A Streetcar Named Desire and the Pursuit of Happiness During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the pursuit of happiness is a theme that is recurrent in American Dramas. In A Streetcar Named Desire, this particular motif is emphasized through Blanche DuBois’ journey throughout the play. Due to the loss of her late husband, Allen, for which she blames herself, Blanche was forced to live with a hole in her heart, longing for happiness to fill the void. Ms. Dubois developed a coping mechanism soon after her tragic loss where she lived in a world of illusion. As well, Blanche convinced herself in that world that the only way to eliminate her feelings of emptiness was to be deemed desirable to men, thus she did whatever she needed to in…show more content… Through this and only this would her feelings of self-doubt and unsurety leave and happiness remain in those places. Blanche’s story, although not revealed in this order, began when she met her husband to be, Allen, when she was sixteen. She became head over heels in love, only to find later on in their eventual marriage that he was gay. Blanche became heartbroken and eventually told Allen quite harshly that she knew his secret sexuality, “‘I saw! I know! You disgust me…’”(Williams 115). This caused him to end his life with a gunshot to the head. Because of this event, Blanche was left unsatisfied and distraught with herself, wondering why her husband couldn’t love her the way he loved a man. Losing the person Blanche once loved so fully and ferociously, who was such a prominent figure in her life caused a vacuum to be formed in her heart and her happiness to be stripped from her. Later, family problems arose where many were sick and ill, and Blanche was left to deal with it on her own because Stella left to live with Stanley. Soon Belle Reve was lost and the stress of all that occurred caused Blanche to be pushed even farther into her realm of illusion. With no home left to go to, Blanche after the loss of Belle Reve headed
