Blanche DuBois
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| Blanche DuBois | |
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| Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois from the trailer for the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) | |
| First appearance | A Streetcar Named Desire |
| Created by | Tennessee Williams |
| Portrayed by | Vivien Leigh Ann-Margret Jessica Lange |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Date of birth | September 15, 1919 |
| Spouse(s) | Allan Grey (deceased) |
| Relatives | Stella Kowalski (sister) Stanley Kowalski (brother-in-law) |
Blanche DuBois (b. September 15, 1919) is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. Jessica Tandy received a Tony Award for her performance as Blanche in the original Broadway production. The character was also portrayed by Vivien Leigh in the 1951 film adaptation; Leigh won her second Academy Award for this performance.
[edit] In the play
Blanche comes from Laurel, Mississippi, to visit her younger sister Stella in New Orleans. Blanche is appalled with the poor, even squalid environment and the coarseness of her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, and his friends Steve Hubbell and Pablo Gonzales, with whom he drinks and plays poker. She calls Stanley an "ape", and wants Stella to pull out of her marriage with him because he is so violent and animalistic. Stella refuses to leave, as she is powerfully attracted to Stanley in spite of (and even, it is implied, because of) his violent nature, and is pregnant with his child. Blanche is not shy about her distaste for Stanley and the life he has brought her sister into, which infuriates him.
Consequently, she flirts with and embraces Harold Mitchell (Mitch), who is distinct from Stanley, Steve and Pablo in his courtesy and propriety. Mitch, who spends most of his time taking care of his sick mother, is very lonely, and embraces Blanche as a cure for that loneliness. Blanche also invents stories about oil millionaire Shep Huntleigh, who she supposes will save her and Stella from living in a very poor district of New Orleans with vulgar "apes."
[edit] Descent into insanity
In all actuality Blanche was a completely broken woman even before she arrived on Stanley and Stella's doorstep. Evicted from their family estate of 'Belle Reve' (translated from French as Beautiful Dream) after the death of family members and also from the apparent 'epic fornications' of their forefathers. Blanche then took residence in a hotel and began to become notorious in their hometown of Laurel as a woman of loose morals willing to sleep with anyone for recognition of her existence. Her final straw comes not only when she is fired from her job as an English teacher after engaging in an affair with a 17-year-old boy, but also when she was asked to turn in her room key at her hotel and leave town.
However, Blanche's mental decline starts with the death of her first and only husband, Allan. Blanche was completely and irrevocably in love with him, as Stella described it, 'she worshipped the ground he walked on'. So naturally, she was heartbroken when she witnessed him having sex with another man. Although she kept quiet and continued to love him with all her heart, she made the fatal mistake of telling him he disgusted her when the three parties, including the older gentleman Allan was having an affair with, went out dancing immediately after Blanche walked in on them. This caused Allan to commit suicide, by placing a pistol in his mouth and firing, sending Blanche into a downward spiral. Frequently, the polka song "Varsouviana", played on the night of Allan's death is heard when Blanche is experiencing a particularly distressing moment. This music comes into play when Blanche is obviously doing or saying something insane.
[edit] Collapse
Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. She is an aging Southern belle who lives in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. Her manner is dainty and frail, and she sports a wardrobe of showy but cheap evening clothes. This is evident in the stage directions of Scene 10 in the play, 'she had decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers with brilliants set in their heels.' This is at a major turning point in the play and the cheap clothes are sometimes seen as metaphorical symbols of her mental state.
When Stanley tells Mitch and Stella of her inpropriety, Blanche's hope evaporates, but she continues to cling to her fantasy of marrying Huntleigh and returning to the good life. (Huntleigh never makes an appearance, but is revealed to have been a married man whom Blanche once went out with.)
The night Stella gives birth, Stanley drunkenly rapes Blanche. This is the trigger that sends her completely over the edge into a nervous breakdown, she is then subsequently turned over to a mental hospital. As she is being led off by a matron and a kind-hearted doctor, Blanche smiles as she completely devolves into her fantasy life, uttering what are commonly referred to as the most famous and poignant lines in the play 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers'.
