A StreetCar Named Desire free essay sample

Hence, blacks mingle with whites, and members of different ethnic groups play poker and bowl together. Stanley, the son of Polish immigrants, represents the changing face of America. Williamss romanticizing is more evident in his portrayal of New Orleans as a city where upper-class people marry members of the lower class, fghts get ugly but are forgotten the next day, and the perpetual bluesy notes of an old piano take the sting out of poverty. The play immediately establishes Stanley and Blanche as polar opposites, with Stella as the link between them. Stage directions describe Stanley as a virulent character whose chief pleasure is women. His dismissal of Blanches beauty is therefore significant, ecause it shows that she does not exude his same brand of carnal desire. On the other hand, Blanches delicate manners and sense of propriety are offended by Stanleys brutish virility. Stanleys qualities†variously described as vitality, heartiness, brutality, primitivism, lust for life, animalistic†lead him over the course of the play into an unrelenting, unthinking assault on the already crumbling facade of Blanches world. When Mitch, one of Stanley’s friends, was introduced to Blanche, she instantly inquired about marriage. Later, when Mitch rejected Blanche due to Stanley’s gossip about her reputation, Blanche immediately considered living in a fantasy world with the previous man, Mr. Huntleigh. Stella Kowalski not only dealt with issues between Blanche and her husband, but also her own. Stella was incredibly weak and passive. In the first poker night in the play, Stanley put his hands on a then pregnant Stella. We shortly find out that physical violence is common in not only the Kowalski household, but also upstairs at the Hubbells’. In the same night shortly after the chaos, Stella returned to bed with her husband. Stella refused to believe Blanche’s accusations that Stanley had raped her were true. Eunice Hubbell, the upstairs neighbor/landlady (also in an abusive relationship), forced Stella to deny reality and believe that sending Blanche to a mental institute was her only choice. Stanley represented a much more secure future than Blanche did.