How is Blanche's life difficult?

It is difficult to find a sadder character in literature than Blanche DuBois. Williams understood that he was creating a uniquely pathetic creature in his characterization of Blanche. The result is a character who consistently uses freedom and does not achieve happiness. Blanche is able to demonstrate the futility that often accompanies freedom. In contrast to a uniquely positive condition in which human freedom and redefinition reflects a setting in which individuals take action to better themselves and their world, Blanche fails at every turn. She finds failure in being a wife, a teacher, a sister, and, ultimately, as a woman. This failure is brought on by a fatal collusion of poor decision making and the manipulative nature of the world around her. Blanche's consistent failures magnifies her neurosis, only adding to poor decision making.
In the end, Blanche's statement that she has always "depended on the kindness of strangers" is reflective of how isolated she really is. Blanche is not alone. She truly is lonely. Her own failures have contributed to no one standing up for her and no one acknowledging her. This is where Blanche is the ultimate outsider, a woman without home, nationality, or collective identity. Williams has constructed a character that embodies an aspect upon which we would not like to consider reflecting: The orphan. Blanche is an orphan, and Williams ensures that, like all orphans, the audience is not able to forget what they saw and the level of responsibility they hold in contributing to making similar orphans like Blanche in their own worlds.