A Streetcar Named Desire michael amini asher p.1

A Streetcar Named Desire

In the play A Streetcar Named desire, written by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois is a character that is alienated from culture and looked down upon in society because of her past. Throughout the play it is made clear that she is the victim. She is in her own world, fragile from her past, and physiologically going crazy. When there’s nowhere else to turn, her last resort is to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley. She’s in her own world and makes her own stories up in her head and openly tells them to Stella, Stanley, and other people she meets throughout the play.

At this point in Blanche’s life, she’s a helpless individual, she seeks compassion and care from strangers, but no one understands her and they use her. Blanche’s own sister, Stella, even let’s her down when she calls the doctor to take her away because of her insanity. Her sister let’s her down again when Blanche is talking behind Stanley’s back about how he is an animal. Stanley over hears this and Stella ignores Blanche and sides with Stanley. She is obviously treated as an outcast and alienated by her sister and from society.

Adding to her alienation was when Blanche is finally meeting a new man, Mitch that might actually care for her. However, Stanley who demonizes her when he tells his friend, Mitch, about her past life of prostitution, ends up shunning her. He later regrets this as she is carried out of the apartment by the doctor. Throughout the play Stanley constantly tries to make her life more difficult, he victimizes her and that just adds to her insecurity of not being desirable.

The biggest contribution to Blanche’s alienation is when no one believed her when she accused Stanley of rape. While Stella was in the hospital, Stanley says to Blanche “we’ve had this date since the beginning” and rapes her. Even when Blanche was raped, her own sister refuses to believe her and still sides with Stanley. The only thing Stella regrets was her behavior towards her sister, Blanche, in the final scene of the play when she’s carried out of the apartment to the hospital. What Stella did was betrayal towards her sister who was seeking help.

Throughout the play Blanche is, at the highest extent, alienated and a victim. The only person left in her life she can turn to, Stella, betrayed her and left her with no help and at an unhealthy state of mind. Fragile and insecure, no one really wants to help Blanche. At the end of the play Blanche is sent to a hospital, ordered by her sister, to be taken care of which of not the type of care she needed.