Stanley Kowalski Quotes

New Orleans is best known for its Creole culture, Cajun food timeless French influence, jazz music, and yearly celebration of the wild time known as Mardi Gras. What most people do not know is that New Orleans is known for its rich literary history, from The Awakening by Kate Chopin to a story such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams. This Paper will give a character study on one of the characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” That character will be Stanley Kowalski, a man in his mid to late twenties or early thirties, with Polish ancestry. Stanley Kowalski, the antagonist of the story, has a violent nature that makes him resort to both physical and verbal abuse; this behavior directly leads to the mental decline of Stanley’s

Stanley’s lack of respect for Blanche’s mental fragility mixed with his verbal abuse and cruelty pushes her to the brink of insanity. Stanley does not only verbally abuse Blanche, but he also physically abuses her. The height of this physical abuse comes at the end of scene ten. Stella is in the hospital expected to deliver in the next 24-hours and Stanley comes home form the hospital to a distraught Blanche. Stanley is amicable and overjoyed with the fact that he will soon be having a son, while Blanche on the other hand has no hope in finding love or happiness having lost her opportunity with Mitch due to Stanley telling him about Blanche’s past. Blanche refers to Stanley as “swine” This upsets Stanley and he begins to taunt Blanche, even though he knows of her insecurities about her appearance. “Take a look at yourself in that worn-out Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag-picker! And with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?” (10.107). Blanche’s reaction to his comments makes it evident that her remaining spirits are being broken. Stanley immediately looks to completely break her with physical abuse. He approaches her despite her requests for him to stay away. She smashes a bottle on the table and faces him, clutching the broken top (10.140). Stanley states Oh! So you want some roughhouse! All right, lets have some roughhouse!” (10.145) This marks the final step of Stanley’s breaking of Blanche’s mental state. ‘Tiger…! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” She moans. The bottle-top falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her to bed