All I can say to the end of "A Street Car named Desire" is WOW!! That was an extremely difficult decision to make. I don' t know if I could choose my husband over my sister especially when the accusation was rape. I have to say that Blanche is a bit nutty through out the play, but I think the rape was what pushed her over the edge.
As I learned what happened with her husband I understood why she lied so much because the truth is what killed him. Then on top of it all she is living with a crazy amount of guilt. Her life was kind of rough she got married at sixteen, finds out her husband is gay, then drives him to kill himself, loses the family home and then all that stuff that proceeds that. I found her a little over dramatic at times like in the scene with Mitch on page 664 "Eureka! Honey, you open the door while I take a last look at the sky. I'm looking for the Pleiades, the seven sisters, but the girls are not out tonight. Oh yes they are, there they are! God bless them! All in a bunch going home from their little bridge party... Y'get the door open? Good boy! I guess you - want to go now..." I just could see her hanging kind of over the rail of the steps, yelling. http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_myth.html
The link above is about the cluster of stars called Pleiades you can read the story on that link, but a brief synopsis is that the girls are the half sisters of Hyades. They were seen and wanted by the hunter Orion to the extent that Zeus changed the girls into birds and placed them in the sky to protect then when Orion died he also placed him in pursuit. I just wanted to know what the real story was compared to Blanche's view of it.
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6 comments:
I agree that Blanche's character in this story seemed quite out of control at times. As the story progressed and we learned more about her background, things became more understandable. Blanche's entire world was continually changing around her. By the time she gets to Stella and Stanley's she has lost everything that she is familiar with and doesn't know how to react. No matter how much she lied, she definetly didn't deserve to be sent away so that Stella could live guilt-free with Stanley.
Yes I must agree. That was the surprise ending for me as well. I was too shocked at the fact that stella picked her husband over her sister. I dont think I could have done that I dont care what my sisters history was and i would actually no be able to lool at my husband the same. i think she did it because she wanted to still live that pefect married life but in the end it was all fake.
I really liked your blog because I had attributed Blanche’s lying to other causes than you did. To me her lying stemmed from her insecurities about her past and wanting to cover up her indiscretions. She values illusion and tries to create magic wherever she goes, playing the role of the Southern Belle that her background taught her she should be. However, you attributed her lying to her truth-telling being the motivation behind Allan’s death. That’s interesting, and you bring up a great scene. When reading scene 6, I found it hard to believe that Blanche’s one comment about Allan repulsing her drove him to commit suicide. Perhaps this event is distorted too, since her perception of most events is an altered version of reality. She gives a dramatic flair to everything, like the quote you included even reveals. Just looking at the sky leads her into a story about something mythical. Allan’s death was obviously a traumatic event for Blanche, and maybe she is not remembering their relationship accurately. Also, the ending of a relationship typically makes the relationship seem better than it was, and I think Blanche’s perception is again skewed, causing her to be unnecessarily haunted by this event. Other factors, probably even outside of their marriage, seemingly must have contributed to him committing suicide.
I was also very surprised at the end of the story. I couldn't believe that Stella's husband actually raped Blanche. Blanche was already not functioning normally, and Stanley knew that. I also think that when Blanche was raped it was what put her over the edge. If I were Stella, I would have never chosen Stanley over Blanche, even if we had a child together. I don't think I could look at my husband again knowing that he raped someone, especially if it was my own sister.
I have to say that with such a sad story about Blanche's husband, you can see why she is so screwed up. Blanche is so jaded by the fact that she was not exposed to normal life that was outside of Belle Reve. She is like something that is caught in a dream ever since her husband killed herself.
Yeah I think that was wrong that she would choose her husband who is a raging lunatic and that raped her sister. He was just a crazy and I don't understand why she just comes crawling back to him after everytime he does something bad.
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