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Blanche Vs Stanley

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In Streetcar Named Desire, I viewed Blanche as the protagonist and Stanley as the antagonist. Williams described Blanche as “a demonic creature; the size of her feeling was too great for her to contain” (1113). Blanche is the protagonist in the play and I think this because she is the main character throughout the play. She is trying to get her life straightened out after a couple of things going wrong lately in her life. She is hoping to be able to live with her sister and brother-in-law for a little while until she can get back onto her feet. I saw in the play how she was hurt by everyone around her, but mainly Stanley. The play is focusing on her dream to marry and be taken care of. But she did not want to be taken care of by Stella and …show more content…

Blanche tries in scene ten to stand up to him, yet she unfortunately fails to do that. She becomes weak and he takes advantage of her. She states in scene ten, “Help Me! Caught in a trap” (1170). She is unable to get away from his presence and ends up having to give in to his desire. Throughout the play I felt that Stanley was always up to something. He was a violent character in the play and was an enemy to Blanche who was the protagonist. In the play Stanley may sound like he is big and strong, he is actually on the defensive. He would not have felt like he had to deal with Blanche if she would not have come live with him and Stella. He resented Blanche because of her actions of trying to turn Stella against Stanley. An example of Stanley being the antagonist is when he hits Stella and when he rapes Blanche is another example. I think that Stanley wants to see Blanche break and see her fail. In the play Stanley treats Blanche with disrespect and brings her down whenever he gets the chance. The rising hatred between the two characters happens in scene ten, when Stanley expresses his rage by raping Blanche, saying, “We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning” (Levine 1171). Blanche does not help the situation between herself and Stanley because she chooses to continue to aggravate him. I think Stanley raped Blanche because he wanted to force her out of his home. She calls him

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