The Character Blanche Dubois In A Streetcar Named Desire

1199 Words3 Pages

In “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the main character Blanche Dubois, displays a behavior similar to that of paranoia. The question that needs to be answered is why. Blanche is a character that has turned to many factors to ease her mental pain. Blanch uses denial as a coping mechanism which eventually causes her to have fears of abandonment and pressure from past conflicts.
Denial is one of the ways that has helped Blanche deal with her stress, putting her in a state of mind to maybe escape from her life problems or reality itself. She has also experienced the behavior of her alcohol addiction. In a setting in which someone were to psychoanalyze Blanche’s condition, the reader or viewer must first understand the entire situation. Referring to Sigmund Freud’s theory, “psychoanalysis is the technique of helping a person with emotional problems based on the unconscious mind” (Lahey 9). Therefore, analyzing the theory of Sigmund Freud to Blanche, it seems as if she has an innate motive that influence her to have these illusions and false notions.Blanche is suffering from past experiences beginning with the loss of her husband, the loss of Belle Reve, and the loss of her job as a Literature teacher in Laurel which resulted in a downfall on her life. Throughout the play she tries to avoid the guilt by engaging in sexual activities with strangers, constantly trying to avoid the truth, seeking needs of validation on how she’s perceived on her outward appearance, and even creating her own personal reality in which everything is perfect. “This is shown in a number of ways in Streetcar, principally in Blanche’s refusal to face up to certain acts of her past and the present reality of her own sexual drives which she covers over with such words ...

... middle of paper ...

...ng, “Whoever you are –I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Williams 102).
As a result, it is seen that Blanche’s purpose is mainly to find stability from her past fears of abandonment and security from mind bottling affects that took a toll over her life. All the illusions, misconceptions, and alcoholism were to help Blanche deal with her desire to flee from the actuality of her life. Those different mechanisms were Blanche’s ideal way to deal with stress and rising tension during her stay at her sister’s house. These were her ways of dealing with the unpleasant situations and living in a world of fantasy and her ways of survival. “Blanche was not just detached from reality, but her romantic way of looking at things, sensitive as it may be, has a fatal weakness: it exists only by ignoring only certain portions of reality” (Drama for students 10).

Open Document