2.1 Stanley Kowalski lives in a basic, fundamental world which allows for no subtleties and no refinements. Stanley Kowalski, from Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, certainly considers himself common, a fact he is both proud and ashamed of. His chief amusements are gambling, Stanley Kowalski Character Analysis in A Streetcar Named Desire | SparkNotes A Streetcar Named Desire Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian hero at the play’s start. Stanley is hated by Blanche as well as most readers for his actions and how he treats the characters in the story. It is her presence which is causing the dissension between him and his wife. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. The wrongfulness of this representation, given Stanley first feels the threat when he finds out that Belle Reve has been lost. In his mind, she has never been sympathetic toward him, she has ridiculed him, and earlier she had even flirted with him but has never been his. The husband of Stella. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats Stanley Kowalski lives in a basic, fundamental world which allows for no subtleties and no refinements. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the main antagonist, Stanley Kowalski, can only be described as down-to-earth and brutish. His dress is loud and gaudy. His extreme virility is a direct contrast to Blanche’s homosexual husband who committed suicide. He feels that having proved how degenerate Blanche actually is, he is now justified in punishing her directly for all the indirect insults he has had to suffer from her. He sees himself as a social leveler, as he tells Stanley is loud, often bellowing and banging things around, in contrast, Blanche's character is dainty, she's quiet, and can't handle loud noises. Stanley is Stella's husband, a former military man, a lower-level worker, “a great breeding producer,” who appears in the book as the opposite of the main character. With his Polish ancestry, he represents the new, heterogeneous America. Stanley loves Stella ––she is the soft, feminine foil to his violent ways. Character Analysis: Stanley Kowalski – “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian Stanley’s animosity toward Blanche manifests itself in all calls him a “Polack,” he makes her look old-fashioned and ignorant Stanley Kowalski is a very brutal person who always has to feel that he is better than everyone else. It looks like you've lost connection to our server. Analysis of Stanley Kowalski’s Role in Tennesee Williams’ Book, A Streetcar Named Desire Ambur Dumais Using the first three scenes of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, it is safe to use certain words to describe Stanley Kowalski: animalistic, dominance-driven, and hotheaded. Blanche DuBois. However this love is quite different from what the audience expects. Character Analysis Of Stanley Kowalski 's A Streetcar Named Desire. 884 Words 4 Pages. His outside pleasures are bowling and poker. He does not concern himself with the feelings of Blanche. He is the man of physical action. When I first heard that we were going to be performing scenes from A Streetcar Named Desire for our Acting Techniques class in November, I couldn’t determine whether I was excited or worried about it. She has never conceded to him his right to be the "king" in his own house. Removing #book# He grunts and has a loud, bold personality. Stanley Kowalski, Scene 7. He has no patience for Blanche and the illusions she cherishes. Stanley Kowalski lives with his wife Stella in a small apartment in New Orleans. Blanche's character boldly demonstrates delicate femininity, while Stanley's character shows aggressive masculinity. Thus when the basic man, such as Stanley, feels threatened, he must strike back. gift to her, his sabotage of her relationship with Mitch. Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis of Stanley Kowalski A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around the association of Blanche with Stanley, who represents contemporary social values driven by male dominance. Actor Marlon Brando delivered a powerful performance in the role, both on … When aroused to anger, he strikes back by throwing things, like the radio. In the first scene, he is seen bringing home the raw meat. He sees himself as a social leveler, … He is the man who likes to lay his cards on the table. Women tended to be restricted to a single major societal role—housewife. We cannot deny the fact that Stanley Kowalski is a fascinating character. She is a challenge and a threat. To me, his character seemed most like that of a true person. Thus, he rapes her partly out of revenge, partly because one more man shouldn't make any difference, and finally, so that she will be his in the only way he fully understands. Characters such as Blanche, Stella, Mitch and Stanley are used to represent the aristocracy and working class. When Blanche Stanley Kowalski : She moved to the hotel called Flamingo which is a second class hotel that has the advantages of not interfering with the private and social life of the personalities there. "Animal joy in his being is implicit," and he enjoys mainly those things that are his — his wife, his apartment, his liquor, "his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.". To the over-sensitive person, such as Blanche, Stanley represents a holdover from the Stone Age. Stanley Kowalski lives in a basic, fundamental world which allows for no subtleties and no refinements. his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. If someone gets destroyed, that is the price that must be paid. First including his body type, “He is of medium height, about five feet eight or nine, and strongly, compactly built”; giving the audience a chance to observe his physical outline. Stanley feels the first threat to his marriage after the big fight he has with Stella after the poker game. His extreme virility is… read analysis of Stanley Kowalski This explains his use of legal terminology. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. This is unquestionable, and is evident numerous times throughout the play. Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that He is, then, "the gaudy seed-bearer," who takes pleasure in his masculinity. However, the character that is the most fascinating is Stella’s husband and the antagonist of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley Kowalski. He is in his late 20s and works as a traveling salesman. When he has his information accumulated, he is convinced that however common he is, his life and his past are far superior to Blanche's. He wants only to force the issue to its completion. He is animal-like and his actions are such. Whereas most men … Stanley is a crude, domineering man who is physically imposing. He has lost property, something that belonged to him. harmfully crude and brutish. 10. But even the management of … her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts He feels most strongly that she is a threat to his marriage. It is a survival of the fittest. He sees himself as the ruler of his family. If his wife has been swindled, he has been swindled. Now that he feels his superiority again, he begins to act. He wears lurid colors and parades his physicality, stripping off sweaty shirts and smashing objects throughout the play. When he is winning, he is happy as a little boy. His attack is slow and calculated. from your Reading List will also remove any He resents her superior attitude and bides his time. Then the following morning when he overhears himself being referred to as bestial, common, brutal, and a survivor of the Stone Age, he is justifiably enraged against Blanche. be called “Polish.” Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America to which Blanche doesn’t belong, because she is a relic from a defunct Stanley Kowalski, Stella's husband, is a man of solid, blue-collar stock - direct, passionate, and often violent. The roles of women and men through the mid 1900’s were vastly different. Or he breaks dishes or strikes his wife. Thus, he must sit idly by and see his marriage and home destroyed, and himself belittled, or else he must strike back. Class conflict is represented throughout the play, A Streetcar Named Desire in various ways through characters, symbols, ideas and language. by the aristocratic past Blanche represents. When he finds out that she has slept so indiscriminately with so many men, he cannot understand why she should object to one more. Stanley sees himself as a prosecutor exposing the truth about Blanche's past for the benefit of his family. shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The first introduction of Stanley in Williams’s play surfaces in Act I, Scene I. Blanche has just arrived to Stella and Stanley’s apartment and is gains details on Stanley. Instead of a normal typical way of loving, Stanley and Stella live a life filled with sexual intimacy. The Character of Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a classical play about Blanche Dubois’s visit to Elysian Fields and her encounters with her sister’s barbaric husband, Stanley Kowalski. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, author Tennessee Williams does a wonderful job developing the character of Stanley Kowalski. social hierarchy. Stanley Kowalski stumbles home drunkenly to his upstairs apartment. © 2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. is from Poland, and several times he expresses his outrage of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds In the end, Stanley’s down-to-earth character proves Stanley Kowalski lives in a basic, fundamental world which allows for no subtleties and no refinements. Each quote selected is given with an analysis that can be used as a prompt for the understanding of the text. Stanley is the epitome of vital force. their newborn child. question society’s decision to ostracize Blanche. With the appearance of Blanche, Stanley feels an uncomfortable threat to those things that are his. He is controlled by natural instincts untouched by the advances of civilization. He knows that this would not have occurred if Blanche had not been present. hero at the play’s start. Stanley Kowalski: Villain or Family Man? Blanche becomes a threat to his way of life; she is a foreign element, a hostile force, a superior being whom he can't understand. He can understand no relationship between man and woman except a sexual one, where he sees the man's … Moreover, he is a controlling and domineering man, demanding subservience from his wife in the belief that his authority is threatened by Blanche's arrival. His language is rough and crude. He wears lurid colors and parades his physicality, stripping off sweaty shirts and smashing objects throughout the play. He also (rightly) sees To the reader’s sensibilities, his actions are abhorrent. at being called “Polack” and other derogatory names. He must present her past life to his wife so that she can determine who is the superior person. By more sensitive people, he is seen as common, crude, and vulgar. He relishes in loud noises, and his voice rings out like a loud bellow. His only concern is to discover whether he has been cheated. Thus, when something threatens him, he must strike back in order to preserve his own threatened existence. Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire research papers are a character analysis on Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' play. When he is losing at poker, he is unpleasant and demanding. Certainly, his frankness will allow for no deviation from the straightforward truth. Throughout Blanche's stay at his house, he feels that she has drunk his liquor, eaten his food, used his house, but still has belittled him and has opposed him. He can understand no relationship between man and woman except a sexual one, where he sees the man's role as giving and taking pleasure from this relationship Most people consider themselves pretty ordinary, fairly normal, and maybe even a little common. He lives in a rougher city, where love is … what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into 1827 words (7 pages) Essay in Psychology. He possesses no quality that would not be considered manly in the most basic sense. But this dislike would stem from too much identification with Blanche. He probes into the problem without tact or diplomacy. This powerpoint is a thorough breakdown of the character Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Stanley serves as the antithesis to Blanche … He is like the Stone Age savage bringing home the meat from the kill. He can understand no relationship between man and woman except a sexual one, where he sees the man’s … Research papers on Stanley in William's A Streetcar Named Desire give a character portrayal of one of literatures most beloved characters. He sees his pregnant and glowing wife Stella preparing him dinner. Very useful for A-Level English Literature with accompanying quotes per scene. Even the symbols connected with Stanley support his brutal, animal-like approach to life. Previous He begins to compile information about Blanche's past life. He does not care for Belle Reve as a bit of ancestral property, but, instead, he feels that a part of it is his. Stanley Kowalski. character of stanley kowalski Essay Examples Top Tag’s fahrenheit 451 i believe causes of the civil war university of florida death penalty american revolution acts compare and contrast values globalization christmas cold war courage textual analysis poetry Now the Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. Stanley often bellows when he speaks. Are you sure you want to remove #bookConfirmation# The play ends with an image Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. These two worlds are so diametrically opposed that they can never meet. A Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis Stella Kowalski The glaring contrast and fierce struggle between the two worlds of Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois are the main themes of Williams' play. is evident in his love of work, of fighting, and of sex. and any corresponding bookmarks? Life After War: PTSD and the Character of Stanley Kowalski Madison Elizabeth Little College. to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they Stanley, then, is the hard, brutal man who does not understand the refinements of life. Stanley’s intense hatred of Blanche is motivated in part Stanley Kowalski, fictional character, the brutish husband of Stella and brother-in-law of Blanche DuBois in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams. But, in that sense, Stanley Kowalski is exceptional, partly because of Marlon Brando, who created the role, and largely because of how Williams conceived the … All rights reserved. Vital, coarse, sensual, accustomed to humor himself in everything, Stanley Kowalski is a monkey man, with a sleeping soul and primitive inquiries. Consequently, when we approach the rape scene, we must understand that Stanley perceives Blanche as having made him endure too much. At the beginning of the play, we see the main male character Stanley Kowalski as a hero as he is very loyal to his friends and very passionately in love with his wife. The description of Stanley from page 24-25 also gives the audience an insight into Stanley’s character. A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE: CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF STANLEY KOWALSKI He can understand no relationship between man and woman except a sexual one, where he sees the man's role as giving and taking pleasure from this relationship. Stella’s husband, is full of raw strength, ferocity, violent masculinity, and animal magnetism. Blanche asks Stella if Stanley will like her (Williams, 1121). Some will even go so far as to dislike this man intensely. of his actions toward her—his investigations of her past, his birthday are. bookmarked pages associated with this title. Stanley wouldn't be surprised if a law was passed against Blanche and people like her. Stanley Kowalski is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams ' play A Streetcar Named Desire. The usual reaction is to see him as a brute because of the way that he treats the delicate Blanche. April 24, 2019 by Essay Writer When looking at A Streetcar Named Desire – a tragedy, after all – it is traditionally required that there should be a selected antagonist, a ‘villain’ so to speak. He's a man of habit and structure, and his desires in life are quite simple: 1) he enjoys maintaining stereotypical gender roles in his home, with himself as the respected head of the household; 2) he likes spending time with his male friends; and 3) his sexual relationship with his wife is very important to him. He goes straight to the truth without any shortcuts. The Dubois clan, embodied by Blanche, represents the genteel society of the Southern plantation owners that presided through… He is the man who likes to lay his cards on the table. Stanley He is loyal to his friends, passionate to his wife, and heartlessly cruel to Blanche. He is bestial and brutal and determined to destroy that which is not his. His clothes are loud and gaudy. He is the man who likes to lay his cards on the table. CliffsNotes study guides are written by real teachers and professors, so no matter what you're studying, CliffsNotes can ease your homework headaches and help you score high on exams. His family by asserting that he was born in America, is an American, and can only bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideals and imagination. He eats like an animal and grunts his approval or disapproval. It is the survival of the fittest, and Stanley is the strongest. Stella in Scene Eight. Thus he buys her the bus ticket back to Laurel and reveals her past to Mitch. Analysis of Stanley Kowalski’s Mental Health. He is the man who likes to lay his cards on the table. 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