“The poker players wear coloured shirts, solid blues, a purple, a red and light green and they are men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours.”
This quote, when Stanley is indulging in one of his favourite pastimes; poker with some friends likens the bold and powerful primary colours on the men’s shirts to their personalities.
Stanley is the main factor behind the downfall of Blanche, which contributes to making him an important character in the play.
He doesn’t care about Blanche, or the fact she is his wife’s sister. He feels bitter resentment towards her and believes that she is entirely responsible for losing Belle Reve.
Stanley hates Blanche with passion. He sees her as untrustworthy. His hostility is rooted in the class differences between himself and Blanche. “The Kowalski’s and the Du Bois’s have different notions” (page 18) is what he says.
He believes he has a role to live up to as a male and the quote “A gaudy seedbearer” describes him perfectly.
Blanche heavily depends on male attention and sexual admiration to boost her self – esteem, and easily succumbs to romance. Stanley knows this and uses it to create a tense atmosphere between them. He tells her “If I didn’t know that you was my wife’s sister, I’d get ideas about you!” (Page 21.)
This strongly suggests to Blanche that her flirtatious manner could be mistaken for that of a prostitute.
Stanley also resents Blanche for intruding on his, what was a happy and balanced home life. Stanley loves Stella passionately, proving to Blanche that their love is stronger than she may have previously thought.
Stanley takes great offence when referred to as a “Polack” by Blanche. She calls it him throughout the play until he finally snaps, saying “I am not a Polack. People from Poland are poles, not Polacks. But what I am is one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on Earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack.” This shows how he wants to represent the New American Society.
Blanche says of Stanley “There is something down-right-bestial about him” (page 40.) In a conversation between Blanche and Stella, Blanche tells her “The only way to live with such a man is to – go to bed with him! And that’s your job not mine!”
This shows how Blanche must be aware of Stanley’s sexual magnetism and is freely admitting it to his own wife. She also tells Stella “What such man he is to offer his animal force and he gave a wonderful exhibition of that.” This is likening Stanley to an animal.
Stanley slyly tells Mitch the revelations from Blanche’s dark past. When he tells him, he knows how much hurt and embarrassment this will cause to Blanche and ruin her relationship with Mitch. He pretends he tells him because he wants to protect a good friend. When Mitch and Blanche first meet again after the allegations, Blanche says “Who told you I wasn’t – “Straight?” My loving brother in law. And you believed him.” This shows how Blanche is aware that Stanley wants to ruin her relationship and contribute to her downfall.
Stanley’s hatred of Blanche is so intense it leads to the madness that was him raping her whilst Stella was in hospital, giving birth to his child. Before doing it he says to her “Stop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” It seems from that quote that the rape will be all the tensions that they have encountered from when they first met, released. The rape tells us a lot about Stanley; he will do anything if it means causing hurt and sadness to Blanche, even if it results in betraying the wife he shows so much desire towards.
Stanley describes when he and Stella first met “I was as common as dirt. I pulled you down from off them columns and how you loved it!” This shows how he thinks he pulled Stella down to his own social class level once they had met. It again indicates his awareness towards social class.
The final scene is where Blanche is taken away by the doctor, showing Stanley with Stella and the new baby. He is comforting his clearly upset wife. He says “Now love. Now honey. Now, now love.”
It is ironic that he is portrayed as a real family – oriented man in this final scene considering his actions during the rest of the play.
In conclusion, Stanley Kowalski plays an important role in the play. He is the main factor behind the downfall of the main character, Blanche. He takes full advantage of his role as a strong, confident, dominant male to do this. The way his character is directly linked to they key themes within the play – Desire, fate, social class and madness also contributes to making him an important character.
