’t get over. She creates a fantasy life full of millionaires…

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 sanity, her deception was not only just the inception of destroying herself, but it exemplified her loneliness. She destroyed the potential to be sincerely happy with Mitch, and so, her redemption “so quickly” flees- just as “God” does (116). Blanche Dubois is aware of her inevitable fate when she falls into hysteria as the Mexican Woman sells “Flores para los muertos” (147); symbolizing the psychological death of her because she became disillusioned…

Blanche arrives in New Orleans after having lost her family's tobacco plantation, with nothing but a trunk of clothes and her sexual desire to call her own. When first arriving in New Orleans, her sister's husband Stanley attempts to treat Blanche as any gentleman would, however Blanche refuses to ablige by his rules, and as the plot of the play continues Stanley starts to take any power that Blanche has left, until she is empty of any and has become completely marginalized. Stanley contributes…

Character Analysis of Blanche Dubois Born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911, Tennessee Williams suffered through a difficult and troubling childhood. His father, Cornelius Williams, was a shoe salesman and an emotionally absent man. He became an abusive father, as his children grew older. His mother, Edwina, was a preacher’s daughter and was a spoiled southern belle. The combination of these two were likely the inspiration for the characters of Blanche and Stanley. In A Streetcar Named…

Blanche is the main protagonist of A Streetcar Named Desire. She has a quite complex character which consists of stark contraries. She is dreamy and refined, educated and naive, childish and calculating, self-confident and shy, or angelic pure and immoral at the same time (Poppe 60). She grows up in a sheltered atmosphere with her sister, Stella, at the plantation Belle Reve. The name "Belle Reve" means "beautiful dream" in French and represented a wealthy and beautiful manor at that time. With…

information about Blanche becomes necessary for both the reader and for Stanley to form an opinion about her. The two characters have already begun their power play, each with the goal of gaining the dominance and control over the narrative of Blanche’s past. It is in these scenes as more of Blanche’s past is discovered that the shift of the protagonist begins to happen. Stanley learns of Blanche’s association with the Flamingo Hotel in Laurel, Mississippi from his supply man. Blanche makes the…

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams makes it so the notions of brutal desire and death dance together in a vicious waltz around Blanche DuBois, the tragic main character of the play. The pair constantly haunts her from the moment she arrives in Elysian Fields in the form of two streetcars, Desire and Cemeteries, representing her inevitable downfall that stems from her unyielding wishes for intimacy and to fit into society, both created from terrible past experiences. Blanche’s…

play both Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski commit acts of unforgivable cruelty, but Stanley is by far more cruel over all. Blanche’s cruelty towards others is a direct effect of her traumatic past that still haunts her and she can never escape. Blanche was married to a man who was fighting his own inner demons and later killed himself to escape having to come clean about his sexuality. One could only imagine what kind of damage the death of a person’s spouse will do to a person. Blanche is…

Happened to Stella? : An Analysis Though A Streetcar Named Desire is primarily about Blanche DuBois and her decline into hysteria, Stella Dubois remains a key player in the story; she is a connector of sorts, prompting events to take place. She is Blanche’s sister and Stanley’s wife, connecting them together, for without her they would have never met. Stella is having the baby and it is Stella who eventually sends Blanche away. Stella may not be the prominent character throughout the play,…