Williams makes sure nothing is white or black but grey so that at some moments in the play we struggle to find a reason for her cool manipulation and hunger for power while at others we pity her pathetic life founded on lies and misconceptions. Even when she tries to break up Stanley and Stella’s relationship we don’t immediately brand her as a villain, we remember that if Stella hadn’t left than maybe Blanche would have become what she had wanted to become rather than what society dictated her to become.
However, for a moment she completely loses our sympathy as she tries to provoke Stanley into fighting with Stella by turning the radio on again separate them. Her experience with men is clearly shown as she is the only one who predicts that Stanley is going to turn violent when she cries out: "Stella, watch out, he’s -". it is also hard to avoid the thought that Blanche is trying to separate them because Stanley is one of the only people she can’t control and manipulate. Stanly belongs to a different world to hers and so her old way of charming men does not work on him.
In scene 4 we see how deep Blanche’s desperation runs: her need to feel in control brings her to try to turn Stella against Stanley again by saying: "He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits" and so on, that is because Blanche feels that Stanly is the wall between her and Stella or he is the one who isolates her from the surroundings because he is so different to her. When Stanley comes back from work and hears the conversation through the window we do feel some sympathy for Blanche who we fear will become the target of Stanley’s fury.
In scene 8 we can start to predict her downfall as Stanley shows hints (to Blanche) that he knows the truth and does what the audience can tell will damage her sanity by giving her a ticket back to Laurel. Blanche is very perceptive again and senses something is wrong until he tells her and she runs into the bathroom. She tries to hide her past from others and herself but it keeps crawling back in her perception and knowledge of men.
In scene 9, Mitch faces Blanche and her whole world collapses around her as her past catches up with her and as she is too weak to face it she goes mad. The last straw is when Mitch turns on the light and sees the real her and not the "lies, lies and lies". We understand the need of the other people in the play to know the truth yet we sympathized with her race against her past and pity her end.
In scene 10, she is totally insane, she can no longer be who she wanted to become, she can no longer be the innocent teenager she was in her youth and she can not be her real self because she does not know who she really is. Stanley takes advantage of her breakdown to (we think) rape her and that marks the end of everything she wanted to symbolize as he treats her as the whore he thinks she is. Finally as a last attempt to be somebody or something she resorts to phoning up the operator and desperately asks for Shep Huntleigh of Dallas. And so Blanche finds herself totally lost in the new world that Stanly operates.
The last scene, scene 11, marks the end for Blanche when she is taken away to a mental hospital still believing she will go on that cruise. One of the last things she says turns out to be the truest self-examination she makes in the play as the Doctor says: "Miss Dubois" she immediately stops resisting and says: "Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". At last somebody shows her some respect and consideration and calls her by the name she wants to be called "Miss Dubois".
The two characters of the play Stanley and Blanche are very opposite, they represent different worlds and each one of them is trying to survive in their own way and prove that they are right.
If we take a look at Stanley, he is loud mouthed, opinionated, sexist, aggressive and animalistic- all overriding characteristics of Stanly Kowalski the man who in no small part is responsible for the dramatic collapse of Blanche. On first impression there is very little reason for the audience to feel sympathetic towards Stanley, but in my opinion it is unfair to hate Stanley for actions and characteristics that he has little or no control over.
It is difficult to say weather the words and actions of Stanley are motivated by true love for Stella or by selfish need to keep her for himself and no-one else. It seems to me that Stanley’s feelings for Stella change between love and need and leads him to attempt to protect her from Blanche. Although it is clear that many of Stanley’s actions are done out of Self-defense, or to defending his world. For example Stanley’s exposure of Stella’s pregnancy, which is arguably for a calculated and deliberate effect, makes it clear that the bond between the couple is stronger then Blanche had previously thought.
The scene when Stanley rapes Blanche is the beginning of the end for Blanche. Sex is her most obvious weakness. That is the reason why she ran to New Orleans in the first place. Since she had come to New Orleans she had tried to avoid it. But, once again, Stanley is in direct contrast to this. Blanche is almost a direct contrast to Stanley. Blanche loves living in an idealistic world, while Stanley strictly relies on facts.
Stanley’s survival instinct is so powerful that in the end it turns out that the only people who manage to emerge from the play relatively unscathed are the ones that latch themselves on to him and are subsequently pulled through by him, those that try to stand against him are the ones who ultimately fall. Perhaps the most telling characteristic of Stanley is that he remains totally unchanged by the end of the play. He is the survivor, and whilst Blanche is taken away and Stella is emotionally destroyed, Stanley believes that he can re-enter the pattern of life that he previously enjoyed, the play ends with the extremely disturbing image of continuity, in this one image Williams is able to completely sum up what Stanley represents. I think that it is wrong to think that Stanley is the only person responsible for the downfall of Blanche and as such should not receive all of the blame.
However there are very clearly cruel intentions behind many of his actions. Stella says that her husbands animal emotions are that he has and indeed the natural reaction to the invasion of territory both physically and the intrusion into his way of life is understandable. Stanley says that ‘be comfortable is my motto’ and Blanche clearly makes him feel uncomfortable. Stanley’s eventual victory is not only his personal victory but a victory of the new world over the old.
In my opinion Blanche is as much if not more to blame for her eventual downfall at the hands of Stanley. From very early on Stanley establishes himself as a symbol of the new World, whereas Blanche remains a symbol of the old world of white houses, frilly dresses and slaves. From the beginning we see that Blanche does not fit in with the people of her new community, nor her physical surroundings in her new home.
We can see that she did not fit in with the people of the community by comparing the manner in which women in the story handle their social life with men .Much of Blanche’s attitude shows how she is unwilling to accept the new world and so also unwilling to accept Stanley.
In my view Blanche seals her own fate by encouraging the mutual attraction that exists between the two from the start. Stanley seems right when he says We’ve had this date from the beginning Blanche must have been able to see that her behavior towards Stanley from the first moment they met was forcing Stanley into his later actions. It appears clear that Blanche needs a person like Stanley to survive but she also has no choice but to fight him for survival, this is a dilemma that is never solved. I believe that Blanche’s inability to decide about Stanley is what eventually forces Stanley to find a new level on which Blanche has no way of beating him.
There is a never-ending conflict between Stanley and Blanche, that each one of them tries to get Stella on their side, but it seems like Stella’s choice is hard enough between her sister or husband- her childhood (the past) or her present and future.
As Blanche gets weaker representing the old world, Stanley is in control as the modern man. He and Stella send Blanche to a mental hospital where Stanley gets rid of her interfering between him and Stella.
The play ends with a doctor visiting Blanche and taking her away. Stanley wins the race, the conflict. The new world takes over.
By: Zahraa Al Ali
