Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

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Blanche has a traumatic dark past. She pretends to be someone that she wasn't to escape reality and mask her true colours. She has been through life changing experiences that emotionally and mentally effected her and shaped who she is in the present time. First Blanche wants to be loved so badly and will do anything to find a man who can love and support her. She craves the feeling of being loved and being desired by a man. As a result this caused her to be so blind and wanting the attention from her husband Allan Grey that she didn't see that he was in fact homosexual. She felt wanted by him. She relied heavily on her husbands love and affection. She uses younger men to relive the love that she had with her husband. She also chases Mitch …show more content…

Her past experiences causes her to act that way. She fantasizes about having this perfect husband that has lots of money with a perfect house and perfect kids. The paper lantern symbolizes Blanche as a person, it symbolizes her attempt to escape reality and uses the light to help hide her true beauty. Blanche has a hard time recognizing fantasy vs reality when she moves in with Stella because she pretends that nothing happened and everything is okay. She lives in this fantasy world and acts like a proper well mannered young women when her past shows the complete opposite. She ignores the fact that she had an affair when a student and was fired from her job. She lies to Mitch and puts up this image of a perfect young women because she wants him to want to be with her. This helps explain why she states in the book that she relies on the kindness of stranger because this strangers do not know anything about her, she can tell them whatever she wants and put up an imagine of someone whom she isn't. In the book blanche says to Mitch “I don't want realism! I want 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 truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! – Don’t turn the light on!” This shows that Blanche will lie to people just to get them to like her, She doesn't care about realism she will do/say anything to anyone that will get

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