Cruelty In A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams

Condemnation is given to those who display harshness and cruelty, within their treatment of others. Through the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams portrays the many ways one can hurt a person, but all of them result in the destruction of the victim. Using the characters Blanche, Mitch and Stanley, Williams cautions his readers of the devastating effects of cruelty on the target. Both physical and mental obliteration are results of cruelty, whether it is deliberate or unintentional.
Blanche Dubois, who portrayed the central victim of maltreatment during the play, herself, causes the mental and physical destruction of a loved one. During her youth, Blanche had a lover named Allan Gray, who she describes was handsome. She was

in love with this young man and decided to marry him, but was taken aback, when one night she found him in bed with another man. Blanche tried her very best to act as if she had no clue of her husband's homosexual affairs, but one day all her attempts failed. While under the influence of alcohol, Blanche revealed her true feelings, "I saw, I know, you disgust me… To her husband, Blanche had always seemed to be a lady who accepted homosexuals like him, unlike society, where he was discriminated against, but her outburst revealed to him that her feelings were quite the opposite. Blanche's nonacceptance of his personal sexual decisions devastated Allan, and caused him to believe there was no reason to continue living his life. Despite not having intentions of hurting Allan, Blanche caused enough damage to prompt Allan to end his life, causing his mind and body to be destroyed.
Similarly, nearing the end of the play Blanche receives a comparable mistreatment from Mitch, as Allan did from her. Mitch is the new found lover, who Blanche discovers during her temporary stay with her sister and brother in law. After coming in contact frequently, the relationship between Blanche and Mitch develops gradually. Both characters feel that the other fulfills their desires, which is to settle down. Both have the expectation that the outcome of their relationship is marriage. Initially, this seemed quite possible, but that is until Stanley interfered. Stanley, who had his own battles to fight with Blanche found unfavourable stories about her past and passed them on to Mitch as a true friend would, but with no pure intentions. Mitch did not initially believe the wild tales which Stanley told, but was forced to when he received confirmation on the validity of them. This causes him to become infuriated and heart-broken. When Mitch personally confronts Blanche, he accuses her of being a lying prostitute, and also suggests that Blanche must be hiding something further, as he has never seen her in broad daylight. During his drunken visit to Blanche he says, "I've never seen you in the afternoon … You never want to go out in the afternoon… What it means is I've never had a real good look at you, Blanche. Let's turn the light on here… This one with the paper thing on it. (Williams, 144)." The act of tearing the paper lantern off of the light in order to have clear visibility of Blanche represents the shredding of her shield of realism. As a result, Blanche admits to the accusations, but attempts reason with Mitch that she has changed her ways and never did intentionally lie in her heart, but rather to please. To the reader Mitch seems to forgive her, as he becomes slightly intimate, but backs out at the very end and blurts out, "You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother (Williams, 121). Blanche becomes enraged by this sudden outburst and tells Mitch to leave the house immediately. Mitch, just like Allan Gray is Blanche's salvation, but when he exposes her susceptibility, she becomes broken down psychologically.
Moreover, while Mitch delivers the mental destruction, Blanche is physically affected by her deliberately cruel brother in law Stanley.

Stanley plays a major role in the downfall of Blanche, as he coordinates it with no repentance. He begins by searching for the negative incidents of Blanche's past, and frequently initiates conversation with her, which makes Blanche believe that he is aware of her unhealthy past. This causes her to act insecure; as she believe her act has been broken. During his initial confrontation with Blanche after learning about the loss of Belle Reve, he says "Don't play so dumb. You know what (Williams, 41)." Stanley uses his some of his new found acquired knowledge and confidence, to make Blanche act uncomfortable. He does this in order to observe changes in her reactions, and find the truth about her stay. Soon after, Stanley acquires the takes of young Blanche, and goes on to spread them to the two closest people to Blanche, one of whom eventually turns on her (Mitch). Additionally, on her birthday, Stanley continues to mistreat her, and presents her with a gift, which makes Blanche feel both scared and insecure; bus tickets back to Laurel. Stanley, knowing her past is aware of Blanche's reputation in the small city, and intentionally buys these tickets to further harass her deliberately. He is aware, that these bus tickets will also signal that she has overstayed her welcome at his home. Following the tragic incident with Mitch, Blanche becomes extremely battered emotionally and Stanley inflicts more damage upon her. In an attempt to please, Blanche lies further about a lover named Shep Huntleigh, who is supposedly rich. Stanley, knowing that Blanche would be using these false lovers as her salvage decides to play along with her act and says, "Well this lover of yours, he better be the smart kind (Williams, 83)." Stanley is aware of Blanche's fibs about these lovers, and begins to ask and make peculiar comments, to which Blanche can, no

longer answer and breaks her charade. Finally, after building up the emotional destruction, Stanley completes his destruction of Blanche through the rape which he commits near the end of the play. When in a drunken state, on the night of his child's birth, he says “Tiger- tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning (William, 162). This brutal incident causes Blanche to go completely insane, as Stanley had then broken her both emotionally completely and physically, by taking away her right over her body.
Maltreatment of others causes both emotional and physical harm, whether it had been intentional or unintentional. Through the characters of Blanche, Mitch and Stanley, Tennessee Williams portrays the idea that vulnerable victims of cruel and harsh treatment feel a great deal of pain both internally and externally, when being abused. He also suggests, that there a one too many insensitive characters in this world, who fail to see the destruction which they cause on vulnerable and fragile people, through their cruelty. Thus, this world will not be a safe place for those with vulnerable characters, that is until a change is made. There are many ways to hurt someone, but they all lead to a form of destruction.