Blanche has a personality that is shaped by her social background. Unhappy, she cannot or will not change her situation. She is unable or unwilling to change her life. She would rather retreat into fantasy and illusion, creating multiple facades that represent who she is to those she interacts. She was taught how to be a Southern lady – beautiful, shy and flirtatious at times, yet always chaste. Blanche struggles to cope with the harsh reality that urban America of the 20th Century is not in line with this ideal. Her alcoholism, and her promiscuity, are ways to escape these hardships. As she struggles to reconcile real life with what she believes she should be, she also fails.
Blanche tells Mitch about this traumatic experience and her disgust and revulsion: “It was because, on the dance floor – unable to stop myself – I suddenly said – I saw! Mitch is horrified and disgusted by Blanche’s traumatic experience. I saw! You disgusted. I know! Blanche becomes overwhelmed with regret and selfpity. Her shock then turns to illness. And the illness finally triumphs when Blanche is sent into a mental hospital by the end. Stanley was the instrument that brought her down. In destroying her, Stanley also becomes her husband’s avenger. He is equally responsible for Blanche’s destruction as Blanche is for her husband. Although the reader may feel compassion for her, (afterall, she lost her plantation as well her love and her dream of a gentile life), in truth, Blanche killed her husband because of her cruelty. Stanley behaves with the exact same cruelty as Blanche when she tells her husband that he disgusts her in the end scene. Blanche has no stamina for the strains that New Orleans can bring. As a result, she is in a New Orleans sanatorium. Stanley is determined to succeed in his endeavors. Intuitive and endowed with sexual vitality, Stanley is prepared to overcome any obstacle. In Blanche sexuality and sentimentality are allied, as is a declining but still attractive gentility. The collapse of tradition can be seen in Blanche. Stanley has a new coarse order. It is vigorous, but rough and rude. The dualism is between the protagonist and antagonist. Nevertheless, the opposition is not complete: Blanche treats her husband cruelly, is patronizing towards her sister and arrogant toward Stanley. Stanley is cruel towards Blanche. However, his loyal friendship with Mitch makes him humane.
Blanche’s true identity and the persona she presents to others are two different things. Her true personality is determined by her environment. Louise Blackwell included Blanche among the women who “have learned to become maladjusted because of abnormal family relations and have striven to break out of their bondage so as to find a companion”. Blanche was a dutiful child who stayed behind to save the family estate, Belle Reve. Blanche was a devoted child who remained to protect the Belle Reve plantation, even though it had been lost due to “grandfathers fathers uncles brothers and exchanged land for their epic lust.” She was used to an unusual family and could not adapt to her sister’s so-called “normal” life when forced to.
She is not like her sister, who belongs to a group of women that “have subordinated their lives to a dominant and often inferior individual in order to achieve reality and meaning by communicating with another person”. Stella may be superior to Stanley when it comes to background, but she still subordinates to him because of the satisfying sexual relationship they share. Stella’s explanation to Blanche when she becomes disgusted with her husband is that “there is a lot that happens between a couple in the night that makes everything else seem like it is unimportant.”
Blanche escapes reality by creating a fantasy. She plays her Southern lady role in different ways during most of the 11 scenes. In the first scene she criticizes the living conditions of her sister as a “grandedamme”. In the first scene, she acts as the “sex kitten” to Stanley. In her third scene with Mitch, she poses as a sophisticated lady and says she “cannot tolerate a naked candle or vulgar gesture any more” than she could a rude statement. She then plays the “outraged Aristocrat”, complaining about her abusive husband to Stella and begging Stella not to “hang around with the brutes”. Mitch sees her as a refined woman, even though she flirted with him just before the date. But the memories of her tragic divorce destroy that image. Stanley destroys the aristocratic image of Laurel by giving her a ticket for a bus, implying her embarrassing past. She then tries a refined lady role again with Mitch. But she finally admits her proclivities. In scene 10, she accuses Stanley, who then calls her a Tiger, of being an animal. Blanche’s Southern belle fantasy is revealed in the final scene. She is confused by the fact that she doesn’t recognize the players at the poker table. She reveals her pain in her famous line to the doctor that came to pick her up: “Whoever I am – I’ve always relied on the kindness and generosity of strangers.”
The play contains a lot of symbolism. Many lines, objects and characters are given another meaning. Blanche’s famous paper lamp, which she uses to cover the lightbulb, represents her desire to masked the light of the truth so that it is more acceptable to Blanche. Mitch questions her and she says that she dislikes bright lights. This is symbolic of her position as “a woman fading who looks best in a fading glow”. Desire and Cemetery Streetcars, both of which are located in New Orleans’s French Quarter, also serve as symbols. The two streetcars of New Orleans, Desire and Cemetery, are also symbolic.
Blanche’s role as an aristocratic Belle of the Old South is supported throughout the story by her trunk of clothes, her poetic, proper language and her superior attitude. She only cares about drinking, dimming the lights, having hot baths and begging for compliments on her appearance. The language she uses is what shows her superiority. She is one of the few characters who speaks with cultural references, has varied syntax and grammar, uses elevated words, and is full of pretentious imagery.
Blanche’s mask is on throughout the whole play. She believes her Southern gentility image to be true, but in reality, she wears it because of this. She slowly and surely breaks down as she hides the lonely, dejected, and desperate woman she truly is.
