A Streetcar Named Desire Social Class Essay

The Clash between Higher and Lower Class in A Streetcar Named Desire

A serious subject in A Streetcar Named Desire is the hostile relationship between Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski. Blanche, an unemployed southern belle who recently lost her plantation called Belle Reve, shows up at her sister Stella’s house in New Orleans, intending to stay for an extended period evident by her bulky suitcase. Stanley, who is Stella’s husband and a strong plainspoken character, is unaware of her visiting and begins to dislike Blanche increasingly as the play progresses. In A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, Blanche and Stanley’s loathsome relationship is fuelled by their different social classes and is a symbol of the differences between

Blanche believes that she is superior to Stanley due to her higher class and social etiquette. She feels that Stanley is animalistic and primitive. Blanche's view is evident in her monologue to Stella in Scene 4: “He acts like an animal, has animal habits…Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is -Stanley Kowalski – survivor of the stone age” (Williams 83). Blanche thinks of Stanley like a caveman that is simpleminded and unsophisticated. He is not the gentleman that Blanche is familiar to at the higher class. She does not think that a “common” (Williams 82) is appropriate for a sensitive and charming southern belle such as Stella or herself. In the same monologue, Blanche continues to degrade Stanley and his class. She says, “His poker night – you call it – this party of apes… Such things as art –

Stanley is a powerful, straightforward figure with the intention to let Blanche know who the boss is. Williams writes, “Don’t ever talk that way to me! “Pig – Polack – disgusting – vulgar – greasy!” – them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here… Remember what Huey Long said – "Every Man is a King!" And I am the King around here, so don’t forget it!”(Williams 131). Huey Long was a politician in the 1930s. The working class regarded him as a “champion of the common man”(Long Legacy Project. Perspectives). In Long’s Every Man is a King Speech, he says, “it is necessary to scale down the big fortunes, that we may scatter the wealth to be shared by all of the people” (American Rhetoric. Every Man Is a King Speech). Stanley’s political view is evidence that he is a member of the working class and against the wealthy class such as Blanche, who inherited a massive plantation. This relationship represents the new working class against the aging southern aristocracy. Blanche is downgrading Stanley, who is of Polish descent, by using the derogatory term “Polack”. Stanley is blunt and will not allow Blanche and her higher class to overpower him and the common man. He expresses this further by raping Blanche in scene 10. Stanley does not consider Blanche powerful simply due to her higher class from birth. Furthermore, on the subject of