blog post 3: topic 3

According to Oxford Dictionary, insanity is defined as “the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness” more specifically, “extreme foolishness or irrationality”. What this definition does not mention is that insanity is defined by the society. We have determined what is “normal” and “abnormal”. Another factor to take into considerations sanity has been redefined a countless amount of times throughout history and will continue to adapt.

Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar Named Desire”, tells the story of two sisters, Blanche and Stella.  After being raised in a privileged family in Mississippi, their father dies. Stella runs off to find a new life, leaving Blanche to watch over their families land. Blanche loses the land and her husband after he came out as gay. In efforts to escape her miserable reality, she visits her sister at her new home in New Orleans. Blanche is critical and judgmental of her sister’s lifestyle including her home, husband and morality. Blanche acts superior to Stella and others she meets even though she recently went through a number of loses. Due to her unwanted criticism, insecurity, and constant lies many would consider insane. This was largely the reason why when Stella’s husband raped her, no one would believe her. They thought she was crazy and sent her to a mental hospital instead.

Considering everything that Blanche has been through, I think her reactions and behavior should be considered sane. Societal expectations are to blame for being insane.

After Blanche and Stella’s father died, Stella ran away, leaving Blanche with a lot of responsibility. She was not able to escape; she was not given an option. Stella stole that freedom from her. Being forced into having into responsibility when you’re not ready is enough to stress anyone out. Furthermore, Blanche’s husband came out as gay. In the mid 1900s, when this play was written, that was extremely shameful. After having to experience that embarrassment, she copes by having sexual affairs with someone else. This destroyed her reputation and afterwards, her husband commits suicide. Taking into consideration this series of unfortunate events, all Blanche really needed was someone to be there for her, but she had no one. This would explain why she was so quick to run to her sister.

The way she judges Stella does not make her insane. For the most part, Blanche’s judgments are valid. They came form a wealthy family where the standards were set high. It was a surprise to Blanche to see Stella settle for a man like Stanley who Blanche describes as “ape-like”. Blanche recognizes his unhealthy obsession with asserting his masculinity, even hitting Stella. During this time period, it was the social norm to stay with your husband no matter what. Especially because Stella and Stanley were soon going to have a baby, splitting up was hardly an option. Blanche was seemingly hypercritical, but it was just of her. No one should feel obligated to continue an abusive relationship.

Blanche’s pride does get in the way of dealing with her problems, but this does not make her insane. All she was trying to do was conform to what society expects of people like her. A woman of her class should not show strong emotion because they would then be considered crazy, unstable and insane. Emotional women were labeled as hysterical, but is it right to expect women (or people in general) to keep all these emotions locked up? It was when Blanche could no longer conform to societal norms did she begin to seem “insane”. Yes, she had a strong tendency to lie, but considering all the aspects of her life at the time, Blanche used this as a coping mechanism. These lies made her feel better and provided an escape from her reality. She made up a life for herself that she would rather live.

Yes, Blanche has odd habits that might be slightly extra, but holistically, she is not insane. What is insane is the expectation to conform to the norms. Blanche’s behavior was due to the frustration of struggling to keep herself together. It was hopeless though because everyone already classified her as crazy. When she tried to report Stanley raping her no one believed her. She was sent away and this is representative of our social system. Once deemed as outside of the societal “norms”, no one takes into consideration what you’ve been through, what you have to offer, or what you have to say. This allows people to fall deeper into this man-made hole of “insanity”.