"It's Just an Illusion" - Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

I couldn't go on believing her story and live with Stanley" (Stella, 1232)

                Psychologist and Director of the Center for Progressive Development in Washington, D.C., Douglas LaBier once said that people may present themselves differently from a public to a private way. The more their fantasy grows, the more they adapt to it and start to believe that it’s their reality. There is a psychologically drive in all humans that lets them cope with their emotions by covering them up with things they wish to believe. Stella lies to herself to make her feel better about the way her life is going. She wants to repeatedly tell herself that her life is going the way she wants it to go and that Stanley is the man for her, the one she loves. As Stella creates this illusion for herself, she falls deeper and deeper into a fantasy world that she may never get out of. Someday this could possibly lead her to the way Blanche is, unable to accept the truth with her life continuing to move on with or without her.

LaBier, Douglas. “Why People Live With “Private Truths” Beneath Their “Public Lies”.” The New Resilience. Psychology Today. 8 June 2011. Web. 22 Feb 2012

                People tend to lie to themselves about what truly happened and deny it over and over again. By them doing this, it helps them cope with any feelings they may be having as well as with the fact of something tragic is happening to them. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella disregards what her sister, Blanche, says about her husband. Stanley, Stella’s husband, raped Blanche and Stella refuses to believe it. “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley” (Stella, 1232). Stella seems so wrapped up and in love with Stanley that tunes out all the negative things she hears about him. She rather deny the fact that he raped her own sister just so she can feel better about still living with him. She also rather ignore the fact that her own husband laid a hand on her while she is pregnant. “Yes, you are, Blanche. I know how it must have seemed to you and I’m awful sorry it had to happen, but it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it. In the first place, when men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen. It’s always a powder-keg. He didn’t know what he was doing …. He was as good as a lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself” (Stella, 1194). Stella tells Blanche that Stanley was just too drunk and didn’t mean to harm her. Stella seems to come up with things she wants to believe in a way that she wishes Stanley would take back what he did. She comes up with excuses as to Stanley being drunk and that that was the main reason that he did the things he did. This quote just shows how Stella is in a way turning into Blanche. With Blanche living in her “fantasy world” she is unable to accept the truth and trick herself into a false reality.