On Blanche DuBois

Blanche DuBois is one of the lead characters of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche comes to visit Stella and Stanley Kowalski – her sister and her brother-in-law, respectively – after experiencing a series of tragedies. Her husband revealed his sexuality preferences towards men to her, and her negative reaction spurred him to commit suicide. Driven by guilt, she turns to prostitution and loses her job as a schoolteacher. Her attempt to seek refuge at Belle Reve, the family plantation, is thwarted when the DuBois family loses the property. She primarily interacts with Stella and Stanley, though she also has significant on-stage interactions with Mitch and Eunice.

Blanche is arguably the most pivotal role in the play. She carries with her a wealth of emotional baggage that proves to be the cause of much of the play’s tension. For instance, her willful withholding of information about her past from Stanley, Stella, and Mitch blows up in her face later on when Stanley reveals her past indiscretions. Within the play, Blanche tries to make herself seem like the most refined person in any given situation. She has a penchant for clothing that she can no longer afford and claims to have a wealthy gentleman caller from Dallas to try and win her hand. She is initially quite good at masking her insecurities regarding her age and her financial standing, but as the play continues, she begins to unravel, becoming a substance abuser and flirting with young men to gain some attention. Her own shock at being stood up by Mitch, “the first time in [her] entire experience with men…that [she’s] actually been stood up by anybody,” helps emphasize that she thinks too highly of herself. Though she does desire to have her future relationships go better than her previous one, evidenced in her Scene Five revelation that she is “just feeling nervous about [her and Mitch’s] relations. He hasn’t gotten a thing but a goodnight kiss…I want his respect.” (Williams) Blanche’s desire to move past the admittedly shady reputation she picked up in Laurel is the driving force behind her actions in the play.

From Blanche, we learn that honesty is the best policy, but that emotions can get in the way of the pursuit of honesty. Leonard Berkman makes the compelling argument that Blanche’s downfall didn’t begin with the collapse of her marriage, but sometime before then, over the course of a life filled with dishonesty and lacking intimacy. (252) She wisely attempts to be more emotionally intimate with Mitch, revealing part of her past to him. But Stanley’s own emotions regarding Blanche and her deception cause him to pursue honesty, furthering Blanche’s downfall and directly causing her to fall into madness. After exposing many of her past indiscretions, including an affair with a seventeen-year-old student, Stanley rapes Blanche while Stella is away at the hospital. This heinous act by Stanley forces Blanche’s mental collapse, and Stella makes “arrangements for her to rest in the country,” instead of at their house, where her further mental health hangs in the balance. Honesty may be the best policy, but it doesn’t always lead to good consequences for all the parties involved.

Works Cited

Berkman, Leonard. "The Tragic Downfall of Blanche Du Bois." Modern Drama 10.3 (1967): 249-257. Print.

Small, Jr., Robert. A Teacher's Guide To The Signet Edition of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. PDF file.

Wei, Fang. "Blanche's Destruction: Feminist Analysis on A Streetcar Named Desire." Canadian Social Science 4.3 (2008): 102-108. Canadian Social Science. Web. 3 Oct. 2013.

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New American Library, 1951. Print.