Vulnerable

Lustful

Blanche

Aristocratic

Frail

ManipulativeFlirtatiousInsecure

Sensitive

Corrupt

Deluded

A Streetcar Named Desire: Character Profile – Blanche

Summary:

Blanche, one of the two main protagonists of the play, is an extremely complicated character whom we see struggle with internal conflicts throughout the play. Upon first meeting her, we learn that she is more cultured and sophisticated then the people who live in ‘Elysian Fields’ and her surname of French origin, ‘DuBois’ immediately reveals her as being from the upper class of society. She appears to be ‘daintily dressed in a white suit’ with ‘white gloves’, all of which suggests purity and innocence but it doesn’t take long to realise that Blanche is nearly always putting on a pretence. Her pathetic attempt at covering up her drinking problem and hiding her recent promiscuous activity all foreshadow the eventual destruction of her character as she is sent away to a mental asylum by the end of the play.

However audiences are meant to feel sympathy towards Blanche’s character. After having suffered the loss of her young homosexual husband to suicide and the loss of the final generation of the DuBois family and their estate ‘Belle Reve’, it is no surprise that Blanche had been affected by these tragic events. She has tried to avoid the guilt she feels for her husband’s death by having ‘intimacies with strangers’ to ‘fill her empty heart’ and attempts to avoid realism and prefers ‘magic’ by telling ‘what ought to be the truth’ rather then the truth itself. Her insecurities about her fading beauty are continuously emphasised by her need to be hidden from bright lights and her need for sexual admiration by men to maintain her self-esteem is emphasised by her flirtatious actions towards not only Mitch, but Stanley as well. We

also see Blanche continuously bathe herself which is her means of attempting to wash away her licentious past.

Blanche has come to New Orleans to find refuge with her sister Stella as she is her only living relation left. She also has a final last hope to find some one to help alleviate the emptiness she feels and Mitch seems to be the man until he finds out about her past. Mitch’s refusal to be with Blanche along with the ultimate act of cruelty, Stanley’s rape of Blanche both increase Blanche’s descend into insanity.

Quotations & Analysis:

Page Quotation Analysis117 Blanche: They told me to

take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields!

Desire and death are two aspects that became important in the latter part of Blanche’s life. The literal death of her husband along with the metaphorical death of her social life were both caused by her strong carnal desires which have caused her to be in the position she is in the play. This eventually leads to her downfall in Elysian Fields where she gets off the street car.

117 Blanche: They mustn’t have – understood - what number I wanted…

This quotation reinforces Blanche’s fantasy view of the world. She refuses to believe that this is where her sister now lives after their upper class upbringing in the ‘great big place with white columns’.

118 Eunice: You want to leave your suitcase here an’ go find her?’

Blanche: No.

She does not trust the people in this seedy area of New Orleans where she has come to and therefore prefers to watch over her belongings herself.

122, 136

Blanche: You haven’t said a word about my appearance

Blanche: I was fishing for a compliment, Stanley.

Blanche continuously needs to be complimented on her physical appearance as she is aware that her ‘looks are slipping’ as she ages. However her beauty is the only means she sees herself as having in order to attract men to fulfill her sexual desires.

127 Blanche:..And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths – not always.

We as the audience, have no choice but to symphathise with Blanche. She has been through a lot in her past which has driven her to become the person she is today and she is the one who ended up alone as opposed to Stella.

129 Stanley:.. [He holds the bottle to the light to observe its depletion] Have a shot?

Blanche: No, I – rarely touch it.

Blanche prefers to keep up a façade hiding her true habits even when it’s obvious that the people around her know about her pretence. She does this as she prefers to view life as a pleasant dream as opposed to having the ugly realities of life exposed.

138 [She sprays herself with her atomizer; then playfully sprays him (Stanley) with it. He seizes the atomizer and slams it down on the dresser. She throws back her head and laughs.]

Blanche is not afraid of Stanley which is a strength that her character portrays. Throwing her head back and laughing shows her signs of flirting which is her means of manipulating men. This helps contrast to the way she acts around Mitch where she is looking for something more then just sexual satisfaction.

139 Blanche: Poems a dead boy wrote. I hurt him the way that you would like to hurt me, but you can’t!

This quotation reveals that Blanche does feel guilty for the death of her husband. She feels that it was her final words to him that drove him to suicide. However this quotation also shows that Blanche is once again not afraid to stand up to Stanley at this point in the play this shows the strength in her character that exists currently but will later decline as she descends into madness.

140 There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications- to put it plainly!

In this speech, Blanche attributes the loss of Belle Reve to the male members of her family. She also confronts Stanley by ‘[picking up a large envelope containing more papers]’ of his accusations that she is ‘attempting some kind of treachery on [her] sister’. Blanche also comes across as the victim, having to endure this these unfortunate circumstances whilst her sister escaped to start off a new life in New Orleans. However Blanche probably

couldn’t have left Belle Reve even if she wanted to as it appears to be engraved in her to live the upper class sophisticated life.

140 Blanche: … Here all of them are, all papers! I hereby endow you with them! Take them, peruse them – commit them to memory, even! I think its wonderfully fitting that Belle Reve should finally be this bunch of old papers in your big capable hands.

This quotation illustrates Blanche’s victory over Stanley in their first argument. Stanley who becomes [...somewhat sheepish] after being presented with all the papers quickly diverts the conversation by bringing up the topic of their child which he was aware Blanche had not been told about and once again reverts back to talking about the ‘Napoleonic code’ which states that its his duty to ‘take an interest in his wife’s affairs’.

141 Blanche: He’s just not the sort that goes for jasmine perfume! But maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve and have to go on without Belle Reve to protect us….

Blanche seems to acknowledge the fact that her and Stella do not belong to the Southern elite anymore and that maybe some of Stanley’s raw vitality would be good to mix with the sophisticated upper class.

This relates back to William’s final message which acknowledges the decline of the upper class but conveys the idea that some of Stanley’s bourgeois class ideals, mixed with others from Blanche’s upper class is what we should strive for. Unfortunately, with the way society is going, we may not be able to achieve this.

146/147

[She takes off the blouse and stands in her pink silk brassiere and white skirt in the light through the portieres.]

[Blanche moves back into the streak of light. She raises her arms and stretches, as she moves indolently back to the chair.]

With the loss of Belle Reve, her family fortune and her fading beauty, Blanche feels as if she now has to use her body in order to attract men. She therefore draws attention to it by undressing in the light where the men playing poker can clearly see the outline of her body.

150 Blanche: I can’t stand a

naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

Blanche’s avoidance of light is due to her fear of people seeing her clearly which will lead to her real age being revealed. Instead she continuously avoids light by covering it up with ‘lanterns’ or staying in rooms with dim light.

Additionally light will more clearly expose the ‘rough’ society in that Blanche is currently living in and which she sees as being ‘beneath’ her, again giving her a reason to avoid light.

155 Blanche: I’m not used to such –

Blanche: Violence! Is so –

Blanche: Why! I’ve been half crazy, Stella! When I found out you’d been insane enough to come back in here after what happened – I started to rush in after you!

Blanche who is not used to Stanley’s violent displays of affection is stunned by him ‘charg[ing] after Stella’. However no one else around her seems to feel as shocked as she does.

170/183

[Stella pours the coke into the glass. It foams over and spills. Blanche gives a piercing cry.

[A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She claps her hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlight of locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past. As the noise recedes she straightens and slowly

Blanche’s overreactions towards little, everyday occurrences are an indication of the fragility of her current mental state. Her hyperbolic actions suggest that once a major event occurs Blanche’s loose hold on sanity will be lost.

continues speaking.]

180 Blanche: I guess it is just that I have – old fashioned ideals! [She rolls her eyes, knowing he cannot see her face.]

Blanche’s rolling of her eyes shows that she is putting on a pretence. She is not physically attracted to Mitch, and after this act one cannot say if she is emotionally attracted towards Mitch either or if she is just attracted to the idea of protection that Mitch offers.

188 [In the bathroom the water goes on loud; little breathless cries and peals of laughter are heard as if a child were frolicking in the rub.]

This childish mannerism displayed by Blanche indicates her innocence. Not sexual innocence but her naivety in the sense that she cannot see the real world for what it is. She must continuously see the world in a different light from everyone else. Her need to act young also displays her paranoia of ageing.

192 Blanche: Oh, I feel so good after my long, hot bath, I feel so good and cool and – rested.

Blanche’s numerous baths and time spent in the bathroom throughout the play are all her attempts at purifying herself of her past misdoings and her way of escaping everyone and everything and having time to herself in private.

204/169

Blanche: I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell them the truth. I tell them what ought to be the truth. And if that is singful, then let me be damned for it!

Blanche…-put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings, and glow – make a little – temporary magic…’

Blanche clearly says ‘I don’t want realism.’ She would rather her view of the world be like a constant dream which is also her reason for continuously keeping up a façade. She only tells what ‘ought’ to be the truth in order to avoid shattering her own dreams by facing reality. She feels as if she has never lied (‘Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart…) as what she says is the way she perceives things.

207 Blanche: Then marry me, Mitch!

Blanche’s loneliness and need for companionship is displayed in her

plea for Mitch to marry her. It is not important whether she truly loves Mitch or not but more like a means of a way out the trap she finds herself in. There is evident pathos here as she and the audience are well aware that Mitch came to her house with the intention of raping her. Her willingness to marry a man who would do this to her clearly illustrates Blanche’s desperation.

225 Blanche: Whoever you are - I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Blanche’s dependence on strangers to fulfill the emptiness she feels has only led her to the position she is in by the end of the play. Blanche’s inability to accept that strangers have only been kind to her in return for sex reflects her magical perception of the world. These being her final words in the play, referring to the ‘kindness’ of the doctor who is not the man (Shep) she was hoping for, shows her complete detachment from reality and the pathos of her empty belief in magic and kindness.

Role in the play:

Blanches role in the play is to represent the declining upper class and the rise of the Bourgeois middle class in the America of Williams’ time. As a character she is used to contrast directly with Stanley as her sophisticated, cultured and refined background is directly at odds with Stanley’s vibrant, lively and raw working class background. The key moment for Blanche is at the end of the play where she is lead of ‘as if she were blind’ in order to be taken away to a mental asylum. This signifies the end of the Southern elite that Blanche stood for as she is unable to support herself anymore and relies on the Doctor for ‘support’ as she is ‘lead’ out. This depicts the final destruction of Blanche’s character as her delicacy, sensitivity, refinement, were all just too weak to survive in the real world. There was no place for her illusions to exist in the Elysian Fields and the world of Stanley Kowalski and once her illusions were destroyed, she was destroyed too.

Blanches sophistication and fantasy world are also used to raise an important question by Williams: If Stanley’s world, although true, consists of violence to the extent of rape, then aren’t some of Blanche’s aristocratic morals worth keeping?

A Streetcar Named Desire: Character Profile – Stanley

Opening Impressions

At the beginning of the play, we see the main male character Stanley Kowalski as a hero as he is very loyal to his friends and very passionately in love with his wife. However this love is quite different from what the audience expects. Instead of a normal typical way of loving, Stanley and Stella live a life filled with sexual intimacy. Like most men in the play, Stanley is a very primitive muscular person (as shown when he throws a pack of meat at Stella) with a huge sexual drive for women. He is also a very dominant figure amongst the group.

Quotations & Analysis:

Page

Quotation Analysis

116 Stanley [bellowing]: Hey, there! Stella, Baby!Stanley: Catch!Stella: WhatStanley: Meat!

The first impression of Stanley comes from these quotations. It clearly shows he is a very primitive almost cave-man like character who doesn’t treat women the way that a woman should be treated. Similarly he calls her “Baby” which also gives an image of unequal status as she is harmless and useless whilst he was described with his friends as hard working laborers in blue denim work clothes.

128 Stanley throws the screen door of the kitchen open and comes in. Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood….. pleasure with women…. Power and pride…. Richly feathered bird… heartiness… rough humor… love of good drink and food and games… his car, his radio.. gaudy seed bearer..

These animalistic connotations are of relevance with the theme of men overpowering women. The men in this play, mostly represented by Stanley are primitive, meaning they are more animalistic than actual gentlemen. Like animals in the wild, there is often an alpha-male or the most dominant figure in the group, or the pack leader. In this case, Stanley is the pack leader. Many words such as “animal joy” “since earliest manhood” “richly feathered bird” are evidence of Stanley being the most dominant figure as a richly feathered bird represents a peacock, and male peacocks are usually the biggest and brightest of the peacocks who show themselves off to the

females. In relation to Stanley, he is the biggest and shows himself off by taking his shirt off in some of the scenes. Furthermore he is a worker in blue denim clothes which give a muscular, hard working image of a man. It’s interesting in the fact that peacocks have bright feathers to attract females relates to Stanley. Blanche does not like to be revealed in true light as it will show her age, but Stanley constantly slowly reveals this and the other truths she has tried to hide. Thus metaphorically, he is as bright as a peacock in that he is the light that will reveal the truth behind Blanche.

129 [He starts to remove his shirt] Blanche: Please, please do.Stanley: Be comfortable is my motto

Stanley is a flirtatious womanizer. Although he doesn’t know Blanche well at the beginning of the play, he already shows off his upper body by removing his shirt. Furthermore he gives evidence of flirtatious behavior to all women despite his passionately sexual relationship with his wife. Additionally, it could be suggested that Blanche can be seen here as taken aback or mesmerized by Stanley’s body after he takes off his clothes with the words “please, please do.” This is where the audience sees a first few signs of Blanche not being as innocent as expected.

134 Stanley: I got an acquaintance who deals in this sort of stuff…..Stanley: I got an acquaintance who works in a jewelry store.

Williams also portrays Stanley as very childish. This is one example as he keeps repeating “I’ve got an acquaintance” to Stella about Blanche. He does this because he doesn’t want to hear what Stella is telling him and always tries to show that It isn’t true. He doesn’t understand the superiority of Blanche and Stella’s past of superiority in the autocratic society.

138-139

Stanley: There is such thing in this state of Louisiana as the Napoleonic code…

Stanley fears of Blanche’s use of deception and persuasion skills to lure her sister into her world. Stanley tries to protect his wife by stating that a Napoleonic Code applies to him meaning

whatever Stella owns, he owns. This is clearly a way of protecting his wife as Blanche sold her property in the past and tries to persuade her sister to get away from this society. By stating that men own everything, it relates to the theme of men overpowering women and the theme of unequal rights for women as it was at that time of the play.

148 Sit down! Williams develops Stanley as the most dominant figure in the play. To the audience, he orders people around and does not care about anybody else but himself. This fact is also supported by the fact that his appearance represents his personality. He is very primitive and muscular, but he also has a very strong sexual drive for his wife.

190 Stanley: You’re goddamn 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!

Stanley is a very difficult character to everybody, even with his wife and friends. The quotation shows that Stanley told Mitch about Blanche’s past in order to stop him from marrying her. One interpretation suggests that here he is trying to protect Mitch from Blanche’s deception about her past and so he tells him about her to stop them from marrying, thus it makes him seem more caring towards his friends and a hero. However, a contradicting interpretation suggests that Stanley doesn’t care about Mitch and his feelings but focuses only on one aim: to get rid of Blanche. So he told her in order for Mitch to think twice about marrying her and destroying their relationship which makes Blanche’s life even worse as she will lose the only person in the story she has a common life with.

213 Stanley: I’ve been on you from the start!

Although Stanley is quite childish, spoilt and an uneducated worker in society, he is still however quite cunning and street-smart. He hates Blanche and when he buys Blanche a ticket out of his world, he expects her to go feeling destroyed. So

when Blanche tells Stanley of meeting a millionaire he makes sure to discredit this lie and remove even the pretence of dignity that it would have given Blanche. We see again that he isn’t fooled easily by her words. We know that Blanche is very deceiving as she does not show her true side or her true appearance as she constantly avoids the light. However, unlike the other men, Stanley isn’t fooled. The quotation further emphasizes the fact that Stanley resembles a predator.

226 Stanley: [voluptuously, soothingly]: Now, honey. Now, love..

Stanley doesn’t care anymore about what happens to Blanche as she leaves. He has won the war with Blanche and now can turn back to Stella and his baby. The use of the words “Now, honey. Now, love” suggests that he is back in control and so there will be peace and they are now bonded together like before Blanche invaded their home. Their bond has tightened by the fact that Stella has had her baby and it is the mixed blood of both the world of Stella and the world of Stanley. Furthermore, he doesn’t care about anybody’s need except his own as he reaches inside her blouse even though she mourns the fact that her sister is leaving.

Role in the Play:

Stanley can be seen both as hero and villain. Stanley represents the lively, vibrant, industrial lifestyle that will take American forward into economic boom, but at the same time could also be viewed as the villain as he rapes Blanche and destroys her dreams as well as her life. Stanley is the main male character in the story thus giving the story the balance of male and female but also he represents all men who live in the society at that time – looking for women, hulky, hard laborers, dominant and overpowering.

Key Moments:

Page 215

Stanley: Oh! So you want some rough-house! Tiger- tiger! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning

This is when Stanley finally rapes Blanche before she leaves. This is a key moment because the quote “we’ve had this date from the beginning” suggests that the rape was inevitably going to happen, and that Blanche’s fate has been sealed because of Stanley’s hatred of her and the two opposing worlds that they come from. This physical destruction of Blanche completes the verbal destruction began earlier by revealing the truth to both her and Mitch about the illusory nature of Blanche’s character and dreams. The rape represents the sudden end of these dreams and it clearly rips her world apart and drives her insane. This relates to some of the main themes of the play such as dreams vs. reality, and men overpowering women but most importantly the theme of passion being destructive as the rape rips her dream world apart.

A Streetcar Named Desire: Character Profile – Stella

Summary:

Stella is a very interesting character as she appears to be very simple and practical. Throughout the play, she constantly has to listen to both sides of the story; her character basically symbolizes the position of the audience torn between the splendor of Blanche’s glamorous dreams and the passion she feels for Stanley’s gritty, earthy, lively, vibrant world. Despite the various times Stanley beats Stella her love for Stanley is astounding as she doesn’t mind his temper and considers it as passion. Ultimately we are meant to see in Stella the plight of women in 1940’s American society: Stella is dependent on men to the extent that she has to choose to disbelieve that Stanley raped her sister so that she can go on living with him because life without the support of a man is inconceivable.

Quotations & Analysis:Page Quotation Analysis116 “Don’t holler at me like that. Hi,

Mitch”She wants to show that she is a strong character, however the fact that Stanley has thrown a chunk of meat at her indicates how she has no control in their relationship. She

is a submissive character who always ends up following whatever Stanley wants her to do as she chases after Stanley on his way to the bowling alley

120 “You haven’t given me a chance to, honey!” [She laughs but her glance at Blanche is little anxious]

The stage directions here might be showing that Stella is feeling embarrassed about the place she’s living in and maybe she wants to make Blanche feel more welcome in the house.

121 [carefully pouring herself a drink] “Tell you what, Blanche?”

Stella is very calm in comparison to Blanche as she “carefully” pours her drink whereas Blanche talks incessantly. It shows the difference between the aristocratic society and the working class society as Williams through this stage direction indicates that the working class society, through Stella’s action, has a better grip on reality. Stella’s calmness is also significant as it indicates that there she has definitely chosen to live in Stanley’s world, despite the occasional violence

124 “You’ll get along fine together, if you’ll just try not to – well – compare him with men that we went out with at home.”

It clearly shows the difference between the men in Bell Reve and New Orleans. It tells us about how their society is changing from the old aristocratic order to a new industrial, working class society and how Blanche is still stuck in the past. Therefore she’s not used to the attitudes of the new order in Elysian Fields.

[half to herself] “I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night…”

“when he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!”

Even when they are in a fight, the only thing that brings them together is love and sex. The fact that she goes wild suggests passion and that she cannot live without him. As Stanley says later, she seems to have loved being pulled down from those columns.

134 “Don’t be such an idiot, Stanley!” and “You have no idea…Now close that trunk before she comes out of the

Stella is the caring one, wishing to protect Blanche but Stanley can easily ignore her orders. From the play we get the impression that Stanley is cruel, arrogant, selfish, and

146

bathroom!” contrasts with Stanley “Since when do you give me orders?”

“No. Stanley’s the one only one of his crowd that’s likely to get anywhere”

an extremely dominating figure. If he's the only one that's 'likely to get anywhere' it shows that to come out on top of society you had to be all those bad things, in order to survive.

192 [sadly and doubtfully from the kitchen] “Do you, Blanche?” and [turning quickly away] “Why, nothing has happened, Blanche”

This is when Stella is told about Blanche’s past, at first she doesn’t believe it but then in the end she does. The stage direction shows that Stella doesn’t want to show her sister that she is weak and therefore turns away. However this may also reflect the way Stella turns her back on Blanche at the end of the play when Blanche leaves. Both of these actions are similar, as she again has to believe Stanley that the rape didn’t take place and also being forced to stay with Stanley due to the baby.

135

194

[angrily] “Indeed they have, thank heavens! I’m going outside.”

“Your face and fingers are disgustingly greasy…clear the table”

[Stella begins to cry weakly]

At first it seems like Stella actually has some power over Stanley, however he straight away bounces back and says “every man is a king! And I’m a king around here” This further emphasises the stereotypically male dominated society of Elysian Fields. Williams is trying to show us the weakness of her character in comparison to Stanley – it shows us how women were left with no choice and in the end had to follow/agree with the male. In this case Stella believes Stanley about all the accusations against her sister.

However Stella actually doesn’t mind being told what to do unlike her sister’s strategy of living in a very glamorous past. She instead chooses to face the realistic, rational and flawed world just like how her marriage with Stanley represents.

Basically Stella is like a character torn between two worlds – that is the upper class aristocratic society which she originally is from and now the middle/low working class of her husband. She has no choice but to stick with Stanley due to their love and now baby.

132 & 217

“[To Eunice] Tell her how well she’s looking” and she says to Stanley “And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness!”

The two quotations show that Blanche is a character who places a great deal of importance in her outward appearance, as someone from an aristocratic society would do. Stella is being considerate towards her sister because she knows that Blanche would like to be appreciated for looking good. Also the "her little weakness" shows how Blanche is dependent on others in society to maintain her character - she has very little self-confidence - she seeks approval - this is why she really wants a man in her life because he would tell her what to do.

217 “I don’t know if I did the right thing”

“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley”

As the audience, we feel that Stella actually knows the truth about Stanley’s rape of Blanche and that she believes her sister however because she is carrying Stanley's baby and thinks that this marriage is worth having or that she has no alternative but to stay with him and thus has to try and make herself believe that Blanche has became insane.

224 “What have I done to my sister? Oh, God, what have I done to my sister?”

Given that Stella cannot imagine life without Stanley, her willingness to sacrifice her sister becomes predictable. By doing this she will carry her guilt as a price to be paid for the preservation of her marriage. She cannot face the reality which she knows is true. This is similar to her sister – Blanche and how she detaches from reality and sees life only as she wishes to perceive. However, because she has seen reality before, she cannot act as if she hasn’t and thus goes insane.

Key Moment:

The key scene for Stella is the last scene as mentioned above. She has no choice because of the baby and has to sacrifice her sister to live with a man who has raped her sister on the day she was delivering her baby. This is further re-emphasized by the stage directions [He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse.] This clearly shows that Stella is living with a man who doesn’t care about her feelings and just wants to satisfy his own sexual desires.