It's Just An Illusion

 In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, there are many scenes where Stella is living in her own little fantasy world but the biggest example of her not wanting to accept the truth is at the end of the play when she says to Eunice “I couldn't go on believing her story and live with Stanley” (Stella 1232). This quote proves that Stella is living in a fantasy world but she is definitely not the only one in this play who is fantasizing about a better life. After Stella confides in Eunice she tells Stella to not believe Blanche's story proving that Eunice also is living in a fantasy world. “Don't you ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep on going” (Eunice 1232).

 Stella is not only creating this fantasy world because of this one event that occurred with Stanley and Blanche. Stella has most likely created this fantasy world many years ago even before Blanche came to visit. Stella created a fantasy world because Stanley has many violent tendencies. Stella is well aware that Stanley can get very aggressive and violent over the slightest of things, that's why she keeps to herself and tries her best not to upset Stanley. After Stanley hit her in front of everyone at the poker party she still ran back into him when he called out to her. When Blanche asks why she ran back to him Stella makes up excuses and tells Blanche that Stanley didn't mean it and he's always breaking things. “Stanley’s always smashed things. Why, on our wedding night-soon as we came in here-he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing light bulbs with it” (Stella 1194).
 According to a psychology article on daydreaming, people spend about 30 percent of their waking lives spacing out, daydreaming, and creating their own fantasy life. Most of the time you do not realize that you are daydreaming. It's sort of like “reading” a book but not absorbing anything that you just read because in reality you were just moving your eyes over the words as your attention wanders in a fantasy world. When daydreaming becomes addictive and compulsive, it can overwhelm normal functioning and impede relationships. This is a perfect example of Stella’s daydreaming. She has become addicted to her daydreams and is no longer able to function normally therefore if she believes that her husband Stanley actually raped her sister Blanche then her whole fantasy world would come crashing down. Stella chose to get rid of Blanche instead of facing reality.