Everyone tried to warn Stella that he was charging after her but she was too late. Blanche says, “Stella, watch out, he's–” (pg. 62), but she gets interrupted by the sound of Stella’s crying and sounds of a blow. The narrator says, “She backs out of sight. He advances and disappears.
but she been drinking to keep her nerves intact. Another example is the part where she talked about how she haven’t lost weight every since Stella left. But she lied since she had been stressful due to her drinking a lot. 7) Why does Blanche claim she has come to New Orleans? Do you believe her?
She also prefers keeping her past to herself because of all the problems she has had. She prefers for people to not find out what has happened and why she is the way it is. An example is when Blanche panicked because they took off the little paper covering the lamp which made the room dim and got pissed because she did not want to show how she looks. Stanley is shown to be the “manliest man” but he is unstable and irrational when he realizes what he has done when the damage has been done. For example, when Stanley physically abused Stella he realized what he had done when he was brought back to his senses.
Stella’s sister, Blanche, sees through the illusion and can see how toxic the marriage really is. Stanley and Blanche come from distinctly different backgrounds, Stanley is from the working class while Blanche comes from wealth. Williams uses these two contrasting points of views on marriage, to show the issues of possessiveness, class, and sexism. When it comes to Stanley’s marriage to Stella, one of the most notable characteristics is how possessive Stanley is. An example of this is when Stanley found out that Blanche and therefore Stella, lost their estate.
One major similarity between Blanche and Stanley is that they both like to manipulate or control other people, to make themselves feel better. Even though there are different ways Stanley and Blanche take control of other people they still do it in a familiar matter. For example, Blanche takes power and influence over people by lying to others and herself, to make them believe in something that actually never happened, with fantacy, therefore makes Blanche feel greater, than she actually may be. To go deeper in depth, to prove that Blanche is manipulative she also says. ¨I don 't tell the truth.
She brings this sense of superiority to Stella who unintentionally tries to distinguish her background from Stanley as well. Stanley recognizes the fact that Blanche looks down on him forcing him to assert his masculinity over her. Stanley’s dominance over the household and Stella is being questioned upon Blanche’s
She needs Stanley for her own sexual needs and because she is having his baby. In scene one Stella describes to Blanche what she feels: STELLA [half to herself]. I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night… BLANCHE. Why, Stella! STELLA.
In other words, Stella is very aware that her sexual relationship with Stanley can help her sort out any problems between them. Also, shortly before Stanley rapes Blanche, Williams says in the stage directions that there were “inhuman voices like cries in the jungle” (399; sc. 10). Blanche, which means white wood, is out of her element in this jungle of Stanley’s and it is she, who once called Stanley “bestial” (322; sc. 4) and “sub-human” (323; sc. 4), who has now found herself being stalked and charged like prey being hunted by an animal. With his sister-in-law present, Stanley has been unable to fulfill his sexual desires and so he releases them out on Blanche.
His lack of remorse for raping Blanche is astonishing; he does not share the fact that he raped her with anyone, so he assumes to be the only one with this knowledge. He is so confident in his power that he does not even consider that Blanche would tell Stella about his heinous act. In the last Scene, the audience is aware that Stella has heard about what Stanley has done – in fact, every character in the play is aware. However, Stanley is the only one who believes that no one else knows, setting him apart and therefore confirming that Stanley is the one in
Stella tells Blanche “I like to wait on you, Blanche. It makes it seem more like home”(pg 93). In the poem in line 18 to 20 the speaker says “I do not live to retrieve or multiply what my father lost or gained”(Baca). We can assume that the father in the poem was enduring hardships and their child was very able to see that. The hardships were so difficult that the child doesn’t want to be at all associated with
Stella lived her life depending on him whereas Blanche was currently on her own after her marriage and had no one to depend on but herself. Unfortunately there was a commotion that occured in scene 4 between Stanley and Stella. Blanche went to check up on Stella and was brutally convincing her to leave Stanley. The way that Stella responded to her made her look naive over the fact that Stanley was the issue. When Blanche and Stella were talking, Stella goes, “Stanley doesn’t give me a regular allowance, he likes to pay bills himself but this morning he gave me ten dollars to smooth things over (Williams, 78).
She constantly refers to Stanley as a Polack, and reprimands Stella because she chooses to “hang back with the brutes,” when she, in reality, has a lower economic status than either of them. Blanche’s classist comments and lies display her insecurity in losing her place in the hierarchy of classism. Angering Stanely by her racist and classist claims, Blanche begins to boil the rage that leads to her vicious
is due to her belief that they are kind for helping her "fill the void in her empty heart" (146). after her husbands' death. She is so deluded from the fact that all her encounters with the people she calls kind strangers, were instances where they have taken advantage of her. In those last words spoken by Blanche before she leave, she reveals her madness as she is now in an illusion depending on the kindness of the doctor and no longer acknowledging Stella. At the aftermath, she is still eluded by the fact that strangers take advantage of her Mitch, Stanley and even her husband.
Eunice asks if she needs help figuring out where she needs to go and who she needs to see, allowing Blanche to become dependent on her, even just for a moment. Once Blanche finds Stella at the bowling alley with Stanley, she immediately draws Stella in as though she were tethered to a rope and attached to Blanche’s hip. “I am going to try to keep Blanche out…I don’t know how she would take it” (sc. 2). Stella becomes overwhelmingly worried about Blanche and her mental state and decides to put all her effort into Blanche. Stella brings her sister places and almost acts as a motherly figure to Blanche.
As soon as Blanche steps into the Kowalski household and meets Stanley, it is evident that her appearance is a threat to his superiority. Both characters attempt to establish dominance through their control over Stella, a minor character who exists mainly to deepen the contrast between Blanche and Stanley. In scene four, Blanche advises Stella to leave her abusive husband and attempts to influence her by saying “I have a plan for us both, to get us both—out!” (69).
