Blanche Dubois

     This play takes place in New Orleans Louisiana. New Orleans is a very lively town that is known as a party town and for it being a rough town. New Orleans is a town in which inhibition is suppressed and people try to have fun all the time, while not worrying about the little things in life. This is especially true for the French quarter of New Orleans, which is the setting for this play. New Orleans is know for Mardi Gras and illusion, but it is also a city of reality. Blanche does not

Stella abandons Blanche in her time of need, partly responsible for Blanche’s struggles prior to the plays events. Struggles that played a role in Blanche's overall instabilities and insecurities. But why is Stanley the one that's ultimately responsible? Aside from verbally and physically abusing Blanche, He isolates Blanche from the people she loves, the only people she has left. He was the one who convinced Mitch to abandon Blanche by telling him about her past. “You're goddamn right I told him! I'd have that on my conscience the rest of my life if I knew all that stuff and let my best friend get caught!”(Williams,126) He is the one that silences Stella. He is aware of his power over Stella. He is the reason why Stella abandons Blanche. He manipulates Stella into forgiving him even when he abuses her. He makes sure she is dependent of him so she never leaves while also subtly attempting to persuade her into taking his side instead of Blanches. “Stella, it's gonna be all right after she goes and after you've had the baby. It's gonna be all right again between you and me the way that it was. You remember that way that it was?”.

Blanche is committed to a tradition and a way of life that have become anachronistic in the world of Stanley Kowalski. She is committed to a code of civilization that died with her ancestral home, Belle Reve. Stella recognizes this tradition and her sister's commitment to it, but she has chosen to relinquish it and to come to terms with a world that has no place for it. In a sense, Blanche is frantic in her refusal to relinquish her concept

Blanche Dubois is a troubled woman who throughout the play lives in a different reality, which she calls “Barnum and Bailey world”. She begins by going to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella, and her husband Stanley for some time. At this time is

This section (Scene 5, from“[She rushes into the bedroom…” to “Ahhh! Merciiii!”) of the play portrays a contrasting view on gender roles and emphasises Blanche’s need for attention and company. During this section, it is shown how Blanche uses gender stereotypes to become an ‘ideal woman’ and attempt to grasp the attention of a young man.

It is clear that Blanche DuBois is willing to do what she believes is necessary to get what she wants. This often includes deceit. She feels that she needs to lie about herself in order to seem more appealing. Because Blanche is so afraid of aging, she keeps her age to herself. While she is dating Mitch, she often deceives him by never letting him see her in bright light in order to conceal her faded looks. When she comes to New Orleans, Blanche does not tell her sister that she was fired from her job; she says that she is merely taking a vacation from the job. She says this in order to keep up the fake persona she holds. Blanche is very open about her lies with her sister. “I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is fifty per cent illusion, but when a thing is important I tell the truth.” (69) This shows that Blanche’s lifelong choice of avoiding harsh realities leads to her breakdown. With all of the lies and deceit Blanche tells, she is living an unreal existence.

Williams uses the relationship between Mitch and Blanche to create profound contrast to Stella and Stanley’s. Blanche does not have strong passionate feelings toward Mitch, and their communication seems to be very limited, and at times dull – discussing, in Scene 6, Mitch’s weight and his gym membership, how he perspires enough to put out a fire, and his lightweight alpaca jacket. The marriage of Stella and Stanley is

Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.

In this play Blanche has a praxis: She must get a companion to share her life with who can provide her with shelter, food, and financial support and that’s what makes the whole story happen. This praxis is created when two things happen: First, Blanche finding out that the man she married was having an affair with another man and he decided to shoot himself after she confronted him, and second, the loss of her house in Mississippi. These two things create her need of a shelter, financial support and food therefore she decides to stay with her sister Stella.

Blanche tells Mitch about how hostile and rude Stanley is to her and how she thinks he hates her. It is important that Mitch knows this as at the end of

Before one can understand Blanche's character, one must understand the reason why she moved to New Orleans and joined her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. By analyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one

I have the misfortune of being an English instructor. I attempt to instill a bunch of bobby soxers and drug-store Romeos with reverence for Hawthorne and Whitman and Poe! (62).

First off, in the movie, Blanche DuBois comes to New Orleans and is shocked by how different everything is from where she is originally from. She explains to her sister, Stella that she needs a break from teaching and doesn’t want to be alone. Stella’s husband, Stanley, meets Blanche and starts questioning her past, Blanche gets upset and starts feeling sick.The next night after dinner and a movie, Blanche and Stella come home to her husband playing poker, and here Blanche meets Mitch. After a number of things happen, Stanley becomes increasingly upset and throws a radio through a window and starts beating Stella when she tries to stop him. He has to be held back by his poker friends.

1. “Carte Blanche” was created by the highly imaginative painter Rene Magritte. What does the painting illustrate about perception, which is the theme of this chapter? Is the scene you are viewing physically possible? “Carte Blanche” illustrates how you perceive and judge situations to be able to understand the functionality of the object by portraying a woman sitting on the saddle of a horse standing in the woods..

The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not