"It is impossible to feel sympathy for Blanche." Discuss.

Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" is a character who will throughout the duration of the play invoke all sorts of contrasting, even opposite emotions. To analyse one’s emotions is no easy task, and to do so most effectively one must break the play into different parts and analyse them separately. The problem with Blanche is that she presents a character so mixed up in her own motives and opinions that one never knows if it is really her or an act she’s putting on. The audience will find itself constantly readjusting its position towards Blanche and the other characters as the play unfolds and we learn more about her story and the reasons behind her inadequacies. Williams makes sure nothing is white or black but grey so that at some moments in the play we struggle to find a reason for her cool manipulation and hunger for power while at others we pity her pathetic life founded on lies and misconceptions. Even when she tries to break up Stanley and Stella’s relationship we don’t immediately brand her as a villain, we remember that if Stella hadn’t left than maybe Blanche would have become what she had wanted to become rather than what society dictated her to become.

When we see Blanche for the very first time we know right away that she does not belong in Stella’s neighbourhood, she is "daintily dressed" and her "delicate beauty must avoid a strong light", she seems in a fairly hysterical state but we can assume that’s just normal since she is "incongruous to this setting". She seems to be having trouble speaking normally to a black person so that we can already place the origin of her upbringing in the South, probably in one of those enormous mansions that housed rich slave owning white families. As the scene unfolds, the image of the rich, somewhat sheltered southern woman is strengthened; we immediately understand something has gone terribly wrong and already sympathize with her. We see how surprised she is that her sister lives in such place:" They mustn’t have - understood - what number I wanted..." and the story for the moment seems to be the typical tale of two sisters, one who rebelled against her family and married a poor immigrant while the other was left with the decaying family business. We soon learn that because of some terrible event she is desperate for affection, we see this by the way she assaults Stella and talks non-stop. She seems well educated and mentions "Mr. Edgar Allan Poe". We are vaguely surprised by her apparent taste for alcohol and see that "No, one’s my limit" is a lie as she has already had one while Stella was away, however this habit was not uncommon in Southern women and we let it pass. Lying about her taste for alcohol can be considered fairly understandable given the circumstances .We think at this point that she is, at least with her sister, quite an open person so that when she talks of the apartment she does not hide her disappointment: "What? Two rooms, did you say?". She talks so fast and seems so nervous that we sense something is wrong, Stella says: "You seem a little bit nervous or overwrought or something." We think we have discovered all her secrets when she blurts that Belle Reve is lost and sympathize with her since all her relations are dead and she has lost the family house. However her paranoia about her looks and "In bed with your - Polak!" seem to indicate some deeper problem. We genuinely believe she has old - fashioned morals as she is so bothered and impressed by Stanley taking off his shirt that she vomits, we also believe that there is some horrible part to her past when she was married to a boy who died. However the audience can already sense that she didn’t vomit because of Stanley’s harmless flirting, his actions seem to have reminded her of some past event and this memory has bothered her to such an extent that she vomits.

In the second scene our view of Blanche somewhat changes and her shameless flirting with Stanley marks a change from the last scene. It definitely shows that her vomiting was caused by memories that she is maybe now trying to overcome by flirting with Stanley. We have already understood that in the past she was not always the old – fashioned woman she wants to be thus do not find her conversation with Stanley too out of character. We know that there are many aspects to her and her past we have not yet met yet we sympathize with her and pity her because of her inner pain. We can already see to an extent her different sides: the real her which we can’t quite yet decipher, the person she wants to be, conservative, loved and protected and the person she was forced to be. Also in this chapter we see an aspect of her that comes back several times during the play: the bath, which for Blanche seems to be the usual means of escape from her daily problems, we see a cheerful side to her personality and only here when she is alone are we sure we are seeing the real her and not an act she’s putting on, the audience can sympathize or relate to this. We are a bit surprised at the skill she demonstrates when she handles Stanley: "Well, you certainly did a fast and thorough job of it" or "I cannot imagine any witch of a woman casting a spell over you." We have already seen a few of her acts and wonder how many more will turn up; we might get a bit annoyed that she flirts with Stanley, Stella’s husband, yet we understand she has got some problems. What disappears in this scene is the illusion that Blanche is a simple person.

In the third scene, we are not as surprised by her flirting and maybe dismiss it as a hidden vice as she undresses in the light behind a curtain where Stanley and his friends are playing poker. We see how experienced she is when she manipulates Mitch into thinking she’s innocent while at the same time flirting to such an extent that Mitch is embarrassed. However, for a moment she completely loses our sympathy as she tries to provoke Stanley into fighting with Stella by turning the radio on again separate them. Her experience with men is clearly shown as she is the only one who predicts that Stanley is going to turn violent when she cries out: "Stella, watch out, he’s -". We begin to see at this point what sort of memories are troubling her and can sense that they were surely related to men. We also now know that Stella is one of the only people in the world who still love her, for this reason we can associate her desire to separate Stella and Stanley to jealousy, jealousy in that she wants Stella all for herself and jealousy in that Stella was able to find a man while she apparently wasn’t able to find somebody who loved her. We do understand why Blanche did what she did and do feel sympathy for her desperation when she says to Mitch: "Thank you for being so kind, I need kindness now". However, it is also hard to avoid the thought that Blanche is trying to separate them because Stanley is one of the only people she can’t control and manipulate.

In scene 4 we see how deep Blanche’s desperation runs: her need to feel in control brings her to try to turn Stella against Stanley again by saying: "He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits" and so on. When Stanley comes back from work and hears the conversation through the window we do feel some sympathy for Blanche who we fear will become the target of Stanley’s fury. However, finding motives for Blanche’s actions becomes a common feature throughout play as the audience explores her past and thoughts. Can we blame her for what she has become: a lying manipulative creature who is desperate for love and affection or is it the fault of her parents and background? It is actually hard at this point not to feel sympathy for Blanche yet the audience will also feel annoyance even anger at some of her actions.

In scene 5, our notion that what Blanche would have liked to be was a rich and old fashioned woman who, protected by her handsome husband travels around the world is proved true when she writes to a high-school friend: Shep Huntleigh. We find this a bit pathetic but do sympathize with her as she has also grown used to the violence in her sisters apartment and even jokes about it: "Did he kill her?". Stanley’s obvious contempt of her also helps us sympathize with her. When Stanley talks about a Hotel Flamingo in Laurel we immediately sense something’s up and when Blanche says: "you haven’t heard any unkind gossip about me?" we know she has done something that might cause gossip. We suspect it has something to do with men as Williams has given us hints of it all along the play, for a 1950’s audience her sleeping around might seem a bit disgusting and revolting but for us it seems just another part in her desperate search for protection and love. Her behaviour does seem hypocritical but neither do we expect her to advertise her past fondness for sex and we also know by now that she isn’t quite right in the head as she struggles to act the part of the innocent teenager and even plays the part of the older sister while she desperately tries to forget the past that everybody else in her surrounding is searching for. Her desperate search for protection is pathetic, so it does awaken sympathy in us it does also make out some of the earlier things she said as lies which we interpret as a general desire to start afresh, this notion is strengthened by the fact that she is trying to contact her old high - school friend and is acting like a teenager when she is in the car with Mitch and when she flirts earlier on during the poker night. Towards the end of this scene we see her past resurface through her desire for control and protection through sex when she assaults the young man who comes to collect for the Evening Star. The sentiments involved in this last part of the scene: search for protection and control through sex seem to contradict each other and symbolise, to an extent the contradictions in Blanche.

In scene 6 we find ourselves once again trying to attribute a motive for some of her actions. When she manipulates Mitch into thinking she is an innocent country girl who won’t go much further than a kiss we wonder whether she desperately wants to be that girl again or whether she thinks if she plays hard to get he’ll treasure her much more later on or whether she is just playing around with him. The fact that she says in French which he doesn’t understand: "Voulez - vous couchez avec moi ce soir?" suggest that she isn’t one or the other but a mix of the three; however it does seem at this point as if she’s mocking him. We also discover in this scene the sad story about her husband which does account for some of problems she has later on in her life. When she tells the story she suddenly stops being so complicated and contradictory, the story is told with dream-like quality that suggest trauma and for one of the only times in the play we actually believe what she’s saying and understand her need to go back before this event and start again in a life where her husband is not gay and does not commit suicide.

In scene 7 we find out the whole story on Blanche and we believe Stanley from the very beginning because we were suspecting something similar to turn up and because it explains and justifies a lot of her actions. The fact that Blanche has been "feeding us a pack of lies" is not a new concept and can be attributed to a lot of different things already discussed previously. However we do find out how deep her problem with men runs and how already back then she wanted to be a teenager again thus has an affair with one of her teenage students. We start to think around now that her problems run so deep that it would be better for everybody including her that she either gets professional help or faces her problems which we know she is too weak to do.

In scene 8 we can start to predict her downfall as Stanley shows hints (to Blanche) that he knows the truth and does what the audience can tell will damage her sanity by giving her a ticket back to Laurel. Blanche is very perceptive again and senses something is wrong until he tells her and she runs into the bathroom. She tries to hide her past from others and herself but it keeps crawling back in her perception and knowledge of men.

In scene 9, Mitch faces Blanche and her whole world collapses around her as her past catches up with her and as she is too weak to face it she goes mad. The last straw is when Mitch turns on the light and sees the real her and not the "lies, lies and lies". We understand the need of the other people in the play to know the truth yet we sympathized with her race against her past and pity her end.

In scene 10, she is totally insane, she can no longer be who she wanted to become, she can no longer be the innocent teenager she was in her youth and she can not be her real self because she does not know who she really is. Stanley takes advantage of her breakdown to (we think) rape her and that marks the end of everything she wanted to symbolize as he treats her as the whore he thinks she is. Finally as a last attempt to be somebody or something she resorts to phoning up the operator and desperately asks for Shep Huntleigh of Dallas.

The last scene, scene 11, marks the end for Blanche when she is taken away to a mental hospital still believing she will go on that cruise. One of the last things she says turns out to be the truest self-examination she makes in the play as the Doctor says: "Miss Dubois" she immediately stops resisting and says: "Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". At last somebody shows her some respect and consideration and calls her by the name she wants to be called "Miss Dubois".

Blanche is one of the most complicated characters I have ever come across. There is in her the constant struggle between what she thinks she is, what she used to be and what she wants to be which creates so many contradictions that she ends up lying for most of her life in the hope of appearing as what she wants other people to see her as. There is no doubt that if the audience has spent any time thinking about her and the play they will feel sympathy or at least pity for Blanche. What Williams demonstrates with this play is the power of memories and the ruthlessness of society.

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