The most important theme here in that play is Anger and Violence, which clearly appeared throughout the whole play. An anger as an action is obviously appeared in the first scene when Stanley hits and throws a package of meat at Stella in the kitchen to cook, instead of handing it to her gently like men. This is an obvious violent exchange, in which it seems like their ordinary type of daily communication. Stanley also slaps Stella. When he slaps her that is attitude not to hurt her, but to show a kind of affection, Stella does not like the way he treats her, but she never stops him. Their communication is too violent through hitting, slapping, and throwing what a violent relationship they share! (Ehrenhaft 56). Concerning themes, …show more content…
Stella, Baby!" Stanley calls for his wife. In this kind of marriage in the play, we definitely see traditional gender roles of a dominant husband who brings home the money and he is on that responsible for paying all the bills, in contrast to the wife that is responsible for making dinner, cleaning up, and raising her children (Kolin 145). "Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher's"(I. 41). Williams uses sixteen characters in his play, nine of them are males and the other seven are female. The protagonist is female called Blanche, she is Stella's older sister, and she is a loquacious and fragile woman around the age of thirty. She was a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi. Stella is Blanche's younger sister, about twenty five years old and of an acted moderately and she is difference, which makes her apart from her more vulgar neighbors. She is married to lower-class Stanley. Stanley Kowalski is the husband of Stella; he is around thirty years of age. Harold "Mitch" Mitchell, he is one of Stanley's friends, and poker companion. He is like Stanley, is around thirty years of age. He lives with his mother, who is very sick and slowly dying. Eunice is Stella's friend, upstairs
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”.
Stella, baby!’. This short sentence already shows how Stanley is possessive of Stella and how he treats her as his property. By him calling her ‘baby’, he is lowering her status and is talking down to her. This is the first example in the play of Stanley treating Stella as unequal and proving how he is very caveman-like.
This male domination is emphasised with the use of the different games at key moments in the play, all involving the men and intentionally excluding the women. In the first scene the men go bowling, while the women run behind and watch, this establishes the role of each sex in the society in which they live. When Blanche asks to join in and “kibitz” in the first game of poker, she is told by Stanley, in no uncertain terms, that “[She] could not”. The game of poker also acts as a metaphor, in the first game, when Blanche has just arrived and is beginning to threaten Stanley and Stella’s marriage, Stanley is losing the game. Stella begins to
Much like Mitch, Stella does nothing to address Stanley’s overemphasized masculinity. Stella has convinced herself that she enjoys her role as Stanley’s sexual object, which allows him to continue his problematic behavior. She is there for his gratification and her well-being is irrelevant. To be fair, during this time period Stella did not have many options for herself if she were to leave Stanley, but her complacency speaks volumes. Stella is the example of what happens when no one challenges a patriarchal society. She is complacent and therefore in part responsible for her own downfall as well as Blanche’s. Her failure to acknowledge the assault Stanley carried out on her sister is almost just as bad as the assault itself. The reader is left to assume that because she has refused to stand up to Stanley for herself or for her sister, her son will grow up to be like his father, creating another generation of Kowalski men who believe that being a man means being brutal and oversexualized. Stella is undeniably in a tough situation and her fear of ending up like her
Stanley is the antagonist, he is violent and an enemy to the Protagonist, Blanche. “He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!”(scene 4) He hits Stella, and rapes Blanche. “We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” (scene10). It is also found that Stanley also reveals “the survival of the fittest,” in
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
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
Williams uses a different type of savagery in Blanche's character. Blanche is more deceptive and exaggerated than Stanley, trying to hide the effects of her hard life from others through constant bathing, avoiding bright lights and by lying, and from herself, by drinking.
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.
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
Williams uses the relationship between Mitch and Blanche to create profound contrast to Stella and Stanley’s. Blanche does not have strong passionate feelings toward Mitch, and their communication seems to be very limited, and at times dull – discussing, in Scene 6, Mitch’s weight and his gym membership, how he perspires enough to put out a fire, and his lightweight alpaca jacket. The marriage of Stella and Stanley is
In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, Stella and Stanley Kowalski have a far from perfect marriage. In the Kowalski household ranking is set in stone; Stanley is the alpha and protects his ranking by emotionally and physically abusing Stella. Stanley is an aggressive husband but signs of a softer side peak through Stanley’s hard exterior creating two personalities. Stanley has destroyed the meaning of sex, using sex for physical satisfaction and creating a sense of desire for Stella. By using sex as a type of desire Stanley has created an animalistic need for sex. Stanley has contrived authority over Stella, creating a strained marriage. Out of panic, Stella has become Stanley’s enabler, returning to him regardless how hard the hit, Stella accepts the abuse. Stella has become so manipulated by Stanley that she believes that the abuse is a large part of marriage. Stella has grown so dependant on Stanley that Stella grows panicked by the thought of being without Stanley. The Kowalskis have become trapped in an endless cycle of domestic abuse. Stanley Kowalski’s control over Stella Kowalski creates an environment of fear.
Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, author Tennessee Williams does a wonderful job developing the character of Stanley Kowalski. To me, his character seemed most like that of a true person. On the other hand, Stella, Stanley's wife, is mainly displayed as being the loving type, and because that is basically the only character trait she displays, it is difficult to really understand her as a person. The character of Stanley Kowalski is developed much like a real person, having numerous personality traits.
In the first scene of the play Stanley calls Stella to the front door of their apartment and throws at her a package of raw meat for her to catch and keep in the icebox. Stanley and Stella share a very sexual relationship and Stanley is depicted as being a primitive man. This scene tells us what kind of relationship Stanley and Stella have: