Blanche Dubois Monologue Analysis

Blanche Dubois, a refined and delicate woman plagued by bad nerves, makes her first appearance in scene one of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She unexpectedly arrives in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella Kowalski who ran away after their father’s death. Upon their reunion, Blanche is sharp-tongued and quick to state her shock over the unsavory status of the apartment in comparison to the luxurious plantation where the two sisters were raised. Though dissatisfied by the living conditions, Blanche quickly explains that she had been given leave of absence from her teaching position due to bad nerves and could not stand being left alone—her excuse to invite herself to stay with Stella for an undetermined period of time. It

While the monologue addresses the painful situations Blanche has been party to, it is not meant to explain. Instead, it takes on a sarcastically bitter undertone were Blanche’s feelings of resentment towards Stella are hidden under the line level. Here the text develops an image of Blanche stabbing an accusatory finger at Stella while venting her frustrations. This pattern can be observed once again when Blanche cries out, “Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you…” The repetition in this instance helps to emphasize the descriptions that come after each repeated word. By drawing specific attention to these areas, Blanche is luring the audience towards her side, causing them to empathize with her situation—how it was Stella’s fault for abandoning Blanche when she needed the support. Stella appears as the despicable one for letting Blanche suffer through these moments

Parades are typically viewed joyously and exuberantly while graveyards invoke feelings of sadness and remembrance. These two concepts emotionally oppose one another, yet they are put together in the same sentence. Instead of referencing the parade to depict a certain emotion, it alludes to the timing and sequentiality of the deaths in the Dubois family. Parades are rather long, time-consuming celebrations filled with various festivities. Large quantities of people sequentially march down the street, one event after the other, in what appears to be a never-ending line. By comparing the deaths to a parade, Blanche is stating that the deaths in her family seemed endless. One person would fall ill and die, then the next, and the next, and the cycle continued until Blanche was the only one