I believe that illusion is not necessary to
everyone's life but rather it helps them to avoid the harsh realities that they
may have to deal with in their lives. I also believe that a major theme of this
play was how our lives can often experience a fierce battle between these
illusions. In the case of "A
Streetcar Named Desire" there are
many examples where the characters are simply hiding in or behind illusions and
where the characters may try to destroy or protect their illusions or those of
others.
The best example is found by looking to the
main character. Blanche Dubois was a
troubled woman who throughout the play lives her life in illusions. The story
begins with Blanche going to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella, and
her husband Stanley for a while. Here,
the illusions are revealed and the battle between the illusions and the characters
will begin. What initially leads to her
illusions is love. When she was young,
"sixteen, I made the discovery - love.
All at once and much, much too completely" (1368). She met Allan Grey, the perfect man - he had
"a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn't like a man's, although
he wasn't the least bit effeminate" (1368).
However, as we are eventually are shown, this
illusion wouldn't last forever. The
young couple got married and, to Blanche, were falling more and more in love,
when one day "coming into a room that I thought was empty" (1368),
this illusion would be shattered. In
this room were her husband, Allan, and a older male friend of his. Allan Grey was gay. Soon, Blanche realised that all along he had
been trying to let her know and get "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!" (1368). She was falling
farther into the illusion with each passing second with her love, because she
couldn't really believe that he was with her and was for real.
Allan was in fact an illusion himself, by
trying to appear straight to everyone.
At first, they would try to deny it but the illusion would soon be
totally destroyed when Blanche let it slip while they were dancing that "I
saw! I know! You disgust me..." (1369). With this, Allan runs outside and kills
himself. I believe that Allan killed
himself more so because he realised Blanche would no longer help him than
because she knew. He believed that if
there was anyone who would help him make it through this whole ordeal, it would
be Blanche.
Because of
all this, Blanche fell into another illusion. She figured that if she were loved again, the
way Allan and her were meant to be, then she could be happy again. So, "after the death of Allan -
intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart
with..." (1380 - 1381). The
illusion, now, was that out of all these men she would be with, one of them
will be the right one for her and will take care of her. This was her desire, to be happy again, to be
loved. But soon her intimacies got out
of control and she once made the mistake of trying to seduce a 17 - year old student
of hers. Because of this, she was told
to get out of her town.
When Blanche gets to New Orleans, she decides
that in order to not reveal anything, she must create the illusions that she is happy and the reason she is there
is because she's on vacation. This is so
that nobody would think less of her. For
example, when she first arrives and meets with Stella, she keeps saying that
the quality of the apartment that Stella lives is not good enough for Stella to
live in. And she was always having baths
so no one would see her dirty or tired.
Blanche believes that she is too old so she uses the darkness to shield
herself.
Soon, she meets a
friend of Stanley's, Mitch, and eventually she starts to think that maybe he is
the one. Immediately, she realises that
Mitch needs someone too, and eventually he even tells her so ("You need
somebody and I need somebody too" (1369)).
But, Blanche has learned from her mistakes and honestly gives an effort
to take it slow. She tells Stella the day after Stanley beat her that she is trying
to "get hold of myself and make myself a new life." (1353). And near the end, when Blanche and Mitch are
having their big conflict of the play, she even tells him that "I thanked
God for you, because you seemed to be gentle - a cleft in the rock of the world
that I could hide in!" (1381).
But at the same
time, she is telling Mitch how she is old fashioned and tries to be as much of
a sweetheart as possible, whie not revealing her age or past. But, Stanley doesn't buy into her facades and
starts questioning her and others about her last few years. When he finds out the truth, he sets out to
destroy her illusions and let everyone know the real Blanche. He does this half because he is
straightforward and doesn't like to be deceived (ex. - he doesn't like it when
Blanche doesn't want to tell him about Belle Reve) and half because at first he
believed some of the things she had told them (like the Belle Reve story and
how she was just on vacation) and it by doing it, it was like a self -
redemption.
When she was
caught in her illusions (or lies), Blanche said 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.
And if that is
sinful, then let me be damned for it!" (1380)
However, Blanche
was not the only one with illusions as a major part of her life. If examined, you will find that Stella and
Stanley did as well. The illusions were
much stronger with Stella and Stanley than with Blanche as well, mainly because
they had each other to reinforce them.
In the early part of Scene 4, after Stanley and Stella have made up
about the beating, Blanche comes to see if Stella is okay. Even after saying, "I want to go
away," (1349), when Blanche tries to convince her that staying with
Stanley is the wrong thing to do, Stella keeps changing the subject and making
excuses for Stanley's craziness - "you and Eunice had breakfast?"
(1353), "He's taking the radio to get fixed" (1353).
Finally, and
ironically, Blanche says, "pull yourself together and face the facts"
(1353) and tells Stella to get out while she can. But the illusion that what her and Stanley
have is pure love is too strong. In Stanley's
case however, I think that he honestly believes it. It isn't just an illusion to him, it is his
reality. Also, a major illusion that
Stella had is shown in the statement in the final scene, Scene 11, where Stella
tells Eunice, " I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley,"
who replies, "Don't ever believe it.
Life has got to go on. No matter
what happens, you've got to keep going." (1388). Here it almost seems as though Stella is
realising what is reality and what is not and she knows that she shouldn't
know.
So, it is true
that some people feel and believe that it is necessary to create
illusions. They may do it for many
different reasons, such as in "A Streetcar Named Desire." They may want to hide something like Allan
and Blanche did, try to impress someone, also as Blanche did, or it could be a
form of denial as with Stella and Stanley.
Whatever reason, it happens to just about everyone everyday.
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