Streetcar named desire: reality

A trolley Named Desire Illusion replenishment Reality Hu troops kind can non bear much truthfulness (Eliot 14). Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire is an artistic demonstration of T. S. Eliots observation. In Streetcar, Blanche, a woman in crisis, visits her sister S signalizea and brother-in-law Stanley in in the raw Orleans. Blanche is from an upper-class circumstance but has locomote on hard times, both economically and emotionally. Stanley is from a lower-class background with a cruel streak a mile wide. What ensues is a difference of epic proportions between Stanley and Blanche, with Stella torn between the two.Each character operates ithin his or her give tag on reality. Through Stella, Stanley and Blanches self- deception within this conflict, Williams demonstrates how and to what extent individuals create their declare realities in order to confine the fapde of an use up itence they deem congenial. Blanche, more so that any of character demonstrates an i ndividuals ability to bouncing in an take turns reality. Blanche creates an semblance that helps her cope with the type of person she has become because of tragedy she experiences.Blanches hubby commits self-destruction later on she makes a cruel statement to him when she discovers his affair with a man. Blanche deals with her guilty conscience and loneliness with destructive behavior she drinks excessively and engages in sexually informal behavior. Ultimately, Blanche is run out of town and comes to live with Stella with nowhere else to go. The facts behind Blanches invention are sordid. But she does not acknowledge them or even live in a reality where they exist. After all, a womans charm is 50 percent prank (2. 29). Blanche creates an semblance where she remains a proper southern lady who is wanted by rich gentlemen. She arrives at Stellas house eroding pearls, white gloves and a hat, looking as if she were arriving t a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden dis trict (1. 14). She clings to her Confederate aristocratic roots and labels Stanley a brute because of his social status (4. 2). She will not acknowledge that she has fallen on hard times, but sooner adopts a reality as it ought to be (9. 43).She strives to convince others to adopt her reality to reinforce her fantasy world (l misrepresent things to them. I dont tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth) (9. 43). For Blanche, an thumb reality is not Just desirable or more refreshing, it is necessary. Blanche needs the psychotic belief because she annot exist without it. She cannot see herself as she truly is and go on. When Stanley shatters the illusion, Blanche is destroyed along with it. interchangeable Blanche, Stella also creates a false reality to make her existence acceptable.Stellas alternate reality does not permeate her life like Blanches. But, it is equally destructive. Stella creates an illusion of Stanley as a loving husband to have got her illusion that everyt hing is ticket in her conjugal union. Stellas illusion of Stanley is evident on two occasionswhen she returns to Stanley after he beats her and when she refuses to believe that Stanley has raped Blanche. When Stanley beats Stella, Stellas self-deception becomes evident. It is clean-living at that point that Stanleys cruelty ext blocks to Stella in their marriage.Blanche tries to convince Stella to leave Stanley. Ironically, Blanche, who clings to illusion herself, tells Stella that she must, Pull (her)self together and face the facts (4. 48). Stella, however, opts for her illusion. She returns to Stanley and maintains the illusion ot ner nappy marriage. Stella again opts tor ner alternate reality when she refuses to believe that Stanley raped Blanche. Stella recognizes that he cannot maintain the illusion of what her marriage is if she believes Blanche. So, she makes a conscious decision to reject Blanches story and maintain her illusion.At the end of the play, Stella explains he r decision to her friend Eunice l couldnt believe her story and go on living with Stanley (1 1. 40). In reply, Eunice states, Dont ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, youve got to keep going. (1 1. 41). Eunices reply suggests that she recognizes that Stella is deceiving herself about Stanley in order to maintain the illusion of her marriage. Stellas statement also suggests a degree of awareness that the illusion of her marriage would be destroyed if she accepted Blanches story.Stella is only able to maintain her false reality by rejecting the truth about a atrocious rape against her sister. Through Stella actions, Williams demonstrates the extent that an individual will go to in order to maintain an illusion. Both Stella and Blanches lives are mired in illusion. Williams suggests that perhaps Stanleys is as well toa lesser degree. Williams betrays Stanley as a forthright man who speaks truthfully and plainly. From the time e meets Blanche, Stanley is o bsessed with revealing Blanches lies and deceptions.But, ironically, even Stanley creates an alternate reality that he is better able to accept. After he has control Blanche insane by his brutal rape, Stanley goes to his family and presents the image of a loving husband and father as Blanche is taken away. Stanleys alternate reality mirrors the one that Stella has created. In his illusion he is a loving father and husband sort of than a cruel bully. So, through Stanley, Williams demonstrates that even those who are firmly sit down in reality engage in self-deception to maintain an acceptable fapde.Williams message in Streetcar seems to be that humans tend to make their own reality when the real one is not to their liking. Blanche, Stella and even Stanley toa lesser degree create false realities. Their illusions cloak actual realities which they are futile or unwilling to bear. The illusions they create allow them to adopt an existence that is acceptable to themone that is in no way similar to the truth of their lives. whole kit Cited Eliot, T. S. Burnt Norton. Four Quartets. New York Mariner Books, 1968. 14. Print. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York Signet, 1974. Print.