Insanity

Insanity

      Although, Blanche DuBois was placed into a mental institutional, within Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, she was not clinically considered insane. She, herself, said it best when she said “I was on the verge of-lunacy, almost!” (Blanche, 1170). When Blanche said this, she foreshadowed the force that later symbolically, mentally “broke” her. This force was her unrefined, animalistic, heinous, brute brother in law, Stanley Kowalski. Now in order to fully understand the magnitude of Blanche’s sanity, one must explore her background as well parallel her character with that of the Joker; from the cartoon television series, The Batman.

     Blanche DuBois was a very fancy and refined southern belle from Belle Reve, Mississippi, who experienced much tribulation throughout her life. The trauma Blanche experienced commenced at her tender age of sixteen. At sixteen years of age, Blanche discovered love. She had a profound and perpetual love for a young effeminate looking man named, Allan Grey. Allan and Blanche got married and lived in bliss until one unfortunate night. While roaming about, searching for Allan, Blanche found the boy that she had married was with an older man; who had been Allan’s friend for years, engaged in intercourse (Blanche, 1211)! Blanche was so dumbstruck, that she pretended as if she did not come to the discovery of her husband’s homosexuality and so proceeded to a party with Allan. As they danced the “Varsouviana”, Allan broke away from Blanche and out of sheer embarrassment of his wife’s new discovery, committed cold blooded suicide (Blanche, 1211). As if Allan’s suicide was not enough, Blanche experienced even more mortalities within her family. Sadly, Blanche’s father, mother, and two relatives; named Margret and Jessie, died consecutively (Blanche, 1173). As Blanche lost her family, she lost her job and home to foreclosure as well. She endured all of these loses in her lonesome; because her sister Stella, decided to idiotically escape her beautiful life in Belle Reve, to live with the notoriously abusive, Stanley Kowalski. The numerous tribulations Blanche experienced affected her immensely.

    The deaths of Blanche’s relatives and especially Allan’s suicide took a tremendous toll on her. The situation surrounding Allan’s suicide is very intricate. Blanche was extremely young when she discovered that her husband was a homosexual! During the time in which A Streetcar Named Desire was produced, homosexuality was a taboo, which was renounced by society. Poor Blanche not only discovered her true love to be vermin; according to her society’s standards, but also she possibly questioned her femininity. Blanche possibly thought, “What sexual satisfaction does my husband seek; that I cannot satisfy but a man can? Such thoughts are absolutely terrible for one’s moral. Also, Blanche had to witness the gruesome sight of her husband’s disfigured corpse. According to Blanche, “Allan struck the revolver into his mouth and fired- so that the back of his head had been- blown away“ (Blanche, 1211). A gruesome sight like that was very traumatic for Blanche. In regards to the death of her relatives, Blanche said “I felt as if the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on her door (Blanche, 1173). This phrase is so cynical but evokes sympathy in one’s heart for Blanche. One also conclude that such catastrophic events can have adversive effects to a persons health, moral, behavior, and overall wellbeing. As a result of these experiences Blanche became a liar alcoholic.

      Certain critics have said that lying and consuming is a sign of insanity. But one must ask the golden question:  “What is insanity?” Insanity, like Allan’s suicide, is very intricate, in that it has a legal and psychological meanings. In the academic work titled, ”Overlapping Universe: Understanding Legal Insanity and Psychosis”, Authors  Zachary D. Torry and Stephen B. Billick said that insanity is:

‘‘Any mental disorder severe enough that it prevents a person from having legal capacity and excuses the person from criminal or civil responsibility.’’ It is a disorder that impairs the human mind and prevents distinguishing between actions that are right or wrong. Mental illnesses are disorders of the brain that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others. They are brain disorders resulting in a diminished capacity for coping with the demands of life” (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) (Torry and Billick, 225).

      According to Dr. Carter, a clinical psychologist at Farmingdale State University, she describes insanity as a mental illness that falls under three categories. A person who suffers from insanity must display a high frequency in extreme behavior, feel distress, and experience impairment because of insanity. Blanche displayed certain behaviors that fit the criteria of insanity, but she was not in fact insane.

      Blanche generally displayed, what certain people would call “irrational” behavior, because she was coping with the great loses she experienced in her life. Like normal human begins Blanche lied and consumed alcohol. Both of these behaviors were used as mediums to escape external problems. Blanche would consume alcohol, but infrequently. Also, when she consumed alcohol she never became intoxicated to the point that she indicated bacchanalian tendencies. There is great number of people who drink, but one cannot automatically call them alcoholics or insane. That is the case for Blanche. Now lying for Blanche primarily allowed her to forget the catastrophic loss of her husband, Allan. The fact that Blanche lied to escape the death of her late husband was actually very healthy. According psychologist Kubler Ross, the first stage in coping with death is denial. Denial in essence is a form of lying. Also according to Ian Scott’s “Politics, Advertising, and Excuses: Why do we lie?”, we [referring to human beings] lie to protect ourselves. Blanche essentially lied to protect herself or self- preserve against, her unstable emotions and or the bloody memory of her decapitated homosexual husband! Although Blanche lied and consumed alcohol, she was never impaired from reality. For example, whenever Blanche heard Polka music, it automatically reminded her of her late husband. Also, if Blanche were insane her insanity would impair her from normal tasks. But Blanche frequently takes baths without any assistance! Finally, most of Blanche’s lies were pre-meditated. The insane do not have the capacity to cope with the demands of life. Blanche copes with her tribulations with well thought out lies and drinking.

  Blanche is not the only character misperceived as insane. The Joker from the animated series, The Batman, is often called crazy, psychotic, or insane. The writer of this paper as well as cartoon historians both agree that The Joker is not insane. Yes, it is true that the Joker frequently kills people through circus themed tricks, feels no remorse for his victims, and does not know right from wrong. But although he may seem like he is not in correspondence with reality, he actually is. Both Blanche and The Joker are aware of the radical behavior that they exhibit because most of the things that they do are premeditated. Blanche thinks of her lies before she implements them and The Joker comes up with complex and diabolical schemes to trap and kill Batman. If The Joker was truly insane, he would not have the capacity to truly think about what he is doing.

    Blanche DuBois was a normal woman coping with death in her own manor. Yes she did have certain issues, but she was far from insanity. If Stanley did not rape her she would not have gone to a mental institution! Most importantly, If Blanche’s sister Stella remained loyal to her family instead saying" I couldn't go on believing her story and live with Stanley" (Stella, 1232), Blanche would have had the chance to not only recover from the deaths she experienced but the animalistic rape she endured.