Otherness

Blanche was married to a gay man, who in those times would not be accepted into society, and therefore committed suicide in an act of shame and desperation. He was a threat to her status and because of the way she treated him he was left with no other option but to kill himself. The director of the movie, Elia Kazan, continuously played the polka song that was playing when he committed suicide and this haunts Blanche whenever she hears it. This song emphasizes her psychosis and she is unable to bear with her past relationship. She enters a manic state when she thinks about her husband and this affects how she lives her current life with Stella and Stanley. Her life is tainted by manic episodes as a result of her past trauma in reflection of her husband. Due to her paranoia, she often blames herself for her husband’s death because she sometimes feels like she let him down when he was at a point in his life when he needed her most. Blanche is unable to move forward and she relates this to how Stanley treats her and wishes she was able to help her husband move past his

She said “I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way!” She fell apart even more as she saw all of her family around her pass away. She was face to face with death. They used flowers and ornamental caskets, but the funerals were the least of the problem. “Funerals are quiet, but deaths-not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, ‘Don’t let me go!’” This did not start her mental disorder, because it already existed, but it did not make it any better. Of course, all people must deal with the inevitable ending of life, but watching it all happen around you is different. She has to see people meet their fate and she sees that life is not a dream. The first death she had to deal with was her first loves and that is what starts her downward spiral. She came out of the dance to see where he had gone and heard people say “Allan! Allan! The Grey boy! He’d stuck the revolver into his mouth, and fired-so that the back of his head had been-blown away!” Ever since this traumatizing event she had a weakness for young men and hides under a façade of makeup, costume, and jewelry. If she is attracted to younger men she cannot attract them without looking younger herself. Blanche believes that

Blanche’s guilt, the principal force driving her downfall, stems from her involvement in the circumstances surrounding her husband Allan’s suicide. After finding her husband with

Blanche has a devastating and scarring past in which her tragic flaw originates from. The elements of love, sex, and death haunt her until she is unable to handle it any longer and loses what is left of her sanity and sparks her unstable mind. To expatiate, Blanche was once married to the love of her life, Allen Grey, until she found

Feeling dejected, Blanche turns to alcohol to numb the unforgiving feelings of loneliness and despair. She used alcoholism to “...blot out the ugliness of her life” (Marotous). Whiskey seems to be the only thing that is constant in her life and she uses it as a crutch to avoid the circumstances of her reality.

It is clear from the beginning that Blanche is not a very honest character. She lives in a fantasy world of her own design. One of the very first things she does when she enters Stella’s

There is a great deal of alcoholism in the play. Blanche DuBois drinks often and drinks in excess. Alcohol abuse further distinguishes Blanche's character because in the 1940s, it was atypical for women to drink so much, and even more rare for women to be so publically alcoholic as Blanche. Those behaviors were stereotypically reserved for women. Blanche is very much aware of her problems and her social isolation. She uses her alcoholism as a way to escape from facing herself directly as well as to escape from other aspects of her reality that she perceives too difficult to bear or change.

due to her past blanche’s actions are unusual and to many they are considered inappropriate. Blanche lives through some very dark and intense incidents before the play takes place, she witnesses the death of her entire family, she loses her family home, and to add to the misery she believes she is the reason her husband killed himself. In an act to move on she retreats into illusion acting as if these incidents never happened. Blanche decides to lie to everyone, from her sister to the man she potentially wanted to marry, she does not give them the truth. She wants to marry mitch but does not tell him about her past, mitch had all right to know, yet she led him on, actions like these in an environment of connection is inappropriate beyond a doubt. Because of her lies and illusions Blanche ends up losing everything, she loses her only chance at a future with Mitch and her freedom when she is sent to the mental institution. Blanches motivation by the past caused her life around her dissolve.

Blanche is trying to wipe away her past, and drown out her sorrows all the while trying to appear sober in front of anyone else around her. The alcohol is her way of escaping reality and

She begins to ramble on more, have more delusions and lie about crazy things such as Shep Huntleigh inviting her on a cruise to the Caribbean. She begins to shower more often or “hydrotherapy” as she calls it, because it “is necessary for her probably to wash away the feeling of guilt as also the stains of her promiscuous life” (Kataria 96). As the play comes to an end, Blanche becomes more psychotic and no one is on her side. Blanche appears to swirl into oblivion towards the end of the play when a fiight with Stanley gets physical. “She finally realizes to her dismay that she has lost her reputation, a place to go to, and what is worse, her charm. This realization, painful as it is, coupled with the rape, sends her reeling into a world of shadows from which she was never really far away” (Kataria 182.)

One of the main misfortunes Blanche caused is the suicide of her late husband. After finding out her husband is homosexual Blanche tells him that he disgusts her and later that night, her husband “stuck a revolver into his mouth, and fired- so that the back of his

Blanche's tragic flaw that cause her downfall or hamartia is her reliant on men, so much so that she makes choices and does things that are morally questionable. She manipulates and lies to potential suitors to make herself seem more attractive and younger-which in her mind is the only way a man will love her. She does this with Harold "Mitch" Mitchell and it seems to be working until Mitch is informed of all the lies he's been fed, at which point Mitch breaks up with Blanche and leaves her vulnerable for Stanley to

Nohemi Perea Task2/LCT1 8/01/2012 An individual labeled as the Other is different and does not fit in. The Other is “perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly” (The Other, 2009). A group sets guidelines and if a person does not meet them they will not be accepted as “normal”. Otherness to a group represents awkwardness. Although each person does have its own unique characteristics to prevent from being labeled as the Other you must possess common characteristics within a group. I read “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona” written by Sherman Alexie. It is about a boy named Victor who lives on an Indian Reservation

ndividuals have been known to be othering or other in this society. We have a mindset of labeling others because they are different, yet are they really deserved to be labeled. Just because a group might be different from an individual it doesn’t make them inferior, we in this society are showing hatred between groups. Many who others are usually experienced threats or hatred from people who assume to be superior. I see othering and other as unnatural because we are not suppose to judge some individual who is not the same as me then instantly put them in a separate group. Thought time individuals should concentrate on practicing more in equality, we shouldn't expect who is different or not.

What does otherness mean to you? Each person has it, everyone is different, and that’s what makes each one of us unique. Everyone has an imperfection; at times it can make me feel inadequate and out of place. My otherness is the fear of having to talk or speak in front of people. My palms start to sweat. I can suddenly hear the teacher call “natalie what is the answer” and my voice starts to crack and my cheeks turn red, all I feel is embarrassment . I turn around and I feel as someone that doesn’t belong. Being and talking in front of people is not one of my weakness,,