Grief is a part of life that no one really learns to master, people just learn to cope with it. However, in Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Blanche has succumbed to grief and lost touch with reality. As the play progresses you discover a key factor in Blanche's clumsy nature and you learn the circumstances of her husband Allan's death. We find out that she finds her husband in a homosexual relationship and she calls him disgusting. At the end of their relationship, they are dancing the Warsaw polka, when he runs away from the dance floor and commits suicide. From this point in her life, she begins to gradually sink into despair and misadventures. In "There Are Lives That Desire Does Not Sustain: A Streetcar Named Desire", by Calvin Bedient, he explains how Blanche's actions contradict her false appearances and are used to cover up her guilt. Contrary to this view is George Hovis, author of "Fifty Percent Illusion: The Mask of the Southern Belle in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and "Portrait of a Madonna." , suggests that Blanche is using her lies. to protect herself from harm rather than to make her appear more elegant. The Warsaw Polka is a central symbol that represents Blanche's loss of contact with reality, brought about by the loss of her husband, and her dependence on men which triggered her downfall. After Blanche loses her husband, her life falls apart in every area. Shortly after his death, Blanche begins looking for help in all the wrong places. Rather than seeking professional help, she relies on relationships with other men, and when one is over, she moves on to another. This tendency leads her to develop a reputation in her small town for promiscuity... middle of paper ... is empty due to the loss of her husband. Blanche may be the definition of crazy, but she is crazy in her own elegant way. Works Cited Bedient, Calvin. “There are lives that desire does not support: a tram called Desire.” Confronting Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire: Essays on Cultural Pluralism. 45-58. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Internet. April 27, 2011. Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Pierre Simon. New York WW Norton & Company, 2010, P.1804-1867. Hovis, George. "'Fifty percent illusion': the mask of the southern belle in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie and 'Portrait of a Madonna'." Tennessee Williams Literary Journal 5.1 (2003): 11-22. MLASBibliography international. EBSCO. Internet. April 28. 2011.