Stanley in a Streetcar Named Desire

Laura Robertson Ms. Albertson English IV Honors 17 January 2012 A Streetcar Named Desire: Stanley Kowalski In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, an insensitive and cruel character named Stanley Kowalski is depicted. His juxtaposition to Stella Kowalski, his mild mannered and sensitive wife, accentuates his character flaws making them even more prominent and dramatic throughout the play.
Through Stanley’s conflicts with Blanche DuBois and his rapist-like sexual advances, Stanley becomes the perfect villainous character, enabling the reader to sympathize with Stella and Blanche. With the violent scenes and the highly sexual content, Stanley is the center of all climactic events in A Streetcar Named Desire. Stanley’s aggressive nature even goes so far as domestic violence, where he savagely beats Stella and verbally abuses her on a regular basis. This is evident in many scenes. Just the presence of Stanley is enough to create fear and uneasiness for the people that surround him.
Throughout the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts Stanley Kowalski as a villain-like character with a mean streak and vicious personality which creates an uneasy environment due to his pugnacious lifestyle and insensitive demeanor. “The stage directions say that sex is the center of Stanley’s life. Being sexually attractive assures Stanley’s delusional rapist mind that his sexual advances are being welcomed” (Nagel 10). Stanley’s delusional mind makes him believe that his sexual brutality is respected and is a naturally accepted thing.

Throughout the play, Stanley’s character is followed by sexual connotations and innuendos. A very vivid illustration of this starts at the very beginning of the play where “The vigorous physicality and the echo of his primitive nature, combined with the coarse sexual innuendo of his package of meat suggest passion close to the surface and introduce the audience to Stanley’s inner character” (Nagel 10). The bringing of the package of meat to Stella and how Stanley carelessly throws the heavy package to her even though she insists on not being able to catch it shows the brutal nature of his sexuality.
The way the package is described as dripping with blood is used to over accentuate the graphic nature of the ordeal, foreshadowing sexual happenings that will occur later in the play. Another example of the graphic nature of Stanley’s sexual brutality is portrayed in the poker game in scene three. After Stella had fled to Eunice’s house and Stanley sorrowfully called to her the play states that Stella came down to him and they made animal noises together. This shows the animalistic behavior of Stanley and the unhealthy relationship between Stella and Stanley. Stanley is described as highly sexed in the play and when Stanley and Stella are together, they create a bond that Blanche can’t ever break” (Nagel 10). Though try as she might, Blanche’s attempts to keep Stella from Stanley are ultimately thwarted due to Stanley and Stella’s unhealthy bond with one another. In addition to Stanley’s savage and animalistic sexual advances his verbal abuse towards both Stella and Blanche even further assert him as a villainous character from the start to the finish of the play. Stanley is especially cruel to Blanche who he had an antagonistic feeling towards from the moment he met her.
One of the first illustrations of Stanley’s harsh words is represented with his first argument with Blanche. “This first confrontation is over the loss of Belle Reve. Stanley’s composure vanishes and his vision becomes so distorted that he mistakes her cheap jewelry as ropes of pearls” (Nagel 10). When this confrontation occurs and Stanley’s composure becomes compromised when he realizes that Blanche had been telling the truth about losing the estate to the mortgage instead of selling it for profit and lashes out to compromise his mistake.
Stanley could not stand the thought of being proved wrong by a woman like Blanche so he explodes into a fit of rage to cover up the pride he had lost in being wrong about Blanche. A particularly tense birthday dinner of Blanche leads to yet another episode of Stanley’s dangerous and violent fits of rage. After Stella scolded Stanley for eating like an animal, with his fingers, he erupts into a disastrous rage. “That’s how I’ll clear the table! (Seizes her arm) Don’t ever talk that way to me that way! ‘Pig-Polack-Disgusting-Vulgar-Greasy! ’—Them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here!
What do you think you are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said—‘Every man is a king! ’ and I am the king around here, so don’t you forget it” (Williams 107)! This outburst alone highlights the cruel and misogynistic ways of Stanley and further paints him in a negative and harsh light. Throughout the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts Stanley Kowalski as a villain-like character with a mean streak and vicious personality which creates an uneasy environment due to his pugnacious lifestyle and insensitive demeanor.
His juxtaposition to Stella Kowalski, his mild mannered and sensitive wife, accentuates his character flaws making them even more prominent and dramatic throughout the play. Through Stanley’s conflicts with Blanche DuBois and his rapist-like sexual advances, Stanley becomes the perfect villainous character, enabling the reader to sympathize with Stella and Blanche. Works Cited Nagel, James. “Critical Essays on Tennessee Williams. ” Ed. Robert A. Martin. First Edition. New York, New York: G. K. Halland Co. , 1997 Williams, Tennessee. “A Streetcar Named Desire. ” New York, New York: New American Library, 1951. Pages 13-142.