An individual's experiences play a major role in shaping one’s life. Whether it may be a negative or positive experience, it will always be accompanied by regret, which in general, is the driving force pushing individuals to change and grow. In spite of that, regret can become a destructive force the longer it lingers. Consequently, allowing yourself to dwell over your past actions can only bring about negativity within one’s life. This resentment and guilt leads to the person dwelling over their past and as a result they continue to blame themselves. This inner turmoil only digs a deeper hole where the individual is left desperately searching for a way to fill that void. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, he introduces …show more content…
Although they married at a very young age, “Blanche didn't just love him but worshiped the ground he walked on!” (p.124). One afternoon, she discovers Allan with an older male friend. I saw the “I saw”! I know. You disgust me” (p.115). Right after she announced her disgust at his homosexuality, he ran outside and shot himself in the head. Allen Gray was like a God to her. Hence the realization and loss of Allan struck Blanche harder as a result of her obsession with him. To cope with the lonely void created by her young husband's death, Blanche turned to lust. Moreover, it's obvious that she feels that she has failed as a wife in some way. As such, her acts of sleeping with others can be clearly interpreted as a desperate attempt to fill the void left by Allan's death. In particular, most of the people she sleeps with are very young men. This is directly related to the fact that she married so young, that she feels as though she wasted her life. It's clear that she badly wants to hold onto her youthfulness. Regardless, this lust becomes her ruin when she is discovered having an affair with a student as a result she gets fired from her …show more content…
While Stella was off in New Orleans, Blanche “stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it” (p.20). Furthermore, “the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our[their] doorstep” (p.22), causing countless deaths of her family. The deaths were ugly, slow and torturous. She was left to shoulder all the burden, struggling to keep Belle Reve together. However, her teacher's salary could only afford so much, thus losing Belle Reve. Additionally, the Varsouviana Polka that Blanches hears throughout the play, was the song that was playing when Allan killed himself. From then on, the polka plays increasingly throughout the play whenever she's in a panic or stressed. As a result, she relives the moment over and over again. To escape from these traumatic events, Blanche heavily relies on alcohol. She uses it as a means of forgetting the guilt. In this way, it acts to numb the unforgiving feelings of loneliness and despair. Nonetheless, she falls victim to its effects as it feeds into her
Stella states that Blanche’s life has been heavily affected by the death of her husband, Allan. Blanche’s marriage “killed her illusions” which can be interpreted literally. Blanche states that she fell in love “all at once and much, much too completely,” however, her love was unrequited since instead of returning the love Blan... ... middle of paper ... ... o have experienced some sorrow,” which Mitch agrees with, thus revealing that he has been affected by the loss of this girl.
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 ...
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...
was lobotomised in his absence and later institutionalised leading. many critics to believe that the character of Blanche may have arisen. from events in his own life. Blanche's tragic past involving both the death of her "young" husband and her consequent promiscuity with. The "young men" created an overwhelming amount of emotion for Blanche.
Blanche filled the void her husband left by having sex with random, younger men. She was drawn to them because they reminded her of her husband, Allen. Blanche states that “intimacies with strangers was all I seemed to fill my empty heart with” (Williams 128). Even with the countless encounters with strange men, Blanche never found anyone to fill the void. She tried to use the intimacies to distract her from her husband's death. The death of her husband enforced a new level of madness upon Blanche. She became more promiscuous as a result, which further demonstrates why the suicide of her husband was an illuminating moment in the play and how her internal struggle caused by her husband’s death changed her into a sex
Character Conflict in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a play wrought with intertwining conflicts between characters. A drama written in eleven scenes, the play takes place in New Orleans over a nine-month period. The atmosphere is noisy, with pianos playing in the distance from bars in town.
Blanche could not accept her past and overcome it. She was passionately in love with Alan; but after discovering that he was gay, she could not stomach the news. When she revealed how disgusted she was, it prompted Alan to commit suicide. She could never quite overcome the guilt and put it behind her. Blanche often encountered flashbacks about him. She could hear the gun shot and polka music in her head. After Alan’s death, she was plagued by the deaths of her relatives. Stella moved away and did not have to deal with the agony Blanche faced each day. Blanche was the one who stuck it out with her family at Belle Reve where she had to watch as each of her remaining family members passed away. “I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, Mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths—not always” (Scene 1, page 1546). Blanche lost Belle Reve because of all the funeral expenses. Belle Reve had been in her family for generations, and it slipped through her fingers while she watched helplessly. Blanche’s anguish caused her loneliness. The loneliness fueled her abundance of sexual encounters. Her rendezvous just added to her problems and dirtied her rep...
Madness is used as a theme in literature to explore the depths of the human mind. People experience and react to madness in various ways. In literary works such as The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams madness is characterized by detachment from reality and delusions. The madness that the Narrator and Blanche experience is caused by their attempts to ease their loneliness. In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator, who is subjected to the rest cure and isolated from the world, immerses herself in the world she creates within the wallpaper to ease her loneliness and in A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche Dubois deludes herself and those around her into believing that she is a proper lady
...es and thinks that her hopes will not be destroyed. Thirdly, Blanche thinks that strangers are the ones who will rescue her; instead they want her for sex. Fourthly, Blanche believes that the ones who love her are trying to imprison her and make her work like a maid imprisoned by them. Fifthly, Blanche’s superiority in social status was an obscure in her way of having a good social life. Last but not least, Blanche symbolizes the road she chose in life- desire and fantasy- which led her to her final downfall.
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.
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
Tennessee Williams has said, “We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.” Betrayal is prevalent in life and literature and creates uncertainty. According to Williams, without questioning people, one will eventually be betrayed. Characters deceive each other and, occasionally, themselves as they try to mend their lives. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, betrayal is evident in every relationship — Blanche and Mitch, Blanche and Stella, and Blanche and Stanley — and contributes to the theme of uncertainty in the novel. Blanche Dubois is the ultimate example of betrayal because she ends up being betrayed and betraying others throughout the play, which serves as a basic model of the effects betrayal can have on a person.
Empathy is a fundamental human connection, it allows us to strengthen relationships and build a stronger character. In Tennessee Williams play Streetcar Named Desire Blanche is weakened by the lack of a basic human trait. The lack of empathy that Blanche gives and receives greatly affects her poor resilience to Hardships in her life. Thus, causing her to be an emotional train wreck and a highly flawed character. Blanche often receives no empathy through her character because of her inability to empathize with others; this is demonstrated by her relationship with her husband, her sister, brother in law Stanley, and the death of her family. Through these Devastating events she searches for empathy in all the wrong places. Her struggle without
How do Blanche Dubois’s interactions with males in A Streetcar Named Desire lead to her self-destruction?
2. What causes Mitch and Blanche to take a "certain interest" in one another? That is, what is the source of their immediate attraction? What seems to draw them together? What signs are already present to suggest that their relationship is doomed/problematic?