Fantasy Vs. Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire

Fantasy vs. Reality Blanche is sufficiently self-aware to know that she cannot survive in the world as it is. Reality is too harsh, so she must somehow create illusions that will allow her to maintain her delicate, fragile hold on life. “A woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion” (scene 2) she acknowledges to Stanley. Later in the story line when Mitch wants to switch the light on so that he can get a realistic look at her, she tells him that she does not want realism, she wants magic. When Mitch turns on the light during that scene it reveals much more to the audience than just what she really looks like, but it shows that all this time she has been living her life in the dark, hiding herself in the murky shadows of her promiscuity. Her