Blog Post #3 Topic #3

According to Dictionary.com the definition of insanity is “the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.” The definition is quite clear though this could be a broad definition, however to specify what is insane is relative. Meaning that there are multiple definitions of insanity, depending who you ask. Someone’s method of studying for hours on end with no breaks seems crazy to many, but to those who study like that don’t see much problem with it. If you ask someone if Blanche is insane by the end of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” many will concur that she is insane. Though considering all the events that led to her going to a mental institute seems plenty reasonable for her actions. However, only after do her actions make sense prior it takes some thinking and hard convincing, compared to the latter of the play.

Some background info about Blanche, she grew up in a wealthier setting on a plantation of Belle Reve. She had been known in the town to be quite flirtatious thus when she was “run out of town” she made way to New Orleans. Here she crashed with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley, where the story focuses. The play rolls on where we learn that Blanche is seeing what life is like in New Orleans and meeting Stanley’s friend Mitch, where she tries to work her magic. Near the end of the play a drunken Stanley confronts Blanche about her past and how she was going to make Mitch part of that. The play doesn’t explicitly state it but with the stage directions we infer that Stanley rapes Blanche. With all this trauma, the characters send Blanche off to a mental institute due to everyone believing she is crazy.

With all that in mind, the question boils down to is Blanche crazy? Depends, considering what had played out prior to Stanley assaulting her, no she wasn’t. Blanche was in a way desperate to retain her old self where she could get any man with her charm, so to go to New Orleans was a way to start fresh. The move was extreme as she sought out her own desires so for someone to see this, they could argue she is insane to go somewhere entirely new just to find more men to fulfill her ambitions. Yet it doesn’t make her by the dictionaries definition insane, merely being instinctual. In the end after the Stanley incident, she does become insane, but if you consider the trauma she went through, no one is ever the same.

Many will say Blanche is insane but if you contemplate the buildup of events in her life it is reasonable. Having to move shop after practically being exiled from her home to a foreign land to live with her dainty sister and brute husband, that is hard. On top of being rejected by a man who she felt she could have some lasting relationship and her sister struggling to believe her, took its toll on Blanche. The whole drunk Stanley incident was a catalyst for Blanche to be visibly insane to the characters and readers who feel sorry for her. To the dictionary’s definition, Blanche is insane at the end, but from the get go she was sound of mind.