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Allan Grey is a ghost that haunts the storyline of A Streetcar Named Desire. He is a character with no speaking lines or appearances, yet he is spoken of frequently and is a key player in the decline of Blanche DuBois’ mental state. When Blanche was sixteen, she fell deeply in love with Allan. At a young age, they were united as husband and wife. He was described as a boy with a nervousness and tenderness that made him different from the other men (114). Allan Grey was poetic and wrote Blanche several love letters. She still values them very much and gets upset when they are touched (42). Allan Grey died by suicide the same night Blanche accidentally stumbled in on him with an older man. She originally ignored and went out dancing, but while on the dance floor she couldn’t hold back and said, “I saw! I know! You disgust me!” (115) After this happened, Allan ran outside and shot himself.

Allan Grey’s death was the beginning of Blanche’s downward spiral into delusion. Blanche bears the guilt of his death on her heart. The emotional trauma she endured weighs heavy on her. When picking up the letters while talking to Stanley she says, “I hurt him the way that you would like to hurt me”. (42) Blanche feels that Allan Grey came to her for help and she was unable to do anything (114). Although she loved him very much, she couldn’t see his truth. The polka song playing during the last dance they had together before he died plays over and over again in Blanche’s head. It ends with the sound of the shot from his revolver. This music is heard in various scenes, for example: when she is describing his death, when Stanley gets her a bus ticket, when Mitch is ending things with Blanche, and when she gets taken by the doctor. The music is very disruptive in Blanche’s mind. It becomes more prominent the more delusional she gets. This music playing each time Blanche slips further down the rabbit hole connects everything that has happened back to the death of her love Allan Grey.

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