Reality and Imagination
Reality can be comforting or agonizing, it depends on who's reality is in question. TennesseeWilliams depicted reality and what it can do to people in The Pulitzer Prize winning play "A StreetcarNamed Desire". The story is about an unmarried thirty year old woman who creates a new magic realityfor herself to escape the cruelty and bitterness of the real world. She comes to New Orleans from a oncewealthy estate plagued with family death and eventually loses the estate 'Belle Reve' to unpaid mortgage. She slowly comes to believe her fantasy world is the real world and eventually can't tell them apart anylonger. Her escapes from the real world are illustrated by her constructive compulsive mis-truths, fear ofbeing seen in well lit areas, frequent long baths and excessive drinking. Blanche Dubois desires to escape her real life and to embrace upon the cushion of a magicalfantasy world which she creates for herself. One of the most prominent escapes is her drinking and thelarge quantities of it. Blanche has a younger sister, Stella, who moved to New Orleans when the ordeals ofBelle Reve were getting out of hand "I stayed and struggled! You came to New Orleans and looked after
What she claims to be doing is 'cooling her nerves' but she is trying to wash away herpast actions. Blanche claimed to be younger than Stella by five years but in reality she was older by five yearsand attempted to hide her age so that she would have the illusion of being young and available. Making up what she feels shouldbe the truth leads her to losing all she held important in life; her career was even lost because of herinability to realize that in the real world affairs with a student cannot provide the comfort she required. This detail about escaping her past is not as involved with the other characters exceptfor occupying their bathroom for long periods of time. Several nights into the play, there is apoker game hosted at Stella and Stanley's, her husband, house. Blanche learns ofthis and becomes involved with Mitch but eventually breaks down and admits "I don't want realism, Iwant magic" which leads to the truth about Blanche emerging. Shep is another form of escape, a fictional character made up by Blanchein attempt to hide herself from reality. Blancheproclaims her limit is one drink but it is evident she is using the alcohol as an escape because of how fastshe drinks it following a fabrication about her employment relief. Making up events which never transpired, excessive drinking, telling ought to be truthsand bathing were Blanche's escapes from the real world that ultimately led her to mentally dissolve. Stanley proclaims "We've hadthis date with each other since the beginning!" before he carries Blanche off to the bedroom. In Laurel, she had many intimate encounters with strangers in a hotel called the Flamingo, asecond rate hotel. Though the nature of people is to be comforted, how they attain comfort is entirely up to theindividual. Frequently throughout the play, Blanche endulges herself in the bathroom to have a bath. Blanche tends to sing in the tub aswell, a veryappropriate song as the lyrics heard go "Say, it's only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea -But itwouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me! It's a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it canbe- But it wouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me!".
Common topics in this essay:
Blanche Caribbean,
Mitch Mitch,
Barnum Bailey,
Stella Stanley's,
Shep Huntleigh's,
Named Desire,
Belle Reve,
Shep Huntleigh,
Blanche Dubois,
IMAGINATION Reality,
real world,
ought truth,
who's reality question,
wouldn't make-believe believed,
real life,
excessive drinking,
belle reve,
claimed stella,
seen lit,
truth light,
tell ought truth,
depends who's reality,
escapes real,
fantasy world,
agonizing depends who's,
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Acceptance Essays
