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Stanley Kowalski, a focal character, is the epitome of male dominance and primitive aggression. He is verbally and physically abusive towards his wife, Stella, in order to establish his power over her.
Key interpretation. Stanley's refusal to kiss Stella in front of Blanche could show that he is inhibited in Blanche's presence, or that he resents his wife for allowing her to stay with them.
Also, while Blanche abhors roughhousing, violent behavior arouses Stella. She says she found it thrilling when Stanley smashed the light bulbs on their wedding night. After their fight in Scene Three, Stella returns to Stanley's arms in response to his screaming her name “with heaven-splitting violence.”
Violence 4: Stanley throws the radio through the window in a violent rage. Stella is angry, they fight, and he hits her. This time, their physical communication is purely violent. He does not beat her much; he hit her once.
Stanley yells "Stella!" in scene three. It comes after he has just physically beat Stella, who escapes upstairs to Eunice's apartment with Blanche. Stanley is in the street, half-dressed and drunk, calling for his wife to come back. Eunice tells him to stop and berates him for abusing his pregnant wife.
Tennessee Williams shows how the character Stanley abuses his power of Stella and Blanche by revealing that the violence progresses through the play as the women are more and more abused by the men. Blanche is an important character throughout the play as she is mentioned in all the scenes.
The men pull him off, the poker game breaks up, and Blanche and Stella escape to their upstairs neighbor Eunice's apartment. A short while later, Stanley is remorseful and cries up to Stella to forgive him. To Blanche's alarm, Stella returns to Stanley and embraces him passionately.
However, in the film adaptation, it is shown that Stella leaves him and takes their child (although it is ambiguous if she goes back to him). This, however, was required under the censorship code then in force. Later television versions restored the original stage version, which always has her staying with him.
Progress booster: Stella's devotion to Stanley
It is obvious, even without her passionate declaration in Scene Four, that she is deeply in love with her husband, and this love is the cornerstone of her existence.
He rapes her out of anger, out of pent-up sexual frustration, and as a way to assert his power. He's a complex villain, to be sure, but the scene is written and staged primarily from Blanche's point of view, so that we experience her fear and her sense of being closed in upon.
Stanley's greed reveals his misogyny, or woman-hating tendencies. As a man, Stanley feels that what Stella has belongs to him. He also hates Blanche as a woman and as a person with a more prestigious family name, and therefore suspects that Blanche's business dealings have been dishonest.
And Blanche's attraction to Stanley is evident from the beginning. But then again, Blanche is pretty much attracted to any man who shows her the slightest bit of attention. Blanche is no genteel lady of refinement as she would have everyone believe and Stanley sees through that delicate balancing act.
Stella makes polite introductions, but the men show no interest in Blanche's presence. When Stella asserts that it's time to stop playing for the night, Stanley refuses her request, tells her to go upstairs to Eunice's, and disrespectfully slaps her on the buttocks.
Besides, she says, Stanley is always smashing things around like that. On their wedding night, she says, he took one of her slippers and went around their new place smashing all the light bulbs with it. Stella still finds this amusing.
Stella is a victim of her own unrealistic expectations, which she projects onto Stanley instead of seeing who he is. (And we've all done that.) She is also a victim of Stanley's belittling, fits of rage, violence, and "he-man" user attitudes.
The ending to A Streetcar Named Desire is all about cruel and tragic irony. Blanche is shipped off to a mental institution because she can't deal with reality and retreats into illusion—yet Stella is doing the very same thing by ignoring her sister's story about Stanley.
Stanley himself takes the final stabs at Blanche, destroying the remainder of her sexual and mental esteem by raping her and then committing her to an insane asylum.
As Stella comes out of the bathroom, Blanche turns on the radio and begins a little waltz, and Mitch clumsily tries to follow when suddenly Stanley charges into the room and throws the radio out the window. Stella screams at him and tells everyone to go home. Stanley becomes enraged and hits Stella.
As Blanche and Stanley represent two diametrically opposed worlds, so Stella represents a bridge between the two poles. For Stella shows that a meeting point of coexistence is possible between Blanche's and Stanley's separate worlds.
She appears to finally show remorse for her act of betrayal against Blanche, and so the fact that she is crying places her figuratively back in Blanche's possession.
In between scenes 10 and 11, how has Blanche processed the sexual assault? It seems that she has told her sister, Stella. However, having returned from the hospital with her firstborn child and being fully aware that Blanche has become mentally unstable, Stella has chosen not to believe her story.
In the beginning of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley appears to the hero since he contrasts Blanche's upper-class sensibilities. However, he soon becames the villain when he shows his abusive nature towards Stella. He cements this position when he rapes Blanche towards the end of the play.
She tells him that they have lost Belle Reve and that Blanche is upset and it would help if Stanley could admire Blanche's dress. But Stanley wants to return to the loss of Belle Reve.
She does not leave Stanley when he abuses her. She does not even believe her sister about who her husband really is. The decisions Stella makes destin her to the life she is now leading. In the beginning, Stella chooses to leave her life of riches and move to the poverty stricken Quarter.