How Does Stanley Kowalski Characterize

Throughout the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams develops Stanley Kowalski as what some would call a brute. He uses many different methods of characterization including indirectly through his actions, and his treatment of other characters, and directly from his description of him and other characters descriptions of him. Stanley is mainly characterized as a very hot-headed and animalistic person. There are many times in which this is shown through his actions. This is clearly seen when he gets angry at Stella and hits her. Not only does he hit his wife, but his pregnant wife. This is not a decision he would have made rationally though Stanley doesn’t have much of a rational side. Even when his friends try to calm him down he …show more content…
“Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.” (page 29). This quote directly states and compares Stanley’s actions towards women to being animalistic. The fact that he is stated to be strongly and compactly built also helps to amplify these neanderthalic qualities. You can also see that his thoughts aren’t very complex especially through the line “He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.” (page 29), which again shows he only really understands the sexual aspects of a relationship and lacks emotional connection beyond those that come with …show more content…
He is called many things in the conversation between Stella and Blanche after the incident at the poker game, including powder-keg, madman, common, bestial, animal, ape-like, survivor of the stone age, and a brute. These all come from Blanche who you could say is the only viable one to be describing Stanley besides some of the minor characters. This is because she is the only one who doesn’t have a positive bias towards him, as Stella does because of her ability to ignore his nature because of her sexual desires for him and his friends have a bias in the form of camaraderie. Everyone realizes Stanley’s nature but they all have their ways of accepting it, besides Blanche, which is why Stanley sees she must be taken out of the picture. She poses a threat to Stanley in the form of a possible eye opener to Stella or his friends, specifically Mitch. The strange part is that when it comes down to it Stanley is very good at manipulation and comes out on top in the end. This supports his character because although brutes are simple minded they typically are able to take care of business when there is a clear