Blanche Dubious Living In Illusion- Pub 2

Just how long can someone go on living in or enabling a friends delusions before they’re forced to face reality? In the play A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams the character Stella for most part of the play enables her sister to keep living in delusion, never really questioning her actions forcing her husband to be the one to take action. In Scene 11 Stella says the quote “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley.” When she said this she was referring to finally coming to the conclusion that Blanche living with her and Stanley was not good for Blanches or anyone in the houses well being. As the play progressed Blanche's lies went from just lies to save face in her current situation to lies that became hard to differentiate whether she actually believed what she was saying. Stanley and Stella(inadvertently) were the defining factor in Blanche's breakdown her presence in their home led to her and Stanley constantly clashing. Blanche wasn’t prepared to have her fantasy world constantly demolished by Stanley's harsh reality.She made herself live in a world so far out of society her sister, Stella, was forced to come to the ultimatum of continuing to promote her fantasy world and pamper her or send her away to the institution and continue living in reality with Stanley.

In the research paper “Normalizing Symptoms: Neither Labeling nor Enabling” by Thomas Scheff he speaks on the theory of Labeling/Normalization. This theory speaks on the idea that inherently judging someone will most likely produce a bad effect on the relationship between the two individuals and how it occurs. Scheff states, “We often make judgments of certain kinds of behavior that are virtually automatic: delusions show that one is crazy, wrong answers show that one is ignorant, and so on”(Scheff 1). This is seen in the play automatically as soon as Blanche walks into Stanley’s home both him and Balance start off this way judging and labeling one another. In his theory there are two parts to social dissociation, Labeling and Enabling. Scheff refers to enabling as normalization, which is to act as if something is fine and ignore it. For example in Scheffs paper he brings up a psychiatrist he observed talk to a delusional patient who believed that they were their daughter, when the patient asked “What have you done to your hair?” the Doctor knowing that she’s mistaking her for her daughter just replies “I haven’t been able to do a thing with it.” she lets the patient live in their delusion since she’s already in a ward and she has nowhere to go. This is what Stella is guilty of, her reluctance to tell Blanche to man up and face reality can be heavily contributed to Blanches breakdown. For example her constantly telling Stanley things like “... admire her dress and tell her she's looking wonderful. That's important with Blanche”(217) to just make Blanche feel accustomed to the way she used to live, and also waiting on Blanche hand and foot having her take long extravagant showers. This leave’s Stanley, the polar opposite of Blanche the task of making her face reality. This issue that Stanley could find with Blanche is just how far gone she actually is, does she truly believe she’s still this rich fancy women living in his low class rough apartment. In Scheffs paper he brings up an experiment on depression and it’s effects on delusion.

In his experiment Scheff was observing brief recoveries from depression. He observed the interviews of 83 patients who were severely depressed. Their interviews they all barely spoke and if they did it was one word answers. All of these patients fought in WWII also, oddly enough though when asked about their part in the war twenty became extremely alive talking with clarity and keeping eye contact. The psychiatrist who Scheff observed told him that he observe this phenomenon in many of his patients. Scheff states his conclusion on what he observed as “depression involves the complete repression of painful emotions (such as shame, grief, fear, and anger) and lack of a single secure bond. The memory of the patients’ earlier acceptance as valued members of a nation at war relived the feeling of acceptance. This feeling generated pride that counteracted the shame part of their depression. Telling the psychiatrist about belonging to a community during World War II had been enough to remove the shame of being outcasts.” (Schaff 5). This is how Blanche lives. Her depression in her life led to a repression of the prostitution and her husband's suicide. Instead of just being depressed and maybe overcoming it she chose to live in the delusion because like the WWII vets her memory of being accepted as a valued person removed the shame that she was holding. She believed if she could be get others to perceive her as she once was then she would be be just that again.

Blanche was broken in the beginning of the play. She was an outcast in her old town and she definitely could not go back after the things she’s done. Her choice to live with Stanley and Stella was the mistake. No one in this play actually ever tries to help Blanche, Stella's enabling of her delusion pushed her deeper and deeper into it, and Stanley's constant antagonizing and eventually the rape broke her even more. From Scheff’s research he derived that labeling and normalization would only worsen someone's mental standing if they actually need help. Blanche became too far gone and Stella is forced to have her removed from the house to the institution. Stella may have accepted her into her home in her time of need but she knew by the end that Blanche would never fit and that things would only get worse in the house.