A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche Analysis

In Tennessee Williams’s iconic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams introduces Mitch to the play as one of Stanley’s “poker buddies” and Stanley’s co-worker at the plant. Mitch intensifies the conflict between Stanley and Blanche due to his identity as one of Stanley’s best friends and Blanche’s potential suitor. Despite Mitch’s identity as a member of the lower class, closer examination of Mitch’s social behavior shows that he differs from his friends by presenting himself as a gentleman, courting cultivated women, and exhibiting compassion.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Mitch presents himself as a gentleman, setting himself apart from the men he befriends. During Mitch’s courtship of Blanche, he brings Blanche “a bunch of roses”.(p.99) While Mitch woos Blanche with his sophisticated manners, Stanley enchants Stella with his animal-like behavior. Stella describes her wedding night to Blanche, stating that Stanley was “smashing the light-bulbs” with Stella’s slipper which “thrilled” her.(p.72) While Mitch treats

Before the play begins, Mitch has a romantic relationship with a wealthy and well educated woman, proven by the silver cigarette case she gives him with an inscription of a sonnet, “And if God choose, I shall but love thee better-after-death!”.(p.57) Cigarette cases were seen as elegant gifts at the time, and the expensive material shows the high status of the young woman. Furthermore, women of a lower class would not be educated enough to quote sonnets. Mitch later courts Blanche, a well educated woman who grew up on a Southern plantation. Blanche immediately recognizes the sonnet, confirming her identity as a cultured woman. While most of Mitch’s friends marry “big, beefy things”, Mitch becomes romantically involved with cultivated women. Mitch’s taste in women differ from that of his friends, distinguishing him from the other