A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Scenes 1 and 2, p. 1-44)

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Scenes 1 and 2, p. 1-44)

Summary: In the first scene, Blanche, Stella’s sister, unexpectedly arrives at Stella’s house to find that she is living with her husband in a small, rather unassuming home in comparison to the house they lived in before. Blanche brings news about the loss of their former house in Belle Reve. However, upon seeing Blanche’s extravagant clothes and jewelry, Stanley believes Stella made up the reason for losing their home and is instead keeping the money for herself and cheating Stella. In frustration, Stanley throws Blanche’s belongings onto the bed. When Stanley confronts Blanche with his accusations, Blanche then provides him with paperwork showing transactions from various mortgage firms to prove that the house was indeed lost through mortgages. In the last part of scene two, Stanley tells Blanche that Stella is pregnant.

Unfamiliar Vocabulary:
Bodice: the part of a woman’s dress that is above the waist
Perpetrate: to carry out or commit
Valise: a small traveling bag or suitcase

Character Analysis: Stanley

From the very first line of the play, Stanley is portrayed bellowing, “Hey there! Stella, baby!” right before he heaves a package of meat to a presumably dainty Stella. Just after that, he rounds the corner as he goes off to a bowling game with his friends. Right from the beginning, the contrast between Stanley and Stella’s characters is emphasized, and Stanley is portrayed as an extremely virile, almost primitive man. This is further accentuated with the arrival of Blanche. The first conversation held between Blanche and Stanley showed the difference in upbringing of the two people; Stanley uses very unrefined language and doesn’t engage in small talk, and seems almost impolite when first meeting and speaking with Blanche. Furthermore, there was a subtle hint at this when Stanley refused to tie Blanche’s buttons on her dress, saying that he, “can’t do nothing with them.” Also, in the director’s notes, he describes that, “Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women… branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink, and food and games, his car… he sizes women up at a glance with sexual classifications and crude images flashing into his mind.”

Aside from initially being portrayed as crude and dissimilar to Stella and Blanche in nearly all aspects, Stanley is also shown as having a short temper. When he first becomes suspicious of Blanche “swindling him through the Napoleonic Code” after Stella tells him what Blanche reported to her about the lost house in Belle Reve, he immediately storms into the bedroom and immediately throws Blanche’s clothes onto the bed and snatches a fist-full of her jewelry, saying that the clothes and jewelry were too expensive to have come from Blanche’s pay, and were rather paid for through money gained from selling the house. He swears that he has acquaintances who will appraise all of Blanche’s belongings to prove to Stella that Blanche is a fraud. However, this is all even before Stanley confronts Blanche about the situation. Not only does this show that Stanley is short-tempered, but also, it suggests that Stanley may be jealous of Blanche’s former wealth and their social standings.