"Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed."

The characters in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, use illusion as a way of coping with the harsh truth about reality. Illusions are a form of perception; it represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality. These illusions created by the characters in the play, specifically Stella and Blanche, are an escape from reality into the fantasy world where the two women feel at peace, happy, beautiful and most importantly safe. Despite all of these great feelings, living in a fantasy world deceives both Blanche and Stella. Their illusions cause both characters to see themselves in a fantasy world rather than in a world of reality. When Stella says, “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley,” she vocalizes how she’s been forced to substitute fantasy for the reality of Stanley raping Blanche.

Like Stella, Blanche’s world of illusion and fantastical thinking is characterized by her flirtatious relations, her attempt to rejuvenate her youth, and ignoring the realities of life. Blanche creates an illusion for herself to hide from her misfortune and despair of her tragic and promiscuous past. The climax tension of Stanley raping Blanche destroys her and completes Blanche’s fall into madness. Less easily seen, Stella too created an illusion. Her fantasy world is revealed when she said to Eunice, “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley,” (Stella 1232). This quote implies that although Stella could have believed her sister, she suppresses the possibility of it being true because she is afraid of the consequences. Stella’s denial of Blanche’s accusation deems Blanche crazy. In order to cope with the disturbed truth and to ensure her own survival, Stella escapes to her fantasy world. This proves that many people accept deception in order to continue living a “normal” life, which for Stella is saving her marriage with Stanley. This is a logical decision for she has a child and life with Stanley. Stella declares to Blanche, “Stanley doesn’t give me regular allowance, he likes to pay bills himself,” this demonstrates that Stella relies on him for economical and emotional support; therefore leaving him would destroy her whole world and thus condemning her to a fate similar to her sister (Stella 1806). As Blanche leaves with the doctor, “There is something luxurious in [Stella’s] complete surrender to crying now that her sister is gone.” (Williams 1843). Williams hints at Stella’s tears to show that she subconsciously knows the truth, but is remorseful, as she must deny it to “go on living”. Self-perseverance is above all else; this is the horror of reality and Stella must now bear the burden of the truth.

Like the play, the film A Beautiful Mind also demonstrates how a character uses illusion to protect him from reality. Throughout the film the character John Forbes Nash, a brilliant mathematician, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Half way through the film, we discover that many of the places and situations that occur are only illusions within Nash’s “beautiful” mind. As stated in the Los Angeles Times article, written by Alfie Kohn, schizophrenia is defined as “split mind.” Schizophrenia refers not to multiple minds, but rather to a split from reality that shows itself in “disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions.” Blanche experienced some of these symptoms when in her disturbed perceptions she imagines the Varsouviana, polka tune, replay in her head over and over again (Williams 1828). It is a constant reminder of the night her husband committed suicide; it stops when she hears the gun shot as she exclaims to Mitch, “There now, the shot! It always stops after that… Yes, now it’s stopped.” She feels that her husband’s death was, to some extent, her fault and she holds herself accountable for it. When Blanche kisses and lures the young man collecting money for the Evening Stars paper she displays inappropriate emotions and actions (Blanche 1813). She is evidently a coquette; she knows how to flatter and manipulate men in order to get what she wants, by using her attractive appearance or by using her eloquent speech. Shep Huntleigh is also a figment of her imagination. When she proclaims, “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” she declares Shep represents, magic. These three events are all Blanche’s way of hiding from reality; the fantasy is her mind’s way of protecting itself from the desperation, misfortune and despair that she experienced throughout her life. Tragically, it is also her way of moving on with life.

Through his characters, Williams tells us people hide from reality to cope with the truth. When Eunice tells Stella, “Don’t ever believe it. Life has to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep on going,” (Eunice 1838). Many people would much rather be deceived in order to live a “normal” life because to them living in a fantasy world is easier to accept than living in a life of reality. Reality contains sorrow, anguish and distress and in the end, no one wants to experience a social death as Blanche did in the play.