Streetcar Named Desire

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Stella

Williams characterizes Stella as a fool and a slave to her own desire. Stella’s foolishness exhibited when she “slips down the rickety stairs,” to return to Stanley after he assaulted her (67). Stella’s desire to be loved and accepted by Stanley brought her down those stairs into Stanley’s arms. Her desire to be loved by Stanley clouded every moral thought in her mind and brought her into her delusional perfect love state despite it her and Stanley’s love being quite problematic. Stella displays in this scene that she “is not in anything that [she] wants to get out of,” she has learned to expect this kind of behavior from Stanley (74). She finds it romantically enticing like on Stella’s wedding night “he smashed all the light-bulbs with the heel of [her] slipper” and she said she was “thrilled by it,” which motivates her sexual attraction to Stanley (72-73). Her sexual desire and loyalty to Stanley is fueled by her own emotions and her foolish notion that the things Stanley does are normal and acceptable.

Although her loyalty lies with Stanley, she calls out Stanley on how “how stupid and horrid [he is] being,” when he accuses her of lying about the Belle Reve (35). Even though Stella is constantly under Stanley’s thumb, she never takes his side when he is arguing or insulting Blanche. Williams depicts Stella as a pushover who is virtuous and pure, and is willing to stand up for both Stanley and Blanche, due to her foolish love for both of them. Even though she honorably accepts and sticks up for the ones she loves, she is in return immersed in internal hardship to see them both butt heads, which causes the audience pity and sympathize with her. Stella is the goal for both Blanche and Stanley both want to receive her admiration and respect them, yet Stella ultimately chooses Stanley and chooses morals over desire. Despite Stella pushing her sister into a mental institution because “[she] couldn’t believe [Blanche’s] story and go on living with Stanley,” she had to what she thought was right for her child who needed a stable income and living conditions. Like what was she going to do like Oh bye Stanley who would probably hurt her or something after, and hey, but look Aunt Blanche is here with those disappointing caramel candies (she would probably be that aunt who would have those) go give her a hug and a compliment even though she ruined everyone's life and now her child has no dad, but it was morally the right decision to ruin her child’s life. William’s paints Stella as a dynamic character with changing emotions and loyalties to the ones she loves, yet she has to make the hardest moral decisions throughout the play.

Mitch

Mitch is the black sheep within Stanley’s heard of poker boys, Williams sets this to match the way that Blanche does not quite fit in with Stella and Stanley’s environment. Mitch relates to Blanche due “[his] girl [being] dead now” and them both being lonely and out of place (53). He is kind and is one of the first men we see actually treating women with respect, and despite Mitch being friends with Stanley he completely juxtaposes him, due to him actually losing the one he loved. Williams ultimately sets up a gentlemanly side character to potentially sweep Blanche off her feet, but Blanche existentially ruins any chance of her and Mitch even getting to that point.

Major Themes

Sex/desire

Williams paints an environment that is Elusion Fields, which is a highly sexual place and every character is deeply rooted and connected through sexual tension, and sexual desire.

Stella’s sexual orientation juxtaposes Blanche's sexual orientation, Due to Blanche fumbling around with sexual tension between characters while Stella’s connection with Stanley is based both of them desiring one another. Blanche engages in sexual tension between multiple characters including Stanley, Mitch, and even secondary characters. A major moment in scene one is the sexual tension that occurs between Stanley and Blanche. There were flirtatious vibes when Stanley takes off his shirt and Blanche hastily agrees with things he says, but this is all foreshadowing the rape scene ahead. Stanley says “[they’ve] had this date with each other from the beginning,” which flashes all the way back to scene one with the flirtatious vibes they were putting out (162). Blanche’s sexual tension started the minute she made contact with Stanley, and these sexual gestures all lead up to the ultimate act of violence through intercourse. Although Stanley is not the only character that Blanche has sexual tension with, the tension between Mitch and her is more one sided and that Mitch is the one feeling attacked and cheated. Blanche has a normal desirable connection with Mitch when they first meet. They talk about the connection they have with the “ sonnet by Mrs. Browning,” and the loss of the ones they love (56). The longer that Mitch and Blanche get to know each other throughout the play the more that Mitch dislikes Blanche causing sexual tension. Mitch in scene nine just wanted what “[he] had been missing all summer,” which was just sex, and then he denies Blanche’s marriage proposal and tells her she is “not clean enough” for his mother (149-150). Mitch causes this sexual tension, because he still desires the human contact with Blanche, yet he cannot commit to her due to her past and her lies. Blanche cannot help causing sexual tension with every man she meets she even puts out to the young paperboy right before Mitch shows up. The Young Man just wants to leave and do his job and Blanche playfully “touches his cheek lightly, and smiles” and then goes on flirting with him even though she knows she is supposed to see Mitch soon (98). Williams depicts Blanche as a creature who consistently relies on any man she sees to be attracted to her and stroke her ego and when this is not accomplished she causes sexual tension with the man. Despite Williams adding multiple occurrences of sexual tension with Blanche, Stella juxtaposes this and is connected to her environment through sexual desire. Stella’s example of desire always goes back to her returning to Stella after he struck her during the poker game and she is still willing to say “he was as good as a lamb...and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself,” even after he abused her in a drunken rage (72). Stella’s reasoning and connection with her husband is her desire for the normal love that she felt before Blanche entered their home. Stella’s sexual position juxtaposed Blanche’s due to Stella putting her lover in front of her own wellbeing, while Blanche does the opposite and