Illusion in Death Of A Salesman :: essays research papers

What does Williams say about illusions and how are they important/ suicidal to us?     Tennessee Williams protagonist, Blanche Dubois, is a woman struggling to escape the faults of her past and promise a new conduct for herself. Her many mistakes have turned her life upside down and created a host of problems for her to volume with. To help her deal with the extreme direness of her existence, Blanche often creates fantasies and delusions to make her life seem more still than it actually is. Although Blanches ultimate mental deterioration is partially payable to her adherence to her delusions, it seems it is also these fantasies that help Blanche cope with her desperate situations. It is in this musical mode that Williams presents illusions as something that can be important in our lives. Sometimes experiences in life are too traumatic or emotionally overpowering to deal with outright. By tricking ourselves into thinking that the situation is better or diff erent, we watch ourselves more ready to live with whatever problem that effects us.      However, as is the case with Blanche, illusions can potentially be destructive to our psyches as well. concealment behind delusions to avoid our problems can make them all the more destructive when we are forced to return to reality and face them. Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche subdues the demons of her past by deceiving herself and those around her into thinking that they dont exist. This method of coping with her problems makes them even more disastrous when she is finally forced to face them. As an added blow to Blanches mental stability, her spirit is washed-up by her savage rape at the hands of her brother-in-law,