In “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Tennessee Williams does not leave much room for interpretation when it comes to the characters. For instance, Stanley Kowalski, one of the main characters in the drama, is portrayed as a brute. The audience can not only see this but is told this when Blanche says “he acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one…” You can tell the Stanley is being portrayed as brute male by the words the Williams uses to describe him, such as “animal” and the “grunts” that he makes. Also, When Stanley beats the baby bearing Stella, he is presented as a brute with no control. Also, when he yells out Stella’s name after all the fighting is over, he is portrayed to be animal-like in his way of calling her. As he yells out Stella’s name, Williams make sure to let the audience know that he is doing it with “heaven-splitting violence”.
On the contrary, Stanley is also given room for alternative understandings. Although he is seen as the alpha male that wants to be in control for everything, he is also given human emotions and characters. You can tell all throughout the drama that Stanley does love Stella very much. He knows that beating her was wrong, and “He was as good as a lamb when [Stella] came back and…very, very ashamed of himself”. Also, Stanley is seen as somewhat sensitive when it comes to his ethnicity. He himself says” I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a one-hundred-per-cent American, born and raised on the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it…” Williams might have added this into the play to let the audience relate to Stanley. The audience is more likely to keep interest in the story if the audience s able to relate to the characters of the drama.
Over all, I think Williams establishes Stanley as a brute beast like character with an alpha male personality. It is hard to escape the reality that Stanley likes to be the dominant one in any relationship, whether it is with his wife Stella, or just with his friends. But Williams also gives way to some lenience on Stanley as to let the audience relate with the character by giving him a sensitive side that is not seen very much all throughout the drama.
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Interesting interpretation, however you left out one more characteristic that Williams shows us about Stan. Although Stan is a brute, he is no stupid push over. Williams portrays that he is cunning and willing to dig up some dirt on Blanche to maintain his dominance and to get her out of his home. I like the title, it fits the blog perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up this idea of Stanley's sensitivity. I think it displays a certain degree of self consciousness that plays into his overbearing masculinity and his need to constantly show that. One could question why he feels the need to always be such a "man" unless he was worried about not being seen that way by others or sometimes felt that that could be threatened. I agree that Stanley holds very substantial human characteristics in his ability to love Stella so much. Some of his most animalistic descriptions, however, do come through the point of view of Blanche. But I wouldn't disagree that Williams wanted the audience to see him somewhat as an animal, especially with the way that the "Stella!!" scene is written.
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