Sympathy for Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire

Sympathy for Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire

Can we view Stanley sympathetically in scene 3?

However to be able to view Stanley sympathetically we need to

understand his emotion and mentality, before we make a full judgment

on him. I personally feel Stanley is a harsh character but I also

believe he is pushed into doing such actions and I cannot help feel

that if Blanche had not visited none of this would have happened. In

this particular scene I do sympathise with Stanley and I will go into

greater detail to explain why I commiserate with his character.

Stanley Kowalski is a very interesting and controlling character,

although the usual reaction is to see him as a brute because of the

way that he treats the delicate Blanche. But this dislike would stem

from too much identification with Blanche. Stanley Kowalski lives in a

basic, fundamental world which does not allow any form of disruption.

He is the sort of man that likes to lay his cards on the table, and

does not appreciate people who put on airs.

To the over-sensitive person, such as Blanche, Stanley represents a

holdover from the Stone Age. He is brutal and determined to destroy

that which is not his. His animal-like actions reinforce this idea, he

eats like an animal and grunts his approval or disapproval. When

aroused to anger, he strikes back throwing things, such as the radio

in scene three, “with a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out of

the window”. or he strikes his wife, “there is a sound of a blow,

Stella cries out”. Stanley is a man of physical action.

However I consider Stanley to have more feelings than Blanche cares to

admit or even consider. Blanche is a foreign element, who Stanley

feels is a threat to his marriage...

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...s belittled

him and has opposed him. She has never conceded to him his right to be

the “king” in his own house. Thus, he must sit idly by and see his

marriage and home destroyed, and himself belittled, or else he must

strike back. His attack is slow and calculated. He begins to compile

information about Blanche’s past life. He must present her past life

to his wife so that she can determine who is the superior person. 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. Now

that he feels his superiority again, he begins to act. 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. Thus he buys her the bus ticket back to Laurel and

reveals her past to Mitch.