#9 Blanche: In A Nutshell

Poor Blanche.  Poor, poor Blanche. 

Here is the sketch of this person, if you will, as drawn out by Tennessee Williams:

September 1917: 
She was born in Laurel, Mississippi to a prominent but soon to be falling-on-hard-times Southern family.

1933: 
At age 16, she falls into blind, mad love and runs away to marry a young, handsome homosexual who has a talent for writing poetry.  Within the first year of marriage, she discovers him with his lover.  That night she confronts him at a dance, he runs outside and shoots himself dead.  It seems clear that after this, she moves back home to her home, Belle Reve, in Laurel.

1937:
Age 20.  Her father dies.  Her only sibling, a younger sister aged 15, strikes out on her own while Blanche stays behind.

Between 1937 and 1947: 
She finishes college having apparently dated only one man since her husband's death, named
Shep Huntleigh, with whom it didn't work out.  She ends up becoming a high school English instructor who teaches "Hawthorne and Whitman and Poe"...which must slowly and continuously feed her sorrow and loneliness and remind her of her lost love.
The death toll at home rises also during these years:  Her mother dies after her father,  then Margaret (I believe/assume to be the maid...not sure), then her Cousin Jessie.  She is running out of money and eventually loses Belle Reve to a bank seizure because of an unpaid loan.  She is forced to move into a rat trap hotel where she spends lots of time drinking and with men while managing to keep her job.  I believe this "lowly" behavior began because there was an army base located on the outskirts of town, and the men walked past Belle Reve on their way into and from town to get drunk.  Blanche adores attention and to be flattered...and that's just what she got from these men on any given weekend.  I think that acting this way was just something that, out of need, developed into a habit and eventually ruined her and her reputation.  Finally, she goes kind of bananas and is foolish enough to develop "relations" with a student.  She is then, naturally, asked to leave town with nowhere to go and no money.

1947: 
Age 30.  After being kicked out of Laurel, she goes to stay with her sister (for about 6 months) in a two room apartment in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  Her sister has "embellished a little" about the size of her home and the conditions in which she lives.  Blanche is blown away at the destitute situation and feels absolutely helpless.  She meets Stella's husband who doesn't like her drinking habit or her "uppity" influence on Stella.  She meets one fella, Mitch, who could potentially marry her and save her from any future misery.  Unfortunately, Stella's husband, Stanley finds out about her checkered past and reveals this information to Mitch which ruins the relationship.  Stanley then rapes her, lies about it, and sends her to the crazy house.

This is where the story ends.  I get to fill in the blanks.  Any suggestions?

What do you think?