In "A Streetcar Named Desire", Blanche uses her fantasy world to get through things that she doesn't like or doesn't know. She never lives in reality of what really happened to her and Belle Reve. She makes up lies to make her life sound better. She lives in reality so that she doesn't have to face what really happened to her in Laurel.

One of Blanche's many fantasies is that she cannot be seen in the light. The lights that are on have to be dimmed at least and she definitely doesn't want Mitch to see her in the light. She thinks that she is too old for any man to like her now and when Mitch does like her she doesn't want him to run scared when he finds out what her real age is.

Throughout the play, Blanche bathes several times, sometimes a couple of times...