Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

Some people cannot handle the reality of their life, so they come up with ways to avoid dealing with it. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche is haunted by her past. She is incapable of escaping the choices that she has made, pushing her to lie, and lead people away from her true personality. When Blanche’s idealism obscures the truth, she is pushed past her breaking point, unable to identify the line between reality and self-indulgent fiction.

Blanche has expectations for everybody around her, which drives them away because they cannot keep up with her fantasy. Blanche’s expectations for Stella are to live an above average life, with a luxurious home and a loving husband. “In my opinion? You’re married to a madman!” She hasn’t seen Stella in a long time, so to go and find her in a run down house, full of drunk men and abuse, she is confused as to how Stella can live that way; the way they were brought up at Belle Rêve being very
When Mitch addresses Blanche, he finally calls her out on lying about her age, and her ideals. “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.” He is telling Blanche that he knows the act she’s putting on isn’t the real her. The people around her start to notice that her stories aren’t always accurate, and start to question them. When Stanley confronts Blanche about all the lies she’s told, all she can do is stand there and take it, listening to her fantasy getting ripped apart. This is the final straw for her, she cracks and can no longer fight with Stanley, surrendering herself to him grudgingly. Everything about her new life in Elysian Fields crumbles around her, and she can’t handle people knowing the truth of her past endeavours. Blanche looses her grip on reality entirely, and it forces Stella to make the decision of sending her to an asylum to help her sort out what is truth, and what is