Blanche Dubois Delusions

Paper: A Streetcar Named Desire

During Tennessee William's play, A Streetcar Named Desire, an old streetcar rattling down the French Quarter delivers perhaps one of the most unstable women to ever step into Louisiana. The white satin disaster is named Blanche Dubois, who is one of the focal characters in the play and in the play's themes. Blanche's actions are excellent proofs that delusion results in catastrophe. Blanche is not truthful on many topics, but her delusions relating to her age, relations, and financial situation all particularly cause her life to come crashing down much harder. From her suitcase to the dark corners of her mind, Blanche's personal denial makes an example of how deluding oneself causes disaster.

When discussing

her age, Blanche is hardly honest. Being uncomfortable with aging and appearing elderly, she lies to Mitch on the basis that he will perhaps be more willing to date a woman who is a certain age. Telling Mitch that she is younger than Stella is the beginning of a long string of lies and denial about age: “I call her little in spite of the fact she's somewhat older than I. Just slightly. Less than a year” (Williams 60). Even when she tries to tell Mitch about her youth, the reader can feel the tension in Blanche's dialogue as she pushes false information. Blanche's deluded views on age and youth lead to a climactic scene with Mitch. She explodes with frustrated depression and fury, all caused by her denial: “I was played out. You know what played out is? My youth was suddenly gone up the water-spout, and- I met you” (Williams 147). Blanche had denied her age, and consequently suffered the loss of her relationship with Mitch.

When Blanche leaves Laurel to escape to her sister in New Orleans, she leaves behind a town of people who she angered with her promiscuous ways. During her discussion with Stella, Blanche waters down the events tenfold: “So Mr. Graves- Mr. Graves is the superintendent- he suggested I take a leave of absence. I couldn't put all of those details into the wire...” (Williams 14). The fake leave of absence Blanche makes up is not nearly as serious as the metaphorical tar-and-feathering which she experienced. Disaster had already struck Blanche back in Mississippi, but her lies set up future catastrophe. Being run out of town by the local army reserve, mayor, and angry parents was Blanche's reality, sitting in a pressure cooker within her mind while she sits on her various denials. The tension explodes when Stanley discovers all the scandals from Laurel at once: “They told her she better move on to some fresh territory. Yep, it was practickly a town ordinance passed against her!” (William 123). Stanley is not the best at diplomacy throughout the play, but he is certainly able to pry the lid off of a topic and address an issue, even if his timing is not ideal. Blanche's delusion caused Stanley to bring down the inevitable yet unavoidable catastrophe.

Blanche's ability to handle her home finance is on the same level as her ability to be consistently honest.

When Belle Reve is lost, Blanche loses her grip on reality a bit more, not helped by being chased out by the locals and having to maintain a constant charade that she is years below her age. The loss of Belle Reve, whether or not caused by the events leading up to Blanche's expulsion, causes Blanche to begin one of her most extravagant delusions: living life as if she were not homeless and sleeping next to an abusive husband. After getting off of the streetcar, Blanche acts as if her trip was circular and her exit was Belle Reve. Instead of acting thrifty and economical, she continues living a bourgeouis lifestyle, seemingly refusing to acknowledge her situation. She exists in New Orleans, but she lives at Belle Reve. Her quarters, in her mind, were never meant to be the French Quarter. Blanche's clothing choices also reflect how she has never completely left Laurel: “Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in! What's this here? A solid-gold dress?” (Williams 35). Stanley's harsh yet accurate observation summarizes how Blanche fails physically and mentally to change to the new atmosphere. She has lost her job, house, and livelihood, but lives in clothes worth enough to at least compensate some of the losses she suffers. The stress of leaving Laurel and Belle Reve escalates from refusing to change clothing style to creating a possibly

fictional person who Blanche pins her hopes onto: “Mr. Shep Huntleigh. I wore his ATO pin my last year at college. I hadn't seen him again until last Christmas...-inviting me on a cruise of the Caribbean!” (Williams 153). Blanche wants so desperately to have her affluent lifestyle back that she has a person who exists only in her mind, who she defends and calls on as an excuse when asked about future plans. Huntleigh could be considered the flash point of Blanche's sanity, when she jumps the ravine but falls to madness. As her Texan friend becomes more real, Blanche fades more from reality, deluding herself more and more. When Blanche is in real danger of being hurt by Stanley, she uses her last opportunity to get to freedom on a telephone call to someone who could not help her, being hundreds of miles away, if they are even real.

Blanche is not the only person in the play to suffer from delusion, but she is the best example of how delusion leads to disastrous consequences. Blanche ruins her chances of being in a relationship by making herself and others believe she is youthful and not yet too old. The relationships Blanche did have in the past caused her equal amounts of strife when she is abruptly grabbed by the past and is reminded of being ejected from Laurel because of her immoral ways. Her poor money management skills snapped the remaining material between her mind and madness. Combined, her experiences, as tragic as they are, show the worst yet best detailed example of how delusion causes strife.