Blanche: A sympathetic Character she is
Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" is a character that throughout the play stirs all type of emotions. It can be difficult when trying to figure out if someone is a sympathetic character or not. With that being said despite the flaws that Blanche possesses she is still a sympathetic character. This can be supported examining the play. The beginning of the play Blanche automatically generates sympathy, as she is portrayed as the Southern wealthy woman who has a problem speaking to a black person in a normal manner. She has lost the family home Belle Reve and all the family members have died. She has come to stay with her sister Stella and brother in law Stanley (Williams 2191). This quote generates much sympathy for the character that have watched everyone die alone. “BLANCHE: I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! So big with it, it couldn't be put in a coffin! But had to be burned like rubbish! You just come home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths–not always( )”

Blanche goes on a spree trying to turn Stella against Stanley throughout the play. During Scene 4 Blanche is desperate to turn them against each other. She says to Stella: "He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits. Stella cruelly rejects Blanche, in favor of Stanley. Stella ignores Blanche and embraces Stanley. She prefers her husband over her sister who is weak and just needs help. When Blanche is raped, Stella refuses to believe her. Blanche is a poor character that no one has her back. This can give you no reason but to sympathize with her. She just wants to belong and be cared about. Sympathy is felt for Blanche because all she has is her sister and no one else and that’s the reason she wants Stella to turn against her husband (2214).

The most important event in the play that generates sympathies with Blanche was the death of her husband Alan Grey. This was crucial turning point in Blanche’s life and where her disintegration began. This can be pinpointed as one of the main reasons that Blanche behaves the way she does. Blanche mentions her late husband several times in the play, and at one-point reacts negatively to it by saying she’s “going to be sick.” Blanche’s physical reaction when mentioning her husband shows that she is more than emotionally affected. Light is shed into the story of her husband who was caught with another man and committed suicide because she found out. This definitely brings a lot of sympathy to Blanche and shed light on why she behaves the way she does.

Blanche is a character looking to fill her void. She resorts to being intimate with strangers. She is in search of a relationship of the one she had with Alan. This is impossible to find because the men are all just taking advantage of her vulnerability. This makes her pitiful in the eye of the reader and therefore she is viewed as sympathetic. In Scene Five some of Blanche’s past is revealed which she tries to hide. Blanche has been a prostitute and has had a shocking past (2217).

It is clear she has a mental disorder and this is the reason for a lot of the reasons that she has acted the way she has throughout the play.. Stanley rapes Blanche and this drives her over the edge. ( Williams 2238-2242). This is another piece that brings sympathy to the character of Blanche. Her sister who chooses her husband over her does not only hurt her but her sister’s husband harms her.

Blanche is a helpless individual, who seeks protection and care from others. No one understands her. Stella lets her down by calling the doctor to have her taken away because of her disorder. In the last scene when Blanche is taken away to the mental hospital is when sympathy for Blanche is ultimately felt. Blanche believes she is headed on a cruise. This truly is sympathetic. She is a very sick person who needed help. If her sister had been there for her perhaps this would have been handled a little differently. Stella does regret the way she treated her sister in the last scene however. One of the last things she says turns out to be the truest self-examination she makes in the play as the Doctor says: "Miss Dubois" she immediately stops resisting and says: "Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". Blanche just wanted to be respected ultimately (2245).
Works Cited

Williams Tennesse. “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The Norton Anthology American Literature: Volume D. Ed. Mary Loeffelholz. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 2186-2248.