The Complexity of Blanch's Character in a Streecar Named Desire.

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams portrayed Blanche to be an extremely complex character. She was depicted as a delicate, pure woman, and eventually a lonely alcoholic! She was neither completely good nor bad, because she was so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. It is evident that the tragedies that occurred in her life contribute to the complexity of her character. In the very first scene of the play Blanche appeared wearing a white suit. As Williams describes her, "She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district" (15). White, being the symbol of purity, made Blanche seem to be very delicate as well as fragile. She seemed to be, in a sense, superior to the other people in the community. She was viewed as a stereotypical wealthy southern woman who inherited her family's fortune. However, it eventually became known that Blanche had lived an extremely hard and brutal life, which would drive even the most stable person to insanity.
Kazan stated, "It's not so much what Blanche has done–it's how she does it–with such style, grace, manners, old-world trappings and effects, props, tricks, swirls, etc... that they seem anything but vulgar" (21). It was obvious, even as Blanche desperately attempted to act as a respectable lady, that there was something terribly wrong with her. She even admitted it in Scene One, "I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone! Because - as you must have noticed - I'm - not very well" (23) Despite the fact that Blanche put on a mask of innocence and purity, she was really a fraud who could not stand up to the light in fear that she would be exposed for the person she really was. When Blanche was on her own, a great deal about her personality showed through. It was evident that Blanche continually lied

Cited: Adler, Thomas P. "Tennessee William 's ‘Personal Lyricism ': Toward an Androgynous Form." Realism and the American Dramatic Tradition Ed. William W. Demastes. Tusvaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. 172 - 188. Kazan, Elia Notebook for A Streetcar Named Desire. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1963. Saddik, Annette J. The Politics of Reputation: The Critical Receptions of Tennessee Williams ' Later Plays. Cranbury; Associated University Presses, 1999. Williams, Tennessee A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New American Library, 1947.