How Is Stanley Presented In A Streetcar Named Desire

   A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicted characters. Set in the pivotal years immediately following World War II, Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love, then steps back as the power struggle between them ensues. Yet there are no clear cut lines of good vs. evil, no character is neither completely good nor bad, because the main characters, (especially Blanche), are so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. As such, the play has no clear victor, everyone loses something, and this fact is what gives the play its tragic cast. In a

Although I explored the literature from the prescribed text list for 2017 in depth, upon reading Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, I was captivated by his brutally honest depiction of the destructive effect of machismo within his society. Williams’ portrayal of the female experience during the 1940’s, especially the physical and emotional violation, was immediately shocking to me as a young, contemporary female. Concurrently, after reading the drama, my ambiguous response to Stanley’s character confused me. Although he had treated women so crudely, I found myself feeling sympathy for him. Samuel Tapp’s critical examination of the play in which he asserts that Stanley is “a victim of a masculine ideology that… dehumanises him,”

Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire portrays a dog-eat-dog world, in which the winner takes it all: a person not just watches out closely for his/her own interest but also preys on the weak. This portrayal is mostly embodied in the confrontation between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski, the two major characters in the play. The confrontation partly arises from difference in class, Blanche from high society while Stanley from low one. But most noteworthy is that the element that contributes the most to this confrontation is their desires for sex, money, revenge, and even survival of life. Over time, the tension between Blanche and Stanley grows to a climax and eventually goes down with Blanche, the weak, losing the battle while Stanley, the strong, standing out as the victor and taking away Blanche’s soul and body. Given this, in this dog-eat-dog showdown there exists ambiguous moments: Is the physical contact between Blanche and Stanley a rape, a date, or a rape-date? A look into this issue is in order.

Belle Reve has been lost. He does not care for Belle Reve as a bit of

Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is a story of people who try to live their lives despite their constant issues that interrupt their lives. Blanche DuBois is a repressed and sexually warped southern woman who seeks satisfaction and comfort. She wants someone to help lift the burden of the guilt she has from her twisted sexuality. Simultaneously, Stanley Kowalski, a terrifyingly abusive yet gentle “common man”, seems to be crying out for help in a post World War II world where all he has to offer is his rough love and sub-human like nature. The obvious troubled flaws in these two characters tend to hide the more troubled Stella Kowalski, the spectator who has to witness her husband ruin her sister’s life. Based on the reading

Stanley`s alcoholism and his attitude after the consumption of alcohol is shown frequently in the play. While, Blanche hides her alcoholic nature, Stanley does not hide his drinking. However when Stanley gets drunk, his masculinity becomes exaggerated. He increases the physical, violent, and brutal nature. For example, when Stanly and his male friend playing a poker, Stella called him “ Drunken nature”, he instantly raise anger towards his wife and hit and beat her even she is a pregnant. His alcoholism allows domestic violence. Although Stella sees Stanley`s domestic violence is harmful, Stella accepts the violence, and pretends like it is not a serious matter. In addition, she makes excuses that his drinking habitats. “When men are drinking

How is Stanley presented in scenes 1-5 of A Streetcar Named Desire? In Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Stanley Kovolski is depicted as a forceful and potentially violent character. One way Williams constructs this image is through the use of stage directions. Stanley “throws open the door of the kitchen” in “a rough humour”.

is. In scene 3, he “tosses” the radio out of the window. He wants to

The street name would make one think Stella lives in a wealthy area or a paradise when in reality she lives in a small apartment in a half decent area of New Orleans. This explains why Blanche was surprised when she arrived at Stella’s house, she thought she had the wrong address. The play opens with Stella and Stanley going to the bowling alley which portrays their easy-going attitudes. The opening also infers that Stella lives more in the moment compared to Blanche.

He is the man who likes to lay his cards on the table. He can understand no relationship between man and woman except a sexual one, where he sees the man's role as giving and taking pleasure from this relationship. He possesses no quality that would not be considered manly in the most basic sense. By more sensitive people, he is seen as common,

In the beginning of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche first arrives from Laurel Missouri and immediately becomes the antagonist. As the play goes on Stanley starts to go against Blanche. At the end of the play Blanche becomes the victim. In the end, Stanley sent Blanche off to a mental asylum. This plays demonstrates domestic violence. In the beginning of the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams shows how society accepted it and ignored it.Stanley, one of the characters in the play, found domestic violence to be a positive and very sexual part of him and his wife, Stella's, relationship. Throughout the play, Williams shows that he believes that it is wrong.

We see this proven during the encounter with Mitch, whom is Stanley’s friend from work in scene three page 60, “ I bought this… paper lantern… put it over the light bulb! Will you please?” “I cant stand a naked light bulb…” the lightbulb can resemble whom Blanche is on the inside and the lantern resembles her concealing the truth of whom she truly is. Another thing to mention within the quote is, “ … White clothes” the color white resembling purity, innocence and cleanliness yet this also gets put to question by Mitch in scene 9 page 150, “ you're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.” When Mitch tells Blanche this and that he refuses to marry her we see how Blanche’s chimerical world is beginning to be question and beginning to let her down.

Throughout history empowerment and marginalization has primarily been based on gender. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, this idea of empowerment is strongly flaunted. Tennessee Williams’ characters, primarily Stanley, Blanche, Mitch, and Stella, conform the expected roles of men and women at the time. Although World War Two temporarily allowed women a place in the work force, they were dismissed from such empowerment when the war came to a close. Characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are accurate representations of the social historical context of that time. The power struggle between Stanley and Blanche conveys dominant ideas about gender such as the primitive nature, aggression, and

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play of multifaceted themes and diverse characters with the main antagonists of the play, Blanche and Stanley infused by their polarized attitudes towards reality and society ‘structured on the basis of the oppositions past/present and paradise lost/present chaos’(*1). The effect of these conflicting views is the mental deterioration of Blanche’s cerebral health that, it has been said; Stanley an insensitive brute destroyed Blanche with cruel relish and is the architect of her tragic end. However, due to various events in the play this statement is open to question, for instance, the word ‘insensitive’ is debatable, ‘insensitive’ can be defined as not thinking of other people’s feelings but Stanley is aware of

Especially the American south was an epitome for patriarchal society (90). Women were meant to be inferior to men and had to fit into the “good girl” picture, otherwise they were close to shunned by society. The play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, depicts such a patriarchal society. The main conflict is between the protagonists Blanche DuBois and her brother in law Stanley Kowalski, which ends with Blanche being admitted into what seems to be a mental facility. I will argue that the patriarchy, which is especially represented by Stanley Kowalski, is the cause for the mental destruction of Blanche. In order to do so I will first elaborate what is actually meant by the term patriarchy. Then I will try to explain how Stanley Kowalski can be seen as an epitome for a patriarchal man and how he fits into the attributes attached to such. In the second chapter I will try to define the role a woman had in the patriarchal society of the 1950s and to whether Blanche DuBois fits into it or not. Last but not least I will attempt to connect the dots and show how Stanley, as the representation, and the patriarchy itself lead to Blanche’s mental