A Streetcar Named Desire Essay [Blanche Dubois: Victim or Victimizer?]

March 8, 2009 Jessica Finne
Tags: A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois

Jessica Finne
Ms. Bazinet
English Honors III
09 March 2009

Blanche Dubois: Victim or Victimizer?

In “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, Blanch is a complex character. Events that have occurred in her past affect how she lives her daily life in the present. Some may see Blanch as a victimizer in her life while others will feel more compassionate towards Blanche and see her as a victim to uncontrollable events in life. Although Blanche’s personality can definitely get her into trouble sometimes, wasteful drinking and provocative sexual intentions, she cannot escape the trauma that occurs from other people’s actions.
The person Blanche is today can be traced back to one day in her past. Within a few hours during this one day, her life would be changed completely. Blanche had walked in on her husband, Allan Grey, in bed with another man. She then went to a bar to drink with her husband and his partner, drunkenly told Allan that she was disgusted with him and heard Allan commit suicide by shooting himself outside the bar he had run out of after hearing Blanche call him disgusting. Any human being would be unstable after so much chaos and shock in such little time. Many argue that because Blanche had called Allan disgusting, he committed suicide and this would make her the victimizer. Allan’s actions toward suicide were completely his own and Blanche could not control them. It is clear that neither Blanche nor Allan could handle the chaos going on at the time and handled it in different ways. Blanche was merely the victim of the horrible situation that affected the love of her life.
Without her beloved, Blanche needed affection. Man after man she would seduce to find attention to mend the hole in her heart. This was not the correct way to handle things and if Blanche had gotten help so she could correctly deal with the pain of her loss, she would not have to seek others. Since Blanche did not have that opportunity, she was forced to deal with it the only way she knew how. Sexual relations with men began to get out of hand. Once one relation was over, there was a new one the next day. This caused her to build a reputation in her small town of Laurel, Mississippi. Knowing she was still hurting from the loss of her husband and the various men could not mend her broken heart, she turned to alcohol as well. Careless drinking and one-night stands caused Blanche to find herself alone with no place to go.
In order to better her life and obtain a new reputation, Blanche decides to start out fresh in New Orleans with her sister, Stella and her husband Stanley. Pretending she is innocent and perfect in order to cover up her flaws back home is not enough as Stanley sees right through her. Stanley uncovers her past and ruins the new life she has begun in New Orleans and is again, back where she started. Blanche is the victim to Stanley’s harsh ways. Even though they had never got along, if Stanley had not uncovered her secrets, she might have started a new, better life. Only making it worse, she becomes the victim of rape to Stanley. If she was not unstable minded before, Blanche was definitely now. Stanley was out of line and should not have treated Blanche the way he did while she was in such an insecure state.
Due to her past and no opportunity to seek healthy help, Blanche became the victim to more events than she had to throughout the course of her life. At the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche is sent to mental institution where she will be given serious attention in order for her to cope; this is the institution she should have been sent to the day of the event that changed her life for the worst.

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