A Streetcar Named Desire Play Analysis

In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” we are introduced with three important men that have made an impact on the other characters around them; Stanley, Mitch, and Allan. Stanley is the most masculine of all of them and Mitch is more of a gentleman while Allan the most submissive of them all has been portrayed as weak and is also hinted as a homosexual. Throughout the play Stanley has been depicted as a macho man, someone that is on the top compared to the other male characters, but is also seen to have passive, and almost homoerotic tendencies. Both in the play and movie have made Stanley as this man of power. Marlon Brando’s Stanley was tough and “ushered in a raw sexuality, overt, predatory, and blue collard” man (Welsch 31). Darwick also agrees with what Welsch says, describing Stanley as “the epitome of hyper-masculinity” (Darwick 252). Some may even call him a little “butch” (Darwick 254). Which is very interesting since in another play that parodies Streetcar made Stanley as a “butch lesbian” extending the “role-playing into a deconstruction of dramatic role-playing” (Geis 23). The term butch as said by Darwick in his article “is slang in the gay male community for a masculine homosexual” (255) …show more content…
We see that Stanley is struggling to win. His pride is on the line here, and when one of the other men wanted food he responds with “When I’m losing you want to eat! Ante up,” this shows his macho man side doesn’t like to lose at and would prefer that everyone complies to him and his needs making him the alpha (Tennessee 45). Later in the scene Stanley gets angry at Blanche and throws the radio which Stella starts to call him a “drunk animal” (Tennessee 57). He then quickly strikes her and gets pinned by the other men. Mitch orders the men to throw him in the shower, and as how Darwick says we see some of the homoerotic tendencies where Williams includes this