There's more than meets the eye.. with the color white.

In the play, Tennesse Williams presents Blanche as more than a delusional character. There are instances, for example, when Blanche rationalizes her behavior and explains the reasons behind her illusions, especially when she believes that “I don’t tell [the] truth, I tell what ought to be [the] truth” (1590). In other words, if she were delusional, rather than saying that she tells the truth, affirming that she cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy—making her truly delusional—she demonstrates her ability to tell the difference. Moreover, she even admits that she “fib[s] a good deal” because she also believes that “a woman’s charm is fifty per cent illusion” (1553). Again, her awareness of her actions, illusions, and delusions ultimately displays that she is not, as of yet at least, completely consumed by the illusions she creates.

Furthermore, her desire to marry Mitch illustrates her understanding of the futility in holding onto her illusions of an imaginary world without a stability of some kind, such as marriage, in reality because she recognizes that her fantasies and lies can only allow her to survive in the real world for so long. Thus, after Blanche’s and Mitch’s date, even though Blanche creates a little fantasy of her own and says, “We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists’ café on the Left Bank in Paris!” the reality that Mitch is courting her and the possibility for marriage for the two remains the same. She only creates this fantasy to enhance her date with Mitch to make it more exciting, to her anyway, which demonstrates her enthusiasm for their future together. Thus, even though her delusions may not agree with reality, her fantasies do hold some truth in them.

Most importantly, despite the illusions she creates, she appears to hold onto to universal truths people experience in life, such as her understanding for sorrow. During one of her conversations with Mitch, for example, she reveals her understanding that “[s]ick people have such deep, sincere attachments,” and that “[s]orrow makes for sincerity” (1559). These thoughts of Blanche's are products of Blanche's personal experience before she arrives in Elysian Fields. This way, Williams is implicitly revealing to the audience that despite her illusions and imaginary world, Blanche has also experienced pain and sorrow as any other human.

If Williams only presents Blanche as a delusional character, he would be able to use Blanche to exemplify the stark contrast that exists between one’s fantasy, with Blanche, and reality, with Stanley.