Blanche DuBois

Blanche DuBois (married name Grey) is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire. The role is challenging and controversial in that the former Southern belle has a lurid past (a marriage to a young homosexual who committed suicide when she discovered his secret; notorious sexual promiscuity; ongoing alcoholism, etc.) as well as genuine spiritual idealism and refinement. Jessica Tandy received a Tony Award for her performance as Blanche in the original Broadway production. By report (no filmed record exists), her performance stressed Blanche's high-class affectations, and the audience often sided with the adversarial brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, viewing her, as he does, as...