Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire

In “A Street Car Named Desire”, Williams depicts a realistic atmosphere that many readers would be familiar or relate with. He wrote this play under the assumptions that due to an illness it may be his last. “He set out to explore the far recesses of his mind to establish his main philosophy of life, "The apes shall inherit the earth." Williams was a very sickly and sensitive person in his youth and very easily subjected to the harshness and cruelty of others” (Marotous 2006). Williams filled his two main characters, Stanley and Blanche, with different attitudes toward sex, love, and opposing social status, allowing a power struggle to arise between them. The play at first look may appear to surely end on a happy note but after review it is clearly a tragedy.

With Williams’s use of sexual desires combined with fantasy, delusion, masculinity, and physicality, it is difficult to determine exactly who plays the role of victim or villain because each character represent both these personality traits and stands to lose something in the end.
The play begins with Blanche arriving at the home of her sister Stella and Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski. The Kowalski’s reside in a New Orleans neighborhood called Elysian Fields. This is important information given because in Greek Mythology, Elysian Fields is a place where the souls of the heroic lay to rest. “Death and desire bring Blanche to this low point in her life” (Critical Evaluations 2015). She has come to a point where she has lost almost everything and is overcome with the feeling that this may be the end of her road. Williams shows Blanche’s attitude towards her surroundings relatively early in this play. She has considered herself as a superior class to the people and place she has come to. Blanche is continuously haunted by the past death of her young husband and Williams shows that by the polka music that plays in her thoughts that will only subside once she hears a gun shot. We can view this as “…Psychological Realism for these same reasons: at times it portrays reality as it exists in the mind, not as it exists objectively” (Schmoop Editorial Team 2008). This is a way to take her back to the night where her husband committed suicide. Blanche feels responsible for his actions and it weighs heavy on her conscience. These flashbacks plus the grotesque view of the surroundings are what keeps this in the Southern Gothic classification. “Her own promiscuous sexual desires destroys her reputation and professional career” (Critical Evaluation 2015). These internal battles cause Blanche take numerous baths throughout the day as a way to rejuvenate or cleanse her soul. Blanche becomes desperate for affection from men because of her huge self-esteem issues due to her fading beauty.

Throughout the play Blanche struggles with her past sexual desires and when she meets Mitch, who like herself has also lost love, she sees a possibility of hope that she may be able to close the chapter of her deviant past and start a fresh, new life. The new hope of love is stopped when Stanley intervenes and tells Mitch of Blanche’s undesirable past. It seems all realistic thoughts have been completely lost for her and her reality fades completely. Ultimately, she is unable to overcome her desires, holier than though attitude, and after a heated argument is raped by her brother-in-law Stanley. With no one believing her side of the story, she is sent to a mental hospital in hopes of recovery. Although you may pity Blanche as the hopeless victim there are times where you are shown the role she plays in her own demise of reality. Williams’s themes of gambling, bowling, sexual desires, and drinking set the tone of this play expressing an ideal form of masculinity. Once Stanley enters into the play you automatically understand him as the everyday working class, dominant, possessive head of household. Stanley’s rough attitude towards

Blanche is obvious when the loss of Belle Reve is brought up. This represent a huge financial setback for him and Stella and he feels as though his wife is being lied to by her sister. Stanley sets out to expose Blanche and her lies throughout the play. Scene three is where we first see Stanley becomes angry with Blanche for her constant interruptions in his life. Stanley uses Blanche’s disillusioned state as the reason why he becomes angry and has an unruly outburst towards Stella. After a long night of drinking combined with losing poker hands and his annoyance with Blanche, he ends up hitting his wife. We see him as a villain at this point, but his actions after he showers and sobers up are led to believe that he is the victim due to the stressful living situation now that Blanche is around. “The famous image from this scene – and indeed, the most famous image in the Williams canon – is Stanley Kowalski, symbol of virility and manhood, kneeling exposed and half-naked on the pavement as he desperately cries his wife's name” (Weinbloom 2008). In scene seven, Stanley’s speech regarding Blanche’s life full of deceit is interfered five times with her song of the paper moon “It’s only a paper moon, Just as phony as it can be -/But it wouldn’t be make – believe If you believed in me!”(Williams 1821). This shows a clear indication that Blanche is losing her grip on reality. Stanley’s animosity and secret sexual desire towards Blanche results in him raping her with no remorse and becomes his final stand against her. In the end, this is how he is able to keep Stella on his side after his actions against Blanche. We are to believe that Stella questions the actions that took place but her ultimate love or need to be with Stanley stood strong after she said “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 1838). Stella’s denial of reality proves in the end that she may have been just as delusional as her sister but the need for love and fact that she just had a baby with Stanley could not let her see the truth.
“The ending to A Streetcar Named Desire is all about cruel and tragic irony” (Schmoop Editorial Team 2008). Throughout the play Blanches true desires to find stability and re-gain control of her life where shattered by Stanley’s realistic point of view. Although Stanley has crushed Blanche’s world of illusions she is still able to walk away with grace. In the end there is no way to determine who is the real victim or villain. What we will know is reality will over power fantasy.