The Characters of Blanche and Stanley

2006 Words5 Pages

1.1 Protagonist Blanche DuBois is the younger sister of Stella Kowalski. She comes to visit Stella and her husband, Stanley at their small home in New Orleans. Blanche is described as a Southern Belle that presents a tragic flaw stemmed from her lack of self- esteem. There are many words that can be used to describe Blanche; however her most dominant traits are unstable, flirtatious, and deceitful. Blanche has a devastating and scarring past in which her tragic flaw originates from. The elements of love, sex, and death haunt her until she is unable to handle it any longer and loses what is left of her sanity and sparks her unstable mind. To expatiate, Blanche was once married to the love of her life, Allen Grey, until she found him in bed with another man. Her husband shoots himself after Blanche says she is disgusted by him. This horrific event has an enormous impact on Blanche’s life and is key to her later behavior. To prove this, throughout the novel the narrator keeps referring to the Varsouviana, the song that was playing on the night of her husband’s death, playing through Blanche’s head every time she starts to panic. Blanche also feels a burning sense of guilt due to the fact that she feels his death was all her doing. “Blanche: Poems a dead boy wrote. I hurt him the way that you would like to hurt me, but you can’t!” (34) Stella and Blanche’s family owned a large estate called Belle Reve. After Stella left Belle Reve, Blanche was unable to financially support neither the estate nor the family she had living there with just an English teacher’s salary. One by one until the last, her family dies leaving Blanche alone and to pay for their funeral costs. Eventually, Belle Reve is taken from her. Soon after, Blanche... ... middle of paper ... ...ader sees this in his dialogue and word choice. “You think I'm gonna interfere with you? You know, maybe you wouldn't be bad to interfere with.” This is said by Stanley just before he rapes Blanche. The sexually intended dialogue shows his animalistic intentions. By this point, the reader should have seen the foreshadowing of the rape before, but if not, this is sure to do so. STANLEY: Stella? [She sobs with inhuman abandon.] STANLEY: Now, honey. Now, love. Now, now, love. Here the reader sees a supposed loving side of Stanley. In truth, Stanley is only acting because as the dominant figure, he got what he wanted, Blanche to go. Through the word choice of Stanley, the reader can observe his dominant, animalistic behavior. WORK CITED Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004.

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