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Streetcar Named Desire Research Paper

798 Words4 Pages

In the play Streetcar Named Desire there are many different relationships between the characters. The most important relationships within the play are Stanley and Stella and Stella and Blanche. These two characters go through a lot throughout the play causing a lot of friction between them. In particular Stella and Stanley’s relationship is seen alot. At first glance it seems like Stella and Stanley are great together. Until Blanche arrives and starts to tear them apart. While Blanche is there Stanley attacks Stella hitting her for disrespecting him. Stella leaves but by the end of the scene she is back with Stanley in the bedroom. This shows us that they are able to talk things through and they might have a decent relationship. Stanley isn't actually mad at Stella he is taking out his anger from Blanche. The other relationship we see a lot throughout the play is the sister relationship between Blanche and Stella. From the beginning you see a lot of love between these two characters. In the first scene when Blanche and Stella meet for the first time in a long time, one can see that they really care about one another. Although Blanche is very hard to deal with Stella works through her problems because she cares …show more content…

The men in the play take a dominant role of the women and use them. This is evident in two different relationship Stanley to Stella, and Stanley to Blanche. Stanley repeatedly mistreats and hurts Stella. For example, in scene three it’s the first time we get to see Stanley mistreat Stella. Stella and Blanche come home to Stanley and his friends poker game. Stella upsets Stanley and he starts to yell and scream at her until he finally takes her outside and starts to hit her. Stanley does this because he wants to show his power over his wife. When ever she begins to question his power he acts out by hitting her or smashing things to show her the power he has over

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Examining Marriage in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee William’s 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in Elysian Fields, New Orleans, and portrays the marital situation of this time. This play illustrates conflict over the marriage of Stella and Stanley. This marriage can be seen as strict, and controlling but also full of lust.

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It is evident from my scene that Stella and Stanley still fight because in the stage directions for Stella while she’s talking about her life at home it says, “She brings her right elbow up to her chest and tenderly rubs it.” Suffice to say, the physical abuse from Stanley wouldn’t stop just because Blanche is gone, as it has been happening since their marriage. Her biggest conflict with Stanley would be whether or not sending Blanche to the mental hospital would actually help. While Stanley advocates it because he won the power struggle for Stella’s devotion at the end of scene 11, as said previously, Stella reluctantly let the Doctor take Blanche. So it might seem like Stella would leave Stanley at this point in the play, however, when she visits Blanche she decides to lean toward the fantasy side of life too.

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Another major part is when Blanche is saying how mean and rude Stanley is after the part when Stanley hugs Stella he can be seen smiling at Blanche because he knows he controls her. Stanley also hate being told what to do in his own house because he want to control his home like its his castle, “Every Man is a King!" And I am the king around here, so don't forget it!” (Williams 116). Stanley also thing that woman can’t control the household.

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Through these lines it shows how Stanley is not able to control his anger issues and acts violently towards his own wife. He again feels challenged by the fact that a woman is trying to stand up for herself against him, making him feel emasculated. In order for him to feel like a man and get his anger out, he hits her. After he hit he went back to her trying to be apologetic, and Stella accepted him back because she believes that they are in love. This proves how because Stanley is a man he is able to get away with things since he proved his dominance in their marriage, making Stella believe that this situation is justifiable.

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He desires a normal life with Stella, without Blanche in the picture. As told in A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, “After exposing all of Blanches shameful secrets and destroying her plans to marry Mitch, Stanley completes her violation and subjugation by raping her, which drives her to insanity” (A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Silvio). Stanley desires a normal life without Blanche so bad, that he completely broke her to get it. Stanley also wants to be desired.

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In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the main characters, Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski, share a great dislike and distrust towards one another, ultimately becoming the basis for the story’s conflict. Their common contemption stems from their contrasting personalities and backgrounds, their incompatibility of being able to function under the same environment, and inability to adapt to the situations they find themselves in. Although Blanche detests Stanley and the manner in which he behaves in, she realises that he is a necessary part for Stella’s life in New Orleans, an environment that greatly differs from the southern aristocracy that Stella and Blanche once lived in. Blanche expresses this idea by stating, “Oh,

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In Blanche and Stanley’s initial interactions, there was an air of sexual tension. This tension dissipates completely as the play progresses, and their relationship turns into a resentful and hateful one. Throughout the play, Stanley has several violent outbursts towards Stella that worry Blanche. This allows Stanley to assert dominance over both women. At the end of the play, Stanley releases his pent up anger and frustration toward Blanche through a sexual attack.

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She allows Stanley her overpower her but because of this she is hurt. At the beginning of the play Stanley’s yells ‘Meat’ to Stella and ‘heaves a package at her’ to which Stella ‘laughs breathlessly’ showing the audience how Stanley is the bread winner of their relationship and how Stella enjoys her role as the dependant wife. Stanley desires his ‘nights [they] had together’(. 90) with Stella and so he can be a complete alpha male who has a submissive wife and a child. However, Stanley’s lust for sexual pleasure and his high place in society leads Stella was being demand before him to repeatedly physically abuse Stella and only shows remorse because ‘his baby doll’ leaves him not because he regrets ‘beating on woman’(P. 43). The powerful force of Stanley means he is willing to tear the two sisters apart by buying Blanche ‘a ticket back to Laurel’(P.92).

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In A Streetcar Named Desire, there is an ongoing power struggle between Stanley and Blanche, which propels the narrative. Stanley has the power of masculine physicality and mentality whereas Blanche only has the power of her background, of which she feigns to be her class. As the battle between the two is predominantly over Stella, we begin to witness in scene 2, where Stanley openly accuses Blanche of hiding “legal papers connected with the plantation”. His aggressive nature, towards her, motivates the idea of his resentment towards her, as

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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.

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He is verbally and physically abusive towards his wife, Stella, in order to establish his power over her. He is described as giving a ‘loud whack of his hand on her thigh’ to which she merely retaliates ‘That’s not fun, Stanley.’ Whilst ‘the men laugh’.   This shows how abusive behaviour towards women is normalised and accepted within this patriarchal society as the men simply choose to ‘laugh’ along with Stanley.

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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).

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Stanley's rudeness is directed towards Blanche which he has had something against from the first time they met, he does not trust her nor does he want to which is why he is constantly rude to her and always trying to bring her down. Throughout the play there is an obvious tension between the two, Stanley feels that Blanche is getting in the way of his relationship with Stella which frustrates him tremendously. He decided to talk with a friend of his named Shaw who knew all about Blanche's past, and told him everything that he wanted to know. With the upper hand over Blanche, Stanley saw the perfect opportunity to finally get her out of his house and unfortunately it would all happen on Blanche's birthday. Stanley told Stella all about Blanche who was in shock and found it hard to believe that her sister could be so different than what she thought.

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Stanley thought money was going to fix the issue. Blanche still continued to get into Stellas head about him but she wasn’t trying to hear it. Blanches independency was what created space between her and Stella because of their opposite views on situations. And due to that fact, Stella saw Blanche as a judgemental

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