Blanche DuBois Character Analysis in A Streetcar Named Desire (Essay Example)

“The truth will set you free,” Tennessee Williams writes on the role of honesty and its significance in his play A Streetcar Named Desire. The play follows a former debutante's fight to escape her past demons and the bad reputation she has acquired. The importance of Blanche DuBois, the play’s protagonist, is to show the role that integrity plays in a person’s deluded image. Blanche is written as an aging aristocrat that has become so caught up in her delusions that she can no longer maintain a straight story. After being fired from her teaching job for having an inappropriate relationship with a minor she retreats to her sisters in New Orleans, where she discovers less than worthy living conditions and an arrogant brother in law. What follows is Blanche’s attempt to find the perfect balance between her lies and the harrowing truth. By exhibiting the push and pull between Blanche's reality and fantasy Williams portrays the idea that honesty is the defining factor between fantasy and reality.

While most characters in A Streetcar Named Desire live in the real world, Williams plays on the line between optimism and reality when writing Blanche DuBois, an aging southern debutante who is continuously grasping onto the former glory of being a young, rich, and happy socialite. The play begins at the start of Blanche's trip to New Orleans, her younger sister, Stella Kowalski, is recently married to an arrogant blue-collar worker named Stanley, a disappointing match for a former aristocrat. Blanche is taken aback by the life Stella and her husband live; The loud working-class neighborhood did not fit the DuBois standards or the refined life that the sisters once blissfully shared.

From the moment Blanche arrived, she was hesitant on sharing much news about her life, and when she did it was fabricated to fit her image. As a seemingly put together yet slightly strange woman, suspicions of her dishonesty only arise when Stanley becomes concerned about his shares in Belle Reve, a family development that she recently lost. Despite the concerns, Blanche conceives the idea that her family remains higher up on the social hierarchy. Throughout her stay, it’s revealed that she has lost her job and had no intention of moving back home. Eventually, her lies begin to overwhelm her leading to a pivotal breaking point in the story where she becomes unhinged, spinning herself into lies and becoming untrusted by many people she cared about, making her an easy target of manipulation -and that's when Stanley steps in. Stanley's aggressive and militant nature forces Blanche to either prove or contradict her stories leading to a hostile environment between the two. As the play ends Stanley takes advantage of Blanche, and then denies her accusations with the so-called evidence of her delusion. 

Although Blanche's true reasoning for her visit is never crystal clear, Williams expresses the character's trips with the excuse of an early teaching leave. In reality, she is hopeless after being fired from her job and sees a chance to start over with her younger sister nearby. Blanche's main lies surround her lifestyle, including her age, wealth, and living status; This suggests that the reasoning for the dishonesty is her hope to maintain her family's power and status. By lying to the people closest to her, she begins to build a wall separating herself from reality, pushing her closer to insanity. After reading the play it can be deduced that most of Blanche's lies were an attempt to conceal her past self as well as a way to protect herself from the sins she has committed. After being portrayed as a helpless woman with an irreversible line of failures, Balance's attempts at concealing her true self made it clear that she was ashamed of the person she had become. Consumed by fear and insecurities, with no way to go back to her old life due to financial and status loss, Blanche reached a point of no return. Williams uses multiple objects to symbolize Blanche and her outlook on the world; For example, the Chinese paper lantern mentioned throughout the play is used to cover the unwanted. Williams uses the lantern to symbolize the lies and fashion that Blanche uses to bury her insecurities.

Williams tests Blanche by giving her opportunities throughout the play. At first, Blanche's goal was simple: find a way to start her life over; However, Blanche’s constant drinking leads to her continuously adding to her stories. During the first scene, Blanche’s temptations almost compromise her future at the Kowalski house. After a whiskey bottle breaks her composed state the audience is given a view of what Blanche is really like. Her inability to leave a whiskey bottle untouched suggests that she has begun “self-medicating” to calm herself when preparing to slip back into her fantasies. Throughout the play, Blanche is seen drinking in a reclusive manner in order to retreat from the harsh reality she currently lives. Williams uses multiple motifs to show how Blanche truly sees herself. Along with the hidden drinking problems she also hides behind dim lighting and uses baths as a symbolic way to cleanse herself of the past. These motifs are something Blanche uses to fade into her fantasy, however, she is repeatedly pulled back into reality at the hands of her brother-in-law Stanley. Stanley's constant need to undermine Blanche and his determination to bring her back to reality are examples of his hatred for the upper class and his displeasure with Blanche's presence. Stanley is a lower-class, blue-collar worker living in a small apartment. In Blanche's eyes, he is unworthy of an aristocrat like Stella DuBois as they are used to a much higher standard of living. Throughout the play, tensions continue to rise between the two as Blanche devises a plan for her and Stella to escape him, concerned that Blanche is getting in the way of his marriage he rebuttals by unraveling all of her lies. Williams uses the drinking motif one last time to show the contrast between the two characters; Blanche is a quiet and reclusive drunk while Stanley is a loud and social drinker. By having contrasting characters fight, Williams develops his main intention, by having Blanche represent fantasy and Stanley represent reality Williams can portray the struggle between the two when honesty is involved.   

The characters in the play all represent different roles or themes. The importance of Blanche DuBois, the play’s protagonist, is to show the role that integrity plays in a person’s deluded image; Whereas her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, is meant to embody the role of a realistic antagonist that drives a wedge between Blanche’s deception. Stella Kowalski, Blanche’s sister, is forced to act as a metaphorical bridge between the two contrasting characters eventually leading to the destruction of a once strong family bond. Williams uses a mix of lyrical and southern writing styles to drive his thesis further into the play's dialogue and by simultaneously adding distinct literary and dramatic devices he foreshadows the play's outcome as well as gives insight into the main character's inner flaws. By using costumes, music, and set design to illustrate Blanche's declining sanity Williams creates a visual masterpiece that depicts the tone of the play.  

CONCLUSION

Many people acknowledge Blanche DuBois as an insecure woman who has become entirely dissociated from the world around her. From hiding herself behind fancy clothes and dim lights to the use of baths and drinking to hinder the reality of her current state, Blanche is a perfect example of a seriously insecure and delusional character. Williams uses the tensions between optimism and reality to show the depth of the character's inner flaws and by doing so he also illustrates the importance of it to a person's sanity. If Blanche had been honest the tragic outcome of the play wouldn’t have happened, leading her to potentially find resolutions to many of her past resentments and deteriorated relationships. Instead, Blanche's deceitful ways portrayed her as insane, leading to the harrowing ending that she endures. Although Blanche's lies lead to her eventual downfall, one can see the message her character portrays; had she not relied on her fantasy she would have succumbed to the harsh reality of the world, which for her was filled with misery. William’s writing teaches that when the distinction between a person's truth and lies becomes faded it leads one to be swept up in the fantasy of everything. The story's tragic ending inspires the outlook of honesty as it’s the defining factor between insanity and normalcy.