FREE ESSAY ON STANLEY IN A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

STANLEY IN A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Streetcar Named Desire
Character Analysis of Stanley Kowalski
A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around the association of Blanche with Stanley, who
represents contemporary social values driven by male dominance. He is violent and
barbaric throughout the play, both in costuming (an element of spectacle) and in dialog
(in this case, an expression of both diction and character). As the play progresses,
Stanley uses every possible tool available to him to subjugate Blanche, including
destroying any possible healthy relationship, ostracizing her, and finally raping her.
In his first encounter with Blanche, Stanley is irritated because he knows she has been
drinking his liquor. He senses an invasion of his territory by Blanche, who has taken
something that belongs to him. Stanley welcomes her into the Kowalski home; however, that
acceptance requires that Blanche acknowledge his authority. When he removes his shirt in
this scene, it is not so much to titillate Blanche as to demonstrate his masculinity.
Stanley's desire to dominate everyone around him finds its ultimate expression in his
relationship to Blanche. That desire ignited in Act I. During their first confrontation,
Stanley attempts repeatedly to intimidate Blanche into giving him the information he
wants concerning the loss of Belle Reve. Initially however, Blanche responds only with
flirtation and laughter and ultimately, with a long diatribe relieving her of
responsibility for the loss, and bestowing all the legalities on to him. During the next
scene, when Stanley physically intimidates Stella, showing his own physical prowess,
Blanche attempts to take her away from him. In the course of the play he appears obsessed
with finding Blanche's weakness; when he discovers that she has committed sexual
indiscretions in Laurel and senses her feelings of guilt concerning them, he acts
immediately. 
In the second confrontation between Blanche and Stanley we see another territorial
dispute. Ignoring Blanche's attempt to change the subject by flirting with him--and this
is clearly her intention when she asks him to help button her dress, and when she takes a
drag on his cigarette--Stanley interrogates her about the loss of Belle Reve. His anger
is founded on his interpretation of the Napoleonic Code, according to which whatever
belongs to my wife is also mine (41). The implication is clear; although Stanley has
never seen Belle Reve it belongs to him, through his wife. He suspects that Blanche's
extravagant lifestyle has caused the loss of the family estate; to verify the truth of
his suspicions (and, at the same time, offend Blanche) he rummages through her trunk.
Stanley finds a bundle of letters from Blanche's deceased husband; he appears unconcerned
when this distresses Blanche, and does not admit to understanding why his touching the
letters might make her want to burn them. 
The third confrontation occurs during the famous Poker Night in Scene Three; Stella and
Mitch are the subjects of Stanley's territorial aggression. In the previous scene we find
that Stella has prepared a cold plate for Stanley, so she can take Blanche out of the
apartment during his poker game (20). When the women return at two in the morning, they
attempt to break up the game. As Mitch passes through the bedroom on the way to the bath,
Blanche engages him in a conversation that takes him away from Stanley's poker game.
After he returns to the game, the women begin to gossip and to play the radio. Stanley
turns off their radio; Blanche turns it back on. Enraged, Stanley throws the radio out of
the window and attacks Stella, striking her. When the couple continues to fight, the men
restrain Stanley and drag him into the bedroom. Again Blanche defies Stanley, taking
Stella to a neighbor's apartment. 
When Stanley discovers Stella is gone, he exhibits emotions that are inconsistent with
the image Williams has built--that Stanley is the epitome of the insensitive modern male.
He sobs, whining into the phone in an attempt to persuade Eunice to let him speak to
Stella. Then, regaining control of himself, he begins to bellow his wife's name (42).
That ends the poker game. From Stanley's point of view, Blanche has simultaneously robbed
him of his wife and his best friend. 
Although Stella returns to her husband that night, we find in the next scene the
foundation for the fourth confrontation between Stanley and Blanche. Arriving
unexpectedly, he overhears Blanche talking to Stella about him: 
Blanche: Suppose! You can't have forgotten that much of our bringing up, Stella, that you
just suppose that any part of a gentleman's in his nature! Not one particle, no! Oh, if
he was just ordinary! - Just - plain - but good and wholesome, but - No -. There's
something downright - bestial--about him! . . . He acts like aan animal, has an animal's
habits! There's even something sub-human - something not quite at the stage of humanity
yet! Maybe we are a long way from being made in God's image, but Stella--my sister--there
has been some progress since then! In some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have
had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our
flag! In this dark march toward whatever it is we're approaching....Don't--don't hang
back with the brutes! (50)
Stanley chooses to conceal the fact that he has overheard Blanche. He exacts his revenge
in Scene Five, when he reveals what he has learned about Blanche's sexual indiscretions.
Just as Blanche had robbed him of his wife and his best friend, Stanley seeks to damage
Blanche's relationship with her sister and her prospective husband. By informing Mitch of
Blanche's active sexual past, he convinces him not to marry her, as he had previously
intended, thereby ruining any chance for either of them at happiness. Stanley's
territorial drive pushes him to greater and greater excess. 
When he discovers that his attempts to dominate Blanche both physically and emotionally
have failed to drive the sisters apart, he investigates Blanche's indiscretions and
reveals them to Stella in Scene Seven. In an amazing display of hypocrisy, Stanley, who
abuses and sexually dominates his wife, uses Blanche's sexual misconduct as an excuse to
throw her out of the apartment. He tells Stella that he has purchased a bus ticket for
Blanche; it is not until Scene Eight, however, that we discover that the bus ticket is
from New Orleans to Laurel, Mississippi--absolutely useless to Blanche, who has been told
never to return to that town. This cannot help but exacerbate the guilt she feels about
the death of her husband and about her sexual indiscretions. 
Still, Stanley's more detailed revelation of Blanche's misconduct does not separate her
from Stella. After painfully eliminating Mitch from Blanche's life, the audience becomes
prepared for the final confrontation in Scene Ten-Stanley's violent rape of the
hysterical Blanche. Stanley, having driven Blanche to the brink of insanity, having
ruined her reputation in New Orleans and with her sister, finds himself still unable to
destroy the relationship between Blanche and Stella. He takes the only remaining course
to maintain his territory; by raping Blanche he establishes the physical domination he
attempted, unsuccessfully, early in the play, and the psychological domination he
attempted, later, by using Blanche's own guilt against her. 
From our first introduction to Stanley, when he tosses the bloody package to Stella, to
our last, when he rips the lantern off the light just before the doctor and nurse take
Blanche away, we see this man as an expression of animalistic territoriality. He uses
every tactic possible to exert his power over a fragile, but threatening woman. Finally,
using brute force and sexual dominance, he appears to win. In fact however, the winner is
ambiguous if even in existence. A rift has developed in the only relationship that
Stanley values - that between him and his wife, with no promise of a better future.