I usually hate reading plays because of the format, I can’t stand it, however this play had me going from the beginning. It started off mysteriously which just made me want to know more, you have no clue who Blanche is and why she has showed up to Elysian Fields. Stella, Stanley, Eunice, and Mitch are only briefly mentioned and all I could think was where is this book heading? Soon enough a story begins to form but that just led to more questions. What really happened to Bell Reve? Who is Blanche’s first husband and what happened to him? Why is Stanley so interested in Bell Reve and what is the relationship between him and Blanche? Regardless of the questions the thing that stood out above all the rest was Blanche herself.
Blanche comes out of no where into a house that isn’t her own and starts judging everyone and everything. She tries to get sympathy from others and take control so that it suits her personality and attitude. At the moment she is my least favorite character. She is constantly criticizing Stanley and trying to persuade Stella to leave him instead of being supportive and understanding that Stella made this decision to be with him on her own and is happy with it. She is trying to change her sister and that is just going to hurt their relationship with one another. It doesn’t matter that Stanley came from a different background that doesn’t make him less of a person, just different. If she doesn’t like the way people in the neighborhood behave she needs to leave. I feel like she has some secret and that she is in trouble and looking for something, problem is she doesn’t want to do it alone and is involving Stella which isn’t fair because she was happy with her life and had no problems.
Blanche reminds me of Scarlett from Gone with the Wind. She is uptight, believes herself to be superior, and is very controlling. When she first gets there she calls Stanley and his friends and the whole neighborhood pigs, common people, ruffians, and basically scum. What right does she have to call people that and treat them as such, it’s not their fault they had a different upbringing and just because they did that is their only difference from Blanche, they are just as good if not better a person then she is. She acts like she is a better human being yet she seems to be a liar, a sneak, and overall full of deception. She reminds me of Scarlett not only because of that but because of the way they make use of others. Common people are horrible unless you can make use out of them, which is their mentality. Scarlett married every person she could to get more money and save her plantation. Blanche sees something interesting in Mitch and I feel like she might make use of him soon and she ends up calling Shep for money to escape. It is all about what people have to offer.
Last comment about the book is the one part that mentions desire. On page 70 Blanche feels that all Stella and Stanley share is brutal, primitive desire. It reminded her of the street car named Desire. That may be the theme of the rest of the book everyone is controlled by pure desire and it keeps them going and then coming back for more…
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This is a comment for Chloe's first entry on A Street Car Named Desire
ReplyDeleteNicole
July 25
That is so true! All Blanche does is follow her desires and tries to find people that will give them to her. In the case of trying to get her sister, Stella all too her self, Blanche is in a way revealing her soft side. Blanche, now that she has no one, needs someone so she followed her sister, the last person she truly cares about.
You have made some very good points and inferences about Blanche that I did not stop or think of. I also find it interesting how the first questions you asked like, "What really happened to the Bell Reve?" and "Who is Blanche's first husband and what happened to him?" were never answered. It's almost as if Williams loved the idea of keeping Blanche's story a secret. All we heard about was her fantasy world; the rest was all left for imagination. I believe that worked out best for Blanche's character, especially when in the end we find out she was insane.
Blanche has made it clear that all she really cares about is her needs and desires. I had the same questions as you about Blanche's first husband and Bell Reve and I find it kind of annoying that they weren’t answered. I agree with Nicole about it seeming like Williams loved the idea of keeping Blanch's story a secret. I also agree that it worked out really well for her character.
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