a gothic short story

Blanche needs Mitch as a stabilizing force in her life; if her relationship with him fails, she knows she faces a world that offers few prospects for a financially challenged, unmarried woman approaching middle age. She tacitly admits to Mitch that she needs him when she accepts his embrace, but her fears of acknowledging her past and current situation overpower her and prevent her from telling the full truth. She hides her past not only from Mitch, but also from herself because to acknowledge it is to also admit the unhealthy choices she has made. When Stanley tells Mitch about Blanche’s blemished past Mitch recognizes that Blanche’s deceptions have relied on a symbolic and literal darkness which obscures reality. When Mitch asks Blanche 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” (145). In these lines Blanche clearly expresses her desire not to deal with reality; this inability to face her circumstances signifies that Blanche is not recovering from her mental stress, but rather descending further into it. Blanche becomes desperate and delusional and her descent into mental

Blanche repeatedly lied to make herself look pure to others. It only served as a masquerade to hide her dirty, sinful reality. She lied about her age, alcoholism, promiscuity, and why she had to leave Laurel. When Stanley asked her if she wanted a shot, she replied, “No, I—rarely touch it” (Scene 1, page 1548). She could not confront her reality, so she retreated to her world of illusion. This was Blanche’s most prominent flaw. If she could have accepted things for what they are, she could have salvaged her sanity. If, from the beginning, she had been truthful to Stanley’s friend Mitch, he could have forgiven her. Dismally, Mitch would not trust her after finding out everything she said was fabricated. “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it” (Scene 9, page 1590). Blanche feared lights which symbolized her fear of reality. She claimed that with Alan’s death, all light had gone out of her life. “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this—kitchen candle.”

Throughout the play Blanche also lies about her real age because she want to be perceived as younger, since she is still single she doesn't want people to think that she has lost her opportunity. Because of this she uses paper lanterns and avoids being seen in light since she doesn't want people to realize the truth. She justifies this by saying she “never was hard or self-sufficient enough... You've got to be soft and attractive. And [she's] fading now! [she] don't know how much longer [she] can turn the trick” (92). The paper lanterns are a way she can conceal her true identity, it's a way for her to not deal with the reality. She's living in this lie where she thinks that by putting paper lanterns everything is seen in those pastel colors, concealing the truth behind them. But I don't think she is conscience that that is not how it works and sooner or later she must face reality. Another event she conceals is her ex husband's death. She lies about what had really happened to him and the reasons why he had died. Being left because your husband was a homosexual would affect her reputation. People would talk about her behind her back and spread rumors which would ruin blanche’s reputation. That is why instead she created her own story. After hearing herself tell Mitch the real story she says she had never lied “Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart” (9.59). Meaning she had believed all the lies she had been saying. She had immersed

When Blanche meets Mitch, she realises that her is someone who can give her a sense of belonging and who is also captivated by her “girlish” charms. She deceives him into thinking her, as she would like to be –prim and proper – however, as she later tells Mitch: “Inside, I never lied”. Her essential nature and being have been changed by her promiscuity – She gave her body to any man, but it would appear, that to Mitch, she is ready to give her whole being. Mitch falls in love with Blanches world of

In scene nine, Blanche is confronted by Mitch, who has learned the truth about her past. Mitch tells Blanche that he has never seen her in the light. He tears Blanche's paper lantern off of the plain, bright light bulb, and tries to see her as she really is, and not in a view warped by Blanche's efforts to make herself seem more innocent, young, and beautiful than she is. Blanche responds to

Without realizing, Blanche compares herself to being like the light bulb and how it uses a paper lantern to cover up. She is however, fully aware of her alternating personality and that she uses it to impress others because in order for people to like her she feels she has to act like something that she is not making her very vulnerable. In order to protect herself, Blanche covers up by making fake stories and lying to everyone to seem more attractive. When her sister asks why she cares so much about her age, Blanche responds, “Because of hard knocks my vanity’s been given. What I mean is—he thinks I’m sort of prim and proper, you know. I want to deceive him enough to make him—want me . . .” (Williams 58). As opposed to letting herself shine, Blanche uses the

Even though it doesn’t work she tries to get Mitch to understand that after her husband’s suicide she didn’t know how to cope with the pain and sex was the only way. Blanche knows that once people found out about her true sexuality she will be shunned because in her society, “they condemn the repression required by the ‘ethic of purity’ which leads to a variety of physical and mental disorders, including frigidity and exaggerated subservience” (Smith 3). If a woman were to so much as enjoy sex she was considered mentally unstable and needed to be fixed. Blanche has to hide her true self because it is the only way she can survive in her

The paper lantern is not very stable, though, and it can easily be destroyed. The paper lantern represents how her illusions can easily be destroyed. Later in the play, she takes Mitch home with her and says, “Let’s leave the lights off” (p. 103). Blanche is very fond of Mitch; therefore she does not want him to know the reality of her past or her true age. The physical intentions of light is to

Light may be a symbol of realism yet Blanche prefers to hide in the darkness of her fantasies. She clearly has an inability to tolerate light yet Mitch forces her to stand directly under it. His act of turning on Blanche’s light symbolises his extermination of the fake personality and image she has created. Furthermore, Blanche’s comfort in darkness allows for her to be compared to a moth. Moths are believed to deceive their potential predators with patterns on their wings that look like the eyes of a larger animal.

This is another blow to Blanche’s faltering sanity, which eventually pushes her to insanity. It can be seen as an accomplishment for Mitch because he has broken free from Blanche’s manipulation by himself, and has managed to see the truth through her façade. This moment also foreshadows Blanche ’s rape by Stanley later in the play. Mitch initially came with the intention to rape Blanche, but he was not able to do

For a woman to act in such a way and expect to be treated like a lady is counterintuitive. In Scene Five (1849), Blanche's white dress, her deception of her purity, is stained which is symbolic of the fact that Blanche is not even near being pure. Blanche's world hinges on deception, as can be seen when Blanche pours her heart out to Stella in scene five, "soft people... it’s not enough to be attractive... I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick." (Scene 5. 1849.) Blanche feels that she must trick and deceive in order to survive in a world where her looks are fading fast. We are introduced to Blanche as a "delicate beauty" that "must avoid strong light” (Scene 1. 1817). Williams, portrays Blanche as an uncertain character who hides behind outer beauty and who, when is placed under the spotlight, fails to live up to what she would like people to think she is. This ties in to one of the themes in the story of the relationship between sex and death. Blanche’s fear of death comes to light in her fears of aging and losing the beauty she once had. She refuses to tell anyone her true age. She believes that by asserting her sexuality, especially toward younger men, she will be able to keep death at bay and once again be a part of her world of teenage bliss she experienced before her husband’s

When Mitch first accuses Blanche of impurity, she tries to undermine the credibility of her accuser. She acts as if his claim was ridiculous, crying out, “ ‘The merchant Kiefaber of Laurel! I know that man. He whistled at me. I put him in his place. So now for revenge he makes up stories about me’ ” (line 2-4). Blanche’s automatic deflection of being sexually pursued reveals her desire to be constantly validated. This likely stems from her husband’s homosexuality, which Blanche took as a direct insult

For she had deceived Mitch in many ways. One way was her age which Blanche said that she is 24 when she is really 30 even so, mitch was okay with her being older than him. In addition Blanche didn’t tell the full truth about her past and when Mitch found out he called Blanche a slut and a person who doesn’t deserve marriage. Symbolizing Stanley’s victory he rips off Blanche’s paper lantern and shoves Blanche back into reality. A reality of the painful truths, a fantasy world ripped from her and is exposed with no pity.

Blanche so desperately tries to conserve her youth through the entire scene and during that time in her young life, it seems to have been torturous where she has lost everything. Continuously trying to preserve it in any way possible, Blanche states “I don't want realism, I want magic!.. I tell what ought to be the truth and if that's sinful then let me be damned for it all - don't turn the light on! ” (William 1870). Afraid of anyone seeing or knowing what her real age, the light is put onto her face revealing her true age. This light, and putting the pattern lanterns over them, symbolize her fear in losing her youth even though she already has wanting to make herself believe that she has a second chance. Now that conflict and symbolism has been discussed, another literary element used by Tennessee Williams in order to present the true desires of the human heart is characterization.

However, to a certain extent, Blanche is to blame for her ultimate fate because she was knowingly deceiving others, especially Mitch. Readers know that Blanche is aware of her own deceptive tendencies when she tells Mitch, “Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart…” (Williams 147), showing that she knew she lied although she truly didn’t mean it. Nevertheless, it can also be argued that Blanche was a victim of the times. In an era where women were expected to marry young, Blanche was already over thirty years old and a widow. As seen when she states, “But on the other hand men lose interest quickly. Especially when the girl is over—thirty” (Williams 94), there was a noticeable pressure on her to find another husband, but also a stigma attached to women her age. While attempting to live up to society’s expectations and marry, especially since she was a Southern lady, Blanche found it difficult to keep men’s interest, therefore resulting in her constant romantic endeavors to not only receive attention, but to also try to find a man she could