Streetcar To Desire Character Analysis

Stanley started spreading rumors all around telling people to stay away from blanche and how she sleeps with everyone. Then it got to the point where everyone though that blanche was crazy so stanley decided to rape her,she even tried to tell her sister stella but she wouldn't believe her,in the end she was sent to a mental hospital by stanley and stella. The reason why i

After he finds out the truth about Blanche and who she really is, and why she is there in Scene 7, he begins to talk to Stella about how he told Mitch the truth about her. He rudely says he couldn’t let his best friend marry someone like that, but Stella says she was hoping they would have married each other. Stanley ruins the chances in between Blanche and Mitch, when Blanche is just like that because of what happened in her past and she’s still damaged. Another point is when he says he buys Blanche tickets to leave on Tuesday, Stanley says “She’s not staying here after Tuesday. I bought her a ticket myself.

Stella predicts conflict to arise between Blanche and Stanley based on their differences. She foreshadows this when she tells her husband, (Stella: “You didn’t know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change”(68). It is indeed Stanley’s abuse that forces Blanche to continue her path of change – to retreat further from the reality, which clearly destroys

Then, “Stanley jumps up and, crossing to the radio, turns it off. He stops short at the sight of Blanche in the chair. She returns his look without flinching.” (Williams 50). Blanche’s unfrightened stare at Stanley shows her prowess and indifference to the machismo Stanley so strongly tries to exhibit.

Blanche constantly flirts with many men and young adults throughout the play. This makes the reader feel a lack of sympathy for her as the men she desires end up becoming a major contribution to her eventful breakdown, in particular Stanley. The reader may view Blanche as someone who tries to escape her dirty past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister. However, due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, she was unable to do so. He constantly does not allow Blanche to move on. Stanley reveals Blanche's’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her, ‘same old act, same old hooey!’(121) This tells the readers that his research of Blanche's past is his way of stopping her from finding a new life. She attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch. Stanley gets involved and reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her anymore. Stanley also reveals her secrets about encounters with various other men. Stanley says, “You’re goddam 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!” (126). He is constantly trying to stop Blanche from starting a new life. Another thing that Stanley does leading to her demise is that he constantly thinks he needs to take control of Blanche. He uses his aggressiveness against Blanche that

Stanley is the epitome of machismo, interested in only the basic pleasures, which are parallel to what a simple animal enjoys. Stella, Stanley’s wife, is the mediator between Blanche and Stanley, though she ultimately fails in preventing these two from verbal or, later, physical violence. Essentially, Blanche instigates the “fight” by entering the apartment and trying to usurp Stanley’s reign, which is partly comprised of Stella’s love and attention. Without even seeing Stanley, Stella immediately sizes him up and subscribes to the idea that the Polish are“ not so-high-brow” (23). There is a dialogue between Stanley and Stella about Stanley, stating:

Blanche's melodramatic mental breakdown needs to dominate the play, as it is the driving force behind the narrative of 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. Without her psychological demise, characterisation, relationships, and even plot would not be allowed to develop within the unities of action and place. Therefore, her breakdown does not impede characterisation or narrative, but instead drives it within the play. It can be argued that Blanche's breakdown allows for characterisation, rather than preventing it. For example, it can be said that Stella would have taken Blanche's side against Stanley if Blanche was not descending into madness.

When Stanley shoots down her fantasy and points out that it is all a made-up lie, Blanche's desire for power is crushed. This further leads to Blanche’s collapse in the kitchen and the rape scene where she becomes an inert, helpless figure. Blanche being raped is a major turning point that relates to the theme because it clearly gets

"If one abuses or neglects internal powers, external forces will act accordingly." (T.F. Hodge). As delusions become reality, individuals give up on trying to settle their visions with practicality and surrender entirely to an absurd fantasy world. When those individuals lack acceptance of their true selves, their internal negative thoughts generate the negative behaviours they receive in return. Although Blanche's emotional fragility makes her more vulnerable to the external forces in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, these are the same forces that further decline her mental state and ultimately lead to her demise.

This play becomes more interesting as we read through scene 7. It starts in a mid-September late afternoon as Stella is decorating for Blanche’s birthday. Blanche is bathing as usual when Stanley comes home with some new-finds about her through his reliable sources. He tells Stella,” Things I already suspected. But now I got proof from the most reliable sources-which I have checked on” (Williams 98). He tells her that Blanche is quite famous in her town, as famous as the President of United States, but not famous in good sense. She was staying at a hotel called the Flamingo, which doesn't sound like a high class place, and had relationships with men. Stanley also tells Stella that Blanche has been banned from the hotel, as well as the town.

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”.

Stanley and Blanche begin their relationship at odds with each other because each despises each other’s worlds, which puts Stella in the middle to bridge the gap of elite their upbringing with the gritty nature present in Stanley’s world, for which Mitch is also a part

Similar to Stanley, Blanche also faces a power struggle. Her ultimate downfall is a result of Stanley’s cruelty and lack of understanding for human fragility. Comments about Stanley’s ‘animal habits’ and ‘sub-human’ nature act as the agent of Blanche’s downfall. Stanley cannot deal with her mocking him in his own home and is fed up with her lies. During the final scenes his

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.

Stanley raped Blanche while they were there by themselves at home. According to John S. Bak, “The answer, I believe, lies more in Blanche than it does in Stanley, and more in William’s esoteric understanding of the word “rape” than in his audience’s collectivist definition of it.” Bak accused Blanche of Stanley’s actions. The actions of Blanche and Stanley was leading up to this terrifying moment. “The preceding scenes foreshadow this moment in Blanche’s invitations to sexual violence and in Stanley’s brutal actions, gestures, words, and tone” (Tischler). Blanche is already going through things from her husband dying things to being taken away from her. “Stanley does destroy Blanche in many ways when he rapes her, but Streetcar’s controversial rape scene is more the thematic confluence of Blanche’s inability to sequester her own sexual attraction toward Stanley than it is the dramatic climax of their visceral attraction” (Bak). Blanche told her sister, Stella, that her husband, Stanley, had raped her. Stella believe her sister in this case. “At the end of the stage version of A Streetcar Named Desire, after Blanche is removed to a mental hospital for telling the truth, that Stanley has assaulted her sexually, Stella goes on living with Stanley. Stella chooses not to let belief take hold of her. She allows herself to live as if the truth were lie and a lie, the truth” (Heims). A