Blanche DuBois - Relationship with Men & Breakdown

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Blanche Dubois: Relationship with Men

Blanche has a complicated relationship with men.

Attracting Mitch

When Blanche meets Mitch, there is a chance that she will be saved and that in Mitch, she will find a figure who will protect her.
She realises that she can attract Mitch with her body. So she attracts Mitch by undressing in the light of the apartment so that he can see the curves of her body.
She is a little deceptive. She makes Mitch believe she is refined and proper when in reality this might be more of an aspiration for herself than reality.
She later tells Mitch "inside, I never lied."

Ending the relationship

Mitch makes Blanche confess dark aspects of her past. By doing this, Blanche loses what she clings onto — her illusions and her facade.
Mitch changes his attitude towards Blanche after hearing her confessions. However, he still tries to sleep with Blanche. He seems to treat her in a less respectful way after hearing about her past liaisons.
In the end, Mitch is remorseful, perhaps wishing he had pursued and got to know the real Blanche DuBois instead of the façade.

Interpreting Blanche

It seems that Blanche can be familiar with strangers and intimate with them, but when someone genuine shows her love, she fails to embrace it.
Mitch had the potential to be sympathetic about Blanche’s experiences (he is when she tells him about her young husband) but he then aligns himself to Stanley’s version of events.

The rape

Blanche's flirtatious behaviour towards Stanley at the start of the play implies that she found Stanley attractive when he was a stranger. But Stanley could never empathise with the sensitivity behind Blanche's facade. Stanley did not think Blanche delicate: "Some delicate piece she is."
Stanley's forced brutality eventually causes Blanche's downfall. Blanche willingly gave herself to strangers in the past, but this brutal and violent act against her will destroys her completely.

Blanche DuBois: Breakdown and Tragedy

Blanche’s breakdown may have been caused by several factors: her husband's deception and suicide, her failed chance with Mitch and by the brutality shown to her by Stanley.

Total destruction of Blanche

The rape destroys her as an individual. Previously, Blanche had power over her illusion and relationship with men.
When Stanley rapes her, she has none.

Tragic end

At the end of the play, Williams constructs Blanche as a tragic and pathetic figure.
In her delirium, she allows herself to go with the doctor because on the face of it, he seems like a gentleman and because he is a stranger.
This connects back to the rest of her life where she says, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers".
Blanche's world is destroyed by a man (Stanley) and is "saved" by another man (the Doctor). Men have total control in the world Williams has created.