Coping Mechanisms

              Illusion is defined as creating an alternate version or deceptive impression of reality. During our lifetime, we are influenced by suggestions and illusions in a great variety of situations. Illusions are part of our lives. We experience it in specific situations, such as in movies, or during sleep. But it should be noted that illusion is composed of various images that are necessarily drawn from reality. Fantasy and reality do not work independently but are complimentary to each other. Fantasy does not construct illusion alone. Illusion is also a phenomenon involving our perception of reality, whether it is a “true” representation of that reality or not. However, there is always a fine line of difference between fantasy and reality. When we start believing our illusions to be the reality, we fall prey to our illusions. One should always know the boundary between reality and illusion. An illusion is absolutely beneficial until we are conscious of this boundary. In his play A Streetcar Named Desire, the author Tennessee Williams portrays Blanche as using illusion to cope with the stress of reality, to hide from her past and her fading beauty and to imagine her setting as more complacent than it is.

            In A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Blanche is defined by these concepts of fantasy and illusion. She draws our attention with her sincere and fragile personality, which later on turns out to be an illusion of her own mind. She lives in the world of illusions in order to protect herself against outside threats and against her own fears. Her desperation for romance - for illusion - in her life is the only avenue remaining for her escape from her shameful past. Throughout the play, Blanche uses illusions in order to escape from her awful reality. Williams contrasts Blanche’s delusions with Stanley’s realism such as their conversation about women’s beauty. Blanche states, “After all, a woman’s charm is fifty per cent illusion” (Williams 1181). It is clearly conveyed through Blanche’s character that her illusions are solely based in her insecurities and her inability to cope with her reality. Blanche’s hope throughout the play is to salvage her life by using different coping mechanism: fantasy, alcoholism and illusions.

            Blanche’s fragile personality has grown out of many stressful situations in her past. As a way of managing the stress, she uses coping mechanisms, which are “conscious mental strategies or behaviors that individuals employ to lower anxiety” (O’Brien 9). There are two types of these mechanisms: short term and long term. Short-term mechanism is related to immediate problem; for example, drinking alcohol is one way of coping. Blanche’s long-term mechanism would be protecting her mind by illusions and delusions.  In fact there is a difference between those two behaviors.  Delusions are false beliefs that are not true facts about the person. Blanche experiences delusions of grandeur, which means that the person experiences exaggerated ideas of her or his importance (293) such as Blanche’s obsession with her appearance.  Illusions, on the other hand, are misperception of the real external sensory stimulus like a noise or a shadow (48) such as the comments made by Stanley’s poker buddies into compliments. Blanche turns all types of mechanism to cope with her life in the process of changing her reality.

            Blanche’s continuous failure to create meaningful relationships with other men after the death of her husband, leads her to wander in life until she reaches Stanley and Stella’s home. Soon, she meets a friend of Stanley's, Mitch, and eventually she starts to think that maybe he is the one. Her desire for a happy marriage is revealed when she tells Stella, “I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! Yes – I want Mitch…very badly!” (Williams 1203). This was her desire, to be happy again, to be loved. She attempts to create an intimate relationship with Mitch. She projects fantasies in order to deceive him. On their first date, she lights a candle and says “We are going to be very Bohemian.  We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artist’s café on the Left Bank in Paris!” (Williams 1207). She seeks to deceive Mitch as a part of her illusion but he seems to feel uncomfortable. Blanche creates a world of illusion in order to compensate for the lack of interest they both experience during their date. To reduce stress and her fears about an uncertain future, Blanche persists in her illusion that Mitch is the one.

            Another instance where Blanche creates an illusion in order to cope with her reality is when she is awaiting the arrival of Shep Huntleigh to take her away to the Caribbean on a yacht. “I can smell the sea air. The rest of the time I’m going to spend on the sea. And when I die, I’m going to die on the sea” (Williams 1227). Blanche indulges in this escape right before the harsh reality of the rape scene, when Stanley makes fun of her attire. She comes up with a ridiculous story of a telegram coming for her from an old admirer wishing to take her away. Blanche is feeling so unwanted that she is not only presenting a false appearance, but also believing heavily in them for her own comfort. In response to her history, she makes herself believe in these fantasies in order to feel secure about herself, and block out all of the truths she so deeply wishes to forget.

            To further block the truth, Blanche avoids appearing in bright light, especially in front of Mitch. She avoids light in order to prevent him from seeing the reality of her fading beauty. Blanche hides in the dark because she thinks that darkness can conceal her flaws and fallacies. Her inability to tolerate light is a true indication of her lost grasp on reality. By covering the light bulbs with paper lantern, Blanche also avoids bright light. Paper lanterns on the bulb protect her from the outside world and disguise her reality. She lies about her age in order to avoid and to forget that reality, creating an illusion to others that she is still young, attractive and desirable. Blanche believes the ‘Magic’ rather than her reality. Illusions brings to her magic, escape from the reality, the image of the life she would like to lead, and not the one she is leading now.

            The setting of the play also plays a major role in Blanche’s retreat from reality and her desire to create an illusion rather than face reality. The setting of A Streetcar Named Desire, summer in a shabby apartment building in New Orleans during the 1940’s, represents the ugliness of reality. As a child, Blanche lived in gentility and wealth. Eventually, Blanche loses her family and wealth and seeks sanctuary with her sister, Stella, in New Orleans. As Blanche enters the shabby two-room apartment, she chases an illusion that the apartment is decent and she would be comfortable staying there. While in her reality, she completely hates the small, shabby and cramped apartment. The setting of the play, further supports the significance of her having the desire to create an illusion rather than facing reality.

            On every level, most humans have difficulty accepting truth. There is always an element that one does not want to accept. In order to overcome truth, we create illusions and fantasies. One of the major themes of the play, “Fantasy over Reality” explains this. Fantasy is a coping mechanism that people employ in order to dodge the truth. Williams is inspired by human beings. The nature of humans to create illusions in the time of difficulty exists irrespective of gender or setting. When an adopted child gets to know the reality of his maternity, he goes through emotional trauma. To combat this emotional stress, adopted children tend to create an illusion to defeat the fact of adoption. The adopted son of one of my professors, in spite of knowing that he is adopted, strongly believes that he can grow really tall like his father even though they have no biological connections. His belief shows that the human mind creates a fantasy in order to idealize the reality.

            Blanche’s sole purpose when she comes to live with Stella is to find stability, security, and to gain control of her life. She wants to escape from the reality of her life. However, her dreams crashed down when Stanley discovers her past. In order to cope with the preexisting stress and rising tension during her stay at her sister’s house, she uses alcoholism, delusions and illusions as ways to survive. Her ways of coping with undesirable circumstances and living in a world of fantasy separate her not only from reality but also from the society that could not accept her vain pretensions. Illusions bring to her magic, to the image of life that she would like to lead. Illusions are a part of everybody’s lives. They help us to accept difficult things and move on with life. Blanche’s run from reality drives her to use the setting and events of the play.

Works Cited

O’Brien, Patricia G.,Winifred Z. Kennedy and Karen A. Ballard. Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett, 2008. Electronic Book.

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. The Norton Introduction To Literature. Ed. Alison Booth, Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 1165-1238. Print.