Drama of A Streetcar Named Desire is Tennessee Williams' Famous Play

He is a very dominating: he overpowers his timid wife, Stella, constantly, to keep her from leaving him. He is very proud of his American heritage, several times referencing to his being in the United States Army and is enraged when Blanche calls him "common," or a "Polack." He seems incapable of refinement, and does everything whole-heartedly: he claims to love Stella thoroughly and hates Blanche vehemently. Stanley is honest to the point of brutality, and he does not care about offending others. Further, He even brags to Mitch about raping Blanche. He despises Blanche because they are opposites. His hatred of Blanche is so great that he rapes her, causing her final mental breakdown.

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.

Comparing the play versus, the movie versions of A Streetcar Named Desire has been entertaining and enlightening. Originally written as a play, Tennessee Williams later adapted it into a screenplay for the film version. Consequently, both versions were extremely popular in their own right. Drama and social taboos create an emotionally charged viewing adventure. Williams characters are complex, exciting and just crazy enough to keep the audience spellbound. The DuBois sisters are complete opposites sharing only their love for each other as common ground. Blanche, the older sister, shows up for an impromptu visit with her sister Stella Kowalski. Stella and her husband Stanley live in New Orleans, in the French Quarter. Blanche has become destitute and has lost the family plantation. Stanley, incensed by the idea that Blanche has taken the plantation from him, sets out to destroy her by any and all means. The characters and performers provide a riveting and consequently soulful performance that is hauntingly unforgettable. Williams writing moves the audience to tears with dynamic characters, conflict and catastrophe of unimaginable depth.

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”.

Stella's marriage to Stanley, on the other hand, seems to have given her the happiness and fulfillment, which Blanche has attempted to find in a guilt-ridden life of loneliness with promiscuity. As a result Blanche has become neurotic and alcoholic, slipping increasingly into insanity. Stella, meanwhile, appears to have been thriving in a profane, coarse, but wholly satisfying sexual relationship with Stanley. Thus, superficially, the main contrast between Stella and Blanche seems to be one between sickness and health, perversity and normality, particularly in the sexual relationship. Stella is thriving; Blanche is disintegrating. But a closer examination of these sisters begins to show more complex differences in their characters and situations. Blanche is disintegrating for reasons other than sexual perversity, and Stella is paying a rather steep price for her so-called "normal" life with Stanley.

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

Stanley overhears these comments as they are ‘unaware of his presence’ (S4:pg.164*; and wants to dispose of Blanche to protect his marriage as Blanche has a hysterical determination to urge Stella to leave Stanley. Stanley refuses to accept Blanches’ conduct as she had no right to intervene and arbitrate as a guest in Stanley’s home supporting the idea that Stanley was preparing her downfall all along.

Desire is prominent in Stella and Stanley’s relationship; Stella is drawn to Stanley because he has a strong male sexuality and he is drawn to her because of her traditional feminine sexuality. Stanley abuses Stella, and when Blanche finds out she is perplexed. Stella explains that, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant.”(1.4). Stella and Stanley stay together because they use sex to smooth out their disputes. Stanley views sex as an important aspect in marriage (Panda ). He views women as sexual objects; Williams gives an insight on Stanley, he says, “[Stanley] sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing through his mind”(1.1). Stanley ends up raping Blanche at the end of the play; thus causing Blanche to lose her sanity. Although Blanche’s husband is only mentioned a few times in the play, the audience is able to see that his own sexual desire leads to his

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 abandons Blanche in her time of need, partly responsible for Blanche’s struggles prior to the plays events. Struggles that played a role in Blanche's overall instabilities and insecurities. But why is Stanley the one that's ultimately responsible? Aside from verbally and physically abusing Blanche, He isolates Blanche from the people she loves, the only people she has left. He was the one who convinced Mitch to abandon Blanche by telling him about her past. “You're goddamn right I told him! I'd have that on my conscience the rest of my life if I knew all that stuff and let my best friend get caught!”(Williams,126) He is the one that silences Stella. He is aware of his power over Stella. He is the reason why Stella abandons Blanche. He manipulates Stella into forgiving him even when he abuses her. He makes sure she is dependent of him so she never leaves while also subtly attempting to persuade her into taking his side instead of Blanches. “Stella, it's gonna be all right after she goes and after you've had the baby. It's gonna be all right again between you and me the way that it was. You remember that way that it was?”.

     Furthermore, Blanche claims to have an old friendship with a man who is now a millionaire, a certain Mr. Shep Huntleigh. She believes that if she needs help at any m point in time, especially monetary aid, “darling Shep” will be there to cable in some money. Shep Huntleigh represents Blanche’s idea of the perfect man, a rich, debonair, suave gentleman. She sees Stanley as everything but that perfect man, cruel to her sister and even crueler to herself. Blanche constantly claims she is going to go off and see Shep, and after Mitch reveals his knowledge of the truth about her, she claims she is going to spend a month or so abroad. “I received a telegram from an old admirer of mine,” she claims, “A cruise of the Caribbean on a yacht!” However, Stanley crushes her spirit almost immediately, tearing her fanciful dreams apart into ragged threads. “There isn’t a goddam thing but imagination!” he screams. It is Stanley who refuses to let Blanche live in a dream world.

Tennessee Williams was an American writer known for short stories and poems in the mid 1950’s. His more famous writing was A Streetcar Named Desire. His writings influenced many other writers such as August Strindberg and Hart Crane. His writings A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie was adopted to films and A Streetcar Named Desire earned him his first Pulitzer prize. In A Streetcar Named Desire there is many elements that build the plot and story line. The story is about a girl who is drove crazy by his sister’s husband and eventually sent to the mental hospital. The main plot is towards the end of the story when Blanche Dubois is blackmailed by her sister’s husband and raped by him. Everything takes its toll on her until she begins drinking heavily and is thought to have gone crazy and placed in a mental hospital. In this story, many things play affect in the contrast of the writing such as Blanche arriving at her sister’s house, seeing her sister’s husbands attitude, the poker game, Blanche getting raped. These events make Blanche an easy victim. In Tennessee Williams, a street car named desire, the start of kindness turns to tragedy and pain.

Like many people in the world, the characters in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are troubled by anxiety and insecurities. Life in New Orleans during the 1940s was characterized by the incredible variety of music, lively and bright atmosphere, and diverse population, while in the midst of the ongoing World War II. Culture was rich and fruitful because the city developed into a “melting pot” of people from all over the world. Due to the wide-range in population, the people of New Orleans adopted an identity like no other. Instead of their identity being entirely pieced together, almost like a puzzle, the people took on one that was shared by the entire community. However, with this being said, people had the ability to use this to their advantage and mask their true selves. This idea translates well into the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and is exhibited through the character Blanche. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of vanity to reveal the importance of appearance, and the insecurities of Blanche and how they influence her actions.