Question 3
Passage:
[Extract from Scene 5, where Blanche and Mitch talk on the porch, and Blanche
reveals her desire for "magic" and pretense over reality.]
Question:
In what ways does this passage reveal Blanche’s struggle with reality and
illusion? In your answer, discuss:
Blanche's words and actions that suggest her desperation for escapism.
How Williams uses this interaction to highlight Blanche’s tragic flaw and
foreshadow her later decline.
In scene 5 of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Tennessee Williams uses the
dialogue and stage directions to depict a deceptive personality of Blanche in
increasing intensity as she tries to escape reality and disguises herself through
false behaviours both to others and herself – personal illusion.
At the start of scene 5, “Myself, myself for being such a liar!” suggests that she
is aware of her own deception when writing the letter to her ex-friend, Mr. Shep
Huntleigh, asking for financial assistance. In fact, no one confesses that they are
lying; therefore, if Blanche exposes her deceit, it suggests that she is very eager
to escape Stanley and wants to convince Stella by giving her hope.
Additionally, Williams employs stage direction that convey emotion to highlight
the hidden truth behind Blanche, such as “She laughs nervously and brightly,
emphasizing her lying behaviour as shown in the words “nervously and brightly”.
This emphasizes both her anxiety and excitement – two contrasted
emotions - simultaneously to clarify her deception and inner conflict.
Furthermore, “Virgo is the Virgin”, when Stanley asked for the meaning of her
sign, reveals her defiance to her dark sides – reality by using Stanley’s
weak knowledge about astrology to exploit his weakness. By presenting
herself as a virgin and creating an image of purity, Blanche can hide her darker
side, but as we all know, Blanche is not virgin as what she said.
Continuing to the trend, Tennessee Williams build up the deception of Blanche
clearer through her words and actions. In the lengthy analysis of Blanche to
Stella about her emotional toll protection after she lost Belle Reve, the sentence
“You’ve got be soft and attractive” amplifying the probable reasons for her to be
delicate and physically appealing to men for protection by italicising in the two
words “and attractive” highlighting the importance of beauty to Blanche which
for Stella and the audiences is “morbid” indicating Blanche’s illusion. After that,
this foolish thought is even expanded further showing her desire to escape
when Blanche “hysterically” said “I won’t, I promise. I’ll go! Go soon! I will
really! I won’t hang around until he – throws me out…”; the word “hysterically”
depicts Blanche mad-like behaviour, she talks meaningless stuff in an abnormal
behaviour. Besides that, the composure of italics and three exclamation marks
adds emotional weight/ adds depts to her words to emphasize the desperate
attempt to escape Stanley as well as her deluded mind – pretense over reality.
In conclusion, Tennessee Williams amplifies the deception of Blanche which
transfer to her illusion and escapism by employing words and stage directions to
clarify the personality of Blanche to the audiences.