Paper Summary:

Analysis of the character of Blanche DuBois in the Tennessee Williams play. Blanche's duality; her illusions vs. reality; conflicts between her sexual & spiritual longings. Blanche's threat to the domesticity of Stella and Stanley. Clash between Blanche and Stanley regarding her insistance on illusion and his on reality. Stanley's belief that Blanche's illusions are ruining his home, and his rape of her to shatter her illusions. Blanche's destruction. Stella and Stanley to live with illusion that he did not violate Blanche.

From the Paper:

"In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois is a character whose duality becomes apparent as the play progresses. She holds herself out to be one sort of person with one sort of background, but in fact, her life has been very different from what she pretends. For her, the illusion is a necessity in order to continue to live. For her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, the illusion is an affront and has to be exposed. In the character of Blanche, the duality derives from a conflict between sexual longing and the spiritual side of her nature in a world that sees the two as separate, when in fact they are combined in every person.

Blanche sees herself as a martyr and is always referring to the way life has treated her. The loss of her and Stella's childhood home is a key reference point. Blanche's character is ..."

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