Stanley Kowalski Quotes

New Orleans is best known for its Creole culture, Cajun food timeless French influence, jazz music, and yearly celebration of the wild time known as Mardi Gras. What most people do not know is that New Orleans is known for its rich literary history, from The Awakening by Kate Chopin to a story such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. This Paper will give a character study on one of the characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” That character will be Stanley Kowalski, a man in his mid to late twenties or early thirties, with Polish ancestry. Stanley Kowalski, the antagonist of the story, has a violent nature that makes him resort to both physical and verbal abuse; this behavior directly leads to the mental decline of Stanley’s

sister-in-law Blanche DuBois.
Stanley Kowalski’s first display of his violent nature occurs in scene 2. Upon learning, through Stella, that Blanche has lost Belle Reve he automatically jumps to the conclusion that he and his wife have been “swindled” out of the share of money that could have come from the sale of the property. Outraged by this possibility, Stanley opens the wardrobe trunk and rummages through Blanche’s belongings. “Open your eyes to this stuff! You think she got them out of a teachers pay? / And what have we here? The treasure chest of a pirate! / I have an acquaintance that works in a jewelry store. I’ll have him in here to make an appraisal of this. Here’s your plantation or what was left of it, here! ” (2.75, 2.88 & 2.98). Here we see that Stanley senselessly assumes that Blanche used the finances from the estate to purchase her extravagant possessions, when in fact the real story is that the clothing and jewelry that Stanley goes through are worthless pieces of belongings that Blanche has collected for a number of years. Furthermore, as Stanley confronts Blanche face to face and disrespectfully goes through a series of papers hoping to find a deed or receipt that shows her sale of the Belle Reve house. Instead he finds letters written to Blanche from a deceased lover. And even when Blanche emphatically tells Stanley she has not cheated her sister out of anything, he responds to her with rude comments such as “Don’t play dumb so dumb. You know what!” (2.186). The audience is sees here that Stanley is trying interrogate and guilt trip Blanche and accuse her of being selfish. Something that Stella tries to stop him from doing because she knows how vulnerable her sister is. Stanley interrogates and verbally abuses her nonetheless because he is of the belief that he and Stella should have gotten some sort of compensation for the loss of the Belle Reve property.
When Blanche arrives in New Orleans at the beginning of the play she is already in a fragile state of mind.

Stanley’s lack of respect for Blanche’s mental fragility mixed with his verbal abuse and cruelty pushes her to the brink of insanity. Stanley does not only verbally abuse Blanche, but he also physically abuses her. The height of this physical abuse comes at the end of scene ten. Stella is in the hospital expected to deliver in the next 24-hours and Stanley comes home form the hospital to a distraught Blanche. Stanley is amicable and overjoyed with the fact that he will soon be having a son, while Blanche on the other hand has no hope in finding love or happiness having lost her opportunity with Mitch due to Stanley telling him about Blanche’s past. Blanche refers to Stanley as “swine” This upsets Stanley and he begins to taunt Blanche, even though he knows of her insecurities about her appearance. “Take a look at yourself in that worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag-picker! And with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?” (10.107). Blanche’s reaction to his comments makes it evident that her remaining spirits are being broken. Stanley immediately looks to completely break her with physical abuse. He approaches her despite her requests for him to stay away. She smashes a bottle on the table and faces him, clutching the broken top (10.140). Stanley states Oh! So you want some roughhouse! All right, lets have some roughhouse!” (10.145) This marks the final step of Stanley’s breaking of Blanche’s mental state. ‘Tiger…! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” She moans. The bottle-top falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her to bed

(10.146).
Stanley physically abuses or rapes Blanche, which destroys her last threads of any mental stability. In his quest to ruin her, he shatters her love life, uses the secrets of her past against her, and rapes her when she is at her weakest. Raping someone who is already beaten down is truly the epitome of cruelty.
In a Tennessee William’s story “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the antagonist, Stanley Kowalski, has a violent nature that makes him resort to both physical and verbal abuse; this behavior directly affects all those around him, but especially leads to the mental decline of his sister-in-law Blanche DuBois. From the moment Blanche arrives in New Orleans, Stanley holds her to low regard. This can be seen as warranted in some instances when she acts as though she is better than him. But in most instances Stanley actively tries to bring her down, as seen in the in the second scene where he infers that she is selfish and liar. The staple of his character attributes is directly related to Blanche, which is why it is hard to understand Stanley without seeing his interactions with his sister-in-law. There is no clear transition in the story from her being someone he simply didn’t like, to her becoming his prey. Nonetheless, his degenerate character is fully confirmed after his decision to rape Blanche. Stanley Kowalski is a verbal and physical abuser, who is willing to sabotage the life of anyone who poses a threat to his dominance.