Blanche Dubois Mental Illness

Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire, is a main character that shows characteristic traits of low self esteem and a personality disorder throughout the play. Blanche is also known to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, as she blames herself for the death of her young husband, Allan. Allan commits suicide due to Blanche’s reaction to his sexual orientation. Blanche felt betrayed and unloved by Allan as she said things in anger. To escape from her reality, she often imagines herself living in a fantasy world. Blanche craves for companionship, validation and desires to be wanted by all men. Blanche is promiscuous, which had its consequences, causing to lose her job as well as her relationship with Mitch.
Throughout the play Blanche’s

She’s always asking Stella for a hot and steamy bath. She takes pride in this, as after taking a bath in scene two, Blanche comes out to say, “Here I am, all freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand new human being!”(Williams 36). She’s not proud of her old life back in Laurel, and is trying to wash the past away. During scene 7 Blanche is in the tub and Stanley finds out about Blanche’s old life and the real reason she has come to stay in Elysian Fields. Back in Laurel, Blanche had a desire for sexual pleasure from many men, especially younger men. Stanley is exposing Blanche to her sister Stella, and just as he is Blanche is singing about a paper moon, “It’s only a paper moon, just as phony as it can be but it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me”(Williams 121). The paper moon and a cardboard sailing off sea represent a new and improved Blanche sees for herself away from her

When Mitch confronts Blanche, he asks her to be honest about herself she says, “I don’t want realism. I want Magic! I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be the truth” (Williams145). In these lines Blanche expresses her desire not to deal with reality. Blanche is being driven away by her delusions and desires she longs for. In scene 9, Blanche is with Mitch and when he questions about the lighting she says “I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me”. Mitch implies “I don’t think I ever seen you in the light”(Williams 143) Blanche laughs as he is saying this. Blanche has a hatred for light. It represents a reality that she can’t face since Allan died. The light causes us to see Blanche's imperfections and the truth of her past. As the book is comes to an end, in scene 10 we come to find out that Stanley rapes Blanche. Stella chooses not to believe Blanche which is not a surprise. Stella also has low self esteem and is a battered woman as she has faced brutal beatings from her husband. Being raped by Stanley is Blanche’s ultimate breaking point, as she ends up being committed into an asylum and loses all