A Streetcar Named Desire Research Paper

In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, desire leads to Blanche Dubois’ tragic downfall. Blanche’s desires led to her initiating a relationship with a far younger student. Once the affair is exposed, Blanche is sent away from Laurel, which is why she ends up taking the “street-car named Desire” to Elysian Fields (Williams 5). Once there, Blanche compulsively tries to deceive people into thinking she is attractive, youthful, and pure by formulating lies about herself. However, Stanley catches on to her falsities and exposes Blanche’s true self. Her flaws are revealed and her atrophy ensues. Blanche’s inability to overcome her desire for her student causes her to take Desire, the street-car, to Elysian Fields, where most of Blanche’s austerity occurs, so in both senses of the word, desire leads to Blanche’s downfall, and, ultimately, her mental break.

Blanche’s insecurity and vulnerability fuels her desire to be loved and adored by men, or at least to be perceived as loved and adored by men.

In order to feel worthy, Blanche must feel wanted, so she welcomes adoration of any kind. Thus, Blanche desperately grasps onto the fact that she “excited some admiration” in her youth (Williams 38). Consequently, Blanche seeks the companionship of younger men, possibly to hold onto her golden years of “admiration.” She seduces one of her students and initiates an affair with him. After being caught and sent away from Laurel, Blanche finds herself on a streetcar named Desire to her sister Stella’s home in Elysian Fields. Once in Elysian Fields, it is obvious Blanche has not learned her lesson. Even though she admits that she has “got to be good - and keep my hands off children,” she flirts with a young man by touching his shoulders, telling him “You make my mouth water… Come here. I want to kiss you, just once softly and sweetly on your mouth!” (Williams 96). She then kisses him without waiting for his approval, proving that Blanche succumbs to her

desires.
While Blanche conceals the true reasoning for her arrival from Stella, Stanley, her sister’s husband, becomes suspicious of Blanche and exposes her lies. He announces that the true reason she came to them is because “they kicked her out of that high school before the spring term ended - and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken! A seventeen-year-old boy - she’d gotten mixed up with!” (Williams 122). Blanche’s relationship with a student and her fondness of the young man shows her pedophillic tendancies, one of the main ways Blanche is corrupt.
However, it is not just young men that Blanche flirts with; she also flirts with Stanley. She is unashamed, telling Stella, “Yes, I was flirting with your husband!” (Williams 45). Blanche stands around in just her “pink silk brassiere and white skirt in the light through the portieres” so that she may be seen by Stanley in her underwear (Williams 53). After Stella informs Blanche that she’s standing in the light and that her figure is exposed, Blanche moves away momentarily and then “moves back into the streak of light” which shows that Blanche is purposefully trying to be seen (Williams 54). Blanche’s flirting with Stanley escalates so much that even Stanley comments on it, stating that if he “didn’t know that you was my wife’s sister I’d get ideas about you!” (Williams 41).
Blanche does not cease her coquettishness after Stanley. In fact, when she arrives in Elysian Fields and meets Mitch, she instantly shows interest in him, admitting to Stella that she does “want Mitch… very badly!” (Williams 95). As Blanche and Mitch’s relationship evolves, Blanche strings a web of lies to appear more appealing to Mitch. In Blanche’s eyes, “A woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion,” so she lies to make herself seem more charming and alluring (Williams 41).
For instance, Blanche does not divulge her age to Mitch, stating that “he doesn’t know - I mean I haven’t informed him - of my real age! … I want to deceive him enough to make him - want me…” (Williams 95). This reiterates Blanche’s plan to create an illusion of herself for Mitch to love. However, her tricks work so well that Mitch says “I like you to be exactly the way you are, because in all my - experience - I have never known anyone like you,” but everything he knows about Blanche is a lie, so for her to be exactly as Mitch knows her, is for Blanche to be nothing like she actually is (Williams 103).
When the two begin to become intimate, Blanche proposes that they “leave the lights off,” (Williams 103) because “I like the dark. The dark is comforting to me,” (Williams 143). Mitch recalls to Blanche that he has “never seen you in the afternoon,” (Williams 143). After suggesting that they “turn the light on here” Blanche gets defensive, asking “Light? Which light? What for?” (Williams 144). Mitch realizes that he has never truly seen Blanche, so he “tears the paper lantern off the light bulb” and Blanche “utters a frightened gasp,” because the light exposes that she is not nearly as beautiful or young as she seems (Williams 144).
Once Mitch finds out that Blanche just told him “lies, lies, inside and out, all lies,” he ends their relationship (Williams 147). After Mitch leaves her, Blanche “tremblingly” lifts her hand mirror “for a closer inspection. She catches her breath and slams the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks,” (Williams 151). Finally, Blanche sees her true self and she is disgusted by it; she also realizes that she is not deceiving anyone else, and that her lies are falling apart. As Blanche smashes the mirror against the table, the audience begins to see how mentally fragile and anxious Blanche is.
Desperate to be seen as loved and adored, Blanche lies and tells Stanley that Mitch “came back. He returned with a box of roses to beg my forgiveness!” (Williams 157). However, Stanley retorts, stating that “Mitch didn’t come back with roses ‘cause I know where he is,” (Williams 157). Still, Blanche continues to lie to Stanley, claiming that she also “received a telegram from an old admirer,” (Williams 152). Again, Stanley challenges Blanche, saying “there wasn’t no wire at all! … There isn’t no millionaire!” (Williams 152). Stanley claims that “There isn’t a goddam thing but imagination!” (Williams 158). Blanche’s blatant need to be perceived as desirable stems from Blanche’s hope of being seen as youthful and beautiful.
From the beginning of the play, it is clear that Blanche is insecure and strives to be thought of as beautiful. On page 14, Blanche notes that Stella hasn’t “said a word about my appearance,” which shows how much Blanche thinks about her looks (Williams 14). Later, Blanche repeatedly asks “How do I look?” (Williams 37, 49). Because Stella knows that appearance is “important to Blanche,” she tells Eunice and Stanley to “say something nice about her appearance… And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful,” (Williams 31) and to tell her “how well she’s looking,” (Williams 166). Often fishing for compliments, Blanche boasts that she has not “put on an ounce in ten years,” (Williams 15) and exclaims “Look at me now! Would you think it possible that I was once considered to be - attractive?” which shows how she is yearning to be told that she is svelte and beautiful (Williams 38).
Blanche also commonly fibs about her age to more than just her male suitors, acting as if she is younger than she is. Blanche professes that she calls Stella little “in spite of the fact she’s somewhat older,” than Blanche (Williams 60). However, it is revealed to the audience that Blanche is “about five years older than Stella,” (Williams 5). Later, when Stanley asks how many candles Stella is putting in Blanche’s birthday cake, Stella replies that she will, “stop at twenty-five,” to help make Blanche feel more youthful (Williams 25). Blanche even announces, “When you - reach twenty-seven! Well - age is just a subject that you’d prefer to - ignore!”, but she is most likely about thirty years old, so even when Blanche “exposes” her old age, she is lying (Williams 135).
While Blanche enjoys when others comment on her appearance and youthfulness, she prefers for her “delicate beauty” to “avoid a strong light,” (Williams 5). This way, Blanche’s imperfections and true self is hidden in the dark, like how she desired for them to be with Mitch. When she moves in with Stella and Stanley, Blanche “bought this adorable little colored paper lantern” to “put it over the light bulb!” because she “can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action,” (Williams 60). Blanche believes that she must “put a - paper lantern over the light” to be “soft and attractive,” (Williams 92).
In her own words, Blanche says that she doesn’t want reality, she wants “Magic! Yes, yes, magic!” and that she tries “to give that to people… I don’t tell them the truth. I tell them what ought to be the truth,” (Williams 145). This shows that Blanche lies to create an image of herself that she wishes to be the true. Even though Blanche is corrupt by her insecurity, lies, and mental illness, she relentlessly attempts to appear as pure and clean.