In looking at the antithetical opinions of Kenneth Tynan and Harold Bloom when it comes to an interpretation of Blanche, we must say that both are correct in their impressions of Blanche but only Bloom is telling the truth because, much like Blanche, Tynan is too compassionate to judge her as honestly as Bloom.
In proving the above assessment of Bloom is most accurate, we must look at what is true about both assessments. Tynan is correct when he states that when Blanche walks off stage on her way to the mad house “We should feel that a part of civilization is going with her” (Tynan 1). He further expresses that “in the sight of all but the compassionate” Blanch is a symbol of what might have been noble but is now humiliated and ignoble. Bloom, on the other hand, gives us an interpretation of Blanche that views her without compassion. To him, she is not tragic at all, but pathetic because of her inability to adapt to experiences and changes in her own existence “because she unnecessarily has made herself mindless, by failing the pragmatic test of experience” (Bloom 1). Stanley, to Bloom, is less at fault than Blanche in her demise because Stanley is following his animal nature, one based on brute force and strength, while Blanche has “failed in will” (Bloom 1).
In order to see that both interpretations of Blanche are accurate, we need to look at only one passage of hers from the well-crafted and tightly woven drama. In one passage, Blanche tries to make Stella realize she has married beneath herself because Stanley is an uncultivated brute:
Stella-my sister-there has been some progress since then! Such things as art-as poetry and music-such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! In some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag! In this dark
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