Reality can be a horrible thing for some people; reality can say that you’re broke, that your old, that you are an undignified whore. Some of us try to deny reality and live in a fantasy world. We see a lot of this denial in Blanche DuBois, the protagonist in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche fabricates her whole identity, creating a self-image as a woman who has never known indignity; she denies her past as a prostitute. This is why I say that Blanche DuBois is the Queen of Denial.
When we first see Blanche she says, “they told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!. ” The streetcar ride symbolizes that Blanche is wishing for a new life. Blanche already denies the fact that she is broke, so she’s surprised that she will be living with her sister in ghetto. Later on, we see that all of Blanches’ belongings are in one suitcase. The case is mostly filled with old and expensive dresses, long “fox-pieces,” and rhinestone.
We see from this chest that Blanche denies that she’s poor by carrying around want-to-be high class clothing. As we move on in the play, we see that Blanche denies more than just her wealth. Blanche denies her purity. In scene seven, Stanley tells Stella that Blanche had worked at the Hotel Flamingo as a prostitute. We see from this that Blanche denied her past by lying to Mitch, saying that she had never been more than kissed by a man. We see that Blanche was lying when she said that she was taking a leave of absence from her high school career. Blanche actually had relations with a teenage boy.
Obviously, Blanche is not pure and innocent. The way Blanche implies that she’s a virgin, talks softly, and wears white, are all ways that Blanche is denying her history as a whore. We see in scene ten, that Blanche will not believe that she ruined the relationship between Mitch and her, and the she’s a prostitute who will likely never remarry. Blanche denies this truth so much that she tells Stanley that she’s going on a cruise with a millionaire, and that Mitch came to her with roses and apologies, but she broke the relationship because she cannot forgive Mitch’s “deliberate cruelty. ” What she tells Stanley are all fantasies.
Stanley laughs at her, “ha-ha-ha!. ” Stanley laughs because he doesn’t like Blanche, and her denial of her pathetic and hopeless life amuses him. In Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, we see how harsh reality can be. Reality was so hard on Blanche DuBois that she denied it, and lived in a fantasy world. Blanche fantasized that she was a wealthy girl, a pure and innocent girl, who was to marry a gentleman. What Blanche was denying was that she was a broke, worthless, whore. Blanche DuBois lived her life by fully denying her true past, and true self; therefore, Blanche DuBois is the Queen of Denial.
