"Blanche DuBois is impossible to sympathise with due to her actions and behaviour throughout Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

Whilst Blanche DuBois’ actions, particularly towards male characters in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, are by no means appropriate and not always justified, there is room, nonetheless, for sympathising with her character.
From the outset of the play, Williams’ presentation of Blanche as an outsider evokes sympathy from an audience. Physically, Blanche’s “appearance is incongruous to the setting”. Her “white suit” connotes numerous meanings. Audience members familiar with Williams’ oeuvre may discern the playwright’s pattern in costume choice; typically clothing his most fragile characters in white, for example with Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird Of Youth or Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer. Immediately, such recognition could incite feelings of sympathy as Blanche’s downfall would appear inevitable just from her attire and the colouring of her portrayal as an outsider as demarcated by her contrast to the other characters. Furthermore, white is a common colour symbol typically used to indicate purity and chastity or in this case, to compliment Blanche’s metaphorical “moth”-like manner. It is understandable, however, that some audiences may find Blanche unsympathetic at this juncture. Williams’ use of dramatic irony with Blanche’s alcoholism – tossing down a “half tumbler of whiskey” and her subsequent insincerities, claiming to Stella that she “hasn’t turned into a drunkard”, the audience begins to recognise Blanche’s proclivity for duplicity. In this case, her seemingly innocuous ‘white lie’, which acts as a precursor for her later transgressions, for example, with her initial account of her background to Mitch and Stanley. Her initial mendacity may be interpreted as fuel for a depiction of Blanche as a comical figure or someone untrustworthy in general. Either way, these interpretations of her character could lead to an unsympathetic starting opinion for some audience members. Her farcical behaviour coupled with Williams’ use of bathos throughout the opening scene could be regarded as a sign of an uncomplicated, pathetic character. Although this view should be acknowledged, on discovering the protagonist’s insecurity and Williams’ direct exposition of Blanche having lost “Belle Reve” in her monologue to Stella, the audience come to understand her circumstances and thus begin to adopt a more commiserative attitude toward her condition. Williams’ use of the revelatory structure reveals exposition on Blanche and thus allows for us to sympathise with her as her duplicity and alcoholism are evidently coping mechanisms for the loss of her past and culture. Blanche's loss of “Belle Reve” and subsequent struggle to acclimatise to modern New Orleans symbolises the decline of the white-ruled genteel South. Whilst a more modern humanitarian audience may not entirely sympathise with the protagonist’s loss of power, one predicated on plantation culture, they could still sympathise with her lack of skills in navigating this new, post-war environment. Blanche is a vestige of a bygone era that moulded her behaviour to fit that of a 'Southern Belle' character - chaste yet coquettish. With the decline of this old, romanticised South, Blanche finds herself unequipped to adapt to her new circumstances. In this way, Williams’ distinct portrayal of the divisive cultures of Blanche (the 'old south') and the surrounding characters (the modern, changing world) sets the audience up for sympathy in a setting where Blanche is trapped in an obsolete cultural model.