A Streetcar Named Desire: Different Personalities
In the classic film, A Streetcar Named Desire, there are four main characters with four very different personalities. While Stanley is the definite dominant male, controlling and demanding to his wife, Stella, who has learned to tolerate his personality; Mitch is the overall average good guy, desiring nothing short of a normal life with a loving wife. Blanche is the main character in the story and is the sister of Stella.
The two of them have been apart over the years and recently came together again. With the past haunting her trail, Blanche tries to run far beyond it. Stanley doesn’t help matters any with his accusations against her.Being left in charge of the family estate, Blanche loses it all, but Stanley isn’t convinced of that. He is convinced that she has sold it and his attempt to find out where he and Stella’s half of the money from the estate went, only forces Blanche closer to the edge of insanity. Blanche’s response to Stanley’s dominant personality was appealing to her upon meeting Stanley and she found herself rather attracted to him, but these feelings soon changed for the both of them. Stanley and Blanche’s characters bring to surface the worse possible dynamics, creating a clashing relationship.
Stanley’s character represents that of the strong, egotistical type, which molds the character of Stella into a nervous, agitated individual who must try to keep Stanley from causing her sister more grief. Stanley’s strength could be noted as his persistent personality while Stella’s emotional strength and level-headedness would be the power to hold the relationship together. The timing of Stella’s sister’s return only enhanced the heights of the arguments between Stanley and his wife. For Stanley, Blanche was a threat by increasing the insecurity he had of whether or not Stella really would return to him after each fight.The feeling of the unknown only made him more aggressive. Mitch’s character was displayed as sensitive and loyal, which was a strength in the short relationship he had with Blanche. With his mother’s dying wish to see him settled down, Mitch is attracted to the hidden, soft heart of Blanche.
Blanche’s tender heart was a powerful dynamic of the relationship with Mitch, as he was able to reveal the desire of her to do well. His loyalty to doing what is right backfires when it pushes Blanche completely out after her horrible past is revealed to Mitch, thus revealing the terrible timing in life of the two meeting each other.The ambiguity of a future for these two left Mitch with absolutely no confidence that it would work, which explains his decision to end the relationship with Blanche before it escalated anymore. Timing of this story along with the fact that all the characters feared the unknown, truly impacted the tension in the setting. There was a high strung, outlandish feeling in the air with each personality of the play that caused the tight narrative tension. While the desires of each character may have been to succeed, the ambiguity caused them all to lose out on what might have been.
