3.1.1
Blanche DuBois - The Past & Illusions
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Blanche DuBois: Delicacy and Illusions
When Blanche DuBois appears in the first scene, she is dressed in white. White is the usual symbol of purity and innocence.
Cultured and refined
- Blanche is cultured and refined – she was an English teacher and is likely well-read.
- It is obvious when we first meet her that she does not like common or vulgar things. This is why she is so dismissive of the poor standard of the Kowalski’s apartment and how common Stanley is.
Blanche's illusion
- Blanche admits that she doesn't always tell the truth, but she tells "what ought to be truth".
- Blanche also creates an illusion of herself: "After all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion."
- She seems to think that her life is less valid if she cannot present herself as the woman she wants to be. She first communicates with Stanley by flirting. It's how she's used to interacting with men.
Blanche's fragility
- Williams presents Blanche as also being quite fragile: a personality type that collides with the reality of a brutal, patriarchal world when she is raped by Stanley.
- We learn that she has put a veneer over her past life which was fraught with loss, sexual promiscuity and alcoholism.
Blanche's connection with light
- Blanche feels she has to change Stella and Stanley's apartment.
- She can't face the bright light bulb. She wants dim light. She prefers things to be an illusion - especially dark and incriminating things - than clear for all to see.
Blanche DuBois: The Effects of the Past
The death of Blanche's relatives and her relationship with her previous husband influence her present character.
Previous marriage
- Over the course of the play, Blanche opens up more about her marriage with a young boy.
- She says that the young man Allan was very tender and not conventionally male (this is contrasted with Stanley, who is conventionally male).
- His tenderness "which wasn't like a man's".
- Blanche informs us that she found him committing a homosexual act with an older man, which disgusted her.
Former husband's death
- When Blanche and her former partner attended a dance where polka music is playing (polka music is a motif throughout the play and seems to hark back to this past), she tells her young husband that he disgusts her.
- This was very cruel of Blanche and her young husband then commits suicide.
- We get the impression that Blanche passionately loved her former husband.
The effect of Allan Grey's death
- Blanche seems scarred by her former husband's death.
- She said her love was like a "blinding light,". She says since his death, the strongest light she has had is a dim candle.
- Blanche regrets failing her husband when he needed her the most. She recognises the cruelty of her words to him.
Blanche's dealings with men
- After her husband's death, Blanche seems to give herself to other young men to try to dispel her own guilt and to fill the void: "intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with."
- However, it is clear that this void cannot be filled. The student at Laurel appears to be one of these young men who became caught in the cross-fire of Blanche trying and failing to satisfy her loneliness and guilt.
Death and loss
- We learn that Blanche experienced many deaths in her family and lost her ancestral home, Belle Reve.
- Blanche seems to need escapism after experiencing these losses – she turns to alcohol during this time. Her dependency continues throughout the play.
1Context & Overview
1.1The Author
1.2Social Context & Setting
2Scene Summaries
2.1Scene One-Two
2.2Scene Three-Four
2.3Scenes Five-Eigth
3Character Profiles
3.1Blanche DuBois & Stanley Kowalski
3.2Stella Kowalski & Harold Mitchell (Mitch)
4Key Ideas
4.1Sex & Gender
4.2Appearances, Fantasy & Reality
5Writing Techniques
5.2Genre, Form & Language
6Critical Debates
6.1Early & Modern Reception
6.2Feminist, Psychoanalytic & Marxist Approach
7Ideas About Tragedy
8Recap: Main Quotes
8.1Main Quotes by Scene
8.1.1Scene One - Quotations8.1.2Scene Two - Quotations8.1.3Scene Three - Quotations8.1.4Scene Four - Quotations8.1.5Scene Five - Quotations8.1.6Scene Six - Quotations8.1.7Scene Seven - Quotations8.1.8Scene Eight - Quotations8.1.9Scene Nine - Quotations8.1.10Scene Ten - Quotations8.1.11Scene Eleven - Quotations
Jump to other topics
1Context & Overview
1.1The Author
1.2Social Context & Setting
2Scene Summaries
2.1Scene One-Two
2.2Scene Three-Four
2.3Scenes Five-Eigth
3Character Profiles
3.1Blanche DuBois & Stanley Kowalski
3.2Stella Kowalski & Harold Mitchell (Mitch)
4Key Ideas
4.1Sex & Gender
4.2Appearances, Fantasy & Reality
5Writing Techniques
5.2Genre, Form & Language
6Critical Debates
6.1Early & Modern Reception
6.2Feminist, Psychoanalytic & Marxist Approach
7Ideas About Tragedy
8Recap: Main Quotes
8.1Main Quotes by Scene
8.1.1Scene One - Quotations8.1.2Scene Two - Quotations8.1.3Scene Three - Quotations8.1.4Scene Four - Quotations8.1.5Scene Five - Quotations8.1.6Scene Six - Quotations8.1.7Scene Seven - Quotations8.1.8Scene Eight - Quotations8.1.9Scene Nine - Quotations8.1.10Scene Ten - Quotations8.1.11Scene Eleven - Quotations
Practice questions on Blanche DuBois - The Past & Illusions
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 1What colour is Blanche wearing when we first meet her?Multiple choice
- 2What is Blanche dismissive of?Fill in the list
- 3What was Blanche's previous job?Multiple choice
- 4What disgusted Blanche about her previous husband?Multiple choice
- 5Why does Blanche's former husband commit suicide?Multiple choice
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