Street_Car

The illusion of Mitch begins once he meets Blanche, and eventually she starts to think that maybe he is the one for her. Immediately, she realizes that Mitch needs someone as well as she does but, Blanche has learned from her mistakes by breaking the norm of her past illusions and entering a reality by giving an effort to take it slow. But at the same time, she is telling Mitch how she is old fashioned and tries to be as much of a sweetheart as possible, while not revealing her age or past. So then Mitch as the momma's boy he is believes everything Blanche tells him. The fact is that his mother is sick and is not going to live long and tells Blanche that he has spoken to his mother about her, Blanche was stunned because he is falling for her and wants to even get married to her. This gives Blanche the illusion and also Mitch of a second chance in life. But eventually dreams are somewhat better then reality in this case because, Stanley doesn't buy into her act, he as a well rounded individual knows and discovered Blanche's history, by questioning her about her past few years. Stanley then finds out the truth, he goes all out to destroy her illusions and let everyone know the real Blanche Dubois. He does this to try and protect his long time friend Mitch. . He does this half because he is straightforward and doesn't like to be deceived (ex. - he doesn't like it when Blanche doesn't want to tell him about Belle Reve) and half because at first he believed some of the things she had told them (like the Belle Reve story and how she was just on vacation) and it by doing it, it was like a self - redemption. When she was caught in her illusions (or lies), Blanche said to Mitch: "I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!" (1380) However, Blanche was not the only one with illusions as a major part of her life. If examined, you will find that Stella and Stanley did as well. The illusions were much stronger with Stella and Stanley than with Blanche as well, mainly because they had each other to reinforce them. In the early part of Scene 4, after Stanley and Stella have made up about the beating, Blanche comes to see if Stella is okay. Even after saying, "I want to go away," (1349), when Blanche tries to convince her that staying with Stanley is the wrong thing to do, Stella keeps changing the subject and making excuses for Stanley's craziness - "you and Eunice had breakfast'" (1353), "He's taking the radio to get fixed" (1353). Finally, and ironically, Blanche says, "pull yourself together and face the facts" (1353) and tells Stella to get out while she can. But the illusion that what her and Stanley have is pure love is too strong. In Stanley's case however, I think that he honestly believes it. It isn't just an illusion to him, it is his reality. Also, a major illusion that Stella had is shown in the statement in the final scene, Scene 11, where Stella tells Eunice, " I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley," who replies, "Don't ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you've got to keep going." (1388). Here it almost seems as though Stella is realising what is reality and what is not and she knows that she shouldn't know. So, it is true that some people feel and believe that it is necessary to create illusions. They may do it for many different reasons, such as in "A Streetcar Named Desire." They may want to hide something like Allan and Blanche did, try to impress someone, also as Blanche did, or it could be a form of denial as with Stella and Stanley. Whatever reason, it happens to just about everyone everyday.