Character Analysis Of Blanche In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanche is the most sympathetic character
Blanche is most sympathetic character in Tennessee William's’ A Streetcar Names Desire. At first the audience’s reactions to Blanche would be negative because of her judgment and action. However, as Williams reveals more details about her past the audience start to feel that why she did like that, and events in her life beyond her control have led her to be this way and, would certainly feel sympathy for her. Blanche had sad past. Her young husband ,Allan Grey committed suicide. She takes bath to erase her past, She was raped by her sister’s husband Stanley and She was deserted by Mitch. Finally she was sent to a mental hospital.

In the past Blanche came to depend on stranger, because of her young husband Allan Grey committed suicide. Sympathy for Blanche grows when the details of her
Stanley said “Temperature 100 on the nose, and she soaks herself in a hot tub.(Scene7)” Blanche retreats to the water to attempt to cleans herself and forget reality.”I take hot baths for my nerves. Hydrotherapy, they call it, You hearty pollack, without a nerve in your body,of course you don’t know what anxiety feels like?”(Scene 7) Her preoccupation with washing herself is a symbolic attempt to cleanse herself of her past sins. “ I don’t want realism. I want magic! I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! Don’t turn the lights on!” (scene9) In light of her efforts to forget and shed her illicit past in the new community of New Orleans, these baths represent her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history.The paper lantern is a symbol of Blanche’s illusionary world that she inhabits, the paper lantern over the light bulb represents Blanche’s attempt to mask both her sordid past and her present appearance. The Mitch’s act of ripping it symbolises the crushing of her world and her lies being