Ivan's+Page+(Blanche)

"Apart from the generic unintelligibility ascribed to the play, the portrayal of the hero, Blanche, has led to readings based on standards other than aesthetic ones, judgments which, though violently opposed in their reactions to Blanche, concur in their exclusive focus on the hero as the moral key to the play. Perceptions of Blanche as the sole representative of sensibility destroyed by a callous society stand side by side with descriptions of her as sexually immoral or as a prostitute and nympho- maniac. Some critics feel so strongly about Blanche that they envision her death at the end of the play, even if the plot only allows us to see her carried off to the asylum.Responses to performances, as reported by directors and reviewers, are not as one- sided as the academic responses to the text because they contain a deep ambivalence: the savage rejection of Blanche combines with the discomfort of identifying with her destroyer and accepting the circumstances that make him triumph."

-Authorizing History: Victimization in "A Streetcar Named Desire" Anca Vlasopolos Theatre Journal Vol. 38, No. 3, Performance of Textual History (Oct., 1986), pp. 322-338 Published by: [|The Johns Hopkins University Press]

- What the passage is trying to describe is that Blanche is not a hero in the play because she is not moral. However, Blanche was torn apart emotionally and mentally. The pressure of society brought her on her knees. Following the death of her husband, Blanche has looked to the acceptance of her opposite gender. As shown though, shes attracted to too many males. This leads her to be looked at as sexually immoral. She throws herself at too many guys. She tries to find quick happiness by exchanging men but there is always a hole of sadness inside her. She always dresses to impress. She claims that she does not drink but in fact loves the effects of alcohol. She is deprived of happiness and tries to cure that with negative things. She is expected to die by the end of the play, however, she is sent to an insane asylum. She could not handle the pressure anymore. The rape from Stanley was what broke the straw on the camel's back.