5) What does Blanche do while waiting for Stella to return to her apartment? What does this reveal about her character? Blanche sat very stiffly and drinks. This shows that Blanche is a nervous type and a person who like to be in control due to lines like “Now, then, let me look at you.
Blanche is projecting the self-image of a person who believes that they are above others. She acts as though she is of a royal family and demands the respect of everyone around her. She loses her family's home to the government and blames it on her sister who left in order to search for her own lifestyle. From the beginning of her visit, Blanche gets an off feeling about Stanley. When she arrives, he starts to stare at her with a sense of caution then soon begins inspecting the paperwork that she brought with her in order to validate her story.
Blanche tries to run over Jane with her car, but she ends up breaking her spins. Blanche never reveled the truth until she was near to death. Blanche put the blame on her drunken sister Jane and Jane was too drunk to remember what actually happened. Jane takes control over Blanche and she make sure Blanche is isolated from the outside world. Jane kills Blanche’s pet bird and serves her as her dinner.
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
Actions such as her “frightened gasp” show her instability and insecurity, the word “frightened” shows her fear, while “gasp” presents her surprise. The audience is then able to link her reaction to Mitch to her reaction to Stanley in previous scenes. Both characters seem to display violent attitudes. We are then able to compare and notify the similarities, thus reaching the conclusion on Blanche’s reaction to violence, which is one of fear. Fear is not only shown through her reaction to Mitch but it also manifests itself in Blanche’s stance.
The outro of the play is the final moment of Blanche’s mental breakdown that is shown in the play. After Stanley revealed all of Blanche 's lies which leads her to call the operator and trying to contact the man she knew that lived on a yacht. Blanche told everyone that she will be fine and that she will just contact an old friend to live with. She believed in her own lie of the man named Shep Huntleigh that did not exist. When a man knocked on the door she was expecting the man on that lived on a yacht while everyone else knew it was a doctor to take Blanche away because of her mental
In the beginning of the play, Blanche and New Orleans are anticipated as totally incongruous together. The reason why this controversy is created between Stellas sister and New Orleans, is that Blanche comes from Belle Reve, a completely different city, and she is not used to the life in the place where Stella has settled down, as she is described as a highbrow person, from an elevated social class who is well refined and very delicate. Her character is also noticed from the fluffy bodice clothes and the white gloves that she is wearing, as well as the cultural language that Blanche uses to communicate with the others. On the other hand, New Orleans is a small city, with old white painted houses with rickety stairs, with an atmosphere of decay, full of bars where the loud disturbing sound of the tinny piano is heard, and people that behave differently from what Blanche expected.
However the main conflict is Blanche’s inability to accept reality or her inability to let go of her past. Blanche sees herself above her sister’s life and carries a sense of entitlement that no longer fits her environment like it did in her past. Underneath, Blanche is a liar and Stanley is not. Stanley and Stella are able to able to admit what they are while Blanche is constantly trying to hide who she is. She is unable to come to her desire and sees herself superior to the people around her.
She refused to leave him when Blanche insisted and didn’t believe Blanche when it came to her being raped. Blanche, Stella, and Stanley all have the same want to be desired. The ways they act and treat each other back that up. Blanche feels the need to be desired by everyone around her, Stanley by Stella and others, and Stella by Stanley. Their lives revolve around desire.
Both Blanche's family and Belle Reve represent her dream to indulge in a sophisticated, high class, and luxurious life. When all of Blanche’s family dies and Stella leaves, Blanche loses the first piece of her “beautiful dream.” She no longer has the money to support herself, since her educational career provides insufficient funds. After the tragic loss of her husband, Blanche loses Belle Reve and loses her job, symbolizing that her “beautiful dream” has been fully crushed and the only remnants of her dream are the lies she feeds herself. This fall of social class leads Blanche to carry a tone of classism.
To hide her true self, Blanche restored to duplicity, coupled with her voracious desire and ubiquitous deception caused her a breakdown. In the following paragraphs, there will be more events that led Blanche to such end. One of the things that led Blanche to her downfall is the past. The past, where she was the reason why she lost her husband, Alan, he
Not only has Tennesse Williams portrayed Stella and Blanche to be seen as delicate and dependent, our own society has created this image but this not only affects how individuals see themselves but affects relationships immensely. Tennessee Williams reinforces the stereotype in which women are often the victims of unfortunate fate within the usage of the character Blanche. Throughout the whole play, we have witnessed Blanche being on the bitter end of life's miseries as she has encountered the tough loss of Belle Reve, dealing with her ex-husband's suicide and the loss of her relationship with Mitch. Arguably, the expectations and beliefs of women were either to be a housewife or a mother, whereas Blanche shows neither, as a result of automatically feeling out of place possibly leading to her downfall. Blanche was constantly fantasizing about the traditional values of a southern gentlemen, proving her dependence on this sex.
The fragility of Blanche’s mental state is evident when her paper
This is made clear through Stanley’s insecurities about inferiority to women and his prolonged struggle to defeat Blanche. Again, this is evident with Blanche and even Stella. Stella is perceived as a static character with no real individuality, and Blanche, who is seemingly more independent, is characterized mostly by her sexuality. Tennessee Williams demonstrates society’s need for the superiority of men to women through the interactions of Stanley and Blanche in the play, their struggles, and their ultimate
and she is deeply affected by all the tragedies in her life. She is a tragic character, who is unable to exist in the world which surrounds her so she makes up a better world in her imagination. The world she wishes to live in. People can sympathize with Blanche because of all the tragedy in her life. Susan Henthorne writes in her essay A Streetcar Named Desire, Death and desire bring Blanche to this low point in her life.
