HyeonSeon Choi
Prof. Kyle Brebner
IERW (04)
7 October 2015
A
Comparison of Two Characters in A Streetcar
Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire
is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams, who received
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. This play is set in a decaying residential
street in New Orleans, a port city in the south of the United States. The play
revolves around the story of how a woman named Blanche Dubois from the southern
U.S. begins to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski, and her husband, Stanley
Kowalski. Mitch who is Stanley’s friend is interested in Blanche but Stanley discloses
her promiscuous past and rapes her. Then Blanche is committed to a mental
hospital. In this story, Stanley and Mitch have similarities in attitude of
treating woman and view of a physical relationship and differences in attitude
of conversation with Blanche and experience of love.
The
differences of character between Stanley and Mitch are conflicting attitude of conversation
with Blanche and gap in experiences of love. At first, Stanley started talking
to Blanche with sly jokes. He even asks her what he shouldn’t. Blanche had a
husband before but he died in the past. It isn’t proper debate etiquette that
he exposed her private past. It can imply that Stanley and Blanche will oppose
each other. However, Mitch has good manners and this reveals when he also speaks
to Blanche. He always talks to her in a formal way. So, he first brought up his
private story that his lover was dead to bond with her who has the same pain. “And
if God choose, I shall but love thee better-after-death!”; It is the inscription
on his cigarette case, which his girl died gave him. While Stanley reveals her
past and hurts her, Mitch first talks about his pain so that she doesn’t get
hurt and sympathize with him.
Secondly,
their experiences of love are different from each other. Stanley is a very
rough and “manly” man while Mitch is a well-mannered gentleman. So, Stanley is
all clued up to woman and love. But in the case of Mitch, since he had lost his
girl he never met other woman. Also he considers the relationship between men
and women sincerely than Stanley. Therefore Mitch is more pure than Stanley in
terms of experiences in love.
On
the other hand, the similarities of their character are the dominant way to
treat woman and view of a physical relationship. First of all, they are similar
to the patriarchal personality. That can readily be understood considering the
background of the play, America in the 1940s. Stanley looks so patriarchal in terms
of using force against his wife and his mention of Napoleonic code. “In the
state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs
to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa. For instance if I had a
piece of property, or you had a piece of property-” Stanley says. It means that
Blanche family’s property is also his property. That is very patriarchal and
coercive thinking. Mitch seemed to be a gentleman like people of the South in
the beginning. However, when he knew Blanche’s past life in Laurel his attitude
changed abruptly and he tried to rape her. Blanche led a fast way of living and
slept around in Laurel. So, Mitch changed his attitude toward her.
This
action of Mitch also shows his idea of a physical relationship. His perspective
on woman is divided into two types: a virgin and not a virgin. He says to
Blanche “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.” For
him, a woman who isn’t clean and pure is just a subject for the satisfaction of
sexual desires. The case is no different in Stanley. Every woman can be the
subject of a physical relationship for him.
In
A Streetcar Named Desire, there are commonalities
and differences between Stanley and Mitch. They are similar in opinion of dominant
behavior to treat woman and a physical relationship. However, they are
dissimilar to way of talking to Blanche and disparity of love experiences. What
if all men were like Stanley these days? Then all women have to suffer and
struggle in desperate situation. Two characters have features of people in the
1940s. So, their personality is so conservative. If A Streetcar Named Desire remakes in modern version it will be a big
hit like the past version.
