Analysis Of Blanche: A Character Named Blanche

1770 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How can family conflicts affect social development of the child

Blanche: A Character Warped By Her Grievances Blanche’s presence in the narrative exists to illuminate her path to purgatory through a series of conflicts, insecurities, and failed romantic interactions. Her history is plagued with the past; and she seldom forgets it nor lets those around her forget their alleged responsibility to comfort her. “I never was hard enough or self-sufficient enough. When people are soft - soft people have got to shimmer and glow - they’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a - paper lantern over the light…It isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I - I’m fading now! I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick.” - Blanche (92) Blanche’s downfall She is frequently debilitated by her need to calm down; which is a highly frequent event. Added to her nerves; she is incapable of calming them without the help of another or of an alcoholic beverage. This is likely because of her fear of the unpredictable future. When she first arrives in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella and Stanley, she remarks to Stella, “I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can’t be alone! Because - as you might have noticed - I’m - not very well,” - Blanche [Her voice drops and her look is frightened] (Williams 17). She needs Stella to provide her with attention so that she can be relieved of her grievances. Perhaps Stella, being her younger sister, is an outlet for Blanche to live quasi-vicariously through her. Stella is a married, mother-to-be, with a life in a big city. Blanche’s life is in ruins and Stella provides the opportunity to witness the life she had She proclaims “I want to deceive him enough to make him - want me …” (Williams 95) to Stella, thus exposing her seduction plan. Blanche has found her perfect man in Mitch, he is kind, hard-working, and easily deceived. She has essentially put on an act for him so that she can lure him into proposing to her for the purpose of recreating her failed romantic past. She doesn’t love him; she loves the idea of him. Kolin notes that, “as Mary stores in her heart great things to be done by her son, Blanche does the same with the eternal truths which she has found make all relationships meaningful and which unbelievers like Stanley can only sneer at or be threatened by.” (Kolin 85) Blanche is merely hopeful for the chance to redeem her past grievances, and thinks she can do so by following her warped view of a passionate relationship. Perhaps these “eternal truths” about relationships that Blanche feels she has discovered is the very fact that sometimes manipulation is needed. Stanley could concur to

Show More
Related

  • Death in A Streetcar Named Desire

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    This statement also emphasises much of Blanche’s own views on sorrow and explains how it has affected her life since she has made the comment from personal experience. To conclude, Tennessee Williams’ dramatic use of death and dying is an overarching theme in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ from which everything about Blanche’s character has formed from. Without the death of Allan, Blanche would not have resorted to prostitution and the brief affairs with strangers, also the deaths of her family have driven Blanche to Stella’s where she is “not wanted” and “ashamed to be”. Therefore these dramatic deaths have lead to the past which comes back to haunt

    Read More

  • Stanley Kowalski’s Violence in A Streetcar Named Desire

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    As Stanley continues torturing Blanche and draws Stella and Mitch away from her, Blanche’s sanity slowly dwindles. Even though she lied throughout the play, her dishonesty becomes more noticeable and irrational due to Stanley's torment about her horrible past. After dealing with the deaths of her whole family, she loses Belle Reve, the estate on which her and her sister grew up. This is too much for Blanche to handle causing her moral vision to be blurred by “her desperate need to be with someone, with ancestors for models who indulged in “epic fornications” with impunity, [Blanche] moves through the world filling the void in her life with lust” (Kataria 2). She also loses a young husband who killed himself after she found out he was gay when she caught him with another man. After that traumatic experience she needed “a cosy nook to squirm herself into because ...

    Read More

  • Blanche is Responsible for her own Fate in a Street Car Named Desire

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly, the reader may initially feel Blanche is completely responsible or at least somewhat to blame, for what becomes of her. She is very deceitful and behaves in this way throughout the play, particularly to Mitch, saying, ‘Stella is my precious little sister’ and continuously attempting to deceive Stanley, saying she ‘received a telegram from an old admirer of mine’. These are just two examples of Blanches’ trickery and lying ways. In some ways though, the reader will sense that Blanche rather than knowingly being deceitful, actually begins to believe what she says is true, and that she lives in her own dream reality, telling people ‘what ought to be the truth’ probably due to the unforgiving nature of her true life. This will make the reader begin to pity Blanche and consider whether these lies and deceits are just what she uses to comfort and protect herself. Blanche has many romantic delusions which have been plaguing her mind since the death of her husband. Though his death was not entirely her fault, her flirtatious manner is a major contributor to her downfall. She came to New Orleans as she was fired from...

    Read More

  • Delusional Protagonist Essay

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to a combination of her being an airhead, and her want to start over and dismember her past from herself, Blanche begins self-delusion. She creates a fantasy life, in which she is still a young, beautiful, innocent woman who has ju...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of A Streetcar Named Desire

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche’s immoral and illogical decisions all stem from her husband's suicide. When a tragedy happens in someone’s life, it shows the person’s true colors. Blanche’s true self was an alcoholic and sex addict, which is displayed when “She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder” (Williams 122). Although Blanche is an alcoholic, she tries to hide it from others. She is aware of her true self and tries to hide it within illusions. Blanche pretends to be proper and young with her fancy clothes and makeup but is only masking her true, broken self.

    Read More

  • Character Conflict in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche had a desire for sex in general to cope with her divorce and the loss of her family; she just needed to feel loved. Stanley expressed his hidden desire for Blanche by being cruel to her through the whole story, and then having sex with her. Mitch showed his desire for Blanche by asking her to marry him. Stella had a desire for Stanley’s love and for Blanche’s well-being. The play is a display of the drama involved in families, and it shows that sometimes people have to make decisions and choose one relationship over another.

    Read More

  • Blanche And Marie Character Analysis Essay

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche and Marie are portrayed as emotionally fragile characters who are trying to escape traumatic pasts. Both Blanche and Marie have had a traumatizing past, which leads them to become fragile people. Blanche has come from her hometown, Laurel, to visit her sister in New Orleans after being fired from her job for having relations with a student and multiple other men at a hotel called Tarantula Arms. On the other hand, Marie set out to the city to escape the sexual abuse from her uncle that she endured back home. In A Streetcar Named Desire, it is evident that because of Blanche's rough past it is hard for her to open up and have relations with a man. When she first meets Mitch she asks him to place a paper lantern over a light bulb because

    Read More

  • Blanche Dubois: A Tragic Hero

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Neither Stanley nor Mitch was intelligent enough to comprehend that not everything is black and white. They perceived her as a deceitful whore. Stella chose her husband over her sister. Also, Mitch could not overlook her mistakes. Mitch focused on her flaws, which blinded him from seeing the beauty and love Blanche had to offer.

    Read More

  • Blanche Monologue Analysis

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    As I stand here is Stanley's arms and hear my sister inside, I have so many thoughts that run through my head. I wish Stanley had not told Mitch about what he found out about Blanche's past. I saw how they were getting along, the adoring star's in Mitch's eyes everytime he looked at Blanche, and the contradicting peace and excitment that came over Blanche everytime she waited for Mitch to come and see her. If given time they would have had a chance. A chance at love and happyness. Not the kind of love that hits you like a freight train, like me and Stanley. But more of the gentle love that flows and mingles until it connects two people to the point that they are inseperatable. Everyone has something in their past that they are not proud of and try to hide. Though I am reluctant to beleive the stories that Stanley tells about my sister, I must admit that there could be some truth in what he says, even with his great dislike for my sister, he would not hurt me deliberetly in this way with mistruths.

    Read More

  • The Desires in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    One cant imagine how it must feel to lose the ones they love and hold dear, but to stay afterwards and mourn the loss of the many is unbearable. Blanche has had a streak of horrible luck. Her husband killing himself after she exposed her knowledge about his homosexuality, her advances on young men that led to her exile and finally her alcoholism that drew her life to pieces contemplated this sorrow that we could not help but feel for Blanche throughout the drama. Blanche’s desire to escape from this situation is fulfilled when she is taken away to the insane asylum. There she will have peace when in the real world she only faces pain.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Death And Death In A Streetcar Named Desire

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche is driven by her sexual desire but also wishes for stability and a fresh start instead. Blanche states “It was the other little familiarity that I felt obliged to discourage, I didn’t resent it!.. I was somewhat flattered that you desired me” (Williams 87). For the first time she doesn’t succumb to her body’s physical needs for her wish to be able to settle down with Mitch. If Blanche answered her body’s need for sex she would have killed her act of being a Southern belle looking for a suitor. This again brings out the close line between death and

    Read More

  • Blanche Dubois Tragic Hero

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Scene Six she tells Mitch about her late husband Allan Gray, whom she married at the early age of sixteen years old. She says, “… He came to me for help. I didn’t know that… all I knew was I’d failed him in some mysterious way and wasn’t able to give the help he needed but couldn’t speak of! Then I found out… by coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty[…] but, had two people in it […] the boy I had married and an older man who had been his friend for years…”(Williams 114). She does not share explicit details, but it can be concluded Blanche walked in on her husband committing adultery with another man. She continues on to tell Mitch, “Suddenly in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me… a few moments later–a shot!…He’d stuck a revolver into his mouth, and fired…”(Williams 115). She admits she was horrified with Allan’s sexually deviated actions, telling Allan “I saw! I know! You disgust me…”(Williams 115). From author Bert Cardullo, “[Blanche] refuses from the beginning to forgive herself for denying Allan the compassion that would have save and perhaps changed him, or at any rate, made his burden easier to bear.” Blanche implies that her deliberate act of cruelty, that her lack of compassion towards him when he needed to be “saved” by his homosexuality is what drove him to suicide. She made clear that though his death was decades ago, she

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire: Sympathy for Blanche

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    During scene one, the audience is introduced to Blanche as Stella's sister, who is going to stay with her for a while. Blanch tries her best to act normal and hide her emotion from her sister, but breaks down at the end of scene one explaining to Stella how their old home, the Belle Reve, was "lost." It is inferred that the home had to be sold to cover the massive funeral expenses due to the many deaths of members of the Dubois family. As Blanche whines to her sister, "All of those deaths! The parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way!" (21). The audience sees this poor aging woman, who has lost so many close to her, and now her home where she grew up. How could anyone look at her, and not feel the pain and suffering that she has to deal with by herself? Williams wants the audience to see what this woman has been through and why she is acting the way she is. Blanche's first love was also taken from her. It seems that everyone she loves is dead except for her sister. Death plays a crucial role in Blanche's depression and other mental irregularities. While these circumstances are probably enough for the audience to feel sympathy for Blanche, Williams takes it a step further when we see Blanche's...

    Read More

  • Theme Of Empathy In Streetcar Named Desire

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    She looks for empathy in all the wrong places. She looks for it when with strangers, with Stanley, Mitch, and Stella. The tragedy of Alan’s death is a leading cause for Blanche’s desire for attention and empathy. After his death he becomes involved with the hotel “flamingo”. It is here where she mistakenly thinks that sex, is a form of empathy. This empathy causes her character to have a blackened image of how to gain empathy from others. Once she gets run out of the flamingo she attempts to gain attention from Stanley. “It 's mine, too. It 's hard to stay looking fresh. I haven 't washed or even powdered my face and here you are!” Blanche understands that Stanley is a man who can at least support his wife. She flirts with Stanley, in a desperate need to feel, safe and cared for. Stanley understands that Blanche is manipulative, and he does not give empathy towards her. The tragic Irony with Blanche is that she does not recognize true empathy when it is given to her, Mitch has a deep care for Blanche, to the extent that he is willing to marry her. “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be—you and me, Blanche?” Mitch shows a great amount of compassion towards Blanche, but blanche cannot recognize this empathy and sees it more as an opportunity to manipulate him, which doesn’t turn out well in the end. Stella is the

    Read More

  • Theme Of Self Destruction In A Streetcar Named Desire

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    This can be symbolized by light. Blanche hates to be seen by Mitch, her significant other, in the light because it exposes her true identity. Instead, she only plans to meet him at night or in dark places. Also, she covers the lone light in Stella and Stanley’s apartment with a Chinese paper lantern. After Blanche and Mitch get into a fight, Mitch rips off the lantern to see what Blanche really looks like. Blanche angrily replies that she’s sorry for wanting magic. In the play, Blanche states “I don’t want realism, I want magic! [..] Yes, yes, 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!”(Williams 117). Blanche wants to escape reality, but this only leads to her self-destruction. It is the men in her life and past experiences that is the main cause of her self - destruction. One of these being the death of her young love, Allen Grey. During their marriage, Blanche, attached to the hip to this man, walked in on him with another man. She then brought the incident up at a bad time; soon after, Allen took his own life, which I believe was the first step to this so called “self-destruction. Blanche could never forgive herself of this. This is the truth of her past, therefore,

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Blanche: A Character Named Blanche

Open Document