In
the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois
becomes the main focus through her deception. She deceives her sister, Stella
Kowalski, as well as her husband, Stanley Kowalski and his friend, Harold
Mitchell, or Mitch. She uses fantasy, the creation of the imaginative faculty
whether expressed or merely conceived, by a means of self-defense, against
outside threats and against her own troubles. Through the tragedies of losing
her first love and losing her and Stella’s childhood home, she dwells in a
state of illusion. Blanche believes it is necessary to create illusions for the
purpose to escape her reality and hardships she has had to endure, which takes
over her reality. By escaping reality and living in a fantasy world it leaves
people blind to the world around them.
Love
is the main factor that leads her into her illusions. She fell in love at the
young and tender age of 16, with Allan, who became her husband. Although she
describes discovering love as having “…suddenly turned a blinding light on
something that had always been half in shadow,” she was living in a fantasy
(114). There was something different about Allan, she says that, “He came to me
for help. I didn’t know that… all I knew was I’d failed him in some mysterious
way and wasn’t able to give the help he needed but couldn’t speak of! He was in
the quicksands and clutching at me-but I wasn’t holding him out, I was slipping
in with him!” (114). She realizes now that Allan was trying to let her know
that he was gay. Allan trying to appear to society as straight was an illusion
in itself. He was trying to repress his true feelings, but they were too strong
for him to hold inside. While Blanche was oblivious to the fact that Allan was
gay, it was only when she saw him in the act that she discovered the truth. When
Blanche discovers the truth she tells Allan that he disgusts her and she runs
off (115). Blanche leaves him and rejects who he truly is, and this is what
causes Allan to commit suicide.
As
Blanche meets Mitch she presents herself as an illusion to him. She gives him
the idea that she is well off, happy, young, and a virgin. These
characteristics or disguise is not what she truly embodies, but what she wishes
she were. Blanche appears to be falling for Mitch as she spends more time with
him, but in reality she is reaching out for the love that she wishes Allan and
her still had. If she can have this love then she may be happy once again. When
questioned by Stella if she wants Mitch, she replies back, “I want to rest! I want to breath quietly again!
Yes- I want Mitch…very badly! Just think! If it happens! I
can leave here and not be anyone’s problem…” (95). Clearly she does desire
Mitch, but not for who he is as a person, but for what he can offer her. She
will be able to rest and settle down in one place with out being a bother to
anyone. Her “love” for Mitch is an illusion that she believes will fix all her
problems.
The
seams to her illusions soon start to unravel as everyone learns the truth
behind her being there. When she is confronted about her lying she reveals to
Mitch, “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that
to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth” (145). She constructs
a world around her that is her ideal world. In this world she is perfect,
young, beautiful and a virgin. In her world love is the ideal goal and once she
finds this everything will fall into place and she will be happy. This world is
not reality though. She is caught up in her fantasy and she is unable to
escape. She starts to lose herself by wanting her fantasy to be real. Stanley
and Stella hear her singing in the bathroom, “But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in me!” (120). This line is repeated over the next few pages.
If only someone would come along in her world and go along with her illusion
then it could become reality.
For
Blanche, these illusions that she creates are necessary for her to go on in
life. She feels the need to create this fantasy, to escape from the tragedies
she has had to go through. She is swept away in her fantasy and illusions,
which blinds her from the reality she is living in. Creating these illusions or
ones like Blanches is problematic for a healthy and happy life. In the end
Stanley’s realistic approach to life wins out over her fantasy. Tragedies and
hardships need to be faced head on and become resolved or in the process of
resolving. This is necessary for a person to move on from it and continue to
live life without carrying around a dead weight. Blanche is unable to do this.
She believes creating illusions is the best means of self-defense against threats
and her own troubles, which in the end is self-destructive.
You have a great argument here and you use a lot of examples to support it. You just need to include the "so what" factor to this argument, and it will become stronger than it is now.
ReplyDeleteJessie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great start to your close reading. I think your idea of Blanche's fantasy life is a great focus but needs more depth. Your last sentence mentions that all these illusions as self-defense ultimately end in her own self-destruction. I think this would be really great to include in your thesis and throughout the paper to push your ideas further. Also, I would consider a little less plot summary. Overall, great job!
I agree that Blanche's delusional mindset is an interesting aspect of William's play. You have a nice start here, but I think that your thesis could be a bit more refined. For instance, like Constance said, you should add in from the start how Blanche's mindset is self destructive and develop that through the whole piece. Keep your focus on how her ignorance causes her grief throughout her life and what this implies for the rest of the play. This would contribute to the "so what" factor that your piece seems to be lacking. Over all though, good start!
ReplyDeleteYou provide an interesting view of Blanche in your paper. I think you could define your thesis more and also incorporate the "so what" factor throughout your body paragraphs. I also feel as if there could be less plot summary. You have a great start and good evidence, it just needs some more analysis.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great start! I agree with the others that your "so what" factor is at the end and should be introduced earlier (how living in her fantasy world ends in her own self-destruction). There seems to be a lot of plot summary that you could cut back on. But overall this is a good argument and a great first draft.
ReplyDeleteYou mention blindness in both the introduction and the conclusion of this paper, but the body seems to just skip over it. While you present some good moments of illusion, I think the actual argument of this paper (or what I think it's supposed to be) revolves around that concept of blindness. If you do want to go with the blindness aspect when you revise this paper, maybe think about Blanche's aversion to light and moments where there is a play on light vs shadow in the text.
ReplyDeleteI think the connection you touch on between love and illusion is rather interesting. That Blanche present herself to Mitch as an illusion of her true self in order to get him to fall in love with her. She does this to Stanley at one point. The point where her illusions unravel is when she really wants Mitch to love her and tells him the truth behind her lies in order to drop the deceptions. So in closing, it seems that she believes that she has to present lies in order for people to like her, or more specifically, in order to get men to fall in love with her; as evidenced with Stanley, Mitch and even the delivery boy. It would be interesting to see you take that direction with your argument, since that seems to be where you were heading with it at one point.
ReplyDeleteYou use plenty of quotes to support your claims but I agree with others that you need to introduce your argument earlier on in your paper. Also, I think Dane's comment is really interesting about considering what contributes to Blanche's blindness, like her aversion to light. Good work so far though!
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteYour thesis is very broad and could use refinement. "By escaping reality and living in a fantasy world it leaves people blind to the world around them" is a very general claim, and does not say anything with particular importance to the text.
I might just be bad at reading, but it seems to me that your problem here is not that your ideas are bad, but that the organization of your sentences and paragraphs are a little convoluted (particularly in the first paragraph), so you're losing me in that tangle.
ReplyDeleteI think the blindness angle that Dane suggests would be an interesting one, but you'd have to rework too much of the body to get there. You've got some good stuff about love being a potentially illusional thing, so just rework the intro and conclusion to be more focused on that.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a great topic and solid thoughts, but just keep going deeper. Delve into the "so what," the consequences of Blanche's actions. Just give us more support. I was also wondering if Allan is a clear example of how living under an illusion fails; he tried to present "what ought to be truth," but it only led him to a double life, then to suicide.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteI like where you are going with this. I think your thesis needs some rephrasing. You use the word "people", I think you should narrow this down, people is really broad. You should also explain why being blind to the world around them has an effect on the story or the characters.
You do a wonderful job of depicting Blanche's use of illusion throughout the play. However, I feel that you need to focus more on the "so what" factor. Why is it so important, or destructive, that Blanche lives, and seeks out, illusion and fantasy? What about reality is so terrifying to her? I think if you fleshed those aspects out a little bit more, you could have a very strong piece.
ReplyDeleteGreat start! I think your argument is interesting your supports are decent. However, I would like to see you delve more into the significance of fantasy and the blindness it causes. I really like the last line of your paper about fantasy being self-destructive and I think more analysis of your details to support this would greatly benefit you. I also think you need to stay on focus throughout your piece. Otherwise, great job!
ReplyDeleteAs others have stated, the blindness aspect to your piece never seems to gain ground. If you want to continue your focus on the blindness, you may want to consider incorporating more into your body paragraphs. Other than that, great use of quotes and support.
ReplyDeleteYou pointed to some really great moments of the text, but I felt like a lot of your close reading was a description of events and didn't consistently work towards proving your thesis. I think it would be easier to do that if your thesis was more specific, right now it's a little broad and observation based.
ReplyDeleteIn your first paragraph you use the passage that states Blanche's love was like a "blinding light" and instead of taking this statement as an exception, I think you could use it perfectly to talk about blanche being "blinded" (unaware of reality) by the feeling of being in love. Finally, I know what you were getting at, but in your conclusion you introduce Stanley's approach to life, and it seems a little out of the blue. If you want to compare him to Blanche (which I think could easily be done), then just expand on his outlook throughout your close reading in order to give the reader a sense of his significance.
Jessi...great start! Blanche is such a complex character, and I am glad that you took on analyzing her illusive nature. However, as many have said, I am wondering where the "so what" of your paper is. Make it more clear to us that people who lead a life of deception/illusion aren't fully living their life because they are too busy trying to keep up with their lies and it catches up with them eventually.
ReplyDeleteI like your starting point, you've got a lot to work with. I agree that if you analyzed your examples and evidence more explicitly, it would strengthen your argument and not seem so much like summary. Adding a so what will also help, once you've focused your thesis, and made it more argumentative. questions you may want to consider is, we discussed in class how Blanche always seems to be acting. is she aware that she is acting? when does she really see herself? has she deluded herself fully and is she fully immersed in her fantasy and fake persona? if she knows she is acting, how does she be "real" to herself at least? i'm not sure if that makes any sense, but i think it might be helpful to talk about how blanche sees herself, not just how the audience sees her.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job! I really like your writing. I understood the majority of the paper and I think you did a great job explaining yourself. The only part I tripped up a bit is when you said, "If only someone would come along in her world and go along with her illusion then it could become reality." I think you need a deeper explanation in order to make your readers understand.
ReplyDeleteHow can you use the argument of "Illusions" in a better way? Right now it feels more of a summarization of the word and its context within the story rather than an new perspective on how it is being used by Blanche and how she views and portrays such illusions.
ReplyDeleteLike many who have commented above me, I think that you should work on the "so what" of the piece...which is something that I think will happen when you develop your thesis a little bit more. I agree with the comment above that you should delve into the issue of self protection leading to self destruction.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read. I felt like there were elements of your thesis that weren't carried through the whole paper, so look into that in your rewrite. I liked your take on Blanche's particular brand of blindness and you use great evidence but you could do some more unpacking and ask the "so what" questions. That would definitely make this a strong paper.
ReplyDeleteI really like this. I think you have a good idea here, but I would definitely use some of the things we talked about in class to make this paper even stronger -- specifically the conversation we had about the importance of the song and the lyrics. I might even try to flesh out the idea that Blanche is acting and how people respond to her fantansies. But overall, good work!
ReplyDeleteOverall, great close read. I would like to have seen a little less plot summary, but I think in revising, you will easily be able to narrow this aspect of your piece and add a bit more analysis. Also, check to make sure you carry out all elements of your thesis.
ReplyDelete