You left nothing here but spilt talcum and old empty perfume bottles – unless it’s the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern?
[He crosses to dressing table and seizes the paper lantern, tearing it off the light bulb, and extends it toward her. She cries out as if the lantern was herself.]
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 11. Stanley asserts himself as the dominant male as he tears down Blanche’s symbols of fantasy and illusion. Blanche hides herself behind perfume, talcum powder and the paper lantern she employs to protect herself from reality.