A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Tennessee William

In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesse Williams, Blanche started to decline and have

her ultimate demise as the story goes because Stanley acts cruel to her, Stella didn’t protect her

like against others even though she is her own sister, and her backstory.

First is the action of people on her. Stanley plays a big role in this part, because he is the

only main character to abuse Blanche all the time. He tried to force her to move out a couple of

times. His action to Blanche is violent for most of the time, for example throwing radio outside

of the window, a birthday present (a train ticket back to Laurel), and rape. But the things that

have the most impact on Blanche's mentality is when Stanley exposed Blanch to Mitch about her

past, because Mitch is the one who could replace Allan Gray (Blanche died husband). Blanche

and Mitch shared a similar past about their fiancé who has died. When Stanley tells Mitch about

Blanche’s past, it's like the entire world is destroyed for Blanche because Mitch is the only hope

to help Blanche unlock from her trauma. These actions cause Blanche to be physically and

mentally attacked and may cause her a mental breakdown.

Second, Stella causes Blanche to her ultimate downfall because she is the one who is

supposed to support her and protect her. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”

Blanche said this means that even her own family member, Stella, didn’t do anything to protect

her sister against Stanley who has been abusing her since she arrived. She could have done much

more to protect her if she truly cared about her. All she does is just say a word or two to Stanley,

but she never takes real action to protect her sister. On the other hand, the person who believes in
her and tries to protect her is Mitch instead, which is referred to as a stranger (because he is not

her family member).

Last, we can see from the story that Blanche used to have a husband, Allan Gray, and she

is still raving about him. This shows some kind of a strong connecting between them, and that is

love. That is the last time that Blanche ever felt true love, which by the time passed, she hadn't

felt like this for a long time. Mitch is the character that comes and fills those parts out.

Everythings is going fine until Stanley shows up and destroys everythings. The feeling of guilt

still lies inside of her somewhere, she feels that her husband died because of her and she is the

one who has a responsibility for it. This caused Blanche to have problems with mentality since

then.

Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire” has her mental breakdown because of Stanley

exposing Blanche’s past to Mitch, the lack of protection from Stella, and Blanche’s own trauma;

the guilty feeling about Allan Gray.