Illusion and Fantasy in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Illusion and Fantasy in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee WilliamsAn joke is fake belief whereas fantasy is imagining imaginativevisions. Both these themes are important in the play because they showhow they can be mistaken for reality by each character in the play.The themes illusion and fantasy are involved from the start of theplay. We learn from when Stanley throws the package of meat down toStella that he is a dominant character and that his relationship withStella isnt as happy as it may seem to be. Even in scene 2, Stanleysaggressiveness is shown towards Stella, since when do you give meorders?. However, the most significant example of his barbarousness isduring the Poker Game in scene 3. This is where the themes illusionand fantasy are brought in, because Stella lives in a fantasy worldwith Stanley. We learn how Stanley keeps Stella under the thumb.However convulsive Stanley might be, she wont reveal that herrelationship has problems to Blanche or anyone, it wasnt any thing asserious as you seem to take it. In the first place, when hands aredrinking and playing poker anything can happen. Stella haspsychologically made herself get used to this behaviour from Stanley,why, on our wedding soon as we came in here he snatched off oneof my slippers and rushed about the place, smashing the light bulbswith it. She has made it seem normal because she is illusioned by thethought that what they have is similarly strong to let go. Stanley is likean addictive drug to her, for example, in scene 4, Stella is innarcotised tranquillity. However rough he may be, Stella necessarilyStanley as a fix. It is as though she is brainwashed by him. WhenBlanche comments on the previous nights even... ...hebecomes desperate and unhinged. She sees marriage as her only means ofescaping her demons, so Mitchs rejection amounts to a sentence ofliving in her internal world. Once Mitch crushes the make-believeidentity Blanche has constructed for herself, Blanche begins todesce nd into madness. With no audience for her lies, which Blancheadmits are necessary when she tells Mitch that she hates reality andprefers magic, Blanche begins do for herself. Yet Blanchesescapist tendencies no longer show her need to live in a world full ofpleasant bourgeois ease. sooner of fancy and desire, her newalternate reality reflects regret and death. She is alone, afraid ofboth the dark and the light her own mind provides her with a lastsupport of escape. Her fantasies view as her, not the other wayaround, but still she shrinks from the horror of reality.