Surrendering to Desire

Desires are the driving force of life. For Blanche DuBois, her desires for companionship and stability in a man drives her into a life of unrealistic expectations which eventually leads her to her downfall. Blanche’s life is filled with tragedy from the time her husband committed suicide to the loss of Belle Reve, which signifies her aristocrat status and high position in society. This leaves her to become insecure and “needy” of male companionship that eventually drives her to New Orleans. As reveal in the play, Stella’s home is the last place that Blanche can go to in order to escape her past and enables her to continue to fulfill her desires without being ridicule and expose by the society of Laurel. For the meantime, Stella’s home offers Blanche a shield from the harsh reality that she desperately desire to escape. At this new place with people who does not know her past, Blanche was able to convince not only others but also herself that she is still a woman of high status and attractiveness. With these self deceiving thoughts, Blanche is convinced that she was able to attract Mitch in order to marry him and escape from poverty and her past. In the same manner, Mitch is attracted to Blanche because of his desire for companionship and also a desire to fulfill his sexual needs. Unlike Stanley, it is because of these desires that easily drive Mitch into the web of lies that Blanche has carefully woven. As one can see both Mitch and Blanche comes from a completely different background and their upbringing is evidently different from each other. However, their desires for the same thing ties their relationship together until the truth about Blanche’s sexual misconducts are revealed. Here we clearly sees that Mitch desire for Blanche’s companionship drives him to fall in love and cherish every aspects of Blanche but when he learns of the truth, he still desires for her sexually. However, he remains a gentleman when Blanche rejects him.