Why did Stanley rape Blanche? (Street Car named Desire)
The reason why Any man rapes a woman can never be put down to a simple or singular reason. We tend to see rape as a sexual matter but that has been proven by psychologist to almost never be the case. Rape is a violent act of control, hatred, or suppression. We must look carefully at the character of Stanley and of the changed world that this play is set in. He is usually seen as a brute and a bully and we can not doubt this as per his treatment of his wife and Blanche. However before we align ourselves too much against him we must take a clear look at what the world has made.
Stanley Kowalski is a simple man and he has had little education to raise him from the level that he entered the world. He does not pretend to be anything that he is not in stark contrast to Blanche. Maybe he is unable to. He cannot relate to women in a way that we might understand. He relates Stella as a man not as a husband. He is unable to nurture although he pretend to be concerned about his wife and child and gives this as his reason for wanting to know about what happened to Blanche’s family home. He is common and vulgar and what you see is what you get. He is manly but only in a way that we could consider physical masculinity. He is proud of his body and has no regard for company in the way he dresses. He can lose control of himself as we saw when he threw the radio out of the window. He is totally physical as we see him breaking dishes and beating his wife. Tennesse Williams wants us to see his rawness and association with meat as in the first scene we see him bring home meat from the butcher. All of this is unquestioned and he is allowed to swing from menacing bully when he is losing at cards to happy child when is winning. All this changes with the appearance of the over sensitive Blacnhe.
