A Streetcar Named Desire And Richard Wright's Victims Of Oppression

The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not

Although Stanley’s power works mainly to downgrade Blanche, his violent and aggressive nature also disempowers Stella. She is abused during poker night, a moment of masculine bonding. Following the poker night she is made powerful when she retreats to Eunice’s Flat. However, she returns to disempowerment when she leaves Eunice’s flat and Stanley ‘bears her into the dark flat’. Stella’s decision to stay with Stanley is not based on choice, but rather on the fact that she must. This enforces the dominant belief that women are unable to support themselves, emotionally and financially.

It was not just her self that put her in the lime light of being a victim; it is also her new change of environment and people. Stanley is Stella's husband; he is described to be very masculine and aware of his sexual magnetism. “Strongly, compactly built”. He is mostly at ease with people however, if they lack loyalty and affection to him, he will bully them. Especially women, as he believes them just to be easy conflict. It is seen in scene 3 that Stanley has little respect for women. “I said to hush up!” This is addressed to his wife who is seen emotionless and impassive in this play. As for Blanche how is fussy and at edge, she would be very effected by the crude attitude that Stanley presents and so tries to hysterical take Stella away from her husband. Stanley does not forget of this act of interference and makes him all the more determined to be rid of Stella’s “charity case”. The real reason for Stanley’s bulling is that Blanche immediately received all Stella’s attention. “How about my supper huh? I’m not going to no Galatorires’ for supper” This made Stella dominant in power over Stanley and Blanche, something Stanley was not used to. “I put you a cold plate on ice”.

She tries to hold on to him but is unable to keep him attracted. Blanche is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her out own fantasies. She has no concern for anyone’s well being, including her own. Thus, this is her utter most harmful demise. She has no realistic outlook for the future.

Although there is nothing wrong with Stella offering her sister a help and let Blanche stays in her place, but the biggest missing component, in this case, is the cause a huge embarrassment, that is Stanley. Stanley is Stella’s husband, they live together with peace and entertainment so far; nevertheless, the involvement of a third person would interrupt or even shatter the situation, and this person is Blanche. Stanley represents the new rising Americans, and we can envision him as urban-hunkey. His lifestyle is full of manhood; he goes to bowling, loves poker party, and we gain the picture of him as an aggressive, dominant and very sexual person. To satisfy Stanley is quite simple, first, his sexual desire would override his other senses, which means his sexual relationship with his wife is extremely important to him; second, Stanley enjoys maintaining stereotypical gender roles in his home and being respect as the head of the household. After Blanche’s visit, both of his old habits are being disturbed because Blanche takes herself as someone who’s more superior which goes against his gender role and she sleeps right across them with only a thin layer of the barrier which also stops his lovely night party with his wife. These reasons caused Stanley being so unsympathetic to the way Stella treats Blanche, which furthermore

Finally, Stanley rapes Blanche because “he has tried and tried to keep her down to his level” (Kagan 26) but she cannot go there.  The rape is his way of getting her there.  In the powerful scene where Stanley loses total control of his actions and strikes the person whom he has sworn to protect, love and cherish, William's shows Stanley's lack of control and hatred of the new threat in his life, Blanche.  What makes this scene so important to the topic is the way that the three characters react once the party has broken up.  Blanche is in her usual state of panic; Stella has retreated upstairs, while Stanley stumbles around calling out 'Steeelllaaa' in a drunken sweaty animal-like manner.  Surprisingly Stella answers her mate's calls and embraces him, the two of them exchanging words of compassion and kisses.  Stanley then picks up Stella and carries her off to his den to make love, which is Stanley's way of apologizing.  Stanley has to be the dominant male figure in all his relationships, not only with Stella and Blanche, but with his friends as well.  He is a leader and instantly rises to the challenge whenever his status is threatened.

Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.

Stella, too, is a major character who lives in a world of hopes and fantasies. Stella’s tears over her sister as Blanche was taken away at the end of play reveals that Stella’s fantasies have been crushed by Stanley’s brutality. Stella calls her sister, “Blanche! Blanche! Blanche!”(142) , as if she does not want to let go of her sister. In spite of the fact that Stanley tried to justify and to relief her, Stella knows that something acquitted and abandoned had banished. She knows that her happy and humble world and her sister’s hopes had gone. Through her fantasy world, she thinks she could keep her sister for ever, but fantasy does not always work and makes life appear as it should be rather than what reality is. Also, Blanche imagines the doctor as a gentleman who is going to rescue her from a life that she imagines it as a life that does not want to accept her. Blanche finishes the play by saying, “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (142). Blanche’s irony is demonstrated for two reasons. First of all, the doctor is not a gentleman; he came to take her to a mental health care. Second of all, strangers are not kind to her; they are kind only for trade of sex. Instead, they feel sympathy for her for creating a world where she is the victim. Blanche never perceives stranger’s kindness as something that people take advantage of. Instead, she thinks that Stanley is the one who does not treat her well, although he wanted

Ever since Blanches husband has died she has tried using other men to make her desires be fulfilled. When discovering Stanley she tries to get him to be interested in her. Stanley had Blanche tricked into thinking he actually loved her so one night he showed her. Unfortunately, Blanche is raped by Stanley. “I always did say that men are callous things with no feelings, but this does beat anything. Making pigs of ourselves...” (Williams 164). Stanley took advantage of her because he figured what would one more matter. Ever since her husband died she has been with many men so it came to a shock when Stanley did that to her. After being raped, Blanche is now unable to deal with herself even more than she was before. “William’s play by introducing symbolic characters, including Blanche’s young husband Allan Grey, and by using flashbacks. Virginia Johnson was Blanche; Lowell Smith was Stanley;...” (Kolin 162). With everything Blanche has gone through with her widowed husband, it would become more obvious to secure her life. Even though Blanche is feeling hopeless when it comes to men, she gave herself up too easily. Stanley came into Blanche’s life and had her wrapped around his finger. When Blanche began to trust him and open up that is when all bad broke loose. Stanley took advantage of Blanche and now left her feeling more hopeless than she was

The end of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is filled with turmoil, as Blanche is being taken away by a doctor while Stanley and his friends are playing poker. The main cause of this chaos is due to the fact that Stanley raped Blanche in the scene before, however Stella chooses not to believe her sister. Stella states, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 165), showing that Stella made her choice between her sister and her husband, a long anticipated moment since the beginning of the play. It was always known that Stella would choose Stanley, and always will choose him, because he is the man she loves and the one she chose to marry. However, despite the fact that this was seemingly the right choice to make, especially since Stella

For her to “have [her] existence admitted by someone”, she engages in various trysts; according to her, “men don’t—don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you”. The commodification of sex aligns with Stanley’s values. He weaponises it, using it to violate Blanche at the end of the play to expunge her from his household. Although it would be morally egregious to suggest as such, Blanche’s submission to this tenet has inevitably set her up for such a tragic end. It emboldened Stanley, who posits that “[they’ve] had this date right from the start”, given Blanche’s endorsement of such an

The relationship between Stella and Stanley begins to change when Blanche arrives to see her sister, Stella. In Act…, it is evident Stanley takes interest in what Blanche wears and the way she behaves taking long baths and her unwillingness to discuss the sale of Belle Reve. Unwilling to listen to Stella when she tries to explain to him how delicate of a topic he sale of the plantation and her sister’s well-being is

The first encounter we see between Blanche and Stella was not good at all. Blanche starts criticizing the conditions in which Stella lives. Blanche wants the best for her sister and she does not want that her sister to suffer the way she did. Until this moment Stanley has not sympathized with Blanche, also he hates her because she wants to change the way they lived. Blanche in her confusion, flirts with Stanley many times during her visit to Stella’s house. Stanley does not return any feeling of love towards Blanche, instead he rapes her.

Throughout Blanche's stay at his house, he feels that she has drunk his liquor, eaten his food, used his house, but still has belittled him and has opposed him. Thus, he must sit idly while watching his marriage and home being torn apart. Stanley’s retaliation is slow but calculated, beginning to compile information about Blanche's past life he must present her past life to his wife so that she can determine who is the superior person. He feels that having proved how degenerate Blanche actually is, he is now justified

Blanche provokes many of Stanley’s atrocious behaviors, but that does not dismiss or reduce the severity of his actions. All the lies Blanche tells in the beginning of the play end up catching up to her by the end, and ultimately leads to her downfall. The fibs she tells ruins her relationship with not only her sister, Stella, but she destroys the relationship with the only genuinely good guy she’s ever been with, Mitch. Stanley’s deplorable actions have the same effect on the lives of these characters. Stanley exposes Blanche’s lies to Mitch, forcing an end to their courtship, and by raping Blanche he puts an end to her relationship with Stella. Blanche informs Stella on the encounter she has with Stanley, but all the fabrications that she makes prior prompts Stella to dismiss Blanche’s accusations, therefore ending their bond. Blanche and Stanley’s inexcusable actions have the same devastating effects to the lives of the characters that love them most persuading one to believe that the barbaric acts they commit are of the same