Stanley Kowalski's Masculinity In A Streetcar Named Desire

From the beginning of a streetcar named desire Stanley Kowalski is dominant, sexual, aggressive, and takes pleasure in his masculinity. Stanley enjoys gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking. All of these show that he is full of masculinity.
As soon as the play starts Stanley shows off his animal like nature when interacting with Stella when he; “heaves the package at her.” (4) In this scene his clothes are rough and his choice of words are crude. Before Blanche comes for a visit he is content because Stella does whatever he wants which keeps him in control at all times. Sex with Stella is the thing that is holding their marriage together. So every time they fight they end up having sex to heal the wound. This is Stanley’s fault because he doesn’t believe in relationship unless it is a sexual relationship. Even though Stanley seems tough, he is very dependent on Stella. When he becomes aggressive he calls for her because she is the only one that can soothe him. In the third scene after he hits her while he’s drunk, he has an emotional breakdown and screams for Stella to come back to him.

Stanley is not the type of guy who likes his natural order of life to be disturbed, so Blanche’s surprise visit sends him into a rampage.

As soon as Blanche appears Stanley feels like everything close to him is at risk. He believes that he owns everything around him including his wife and property. As a result he tends to be shirtless to show everyone that he is in control. Blanche is a major threat to him because he feels as if he has to compete with her to win Stella’s love. Stanley feels like Blanche is trying to win Stella over then turn her against him. One reason Stanley and Stella can’t get along is because they are both volatile characters. Stanley never actually says that Blanche would be a good partner for pleasure, but they both bring up sexual connotation and Stanley always takes his shirt off around

her.
Stanley feels as if Blanche is threating his friends, but really he is the one doing the threating. Like his wife; he likes to also have control over his friends. He expects them to play poker and act like men when they are over his house. He takes poker very seriously, so when he is losing he becomes very demanding, and loses his temper. This is another sign that he always wants to be in control. Even though he values their friendship and likes to spend time with them he thinks of himself as better than them. Mitch, Stanley’s closest friend, is always hanging around the house. It can be seen that Stanley cares about Mitch because he tells Mitch the truth about Blanches past. His ulterior motive could have been to destruct Blanche. By destroying Blanche and telling everyone about Blanches past he can show Stella who is superior.
Stanley is a basic man who can’t take care of himself, but when something threatens him, he must strike back. Even if the person has to get emotionally or physically destroyed; he believes that is the price they have to pay.