Zeehan's Entries on A Streetcar Named Desire

Journal #1

So far, I think Blanche is going to be a very important and interesting character in “A Street Car Named Desire”. From her behavior so far in the play, Blanche seems like a very insecure and phony person. She is always concerned about the way she looks and feels a need to lie about her age because she thinks her age will make her appear less attractive. Blanche tells Stella, “You know I haven’t put on one ounce in ten years, Stella?” (p22) expressing her concern about her physical beauty. Stella is aware of her sister’s weakness and always compliments Blanche about her beauty and tells others to compliment her as well.
Blanche seems like she had a past that influenced her insecure character. It’s pretty obvious how much she cares about her physical appearance, but she never really talks about how she feels. When Stanly asked Blanche about her marriage and her husband, her mood suddenly changed, and she didn’t speak much about him.
I’m very skeptical of Stanley’s character so far. He seems to take too much interest in Stella’s and Blanche’s property. He’s unnecessarily rude to people. I don’t think his intentions about the property are too good. He’s probably angry about the loss of the property because he was planning on taking it from Stella. After hitting Stella the night of the poker party, it’s pretty much clear that Stanly had very little respect for her.


Journal #2

Observing Blanche’s character so far, it seems like she is mentally disturbed due to her childhood and her husband Allan. According to me, the thing that disturbs Blanche is knowing that she’s not rich anymore. Blanche’s behavior is sometimes ostentatious around people. She seems to be in denial that she is no longer in her wealthy childhood while Stella has accepted and embraced the reality that her husband is not rich and she no longer posses the wealth of her childhood. Blanche still pretends that she is wealthy by wearing expensive dresses and perfumes that supposedly costs twenty five dollars an ounce. It’s revealed about how much Blanche cares about wealth and money by the way she dresses and by the letter she wrote to Shep describing how rich she and her sister is, yet she tells Stella “Y’ know how indifferent I am to money” (p 67). Blanche can’t believe her sister is willingly living in such poor conditions. Blanche described Stanly as “common” even though all she has in her pocket is sixty-five cents.
Blanche’s character seems very indecent to me, from her behavior, it can be predicted that men are one of her weaknesses. I think her insecurity regarding her age, beauty, and men were caused by the deception and death of her husband Allan. Blanche probably feels like she failed her husband somehow. Maybe she wasn’t beautiful and attractive enough; therefore he became attracted to another man. Blanche is probably self conscious since then. She like’s staying in the dark, so she can deceive men about her age and attract them to her. Blanche is so conscious of her age that when Mitch asked her what her age was she panicked. She really didn’t want Mitch to lose interest in her and therefore she pretends to have old fashioned ideals in front of Mitch because according to her, men lose interest in anything they get too quickly.
Ever since her husband died, Blanche probably gave too much attention to men. It seems like Blanche has been letting herself fall into indecent behavior for the past few years. When Stanly asked Blanche if she knew someone named Shaw, Blanche panicked and lied that she didn’t know him. The way Blanche reacted after hearing the name of Hotel Flamingo, it seemed as if Hotel Flamingo was a brothel and it’s pretty obvious that she has been there. When Blanche inquired if Stella and Mitch heard anything about her, it seemed as if she had something to hide. Blanche proved that there is definitely something to doubt about her character and past when she began flirting with the young man and then kissed him even though she didn’t know him and the next minute she was flirting with Mitch like nothing just happened.


Journal #3

I think Blanche did need help because of her mental state, but I think it was completely cruel of Stanly to send her to the mental asylum the way he did. By the end of the play, Blanche became a depressed soul according to me. I think Blanche knew that she screwed up, and she was trying to start all over again, but when her past cruelly came back to her life, she lost hope of a new life. By that point, Blanche knew that her childhood wealth and Mitch was gone forever, therefore she went into denial and continued to make up stories to make herself feel better.
By the end of the play, I would describe Stanley animal like as well, just as Blanche did. I think Stanley’s ego was hurt when he heard Blanche describe him as “common” and ape like. Stanley seems like he’s fed up of hearing that he’s different from Blanch and Stella and that he’ll never reach their status. After his ego was hurt, he probably decided to make Blanche’s life hell, as any man with a hurt ego would probably do. I felt extremely sorry for Stella at the end of the play, but I was also very angry at her. The whole time she kept protecting her sister, but when Blanche truly needed protection, Stella turned away. I know Stella did believe Blanche when she told her that Stanley raped her, but she couldn’t blame Stanley because of the circumstances. If Stella left Stanley with her new born and Blanche, they would have nowhere to go because neither Blanche nor Stella owns a penny. Stella also worried that believing Blanche would not only ruin her family, but it will ruin her baby’s future.
In my opinion, women are portrayed very weak and servile to men in this play. Blanche always feels that she need to impress men, and she always needed them in her life in order to keep herself happy. However, despite her many attempts to please men, they always disappointed her in return. First her husband disappointed her and left an everlasting negative impact in her life. Then Stanly managed to make her life even more miserable then it already was by taking advantage of her. And lastly Mitch broke her already shattered heart and stole all chances of normalcy returning to Blanche’s life.
Blanche is described as a woman who depends on men to please her. Stella is also shown as a woman who is completely dependent on her husband. Stanley talks to Stella as he pleases and treats her almost as if she is his servant. Stella is very dependent on Stanley, and this can be supported by the fact that she continued to stand by him even after Blanche accused him of rapping her. I know that Stella knew her sister was telling the truth and she will have to live her entire life knowing that her husband not only deceived her, but also ruined her sister’s life. I was very furious when Stella supported Stanly over Blanche, because it gives him the impression that he can do whatever to her and still have her supporting him. Not only that Stanley will take the wrong advantage out of Stella’s support, but it’s letting the rest of the men know that they can do whatever to women because women will always depend on them.
Sex has been a very vital theme in this play, and in my opinion, a very important conflict as well. In “A Street Car Named Desire”, the different sexual roles of men and women are what disturb me the most. Throughout the play, Blanche has been highly censured by her brother- in- law, her boyfriend, the town people, and even her sister regarding her sexual reputation. People are very likely to describe Blanche as a whore. Stanley truly put his effort into filling Blanche’s life with pain and shame by repeating to people what he discovered about her past. Throughout the play, men are portrayed as superior and dominant when compared to women. However, when Stanley was forgiven after raping Blanche, and still possessed his pure reputation, the playwright showed the audience the gender inequalities that exist in people’s ideologies. When a woman is proved to be a prostitute, she is considered the filth of a legitimate society which must be eliminated. However, then men of legitimate societies goes to prostitutes for illegitimate pleasure, they are not accused of indecency or filth. When Blanche has sex with men; she does it with their will. The men probably know that she is a whore and doesn’t mind sleeping with her because it doesn’t require commitment. These same men are probably the ones who spread the word of her indecency, but not too many people question them of their decency. When Blanche slept with people with their will, it became a huge issue, however when Stanley raped Blanche, not one finger was pointed towards him with accusations. I just wished that men would stop contributing to the growth of the filth that they claim to protect their decent societies against.