The leading female protagonist, Blanche Dubois, serves as an allegory for the loss of the Old South, representing the genteel society of Southern plantation owners through the nineteenth century. The DuBois sisters serve as remnants of Southern aristocracy. After the loss of Belle Reve, all that remains are idealistic pretensions. It is these pretensions that Blanche uses as a foundation to construct a new reality for herself. In contrast the character of Stanley suggests that the reality of a changing
A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams, fallows the story of Blanche, a troubled woman who must move on with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley after losing the family home. Be that as it may, Blanche isn’t as innocent as she appears. In fact, throughout the whole of the play, one can never be sure if they are seeing the genuine Blanche, or just a face of that pleases the characters she is interacting with. In the 1951 movie adaptation of the play, under the direction
of her own town because of her partners.The husband is not accepting of his wife’s sister and hassles her as much as he can. Blanche DuBois is Stella’s older sister, who was a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi, until she was forced to leave her post. Blanche is a talkative and fragile woman around the age of thirty. After losing her childhood home, Blanche arrives in New Orleans at the Kowalski apartment and eventually reveals that she is completely lacking the necessities to live
Desire, an old streetcar rattling down the French Quarter delivers perhaps one of the most unstable women to ever step into Louisiana. The white satin disaster is named Blanche Dubois, who is one of the focal characters in the play and in the play's themes. Blanche's actions are excellent proofs that delusion results in catastrophe. Blanche is not truthful on many topics, but her delusions relating to her age, relations, and financial situation all particularly cause her life to come crashing down much
In the play A Street Car Named Desire, Tennessee Williams portrays Blanche Dubois as a flawed, fragile, and concealed moth. Charles Darwin, a well-known scientist, introduced the theory of “survival of the fittest” where certain genes within a living organism can help it survive longer and outlast other species. This theory is prominent throughout the play due to Blanche being described by the author as a moth. Moths have special attributes that help them survive. These attributes include a moth’s
Miss Blanche Dubois came from a wealthy background and she always believed herself to be so high above others socially. She very much was conscious of herself physically and worried about what people thought of her. Moving to her sister’s place, she feels out of place and has to adapt to a new way of living if she plans on staying with her sister. The house is too small for her compared to Belle Reve. She criticizes her sister, the husband and everything else she sees wrong. She always seems nervous
The False Reality of Blanche Dubois In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams it exaggerates the contrast between the traditional southern lifestyle and the new industrialized southern lifestyle. Traditionalists like Blanche Dubois are unable to adapt to the changes that have occurred. As a coping method, Blanche lies to those around her to deal with the loss of her youthfulness, her husband and the family home, Belle Reve. During the play Blanche mirrors Belle Reve through the
In the play A Streetcar Named Desire author Tennessee Williams writes about Blanche DuBois, a woman who is seeking help from her older sister Stella Kowalski. Blanche comes to stay with Stella and her husband Stanley after finding out that Blanche and Stella’s childhood home had been taken from under them. The play goes on to show the dramatic downfall of what is Blanche DuBois. Throughout the play we see her slowly break down till finally she is pushed over the edge. William's uses a great deal
Blanche Dubois’s obsession with embellishing and hiding the truth in A Streetcar Named Desire reflects the negative effects of society’s oppressive gender norms in the late 1940s. The time period was the pinnacle of gender (George). Patriarchal post-war American society valued women mostly on their youth and beauty and restricted female sexuality. The character of Blanche Dubois demonstrates a woman reduced to youth and beauty. The main reason for Blanche’s concern over her looks is because she is
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
would be investigating Gatsby and his affairs which ultimately led him to his death by Wilson. In a similar way, the protagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois, also represented herself with a pretense. In Blanche’s case, she portrayed herself as a higher class citizen when in reality, she was just as equal as the lower class. Blanche would judge her sister’s choice of living, men and friends as they did not meet the expectations she would want required in her head: “‘Oh I'm not going to
is Blanche Dubois’ monologue is self-revealing. After the previous night’s poker game, drunken Stanley cruelly abused Stella in public. However, Stanley’s sweet words and frank actions promote Stella to forgive him. She returns home and spends the night with him in the end. Blanche does not understand why Stella decides to tolerate Stanley’s brutal behaviors and continue to live with him. She exhorts Stella to leave her beastly brother-in-law Stanley but Stella does not care much when Blanche ranting
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. Blanche could not accept her past and overcome it. She was passionately in love with
themes of fantasy and illusion to allow one to make life appear as it should be, rather than it is. Through the study of character and tropology, Tennessee Williams portrays the protagonist, Blanche DuBois, as the conflict of reality versus illusion through her world of delusion and fantastical philosophy. Blanche thrives on illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defense against both outside threats and against her own demons. Blanche’s main demon, her past life, haunts her every day, yet she
Why Is Blanche Dubois Presented As a Sympathetic Character? ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ written by Tennessee Williams is set in the French Quarter of Elysian Fields, New Orleans. Blanche Dubois, a Southern Belle on a battle between illusion and reality is the tragic protagonist of Tennessee Williams' play, grew up on a plantation called Belle Reve (a French phrase meaning "beautiful dream"). Throughout her childhood and adolescent years, Blanche grew accustomed to refinement and wealth. As the estate's
protagonist Blanche DuBois represents a fading Southern Belle who is unable to find satisfaction independently. When Blanche finds herself close to destitution after the loss of her ancestral home, she comes to live with her sister Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, in New Orleans. At first, Blanche’s prior relationships were established based on a sense of security, and the lack of this attachment initially restricts her from recognizing her self-worth. As a result, Blanche deceives others
leads to his/her own destruction.” In Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois is a prime example of a tragic heroine. Blanche’s entire life could be considered a tragic one, bearing in mind all that has happened before and after she is introduced. Her mental state is unstable from the beginning of the book as she suffers from mental illness throughout Streetcar. On multiple occasions, Blanche has awkward or even uncomfortable interactions with others that shows her lack of intimacy
character of the play is Ms. Blanche Dubois, a widowed, middle age, “southern bell” hiding from her own reality. Stella, Blanche’s younger sister is married to an animal, Stanley Kowalski. Mitch, Stanley’s friend, is Blanche’s last chance at happiness that she will never reach. According to Joseph Riddel, “Life is a living division of two warring principles, desire and decorum, and she is the victim of civilizations attempt to reconcile the two in a morality” (17). In the play Blanche is stuck between two
Blanche Dubois is a dynamic character that at first, is very difficult to figure out. She hides behind confusing stories and lies to protect herself from her traumatic past. In the begin of the play William’s leaves multiple clues to Blanche’s lying nature. She tells a strange tale of Bella Rev and challenges Stanley every chance she gets. She has many odd actions however I believe that these action, particularly her interactions with the newspaper boy and her fear of the light have a deeper meaning
exemplified in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. A character by the name of Blanche Dubois wants to hide the truth about her promiscuous past and insecurities. She avoids reality, preferring to live in her own imagination.Williams uses everyday activities and objects to conceal the suppressed feelings that people experience. One symbol incorporated into the play is the Chinese lantern. For Blanche, appearances are very important. She’s consumed with the need to appear younger than she