In since Stanley matches his role, he is allowed to get away with rape and Stella’s personal needs in order to live with are met because she is a good housewife. Blanche however has the worst outcome with being raped, and then she is accused of insanity and sent to a mental institution. This goes to show that it was better to being like everyone else instead of
Blanche’s constant fight between what is real and what is an illusion begins to spiral out of control and gets to the point that she must be institutionalized. One of the first of countless lies was shortly after Blanche arrived at the Kowalski Flat house. Blanche makes a statement to Stella, “I was so
Blanche’s constant bathing, which is a passive, happy activity like a ‘child frolicking in a tub’, serves as an escape from reality. This childish mannerism displayed by Blanche indicates her innocence, yet the innocence Blanche beholds is not sexual but naïve in the sense that she cannot see the real world for what it is. Her need to act young also displays her paranoia of ageing. At the same time as wanting to gain back youth, she subconsciously tries to clean away her past, like rape victims are known to do. However, this inner calm is only short term, and it is ironic that while she takes her refuge in a bath, Stanley takes the opportunity to maliciously reveal her past to Stella.
Stella feels horrible and you can see their marriage is getting affected already. It ends on an up note between Stella and Blanche. Scene 3: Lurid, nocturnal brilliance, vivid, peak of manhood as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colors, this foreshadows their arrogance and stupidity later in the scene. He is extremely delicate. He doesn’t say much and he doesn’t get extremely involved in the poker game.
This behavior of her desires also shows how she is living in an illusion trying to recreate her relationship with her husband. However, this is not possible since the illusion she is trying to create is in the past and cannot be remade. Where she tries to repeat the illusion, which eventually leads her to a destructive path. Consequently, Blanche’s overwhelming desire causes the loss of her relationship with Mitch and the only escape she had out of this illusionary world. Where she is unable to escape her illusions and now truly believes in it.Mitch rejects Blanche because of how Stanley told him about her past.
In the modern drama, A Street Car Named Desire, Tennessee Williams demonstrates the delusion of how one perceives one’s self compared to how, in reality, others observe one’s actions. Most of the characters in A Street Car Named Desire lie to themselves in order to cope with the problems in their own lives. Blanche lies about life events to hide from their realities, Stella tells herself that Stan’s abuse in their relationship is normal, and Mitch uses excuses to make up for his actions or lack there of. Throughout the drama, the characters demonstrate that the ability to belittle or boost the spirits of one’s self all has to do with the ability to perceive one’s self in a way that is beneficial to them but not necessarily the truth.
As opposed to helping Blanche deal with the world, her fantasizing is more destructive then helpful. Stanley’s violent rape of Blanche is a wake up call from her fantasy life, the final straw in her mental decline, leading to her
This statement could offer insight as to why Stanley not only beats Stella, but also rapes Blanche at the end of the play. These actions confirm Stanley’s alpha male status. Stanley does not only take out his actions physically on Blanche and Stella, as he also postures himself in an aggressive manner and often becomes verbally aggressive. An example of this posturing appears when Williams gives the stage direction of, “Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table.
There is a rising action as Blanche and Stanley 's relationship becomes more and more difficult, with Blanche constantly belittling and insulting him, and Stanley becoming more aggressive and angry. Blanche grows to despise Stanley when she sees him beating her pregnant sister and Stanley permanently hates Blanche after he overhears her trying to convince her sister Stella to leave Stanley because he is common. There is also a rising action in Stanley’s revealing of Blanche 's secret past to Stella and Mitch. The climax of the play occurs when Stanley rapes Blanche. This brutal act marks the completion of her mental decline, pushing her over the edge from sanity to madness.
As Tish Dace writes in A Street Car Named Desire, “Streetcar’s original producer, Irene Selznick, as a woman, may have been touched by the power of double standard to dictate that Blanche’s father and grandfather could indulge in ‘epic fornications’ and Stanley could be admired for his sexual prowess, but a woman of Blanche’s class, once she has slipped off her pedestal, is fair target for rape” (Dace). Blanche’s promiscuity is the reason Mitch will not marry her and it is the reason she is banned from her hometown, while Stanley, guilty of the same crime, is not punished at all but admired for