Streetcar Named Desire - Blanche's Downfall

A detailed Summary of Streetcar Named Desire - Blanche's Downfall

In Tennessee Williams's play A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Blanche DuBois's mental state deteriorates as the story progresses. During the play, several events in Blanche's past are revealed. These events allow one to understand why Blanche acts the way she does, and why certain events affect her the way that they do. In the end, these events cause Blanche's total mental breakdown.

The event that started Blanche's mental deterioration was her husband's suicide. Her husband was a homosexual, and Blanche had caught him with another man. Later, while dancing with him to the "Varsouviana," she told him that he disgusted her. He ran off the dance floor and shot himself. Blanche always blamed herself for her husband's suicide, and grief overcame her. As she says in the play, the light that her husband cast on her world went out. Without her husband, Blanche was lost.

Blanche's family's estate, Belle Reve, was lost after the deaths of many family members. The bills f

or the funerals of her family fell upon Blanche. Now she was not only stricken with grief after the loss of family members, she was forced to give up her home. The estate her family had owned for hundreds of years was gone. Blanche was forced to find a place to stay, and a place for her to try and pick up the pieces of her shattered life.

Blanche worked at a school as an English teacher before she moved in with Stanley and Stella. She was asked to leave there as well, as she had an affair with one of her students. Blanche was married at a very young age, so she remembers her husband as a young man. She again tries to fill the empty space her husband left by finding another boy. When the principal of the school found out about this, she was asked to leave. She was rejected again after another failed attempt at making things better. Blanche had made things worse for herself again. Blanche had nothing left to turn to except her sister Stella.

While living with her siste

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Approximate Word count = 665
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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Streetcar Named Desire - Blanche's Downfall

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