Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Southern Belle turned to Fear

Blanche is more than just a delusional, aging debutante. Her relationship with Mitch exemplifies her desire to settle down and be taken care of. Even though that may come with age, it also comes with the fact that she has just lost everything and needs to be dependent on someone other than a family member. Her dependence on Stella comes from the fact that she has relied on someone or something in her family her entire life. Initially she relied on her father and her husband and then Belle Reve and now that she has lost both she turns to another family member, which also shows that she has not "always depended on the kindness of strangers" (1602). Her losses show a streak of bad luck paired with unnecessary behavior that ended up burning a lot of bridges.

Blanche's attitude towards life reflects more on bad decisions and fear than delusionalness. Even if someone was delusional, it is unlikely they would sleep with someone half their age, especially if that happened to be a student, making the consequences far more severe. She also happened to be obsessive. Both her obsessiveness and her inappropriate behavior are reflections of her fear of aging, but aging was not necessarily a dominant force behind her actions. Blanche showed her obsessiveness by constantly taking bathes and repowdering her face. She was hypersensitive to dirty things. Her hypersensitivy was probably a means of washing away her past. She was clearly stuck in a rut as she spoke of Shep Huntleigh and her glorious life at Belle Reve. She was unable to accept the present and throughout the story she exists in a constant state of denial. Blanche also frequently acts out of fear. She has a fear of growing older, so she lives in the dark; she has a fear of being alone so she moves to New Orleans to be with Stella and instantly gravitates toward Mitch. Blanche is also afraid of her past coming back to haunt her, she left Laurel for a reason, even if it was that she was kicked out, she left it behind. When she got to New Orleans, she was not sleeping around as much as she had been, so she clearly fears the consequences of past actions. Blanche lives in a constant state of fear that she will not be accepted and taken care of.

2 comments:

  1. Nice argument and I agree with it. Blanche has trouble dealing with her financial situation, so she reminisces about Bell Reve, a time when she was rich. She can not stand getting old, so she hides in the dark. She is attracted to young men to forget her guilt for the death of her husband. She blames herself for it. She is a psycho permissions broke individual, who ends up where she belongs in an asylum.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That fear is definitely something that drives Blanche to make the decisions she does. That and the desire she has of making her life better. She seems to be unable to align herself with reality, or really lets herself fall into delusions in order to be satisfied with how she appears to outsiders. Besides, it would not make sense to go around telling people like Mitch that she had been sleeping around with many men during the years of her life. So instead, she wants to hide it and wash it all away. Sure, she makes bad decisions, but she is pushed to make those decisions by the unfortunate events of her past. Blanche's story is truly a tragedy tainted with death.

    ReplyDelete