Insanity: Blanche and the Ideal Woman

        According to the merriam webster dictionary, insanity connects to disorder of the mind and lack of mental understanding. However, a definition cannot fully express the characteristics of insanity because those who are insane are not all the same. A person is driven to insanity through experiences, and everyone has their own unique experiences throughout life. For the character Blanche, the initial discovery of her late husband’s sexuality drove her to insanity. Blanche discovers in “A Streetcar Named Desire” that her husband was gay, and this filled her with rage and hatred towards him. However, when he takes his own life because of the disgust she expressed towards him, Blanche’s once sane mind begins to unravel. Once part of a wealthy family, she loses the family’s estate, and must move in with her sister. However, before moving, Blanche had an affair with an under-aged student. This act captures how Blanche was no longer in her right state of mind after the death of her husband. In attempt to keep up the act of the “ideal woman”, Blanche wears fancy attire and criticizes her sister’s lifestyle. 

            Blanche is obsessed with being accepted by men, and criticizes those who are not “ideal”, such as Stanley. She wants to be seen as an “ideal woman” with money, youth, and intelligence. This idea also captures the obedience of women of the 1940s, and how they were expected to present themselves in a specific way, and stay at home to care for children, while the men went to work. She masks herself in dim lights to hide her real age, and wears expensive clothes from her past to create the illusion that her family still has money. This idea of being the “ideal woman” is embedded in her head because she is self-conscious, and questioning of whether she is good enough for another man, after discovering her husband was gay. By presenting herself as this youthful, grand woman, she is able to capture the attention of many men. However, her past catches up to her, as Stanley discovers her secrets and drives her to mentally break after he rapes her. The rape within this play captures how although she creates the illusion that she has power, money, and beauty, she is actually defenseless, helpless, and dependent of others because of her past mistakes. It is discovered that in her past not only did she have relations with a young boy, but she also had affairs with many men because she needed the reconciliation that she is “good enough” for men. 

            Blanche lacks the confidence to create a better life for herself because she has been mentally scarred by her past. Blanche is insane because she has created this fantasy world for herself, in which she believes she is still a successful woman. She is unable to understand that she is depending on her sister and Stanley, whereas Stanley is capable of seeing through her fantasy world. The rape scene also plays the role in breaking down that fantasy world, and presenting to Blanche the real world she lives in. The play was written in 1947, around the time of the second World War, a time in which women were fighting for more job opportunities. However, after the war, many women were expected to return to their roles as stay-at-home wives. This idealization is captured through Stella, and the superiority Stanley has over her. Stanley rapes Blanche in order to make her feel powerless, like the women who were forced to stay at home. This extraction of power drives Blanche to insanity because she feels defeated by man, and worthless. 

            The aspect of the stay-at-home wife affects the women at this time by making them feel dependent on their husbands, and men. This is clear through the character Blanche because she depends on men’s approval through sex, and admiration. However, when she is defeated by Stanley, who doesn’t approve of her past, and violates her, she is left defenseless, and mentally broken. This captures how the women of the time period felt. Blanche makes rash decisions that cost her her freedom in the end because she doesn’t have the mental ability to explain her past actions, or understand why her actions were wrong. If she had the ability to explain that she needed the approval of men because her husband cheated on her, and ended his life, then she wouldn’t be thought of as insane being that she would know the reasons for her actions. However, since she is unable to defend herself, she loses her mental stability, and is presented as an insane character.

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