Blanche’s behaviour toward the poker players and during her bath reflects the way being raped by Stanley has scarred her. Tennessee Williams portrays this through Blanche's body language and the tone of voice she uses At the start of the play, she performs for Stanley’s friends and demands their charm and devotion. By its end, she wants to hide from their gaze and hopes stanley and his companions won’t notice her. Blanche spends much of Scene Eleven in the bath, but the bathing in this scene is different than before, the reason being is because it is an attempt to wash away Stanley’s recent violation rather than her past sexual acts, she took part in with other men. She also bathes to prepare for her imaginary meeting with Shep Huntleigh a man she believes that she is going on a cruise,( she uses him as an escape even though he is a fantasy it represents her needs to escape from her current surroundings, rather than for any real encounter/relationship with a man.) Blanche’s bath in this scene shows her cleansing herself to hide from real danger rather than simply calming her nerves. It is clear that Stanley has destroyed Blanche, although she no longer hopes that reality will prove itself adaptable to her dreams.
Blanche’s illusions and deceptions about her past lose reveals the disturbing reality of the Kowalskis (stella and stanley) marriage, but by the end of the scene the marriage proves to be a sort of illusion, based on deception .Williams reason for presenting this is because The DuBois sisters’ roles reverse. Stella admits that she may have entered a world of make-believe when she acknowledges that she cannot believe Blanche’s story about the rape and continue to live with Stanley. This is also down to the influence of Eunice as she encourages Stella to carry on her life with Stanley.
In this play, a Southern belle such as Blanche is a victims to society’s rules. The desperate nature of Blanche’s situation represents her mental attempts to convince herself that the gentleman she imagines still exists in the form of Shep Huntleigh. This is used to show that she is missing her late husband (Her quiet determination to depend “on the kindness of strangers” is funny, because in the past Blanche has slept with quite a few strangers, which usually took place in the hotel flamino but it also indicates the defeated women in her position must accept when it comes to counting on their families.)
(Most of the strangers that comes up in the play) eg, the newspaper boy, the Mexican flower woman show that they have very little other than sadness to offer Blanche....
When she insists that Stella’s life with Stanley must go on, Eunice argues that male companionship is a woman’s means of survival in the face of social convention. Eunice believes that Stella must persevere and work fiercely to maintain her relationship with Stanley. (especially after the run in with her sister). Given that the audience sees Stella and Eunice suffer with the behaviour of their husbands, it is unlikely that both women believe any part of Blanche’s story. However, acknowledging its truth would require them to acknowledge their husbands’ brutality.
Stella’s tears at the end of the play are shed not only for her sister, but also for the tension between illusion and reality, between Blanche’s story and Stella’s own understanding of her life at this precise moment with her husband Stanley. Stella cannot believe Blanche’s story, but she cannot completely deny it either. Ultimately, Stella cries for herself, for Blanche, and for the fact that a part of her is glad to see Blanche leave.
nusret.saleem@cwc.ac.uk