A Streetcar Named Desire: A Level York Notes

I agree with this view. After all, Blanche is the play’s tragic heroine. Some critics say that she only achieves this status by the end, but early on she at least deserves our sympathy. Right at the start a stage direction says she is like a ‘moth’, because she is vulnerable and fluttery. She also tells Stella in Scene One that ‘you must have noticed – I’m not very well ...’ She looks frightened as she says this, which makes us sympathetic. She has had a tough time in her past, with her husband killing himself because he was gay and she found out, so she feels guilty. When she tells Mitch this he is sympathetic and so are we. She also hints to Stella that she has had to give herself to men when she says ‘soft people have got to court the favour of hard ones’ (Scene Five). What this means is clearer in Scene Eight when she says she has had sex with many men, including soldiers, in the Hotel Tarantula. These days we might not be bothered about this but Mitch obviously is.

This leads to the fight with Stanley when she tries to defend herself with a broken bottle, and then to the rape which happens offstage Blanche fails to get Mitch to marry her, and then in Scene Ten gets drunk and starts to lose her mind.but is the terrible climax of the play. At the end she is fantasising about Shep Huntleigh and dying at sea from eating a grape. It is horrible when the Doctor and Nurse come for her, and most people would surely sympathise.(like in a Greek tragedy)

Blanche’s sister Stella is a lot more stable than Blanche. She might not be so bright, which could be why she has settled down with Stanley and reads comics not literature like Blanche. But she is still sensible. For example, she tells Blanche to ‘stop this hysterical outburst’. Really, Stella is just an adoring housewife. She clearly loves Stanley and says she has no intention of leaving him – when Blanche says she should after the poker night. Maybe she is even too easy-going, as many women would have left. But she is pregnant, which is a reason not to do so.

Of the two main male characters, Mitch is the more likeable. He is drawn to Blanche at the poker party and shows her his cigarette case, showing he is fairly sensitive. Blanche herself sees that he is not like the other men. It seems for some time that his main fault is being dull. When they go out for the evening in Scene Six, they have had a dull time, but he just makes it duller by talking about his weight. However, he does sympathise with Blanche about her husband. In a way he is practical about their relationship, saying that they both need someone, so why not? But in the fateful Scene Nine we see another side to Mitch. He comes round drunk and in work clothes, and rips off the paper lampshade. This seems almost like an assault on someone so delicate as Blanche. She desperately tries to get him to understand that her behaviour in the Hotel Flamingo was because she was lonely, but he just thinks if she slept with all those men, why not him, and tries to rape her. It is only her calling ‘Fire!’ that stops him. To be fair, he does try to protest to Stanley at the final poker party, but this is not much use to Blanche.

Stanley, of course, is the villain of the piece. He seems quite pleasant at first, making jokes about alcohol and so on, and asking Blanche about her job, but he soon starts to lose patience with having her there. His first really despicable act is at the end of the poker party, when he smashes the radio and hits Stella – who is pregnant at the time. He is sorry afterwards, but even this could be just a trick. He still shouts for her with ‘ear-splitting violence’.

The next despicable thing he does is to give Blanche a bus ticket to Laurel. This is meant to be a birthday present, so it is especially cruel, as Stella points out. However, his worst crime is obviously when he rapes Blanche in Scene Ten. He tries to make out that it is fate: ‘We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!’ But nothing excuses this kind of behaviour. Even in Scene Eleven he just ignores Blanche, sitting and playing poker like nothing has happened. He is despicable, whereas Blanche shows nobility of character.