A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

"A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams contained very unique characters that contrasted each other, so each scene had some element of surprise in interactions. The character that was the most interesting to read about for me, was Blanche. Her character was unstable but bold which I liked. While her relations with men, both past and present, have fed into her instability and insecurities, she still has an extreme dependence on men.

She sees men as her only way to survive and have some semblance of stability. Even though she willingly flirts with the delivery boy, she immediately puts on her prim and proper facade on for Mitch because she sees him as her way to have a stable life. Her desire to have a proper and stable life is thwarted by her promiscuous behaviors of the past that gave her a bad reputation. So, despite her attempts to make a new start with Mitch, her past eventually caught up with her: making her undesirable to the men who might provide her the stability she seeks.

I think that her long baths and concern with appearances show that at some level she knew that her past hadn't left her. She tried to escape in the bath to wash it away, but she had to come out and face life. Her way of dealing with this was to cover her insecurities over with a Chinese lantern and be bold in her escape of reality.