Research Paper on Blanche's Journey: From Belle Reve to New Orleans

Introduction

Before showing up in New Orleans, Blanche used to live with her parents and relatives at their plantation of Belle Reve. Being from a wealthy family, Blanche was well educated and worked as a teacher of literature at Laurel. The death of her parents changed everything as she was now the one to manage and take care of the plantation since her younger sister had left. To preserve the dignity of her family Blanche spends a lot in the funeral. Blanche says "I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way!" (Ribkoff &Tyndall).

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She was also married to Allan grey a young man in her teens who she later found out to be a homosexual when she walks on him making out with an older man. Her reaction towards this action by rebuking him resulted in Allan committing suicide and as such "She experienced trauma due to the loss of her beloved husband" (Seigler). As debts pile and the frustration is setting in from the death of her husband Blanche resort to alcoholism and immorality with other young men to avoid loneliness. Eventually, she loses the plantation to the creditors as she is unable to pay and this, she partly blames her sister for abandoning her to the horrors of familial death" (Ribkoff &Tyndall). Her suffering pushes her to engage in a lot of cheap sex to the extent of having a relationship with a seventeenth year resulting in her getting dismissed from teaching. Get dismissed further added to her misery beside that of her husband and losing Belle Reve. Her lifestyle in a second-class flamingo hotel eventually get her kicked, and she goes nowhere to run to but her only remaining close relative her little sister Stella.

Blanche carries the guilt burden of pushing her husband to the limits because of the way she spoke harsh words about his sexual behavior. This can be seen in the many instances where Blanche drown herself in alcohol whenever she listens to the song which was playing the day her husband shot herself. Her husband was a gentle young man who was different from the other men she had met. The guilt she carries about causing the death of her husband pushes her to seduce young men just to satisfy her loneliness. Her loneliness and with no-one to close to her guide she engages in a relationship with seventeen-year-old student something which the parents realize and reports to the authorities who then kick her out. "After the death of Allan-intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with . . . I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection" (Seigel). Her guilt for her husband's death pushed her traumatized her and, in an effort, to hide her misery behind sex gets involved with a student which cause her to lose her job.

Blanche engaged in prostitution while at Flamingo in Laurel. She at many times bedded many low lives while in a second category hotel in Laurel. After getting fired from her job as a teacher, she became too desperate as she could not handle the misfortunes that had befallen her since the death of her parents and loss of Belle Reve. In Flamingo, she resorts to prostitution where she even had sex with the lowest members of the society. Her sexual endeavors were intolerable, and the people of flamingo threw her out as a result of her lifestyle.

How Is Stella a Prize in the Fight Between Blanche and Stanley?

Stella Dubois Kowalski is the main punching for the two conflicting characters in the play as they each try to impress her to be on their side. "In Stella, Blanche seeks an empathic listener with which to mourn and work through the traumatic past" (Ribkoff &Tyndall). Stanley cruelty instilled a lot of fear in Blanche, and this can be seen in the manner she looks at him in panic. Stanley, on the other hand, wants Stella to remain submissive the way she was and to do so he has to get Blanche out of her apartment. Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois use different strategies in their conflict against each in other justify their differences and get Stella's support. The main driver of this conflict is the fact that Stanley feels challenged by an empowered woman who she feels has invaded her space. Unlike Stella who easily submits to him Blanche is a tough woman with pride who stands for what she believes in. To get Stella s attention Blanche employee a strategy of manipulation and lies while on the other hand, Stanley focuses on using the truth and reality to expose Blanches plans. In the play, Blanche regularly tries all means to turn her sister away from her husband who she finds to be a bad husband to her sister. In one of the card games that Stanley regularly plays with his friends, he turns violent against Stella for talking to her in a manner he finds disrespectful. In the play Blanche's influence on Stella is very visible in that since her sister came, she had found the audacity to question her husbands' action something she did not do before her sister arrived. Blanche uses every opportunity to describe to Stella about how Kowalski is not an ideal man for her and that she should not tolerate his negative actions but rather stand up to him.

Kowalski does not buy the lies Blanche is saying and to unearth the truth and win back her wife he decides to dig up her past by asking a supply man who travels to Laurel regularly. The supply man informs him of Blanche sexual escapades with many men in that area and how this got her thrown out of the Flamingo second-rate hotel. In many instances, in the play, Kowalski points out how Blanche engaged in sexual immorality that resulted in the loss of their inheritance. Stanley tells everything done by Blanche in Laurel and explains to her how Blanche use to regularly visits the camp to offer cheap sex to the soldiers despite the place being out of bounds. This strategy seems to work because it exposed the real nature of Blanche who in a way is not ashamed of what happened in the past. Stanley employs this strategy to convince Stella to be on his side in the hope she will agree to kick her sister out of their house.

What tips the balance in Stanley's favor in the play over Blanche is his use of her past to shame her and masculine dominance. Blanche has built her life around lies and fantasy something which makes it easy for Stanley to use against her and further destroy her. Being masculine and in a society, which undermines women he is in a better position to challenge Blanche. Mitch is one of Kowalski's friend who comes over to play poker regularly. While playing in the house, Mitch and Blanche get to know each other, and they easily get along. Blanche and Mitch get along well and Stanley finds this friendship irritating, and he goes to the extent of striking Stella to stop Mitch from giving Blanche attention and focus on the card game. Violence against Stella is very much visible, but she still insists on staying with her husband because she is madly in love with him despite Blanche asking her to leave.

What Infuriates Stanley about Blanche?

What infuriates Stanley the most about Blanche is the fact that she has taken over is world and his now trying to take away his wife as well as his friend. In the first scene, Stanley is not happy with Blanche's response saying she doesn't know how long she is going to stay. Aside from that, he is also very angry that Blanche took advantage of her sister when it comes to the inheritance of Belle Reve and how she lost it due to her immoral behavior alcoholism. Mitch in the play seems to have fallen in love with Blanche and accepts for who she was after she confessed to him about her homosexual husband. This confession highlights the impact of her husband's death and how is "she was visibly broken by this loss" (Ribkoff &Tyndall).

Kowalski seeks to destroy Blanche by using her past and the trust that has on him to have an advantage on her. Having built a great foundation between her and mitch Blanche was now hopeful about life and was seeing a future with him. According to her, happiness was going to found by a union far away from Stella's house. This was not because of Stanley malicious intentions about destroying Blanche. Stanley informs Mitch in detail about blanches ugly past and how she been a prostitute before arriving at New Orleans.

Blanche had all hopes on Mitch and the moment she learned that Stanley had told Mitch about her past it completely broke her. Despite Stella not happy with Stanley actions of gossiping about her sister, but states that he cannot have that on his conscience the rest of his life if he knew all that stuff and let his best friend get caught.

Another sad thing is the fact that she bought her a bus ticket back to Laurel for her birthday a place where she had suffered a lot with no one to support her in battling her mental problems. This act completely brought her down to the place where she was before planning to come to be with her sister. Stanley even lies to Mitch so that he may not attend Blanche's birthday.

Upon admitting to Mitch, she is sexually harassed by his lover who tries to rape but her screams "Fire! Fire! Fire!" and this saves her from the nasty ordeal. Blanche is however not lucky when Stanley finds her alone in the house and subdues and violates her. These acts destroy Blanche as she returns to her old ways of drinking and living in a world of fantasy. Her fate I sealed when her sister does not believe her story about being raped by her husband and agrees to send her away to mental hospital signaling Stanley's success in throwing Blanche out of their home. "Blanche has fallen victim to the brutality of male dominance, yet even the women around her turn a blind eye to her suffering to avoid any disruption of their everyday lives."

How Is Blanche Responsible for Her Own Fate?

In several ways, Blanche Dubois is responsible for her downfall because she resorted to drinking and immorality instead of facing the harsh world head-on. She lives a life of lies by attempting to maintain an appearance of decency something which has faded since the downfall of the plantation in the south. "It is true that at times she seems almost completely divorced from reality, as when she asks Stella to help her find the appropriate attire and accessories in anticipation of Shep's arrival." She also fails to realize that she is growing old and that her beauty has faded and thus she should stop her habits of openly seducing men in a hope to maintain her image. In many people eyes, she is viewed as a "fallen angel victimized by her surroundings to damning her as a deranged harlot" (Seigel). These acts portray a woman who is unable to adapt to the changing dynamics of the culture which ultimately results in her downfall. A Streetcar Named Desire's ending "dehumanizes Blanche, undercuts her tragic situation, and renders her a maddened hysteric with no place in a well-ordered society" (Seigel).

Works Cited

Ribkoff, Fred, and Paul Tyndall. "On the Dialectics of Trauma in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire." Journal of Medical Humanities 32.4 (2011): 325-337.

Seigle, Lauren. "Blanche Dubois: An Antihero >> Writing Program >> Boston University". Bu.Edu, 2019, https://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-2/seigle/. Accessed 28 Apr 2019.