Insanity of Blanche Dubois The movie “A Streetcar Named Desire” contains many elements of insanity. The character that displays the most tragic insanity is Blanche Dubois. Blanche is from Laurel, Mississippi were she loses her home Belle Reve, after the death of her relatives. She then travels to her sister’s home where her actions lead her to insanity. She goes to her sister home as a fallen woman of society. She has a difficult time distinguishing between what is real and what is fantasy. Blanche Dubois is a complex individual who provokes strong reactions from other characters. The main factors are her lying, drinking and infatuations with men. Unfortunately, these actions drive her to the final breaking point and lead her to an insane asylum. Upon her arrival to Elysian Fields, Blanche is unimpressed with the surroundings. Here she hopes to escape her poor life and bad reputation. As she enters the apartment, she meets Eunice who leads her to her sister’s apartment. Stella and her husband Stanley arrive home, and Stella greets her sister warmly. She leads her sister to believe she is one who has never lived indignantly. Blanche is not there long before she begins to lie to her sister to make herself seem better. She leads her to believe she is there on a leave of absence from her job as a school teacher. However, the reality is that she was fired for having relations with a seventeen year old boy. Blanche also reveals that her family home, Belle Reve, has been lost due to the financial burden of the due the death their relatives. Blanche is quick to blame Stella for leaving her to deal with the family affairs. By doing so she tries to make Stella feel as if she were to blame for the loss of the family home. Blanche manipulates and lies in order to play on her sister’s caring emotions, all to make her look better. She lies about her age and from where she has just traveled. Not long after Blanche settles in, Stanley goes through her personal belongings. He discovers that the family home was lost to bankruptcy and many loans taken out on the property, not due to the death of her relatives. He also reveals that her belongings lead one to believe she lost the home due to the financial strains of her spending. Blanche continues to lie her way out of the reality of her life. In order for Blanche to escape life outside her hometown she relies on alcohol. By drinking she tries to avoid the misery of her past, like the death of her husband. The drinking helps her to shield herself from the truths in her life. Alcohol is what fills her emptiness and allows her to hide from her problems. She drinks to sooth her pain. Once Mitch, her suitor, discovers the type of person Blanche really is he calls the relationship off. After the rejection, Blanche begins to drown her sorrows in alcohol. She is completely drunken by the alcohol and retreats to the darkness of the bedroom to avoid her life. Blanche is an alcoholic unable to cope with the life path she has chosen. The greatest demise Blanche faces is her infatuations with men. She is always looking for the next man in hopes of fulfilling her loneliness. Her vanity and dependence on men for happiness is destructive. She demands to be seen for what she wished to be, rather than what she really is. She turns to strangers for comfort or anyone who will give her some attention, no matter what the damage may be. She flirts with all the men in her path - Stan, Mitch and the paper boy - and still comes out filling empty. At one point Blanche sees Mitch as her only chance for contentment. She tries to hold on to him but is unable to keep him attracted. Blanche is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her out own fantasies. She has no concern for anyone’s well being, including her own. Thus, this is her utter most harmful demise. She has no realistic outlook for the future.
In the end, Blanche Dubois is a tragic character. She works so hard to portray herself as a young innocent woman. She only wanted to have a good, clean life. Instead she acquired one full of pain, illusion and complexities with in her soul. Her life crumbles from her own self destruction. By the end she is able to release her true self through all the lies, drinking and infatuation with men. Her struggle with fantasy and reality is more then she can bear, therefore driving her to insanity. As she is taken to the mental hospital we can conclude that her self-torture is over and are witness of the final breakdown. All Blanche ever wanted was to be happy. Though she may have never obtained the life she wanted or even dream of, through the torture of her antics she is able to finally have closure.

Works Cited
A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche du Bois." Drama for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 12 November 2011. .
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Thayer, Marion P. Cliffnotes, The Glass Menagerie and A StreetCar Named Desire. Lincoln, Nebraska: Cliffs Notes Incorporated, 1997 Printing. 12 November 2011