Blanche And Stella

The following sample essay on “Blanche And Stella”: discuss how each of the following characters that are Stanley, Mitch, Blanche and Stella use their actions, emotions, and sex to manipulate each other in order to survive and achieve what they have set out to do.

In this play each one of the characters has an intention to fulfil a need of their own, for Stanley he’s intention is to remain as a dominant force in his and Stella’s relationship and not let anyone get in between their love for each other, he also uses sex as one of his strong points to manipulate Stella and lead her to believe that he is right all the way.

Mitch’s ambition in this play is to find a partner and have a good and stable relationship with them before he’s mother dies, he wants to make he’s mother proud of him that he is going to have someone else to comfort him after she dies.

Why Does Stanley Want Blanche To Leave

Blanches need in this play is also to find a partner to comfort her as she had lost her young lover and needs someone to light a bright spark in her life and also to let her forget the tragic death of her past lover which still haunts her through out the play. Stella’s desire in this play is a bit like Stanley’s she needs to keep her husband in order to survive in this play and she also needs sexual passion from him in order to let their relationship to be a strong bond.

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I have summarised the characters and their needs in this play, at the end of this play I am going to conclude on who I think did not survive and achieve their needs and which characters did survive an fulfil their needs. Stanley Throughout this play Stanley portrays himself as a dominant and sometimes as a brutal person, he uses his strength, his masculinity, his aggression and sometime even sexual dominance to manipulate those around him. Stanley needs all of these things to survive in this play in order keep his wife and to keep himself on top of everyone else.

If Stanley does not get his feelings across to people, he goes hysterical and lets them know straight away an example is when he has finally has had enough of Blanche so he says to her ‘Remember what Huey Long said – Every man is a King and I am the King around here so don’t forget it’. Here is an example of Stanley using his masculinity and dominance to show that he is the King around the house and every one should listen to him and obey his commands.

I feel also that Stanley is being sexist here because he is saying that he is a man and men are Kings, he is trying to make Stella and Blanche feel lower than him as he portrays himself as the dominant force in the household. At the beginning of the play when Blanche arrives at Stanley’s house he straight away has negative thoughts about her and he feels that she is trying to become the dominant force in the household and he straight away starts using force and trying to turn Stella against Blanche because Blanche is getting all the attention from Stella and Stanley feels she is a threat to his dominance.

Stanley at first tries not to use any force against Blanche because she has just arrived and he does not want to give her a bad impression so he therefore tries to use Blanches past to deter Stella away from her, an example of this is when Stanley says ‘Yes did you know there was an army camp near Laurel and your sisters was one of the places called out of bounds’ what Stanley is doing here he just keeps telling Stella stories from Blanches past and he thinks that sooner or later Stella will believe him and keep away from Blanche. Stanley Kowalski represents the new type of American and leads that sort of lifestyle.

I think that Stanley’s success in terms of survival is and what he needs is very good he has got rid of Blanche he still has he’s wife and he still remains the dominant force in their relationship, Stanley has lost nothing and he has succeeded on what he had set out to do. Blanche Throughout this play the source to Blanches survival is to find somebody that will take care of her and be her comforting partner for the rest of her life. We learn in the play that Blanche used to have a young seventeen year old lover who tragically shot himself after an argument with Blanche.