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Stanley Kowalski - Stella's domineering and possessive husband and Blanche's brother-in-law. Of Polish origin, he represents all that is virile, masculine, common, and boisterous in life. Vengeful in nature, he becomes Blanche's nemesis, spoils her chance of a possibly happy marriage with his best friend, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), and rapes her himself. Stanley, a domineering man with common ways, is set against Blanche and is ultimately responsible for her descent into insanity and placement in the state institution. sophomore THEMES Major People are products of their past as evidenced by Blanche being destroyed by the events in her life. Her young husband has an affair with an older gentleman. Because of her aristocratic past, Blanche is totally disgusted with his behavior, and when she tells him so, he commits suicide, leaving her with feelings of loneliness and guilt. To alleviate the pain of the past, she slips from one sexual affair to the next and begins to drink heavily. This behavior causes her to lose her teaching job, her place in Laurel society, and her self- respect. With no other place to turn, she seeks refuge with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley. When they find out the truth of her past, they reject her too, and she slips into insanity. Minor Fate is cruel, and human desire often leads to death (both literal and figurative). (Remember that the Streetcar named Desire leads to the Streetcar named Cemetery, and Blanche rides both of them.) Everything that Blanche wants from life seems to crumble in front of her. She loved her young husband and loses him, first to an older man and then to suicide. She fights to save her Old Southern roots and the family mansion, but loses them both. She fights to regain her self-respect and for a future with Mitch, and Stanley destroys her chances for either. She fights to hold on to her sanity amidst mounting disasters, but loses that battle as well. At the end of the play, hers is not a literal death; but as she is taken off to the mental institution, the true Blanche is dead. On a symbolic level, Blanche represents the Old South and Stanley represents the new industrialized age. Tennessee Williams states, through this symbolic use of characters, that the genteel ways of the Old South have been forever destroyed by the coarseness and brutality of the modern age. The mood of the entire play is dark and somber, a reflection of the decadence and loss described in the play. Blanche has lost her young husband, her family mansion, her job, her self-respect, her new boyfriend Mitch, her trust in and by her family, and finally her sanity. Stanley Kowalski Stanley Kowalski, the 'foreign' husband of Blanche's sister Stella, is of Polish origin. He is the perfect stereotype of a blue-collar worker and member of the lower class of society. By nature, he is coarse, vulgar, rude, foul-mouthed, and violent. He prides himself on his virility and exudes sexual energy. Very much a man's man, Stanley passes his time in bowling, poker, sex, and drinking. His life's principles are to possess and control everything around him, including his car, his liquor, his apartment, and especially the women in his life. He is supremely overconfident and can never stand to lose, whether it is an argument, a game, or his superiority. With Blanche, he asserts his superiority by overcoming her physically, since he is no match for her in other ways. As a husband, Stanley is totally chauvinistic. He has molded Stella to his satisfaction, and she is like a puppet on a string for him. When she wishes to go out for dinner and a movie with her sister, his immediate concern is whether she has prepared something for him to eat. He makes it clear that he is the lord and master around the house and in the marriage and that he will tolerate no arguments. There can be only one law operating, and that is, his word. When his word is questioned, he turns vulgar and violent, as evidenced in the times he hits Stella. Stanley is very vengeful by nature. He immediately sees his sister- in-law as a threat to his marriage. When Stella begins to assert herself in her sister's presence, Stanley blames Blanche for the change in his wife. He eavesdrops on a conversation between the sisters and hears Blanche call him 'bestial', 'sub-human', and 'brute'. He cannot stand it that he does not control his sister-in-law, and he cannot pardon Blanche for staying under his roof and instigating his wife to leave him. He vows revenge and plots her downfall. He conducts private inquiries about Blanche's past, and when he learns that she has led a sordid, immoral life, he knows he can be victorious. He buys her a one-way bus ticket back to Laurel and gives it to her as a birthday present. He reveals everything to Mitch, his closest friend, and feels he has done him a grand favor by preventing him from marrying a tramp. In reality, he has destroyed Blanche's hope for the future. His nature is so different from Blanche's that he cannot understand her delicate and sensitive temperament. He judges the world in harsh strokes of black and white and, therefore, fails to realize that Blanche can be mentally chaste and physically permissive. When he discovers her immorality, he feels he is entitled to some repayment for the liquor she has drunk and the food she has eaten. While his wife is in labor at the hospital, he attacks and brutally rapes Blanche. He overcomes her in the only way he knows how -- by sex and violence. When Blanche tells Stella about the rape, she does not believe it and uses it as a sign that her sister has slipped into insanity. As a result, Stella arranges to send Blanche to the state institution. Now Stanley's revenge is complete, and he has proved his mastery over his wife and his home. she challenges her husband more openly and says, "This is my house and I'll talk as much as I want to!" When Stanley is about to strike Stella after the poker game in the third scene, she even threatens him, "You lay your hands on me and I'll ....". Stanley cannot believe this back talk and knows it comes as a result of Blanche.
Approximate Word count = 4217
Approximate Pages = 16.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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