Blanche's Own Reality in A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

A Streetcar Named Desire

We can evade reality but cannot avoid the consequences of doing so.

Reality is nothing more than a state of mind. A humans reality is weaved from their interpretation and understanding of their own memories. Furthermore, all humans are unique in their interpretation of any given event or idea hence why disagreements exist between people on a whole array of issues. However, the realities of most humans do overlap to some degree thus resulting in agreement. This common agreement between the vast majority of people is what we dignify as reality. It is possible to evade this type of absolute reality like the main character Blanche throughout the play A streetcar Named Desire although heavy, unavoidable consequences do exist.

The descriptive text in scene one of the play states that Blanche is about five years older than Stella yet in scene three when Blanche speaks to Mitch she explains that Stella is my precious little sister. I call her little in spite of the fact shes somewhat older than I.. In addition Blanche also cant stand a naked light bulb anymore than a rude remark or vulgar action. It is only when all three of these remarks are linked together is it possible to determine the true motives behind Blanches' contradictory actions. The first two portray the impossible difference in age thus illustrating that Blanche is a very vain and self possessed woman, however the third remark is the one that consolidates the fact that Blanche has chosen to believe the lie she told Mitch and make it part of her own reality. This is because light reveals imperfections on a humans face such as wrinkles and as a result she fears it may unravel her lie. This is simply unbearable for Blanche as it would destroy a part of her 'reality' that she desired so much to create.

When Blanche first arrives in New Orleans and converses with her sister Stella she exclaims in a frightened tone as you must have noticed Im not very well. However, no more than a day later when she first speaks to one of Stanleys friends in the poker night scene she mentions that she came to New Orleans because Stella hasnt been so well lately and I came down to help her for awhile. This contradiction of events illuminates Blanches true desire to forget she has any problems and she achieves this by making herself believe that her shortcomings are actually those of others.

Five months after Blanche had moved in Stanley became very impatient with his continued lack of privacy. Consequently Blanche senses her burden and yet again wishes to evade 'reality' so she tells Stanley that she had just received a wire from an extremely wealthy man called 'Mr Shep Huntleigh' who has invited her on a cruise to the Carribean. At first Stanley was overwhelmed with delight until he realised that this was just another one of Ms DuBois' tricks and furiously tore her 'reality' to shreds. This was the first time Blanche had ever had to face such an abrupt consequence and Stanley made her pay dearly for it.

The play 'A Streetcar Named Desire' exhibits numerous times how the main character Blanche is able to evade the perils of 'absolute reality' by simply creating her own. Furthermore through these examples Tennesse Williams demonstrates that a person's sense of 'reality' also determines their perception as the two are both one and the same.