"It's Just an Illusion" Published Writing Response #2

Throughout the play, "A Streetcar Named Desire" it is clear that illusions and deceptions greatly overpower reality and all that it entails. Stella and Blanche are two characters whose lives are most controlled by fantasy and illusion. Blanche for example, persuades everyone and even herself at times into thinking she is an innocent and proper young woman. However, in reality she is mentally corrupt and possesses a past filled with impurity. Meanwhile, Stella mentally revolves herself around the thought that she and Stanley have a great relationship and that her life is perfect. However, the reality of Stella’s life is that she has an abusive husband and a mentally unstable sister. Through both characters, it can be concluded that these fantasy’s and illusions are a way of dealing with life’s difficult and almost unsolvable problems. For example, Stella states, “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley” (Stella, 165). By saying this, it is clear that Stella would rather live a lie or illusion rather than accept the truth and deal with the hardships it could create. In addition, one line prior to this statement Eunice asks Stella, “What else could you do?” (Eunice, 165). This line is significant because it shows that Stella isn’t the only one who views Blanche’s situation as something other than it is in order to escape the reality of it. Through Eunice the reader is able to understand that most of society at this time period lives through a self-created lens of illusion. 

   Over the course of history, creating illusions and deceptions have almost become a way of life for our population. People as a whole continue to struggle with accepting reality and its blunt nature and therefore resort to a fictitious outlook on life. For example, “On December 7, 1993 a Long Island Railroad train was on its way from Penn Station to Hicksville when a man named Colin Ferguson pitilessly opened fire on innocent commuters killing 6 and wounding 19”(Cantwell, A30). Directly following these vicious acts, Colin Ferguson spent two days in court denying his participation in the shooting and tirelessly fighting his “innocence”. He ultimately forced the people of the court room into an illusion that was parallel to what actually happened and even acquired an alter ego and spoke of himself in third person. It may seem normal for the defendant to fight for his innocence in court.  However, this case was not like most in that it had a surplus of witnesses and evidence that overwhelmingly confirmed Ferguson’s guilt. With that being said, one may ask why Ferguson committed this crime so obviously and then put so much effort into fighting his innocence when there was little to no chance he would acquire it.

Following this crime several different opinions of Fergusons behavior were brought up. “Many who analyzed this case decided that Ferguson’s actions were motivated by his fantasy of achieving a sense of racial equality through getting revenge on all the races he felt inferior to” (Crouch, A14). In other words, Ferguson had the fantasy of a world without racism and believed he could achieve it by killing people of unrelated races. Also, he had the illusion that he was the highest level of control in the court room and wanted to show it through his bizarre statements and plot twists of the crime. Similar to Stella and especially Blanche, Ferguson’s life revolved around the insane fantasies he created. If Stella were to willingly believe that her husband did in fact rape her sister Blanche, she would have to live the rest of her life as a divorced lonely woman without Stanley. Similarly, if Ferguson were to accept that his beliefs were delusional and ultimately accept his guilt in court, then he would have to live the rest of his life not only behind bars but also with the reality that he cannot do anything to change society according to his opinions.

Cantwell, Mary. "Editorial Notebook; The Colin Ferguson Trial: [Editorial]." The New York Times 24 Mar. 1995: A.30. New York Times. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.

Crouch, Stanley. "Our American theater of blood." The Wall Street Journal [New York] 13 Dec. 1993: A14. The Wall Street Journal. Web. 2 Oct. 2014.