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Blanche Dubois is by far the most complex character of the play. She had suffered through the deaths of all her loved ones and the loss of her old way of life. At the mere age of sixteen, she eloped with a young boy named Allan, whom she worshipped and loved passionately. Life with Allan was sheer bliss for Blanche, but her faith was shattered when she discovered he was a bi-sexual degenerate. She expressed her disappointment in him, prompting him to commit suicide and then holding herself responsible. With Allan's departure, the light had gone out of her life, seemingly forever "On the dance floor- unable to stop myself- I'd suddenly said ' I know! I know! You disgust me…' And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light stronger..." Pg 184.
Afterwards, she was forced to sell Belle Reve, the Dubois ancestral home, to pay for the many funeral expenses. Cracking under the strain and in an effort to break free from the misery of her life in Laurel, Blanche engaged in a series of sexual escapades that triggered an expulsion from her community. As a result, she seduced young men in memory of Allan and surrendered her body to various strangers in order to find the warmth and security she craved "After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed to be able to fill my empty heart with …hunting for some protection…" Pg 05. But her empty heart found no peace. She had lost everything. Eventually the tragic events of her past lead her to the only thing she had left, her sister Stella, whom she turned to for protection and shelter.
Blanche arrived in New Orleans as an aristocratic and regal figure who possessed a delicate beauty and sensitive moth-like appearance. Blanche described 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. Pg 117. Taken literally it does not add much to the story, but if examined in depth, the true symbolic meaning is clear. Blanche left Laurel to join Stella because her life was a miserable wreck. She had many sexual relations with men as a refuge from her pain, till finally she came upon a seventeen- year-old boy. This was the first step in her voyage- Desire "The opposite (of death) is desire." Pg 06. She escaped death in her use of desire, but not for long. Her image was totally destroyed after the superintendent at the school she taught, "Mr. Graves", discovered her intimacy. No longer could she stay there. Mr. Graves sent her on her next stop of the symbolic journey-Cemeteries. Her final destination was Elysian Fields. Blanche came to Elysian Fields to forget her horrible past and to make a fresh start on life " Feeling like a brand-new human being." Pg 15. With her nervous and refined nature, Blanche was a clear misfit in the atmosphere of the Kowalski's apartment and their noisy neighbouring environment.
It was obvious, even as she desperately attempted to imitate a respectable lady, that there was something terribly wrong with her. She even admitted it to Stella "I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone! Because- as you must have noticed- I'm- not very well." Pg 14. She paraded about the house in her loquacious manner, wearing elegant gowns and delicate jewellery, but it was all a facade. Although Blanche was once a kind, sweet girl as Stella described " Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was…" Pg 18, her very being had deteriorated. Ultimately she was a crumbling figure. All that was left was what Blanche struggled hopelessly to maintain on the outside. Order custom research paper on Blanche Dubois
Although she put on an act of a woman who had never known indignity, Stella's controlling and domineering husband, Stanley, saw straight threw her. Stanley's extreme forcefulness and suspicious curiosity posed a threat towards Blanche. She had created a glass shield around herself, for protection, and Stanley threatened to shatter that glass by exposing her secrets.
Stanley considered Blanche as Stella's past and Blanche's influence revived old prejudices and ways of thinking in Stella that threatened his authoritive dominance. Stanley was totally incapable of understanding Blanche. He was coarse, common and resented her delicate, aristocratic ways. He was a man who wanted all the cards laid on the table and demanded the complete truth. In his household, he commanded complete allegiance, which Blanche was unwilling to give to the likes of him. She described him as an animal saying " He acts like an animal, has animal habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!" Pg 16, she then pleadingly advised Stella "Don't- don't hang back with the brutes!" Pg 164. After calling him an ape, disrupting his life and threatening his marriage, Stanley would not forgive her and swore to seek his revenge.
Desperately searching for love and protection, she stumbled upon Mitch, Stanley's close friend. Blanche was instantly drawn to his sensitive, mild nature and in Mitch she saw everything she'd hoped for, everything she thought would bring her back to a normal life. Mitch was attracted to Blanche immediately, his mother was dying and the imminent loss affected him profoundly. The pair fell in love, with Mitch believing her to be pure, untouched and innocent. Throughout their courtship, she played her role perfectly, even telling him that she was not easy like many girls. The couple had hopes to wed but these hopes were dashed by Stanley's interference.
Stanley had figured out Blanche's true identity, his vengeance had finally come. Suddenly everything began to fall around Blanche just as quickly as she had built it. Mitch became horrified as he discovered the truth of her past and looked down on her. He was not educated or intellectual and could not understand Blanches behaviour, past or present. Blanches world was full of greys and pastel colors. Since he saw things only as truth or lies, black or white, he deserted Blanche.
Blanche said "I don't want realism." Pg 0. She was an escapist; she hid from bright lights, just as she hid from the truth. As a result, she preferred darkness and dim candlelight, the perfect setting for her make-believe world that had no pain or memories. It also hid the reality of her departed youth and advancing age. Her own imagination became a haven from her pain. It was clearly obvious that the roots of her trauma lay in her early marriage. She allowed the polka music to keep playing in her head, and the aristocratic ideals to keep pounding in her heart.
Her brittle nature simply could not bear the reality of present-day existence; she found it too painful. Therefore, she convinced herself that she had remained pure because Never inside, I didn't lie in my heart." Pg 05. She knew that her soul remained uninvolved in her physical encounters. As a result, she dismissed them and saw herself as prim and proper. This attempt to seem virtuous and good destroyed her last marriage prospect. Blanche's perception of her real self as opposed to her ideal self had been increasingly blurred over the years until it was difficult for even her, to tell the difference.
In the final blow to completely destroy her fragile nature, Stanley forcefully raped her. In scene ten, Stanley was on the verge of regaining his dominant stance. He was extremely satisfied with himself after putting an end to Blanche and Mitch's potential marriage, discovering details of her past that shamed her in Stella's eyes as well as giving her the bus ticket back to where she came from. He gloated in his victory, only hours away from becoming a father.
After pretending to play along with Blanche's babble about the "cruise to the Caribbean's", he savagely unmasked her story as lies and fabrications. Only when Blanche became frantic and desperate, did the idea of physically empowering her sexually enter his mind "Come to think of it- maybe you wouldn't be bad to interfere with…" Pg 15. Only an evident act of domination like this could gratify someone of Stanley's character. Finally, Stanley emerges the survivor from the encounter while Blanche is left even more emotionally and mentally crippled than before.
Blanche told Stella about the rape, one of the few times she told the truth in the entire play, but she refused to believe her "I couldn't believe her and go on living with Stanley." Pg 17. Stella used this truth against her and decided Blanche had truly slipped into insanity. The only place for her was a mental asylum, where Stella conveniently sent her to save her own marriage.
Blanche was a truly tragic heroine. She was capable of sacrifice, as evidenced by the fact that she nursed her dying relatives. She also endured deep suffering and guilt over the suicide of her husband. Her life was a lesson of how a single demoralizing experience could totally ruin the future. Her refusal to come out of the time warp and cope with the real world meant she could not face the present or the future, but hid in an illusionary dream world that eventually destroyed her.
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