Examples Of Mental Illness In A Streetcar Named Desire

Brian Joyce
English per. 7
Mrs. Donato
12/20/16
Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Mental illnesses are health problems that affect the way we think about ourselves, relate to others, and interact with the world around us. This is a central focus point in the play that takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana during the late 1940’s. A young woman named Blanche who is sisters with Stanley’s wife Stella struggles to keep her sanity as the play goes on. She struggles to keep her sanity because she constantly lies about her past and has a hard time distinguishing between her fantasy world and real life. Which is why I know Blanche is insane.
To begin, Blanche fails to keep her sanity because of all the lies she has told to others about her past. Blanche told small lies throughout the play but she also told big lies that causes no one to believe her even when she is telling the truth. A small lie that she tells is when she first meets Mitch and says, “she doesn’t drink and that Stella is older than her” (  Williams scene 3). Even though she does drink and is actually older than Stella. However, as the play progresses people begin to question whether everything

she says is a lie. Such as at the end of scene ten when Stanley rapes Blanche and Stella refuses to believe her. Even though this actually happened and Stella knows such as when she said, “ I couldn’t believe her then continue living with Stanley” ( Williams scene 11). Besides that I think she does not fully think Blanche is telling the truth which is why Blanche is sent to a mental hospital.
Additionally, Blanche also fails to keep her sanity because she likes and prefers to live in her fantasy world rather than real life.

She accomplishes this by making up lies to try and cover up and avoid her past.  In scene three Blanche states, “I don’t want realism I want magic” ( Williams scene 9). Clearly this shows that she wants nothing to do with reality she only wants to turn her imaginations into reality.  For example Blanche does not like to be in “light” so in order to avoid it she places a cover on it to dim the brightness especially when she talks to Mitch.  The main reason why she does this is because she doesn’t want Mitch to see her beauty fading because she is getting older. Also because in scene six Blanche says, “ since my husband passes away the bright light in my life has missing” ( Williams scene

6).
To conclude, Blanche displayed signs of losing her sanity by constantly telling lies about her past and had a hard time distinguishing between her fantasy world and real life. She does all this because she is not proud of her past so instead of putting it behind her and changing her lifestyle she pretends and lies to cover it up. We could all learn a lesson from Blanche which is that if you did something in your past that you’re not proud of don’t make up lies to cover up face the fact that you messed up and use as a lesson learned.