Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams's Southern Belle and her Melodramatic Tendencies
Feb 24, 2009
Hoop skirts, southern drawls, flocks of beaux, and impeccable manners – these are only a few of the many things associated with southern belles. From Scarlett O’Hara to Ellen Sutpen to Truvy Jones, southern belles fill the pages of southern literature, delighting readers with their charm, naïveté, and love of traditions.
Southern Flair for Drama
Another characteristic shared by most southern belles is a flair for drama, and Blanche DuBois possesses this trait to an extreme. The star of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche continuously displays her love of the dramatic. Nowhere does she show her overly-theatrical side more clearly than when she explains to Stella that her husband is a brute from the Stone Age. Blanche’s monologue about Stanley Kowalski’s nature is not only one of the most melodramatic speeches in southern literature but one of the greatest.
Even before Blanche is seen onstage, Williams informs his audience of her southern belle qualities. He remarks that Blanche’s beauty must avoid strong light, immediately enlightening his audience to the fact that Blanche is a dainty, soft creature who must be shielded from life’s harsh realities. More of Blanche’s southern belle attributes come to light in the play’s opening scenes, for Blanche makes no secret of the fact that she is expects to be treated like a queen. Soaking in the bathtub to quiet her nerves, sending Stella down the street to fetch her lemon-flavored Coca-Colas, flirting coyly with Mitch – Blanche demands attention in a way that would make Scarlett O’Hara proud.
Blanche’s melodramatic southern belle traits shine most radiantly in Scene IV, the scene in which she begs Stella to abandon Stanley and his abusive, hostile ways. Constantly concerned with social class, manners, and behavior, Blanche simply cannot understand why her sister, who had been raised on a grand southern plantation just like herself, has married such a modern, abrasive, dominating male. Blanche doesn’t stop after insulting Stanley’s lack of manners, however; she goes on to announce that there is something subhuman about him, telling Stella that he is more like a caveman than a modern human.
Growing more exaggerated with each exclamation, Blanche reaches a level of frenzy halfway through her monologue. Desperate to convince Stella that she must abandon her husband, Blanche reminds her of the previous night, the night of the infamous poker match that ended with Stanley’s abusing Stella.
Living in the Past
Even now, crazed with hatred for Stanley and all that he represents, Stella plays the part of the southern belle. Her last chance to persuade Stella to leave Stanley is to remind her of all the wonderful aspects of southern belle life Stella has sacrificed for this man. Blanche waxes eloquently about art, music, and poetry, begging Stella to hold these things dear and separate herself from brutes like Stanley.
The finer things in life, she says, must be held up as a flag. Blanche cannot understand that this a flag she cherishes symbolizes the old southern ways of life. It waves above a region devastated by defeat, violence, and modern America. It symbolizes the end of an era, and southern belle Blanche cannot accept the changing times.
The heartbreaking irony of her monologue comes in its final sentence, when she advises Stella not to hang back with the brutes. Trapped in her southern belle, victimized, tragic mindset, Blanche cannot recognize that it is she, not Stanley, who is hanging onto the past. She is the character who cannot adapt to the modern times. Even Stanley himself knows this, and though he overhears her entire diatribe, he – like so many males subjected to a southern belle’s melodramatic tendencies – frankly doesn’t give a damn.
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