"A Streetcar Named Desire" is the famous story of Blanche du Bois and Stanley Kowalski's passionate struggle for power; written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, the play is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 1940s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay To judge the extent to which Stanley is a villain you must first evaluate what criteria a typical villain is. it fits. Throughout the play Stanley proves to inflict emotional pain on Blanche, and by not allowing her to forget her past and destroying any possibility of love in her life Stanley becomes an obstacle that she must try to overcome The death of the protagonist However, even though it seems that Stanley is vengeful and only puts Blanche down for his own personal gain, it could be argued that he is doing this for his relationship with Stella as Stanley would like things to go back to the way they were before Blanche. arrived. Stanley talks about how he wants their relationship to just go back to normal: "Stell, everything will be fine after she [Blanche] is gone..." Stanley first shows signs of evil in scene three, through his need to be dominant which foreshadows the conflict between him and Blanche which later leads to rape. At the beginning of the scene, he tries to assert his authority by telling Stella and Blanche to "cut that conversation right there!" Throughout the scene, when he feels like he is losing control and authority, he loses his temper; a characteristic of a traditional villain, in the form of hitting Stella after she yells at him: "Drunk - drunk - animal thing, you!" It is clear to the audience that Stanley would have wanted to hit Blanche instead. The fact that Williams stages the scene so that the "strike" was off-stage demonstrates that this violence would have been just as shocking at the time the play was written as it would be to a modern audience. This scene establishes Stanley as a villain. and an obstacle to Blanche's progress early on. It is possible, however, to argue that Stanley is not a traditional villain; in the opening scene, Stanley is the civilian character, not Blanche. It seems friendly and even welcoming; "Well, relax." The audience feels sympathy for Stanley who has just had his wife's sister arrive, clearly out of the blue, as he says; “I didn't know you [Blanche] were coming to town.” We can identify with Stanley more than Blanche in this scene, because Blanche is invading his home and while this comment is reserved, it is undeniably civil. The fact that Blanche drank some of Stanley's liquor doesn't go unnoticed as the captions tell us that Stanley "holds the bottle up to the light to watch its depletion" before telling Blanche "Some people rarely touch it, but she touch often." " - both indicate that he knows that Blanche is a heavy drinker and that she has drunk his alcohol, but he does not question it. At first, he seems to have no objections towards Blanche and tries to make conversation, even though he seems to dominate It. Although Stanley is not a villain in this scene, there is a growing sense of tension and opposition building. The tension is shown when the two try to engage in small talk throughout the scene, and there is an obvious one. dichotomy between them. Blanche is portrayed with pale skin, a white dress and fluttering manner, suggesting a fragile moth, which is in contrast to Stanley's bold colors and pushy nature. At the end of the scene, Stanley unnecessarily mentions her husband Blanche's death, Allan; correctly suggesting for the first time that Stanley has a cruel and evil side as he clearly intends to inflict painemotional causing Blanche to remember Allan with the comment "What happened?" Another scene where the audience feels sorry for Stanley is in scene four, when he hears Blanche trying to convince Stella to leave Stanley. Blanche points out the differences between her and Stanley, saying "Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the Stone Age!" “Things like art, like poetry and music, new lights have appeared in the world since then!” We also feel sympathy for Stanley at the end of scene three when he begs Stella to come back: “I want my baby down here. Star, Star!” It is in scene ten that Stanley reveals the true extent of his wickedness, as well as being the dramatic climax of the play. At the beginning of the scene, Blanche is staring into a mirror, shakily "raising her hand" before slamming. he lowers it "with such violence that the glass breaks", giving a distorted image – a metaphor for his distorted view of the world. Stanley enters wearing a "vivid green" shirt, the bold color that emphasizes his personality and mood. Stanley senses Blanche's anguish and mocks her fantasies and illusions of a rich admirer coming to save her; “Good, good. What do you know?" The fact that she needs to be saved highlights the fact that she is trapped; unable to escape her mind and the memories she tries to repress. Dramatic irony is used effectively in Stanley's line "He goes to prove, not you never know what will happen” which foreshadows the rape. The audience expects a climax due to the tension that has been created during the show and the scene is full of sexual references such as "tapping the bottle cap on the corner of the table", " the cork comes off", "bury the hatchet". and "cup of love", which alludes to the conclusion of the play. Over the course of the scene, the tension increases as the atmosphere between the two fluctuates; beginning of the scene, there is a moment where it seems that Stanley is about to make a friendly gesture towards Blanche, but, when she refuses, the previous animosity between them is re-established Blanche then makes a biblical reference "throw mine pearls before swine" which Stanley doesn't understand and takes as a direct insult. For a short time, he plays with her illusions before suddenly turning against her again. As the scene closes, Williams uses imagery to make Blanche's terror take physical form as "grotesque and threatening shapes" closing in around her and animalistic. sounds are heard and frightening and sinister 'shadows and lurid reflections' appear on the walls, moving like 'flames' that imitate Blanche's nervous movements. Stanley's last line "We've had this date since the beginning" shows his intentions and to some extent Stanley is right when he says this; The relationship between Blanche and Stanley was always sexual to some extent – ​​Blanche was fully aware of Stanley's intense masculinity and responded with provocative, seductive and sexual behavior, even admitting to her sister that she knew about sexual desire – “when the devil is in you”. This scene is technically very dramatic in technique and the use of blue piano and 'inhuman voices like cries in a jungle' create a menacing, animalistic effect. The sounds of the train, on which the tram called Desire Blanche arrives, are heard throughout the show and become louder and faster. The train will inevitably crash like Blanche. The visual effects represent the current evil and Blanche's transition to madness. Williams intended to shock the audience with the full extent of Stanley's evil in this climactic scene and his act even seems monstrous because he is raping his pregnant wife's sister. It is in this scene that Stanley displays almost all the traits of a traditional villain; it causes pain to Blanche both.