A Ideal Woman Who Is Caged in Facade

From A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams, the drama that greatly

shows the contrast of “facade” and “reality”. Blanche, a character who clearly depicts illusion as she

wears a luxurious mask in order to block herself and other from the reality. After she lost the state

of southern belle, she cannot accept the fact that she no longer has the power over social status. As a

result, she is living in her imaginary world through lies and pretense. Williams uses the theme of

delusion to reinforce that Blanche is trapped in her fantasy world and is not capable of shaping her

own identity.

Blanche presents her false dignified and unblemished identity to her surroundings. An exam-

ple of this can be found in scene 10 on page 94, which states “You come in here and sprinkle the

place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold

the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile!” This is the part when Stanley

affirms the fact that he has never been into Blanche from the very start. His personality is completely

opposite to the high and mighty Blanche which she tends to make it up. He is the only one who is not

blinded or fooled by Blanche’s pretense. Stanley grows suspicious of Blanche deceitful act and even-

tually uncovers her dark truth. The power, spray perfume and the dim light bulb all represent various

forms of deception which Blanche pulls up. This is supported by the evidence on page 83, through

Blanche’s action before meeting Mitch, stating “[She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a

closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder…” Blanche tries to

hide the fact that she is a boozer by abruptly hiding her bottle of liquor in the closet the moment she

knows Mitch is coming. It is also pointed out that before she rushes to the door, the woman checks

herself in the mirror and conceals her true feature in the powder. She as well put on cologne to make

herself more attractive. From this it is apparent that Blanche is insecure of her true self. She tends to

hide it behind make up and all sorts of things that would elevate her. People who are free to shape

their own identity would not be doing all these thing.

 Blanche enhances her deceitful identity by changing the environment she lives in. The woman

strongly refuses to admit the reality. Blanche’s attempt to hide her true self doesn’t stop there, she

also goes as far as to convert the Kowalski’s apartment into some sort of dim lighted den by covering

all the lights with Chinese paper lanterns. This is demonstrated by “I bought this adorable little col-

ored paper lantern at a Chinese shop on Bourbon. Put it over the light bulb! Will you, please?” (pg.34).

This is when Blanche asks Mitch to help her cover the light bulb with the Chinese paper lantern. She

also says that she can’t stand the naked light bulb as much as she can’t stand the obscene action.

However, this is just an excuse for hiding her real features from Mitch. Blanche always avoids meet-

ing Mitch in a bright environment or even going out in the midst of daytime. Therefore, Mitch has no

chance to witness her true feature clearly. It is obvious to us that Blanche seeks shelter under the

dimmed light to hide her true identity. Living in the dark and avoiding the bright affirm that Blanche

is getting away from the reality, the truth that haunts her which is symbolized by bright light. The

reason behind Blanche’s facade is significantly because she cannot admit her true real self, her aging

features. Blanche’s objective is to rely on men to find happiness and upgrade her social status. By

making up the luxurious identity and impersonate the dignified women, she thinks that it would win

men’s heart and gain a lot of admiration.

Blanche is heavily imprisoned within her imaginary world, abandoning her real identity. This

is further demonstrated by “Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them.

I don't tell truth...Don't turn the light on!” (pg.86) From this we also realize that the fantasy Blanche

is living in, influences her to misrepresent things and twist her identity. She also confesses that she

doesn’t tell the truth and always lie to other people. The fact that she is so afraid for Mitch to turn the

light on proves that she cannot admit the reality and tries her hardest to deviate from it. The unclear

shadowy environment had obstruct Mitch’s vision. The darkness also implies that Mitch is being

blinded from the truth. Her worn out beauty would disgust others. Hence, she decides to conceal all

those qualities deep behind her mask and live in her own fantasy in order to be appealing to others.
Furthermore, it is indicated that the Blanche’s delusion comes in handy, allowing her to live in the

the standard of “Ideal women” which restricts her from shaping her own identity.

In conclusion, Tennessee Williams depicts that the character named “Blanche” is caged within

her world of fantasy. She loses her real identity within the world she makes up on her own, making

her lack of ability to freely shape her own identity. Blanche presents the unflawed identity to her

surroundings, altering where she lives in to fool everyone about herself and eventually she completely

leaves her real identity in order to live in her fantasy world.

My Life as an Elder Brother

 “Ken, you have to share this with your brother” “Why do you left your brother alone, what if he

gets lost?” “Ken act properly, you must be a role model to your little brother.”

These are the sort of things that I have heard since I was a little boy. Anyone without a sibling

will not be able to apprehend it. Here I am, living my life as an eldest son in the family. “Life would

be way easier for me if I was born a little bit later.” is what I always have in mind. Any single child

would reckon “Isn’t it pretty fun to have siblings?” “It sure is, you won’t be lonely cause your siblings

would always accompany you all the time.” But that is not with me. To be honest, having siblings

does not always entertain you. As for me, it is completely the opposite, it heavily weighs me down.

My mother always tell me to be well behave, study hard and be that perfect person so my brother can

follow. Hearing this constantly everyday torments me a lot. But what can I do? I am restricted from

doing anything freely when I am in this position. Life at school is already tough but coming back

home to be pressured by your own family is much worst. Little does she know, that this pressure my

mother has given to me heavily interfere with my school life. I know that I am nowhere near intelli-

gent. I prefer doing things by hands and put my creativity into use, like drawing, painting and design-

ing things. Rather than sitting there at the rigid wooden desk, staring dully at the board. Every time

there is a quiz or test, I would be really anxious and overwhelmed with uneasiness. What my mom

has installed into me replays in my head over and over again. The serious tone in her voice that says

“You have to study hard and be your little brother’s role model. Understand?” It haunts me than any

evil spirit would. I try to study very hard to achieve that. However, like I said every time when it

comes to examination, I would be struck by the nervousness. This obstructs my brain from working

effectively and left me with panic and perplexity. I can only remember a few things from when I

revise, other stuff, mostly the vital ones will be forgotten. But at least I tried. I really tried, I believe

god sees my hard work, despite that my mom doesn’t. When the grade comes out, I can see it through

my mother’s eye that she is disappointed in me. Back when I was younger, she would scold me, but

as for now I believe she is already too tired to do so. In fact, she already puts up with me. This shapes

me into a stressed out person, living under the pressure and in fear of not being good enough for my
brother to look up upon. The issue of mine doesn’t apply only to times of examination, it also happens

when I am doing group work and projects. I always fall into an anxiety, fearing that I won’t be able

to do good enough or I will do really bad that it disappoints my teammates and drags them down. I

am insecure of myself and believe that I will not be able to do good enough, to impress or live up to

others expectations.

Putting all this expectation things aside. I am also not treated justly like all the single child

kid has been treated. And who can justify this matter. No one because the judge of my house is the

one treating me unjustly. I always have to share things with my brother. In worst case, I have to

completely give him my thing, not capable of possessing it anymore. “What is mine is also my broth-

ers too.” Again this is embedded to me since I was a little Ken. Sharing is caring I know it by heart.

But, can’t this elder brother has his own space too. Can he have something for himself as well? Talk-

ing about this really inflicts me than anything else. From the very little thing that you can think of,

such thing like small box of candy to something bigger like laptop or gadget. I have to sacrifice a lot

for my brother. There was a time when my brother’s laptop was broken. Yes as you guys have already

predicted, I had to give him mine and overlooked the fact that I also had to finish my school project

with it. Reading up until now, some of you might think that I must have been very aggressive and

have wildly shown off my dissatisfaction. However, you are completely wrong. I keep it all inside

my heart. No one knows how I feel. Despite that I am not good at studying, I am certain that I, myself

is good at locking up my emotion. As a result, it has developed into the identity of mine, some kind

of facade pretending that I am fine, but really hurt deep inside. I am that type of person to be hurt

easily even when my friends are teasingly neglecting me. But tell me, who would like it when they

already have to experience the negligence everyday in reality. I would say that my role as an elder

brother has shaped my identity a lot. The anxiety that I got, afraid that I will not be enough and the

habits of not really expressing my true feeling. All of this identity of mine resulted from being raised

in a multiple children family where I are subjected to high hopes and sacrifices.