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Similarities Between Reality And Illusion In The Play 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

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Reality vs Illusion Essay Adversity is a series of difficulties or misfortunes that prevents an individual from achieving their goals and can have extensive effects on the individual. When confronted with hardships, some may be inclined to overcome the obstacle, whereas others are unable to do so and will find an alternative to satisfy their desire. In Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, he demonstrates that when an individual is presented with adversity, he or she may be forced to turn to illusion in order to create a desired reality when the truth is too much to handle through the character, Blanche Dubois. During Blanche’s pursuit of creating and preserving her fantasy world, she begins to lose both her sanity and sight of reality. Eventually, this results in failure as she is unable to find solace against the harshness of reality. Throughout the play, Blanche turns to her illusions as a defense mechanism in order to hide the truth from herself and others. After discovering her husband’s affair with another man, she told him that he disgusted her. As a result of this deliberate act of cruelty, her husband decides to commit suicide. When arguing with Stanley, Blanche exclaims, “Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the most unforgivable thing in my opinion, and the one thing in …show more content…

Blanche twists and contorts the the past to live out the remainder of her life after the traumatic suicide of her late husband and all the unfortunate events following. Ultimately, Stanley’s realism forces her to turn to illusion in order to remove herself from reality. As a result of turning a blind eye to an undesired truth for an alternative reality, or illusion, the cruel truth will eventually be revealed and will defeat

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