It is about 9 P.M. on the 25th of May. Light rain is trickling down. Blanche, Allan, and Robert, his old friend, arrive at the Moon Lake Casino. They drive past a lake and onto the sidewalk, where Blanche grinds Allan’s car to a halt. They stagger out of the vehicle and Allan and Robert’s faces are full of glee, as they giggle uncontrollably.
It is what is haunting Blanche’s life, it is what has made her mentally unstable. Throughout the play, she has been hiding her past from people so she looks like
In scene 6 Mitch says, “I talked to my mother about you and she said, ‘How old is Blanche?’ And I wasn’t able to tell her.” Blanche’s response was to change the subject. This is the result of Blanche’s insecurity of her age. She feared that Mitch would leave her as soon as he figured out her
While in the darkness, Blanche feels that she can conceal her shortcomings and keep up the illusion of being a classic, refined DuBois. The truth is easily discovered through the use of light, and as Blanche exclaims, “daylight never exposed so total a ruin” (Williams, 1120). The night also aides in Blanche forgetting her current station in life. Under a comforting cloak of darkness, she can imagine that she is not living in a two-room apartment with her little sister Stella, but in the ornate estate that she has lost forever. Therefore, Blanche’s preference of darkness is used to create this other persona in ways that are both based on appearance and on an extremely human need to feel
Blanche feels the need to be appreciated by men at all time and seeks attention when she does not receive it, especially from Mitch. “She dupes him regarding her age and declares herself younger to Stella, tries to fool him regarding her drinking habits, avoid going out with him until after dark and manages to avoid being seen in direct bulb-light!”(Kararia 24). Blanche is portrayed as a liar and attention seeker who wants to be showered with compliments from Mitch. She tries to fool and flirt with Mitch so she can secure her future with him. “She sees in Mitch an opportunity to prove her allure and score an easy sexual conquest.
From here on, it shows that Blanche’s appearance and how she perceives herself as a person ties closely to the lighting in the room. For instance, when Mitch and Blanche introduce themselves for the first time, she makes the statement, “I bought this adorable little colored paper lantern at a Chinese shop on Bourbon. Put it on the light bulb! Will you, please?” (54).
This is where Blanche becomes obsessed with avoiding any type of light, whether it be in a loving relationship or an overhead lightbulb. Her reaction can be seen as an attempt hide the fact her youth is fading as well as her true nature. While staying with her sister Blanche makes several strides to stay in the dark. One of the first in a series of events she has Stanley’s friend Mitch cover a naked bulb in her room with a Chinese paper lantern stating “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (114; sec. 3) shows that she would rather hide behind fancy shades than face
‘He crosses to dressing table and seizes the paper lantern, tearing it off the light bulb, and extends It toward her. She cries out as if the lantern was herself (scene 11, page 140). These stage directions shows how madness has finally broken through Blanche’s rational thinking. Stanley raping her was the major factor that destroyed her remaining sanity. The lantern itself is a symbol of her madness and part where it talks about tearing it of the light bulb.
This shows how someone can think they are doing a good job how hiding their true self, but actually, everyone can see through their persona. Blanche tries her best to make sure her appearances are well kept; she is completely oblivious to the fact that she has severe mental and emotional problems, due to the fact that her husband took his own life.
Blanche values looks, and materialistic matters far more than her sister does, and she fails to understand that Stella has grown and overcome her upbringing. Blanche is stuck in the past and once she had lost her fortune, husband, job and her ideals had crumbled, she resorts to turning to strangers for comfort, however the only way that she knows how to interact with them is through sex. This distorts her image as a ‘southern belle’ and further isolates her, forcing her out of the place that she grew up. Tennessee Williams stated, 'promiscuity is better than nothing', 'it was a period of loneliness' suggesting that much like Blanche he sought company though the medium of sex, that to be promiscuous, known for having many sexual relationships was better than to be alone full-time. Her actions that took place in Laurel show the extent of her loneliness and how far she was willing to go to have company again.
When Blanche first comes to Stella’s house, she firmly demands Stella to “turn the over-light off!” as she cannot “be looked at in [the] merciless glare” (Williams 11). Although the light seems harsh, Blanche acts hardhearted and pitiless and could possibly be seeing herself in the glare. Blanche “cannot tolerate being seen in bright light” because she is “hypersensitive to her declining physical beauty” (Adler 30). In attempts to protect her own image, she buys a paper lantern to cover the harsh light in Stanley and Stella’s bedroom; Blanche’s mental state is “as fragile” as the paper lantern that protects her from her own reality (Adler 30).
Blanche’s knowledge that she must attract men with her physical body is shown when she tries to get Mitch 's attention by undressing in the light so that he can see the outline of her body “Blanche moves back into the streak of light. She raises her arms and stretches, as she moves indolently back to the chair” (88). However, her sexual encounters quickly gained her a reputation that prevented many
Searching for Love Blanche Dubois, a woman portrayed as not having the American Dream, life challenges leaves her searching desirability. Blanche, as a child, was known as being good hearted and smart; a Southern Belle. She married young later ending in tragedy. She later lost her house, her family, her career, and her dignity. She traveled to the only place she had left, her sister and brother-in-law.
Blanche is an old southern Belle who expects the man to be a gentleman and in her level of class, scene 10 “A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life” (Williams, 1947) this is how Blanche intertwines the past and present as past women were only there to be seen, look after the house and provide children and present Blanche could be seen to be past her prime. Blanche is representing the past as she is still dress in grand dress white moth Ironically Blanche appears in the first scene dressed in white, “the symbol of
And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” Blanches magic is seen through her illusions and delusions. In Blanches world Mitch doesn’t fit however she has reached a point of intimacy by being honest about her first husband and the guilt she endures as she begins to share the painful moment of her life with him. Stanley’s intrusion ruins her plans of marriage with Mitch and yet again she had to retreat in the world of her delusions. Stanley who represents realism in this novel and play pops Blanche’s illusion bubble through seeing the realism in scene ten
