A Selfish Desiere

In "A Streetcar Named Desire," by Tennessee Williams, two main characters in this play reveal their desires to the extent of what they want and need. Williams further explains both Blanche and Stanley's main desires through attention and physical appeal. In addition, both characters bring plenty of attention upon themselves and merge towards their gratification in order to get what they desire.

Throughout the play, Blanche happens to bring attention upon herself through flirtatiousness and high maintenance. She worries to much about her physical appearance and try's to look her best so that she can "fish for complements" ( 1552). As for Stanley, he desires attention through power. He obtains his power by being over controlling, violent and physically sexual. Stanley makes his point clear when he hits Stella and rapes Blanche. At this point, it seems that Stanley gets what he wants without anyone stopping his actions. Furthermore, when Stanley hits Stella she immediately leaves him but eventually comes back when she sees him pleading. In scene ten, Blanche is physically raped by Stanley and this also shows how he gains power. It's as if he's walking over his wife Stella and her sister Blanche and looks upon himself as a king. Moreover, from reading this play there is a manner of selfishness in which Stanley and Blanche have in common. In other words, Stanley and Blanche desires are not viewed in a well mannered way but more on the verge of a selfish desire. Meaning, they only care about themselves without having to worry about other peoples feelings. For example, Stella desires her husband while Stanley only desires sex and power. This explains what kind of man Stanley really is and what he's only interested in. In contrast, Stanley and Blanche compare with each other when it comes to cruelty as well. Stanley is seen cruel throughout the whole play, due to his violence and rudeness towards Blanche, his friends, and Stella. At a certain point, Blanche is considered cruel in this play when she tells Allan that she feels disgusted towards him after seeing him messing around with a man. When Allan Grey hears Blanche say this he ends up feeling guilty for his own actions and ends up killing himself. In this case, her cruelty leads to Allan Grey's death.

Overall, Stanley and Blanche seem to only care about themselves and the attention around them. Knowing that there both searching for desire in different ways, they still compare to a self centered person, which they indeed are. In other words, it's as if they don't think before doing it. By Blanche showing off her looks and Stanley expressing his power, simply goes to show that they only seem to care for themselves.

Stanley is no ordinary man

In "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams, the author writes a story that explains how an older sister stays at her younger sisters and husband house in New Orleans because she has no where else to go. Throughout the reading we see a lot of conflicts between Stanley, Stella and Blanche. Stanley who's the husband of Stella seems to have a hard time getting along with Stella's sister Blanche.

Throughout the eight scenes I read so far, Stanley is a rude and mean man who has this physical approach where he see's himself as a king. He treats his wife and Blanche with disrespect and he has a bad temper where Blanche describes him to a "madman" (1564). In addition he has this mentality of being controlling to his wife Stella. For instance, in Scene seven Stanley informs his wife that Blanche will be out of the house by a specific day because he's tired of having her at his house. We see the scene of controlling when Stanley tells his wife "She'll go! Period. P.s. She'll go Tuesday!" (1584). At this point, Stanley is the one who gives orders by being the controlling and dominant one between him and his wife.

Referring back to the question, we do see Stanley as something other then a brute beast at the beginning of the reading when he meets Blanche for the first time. In scene one, Stanley seems very comfortable around Blanche when there both having a conversation with each other. He asks her questions about her life and things she does for living. So in this case, the readers see Stanley as a normal approachable man. But when the tables turn for Stanley he gets this bad feeling about Blanche when his wife Stella informs him about the house in the country Belle Reve ended up being lost. Stanley goes historical and assumes the house wasn't lost but sold for money and sufficient funds that Blanche bought herself. He goes against his wife Stella and Blanche on what they have to say about the house being lost.

Towards the end of reading the last eight scenes about Stanley his life in general does not seem to get any better then it already is. He does not know how to control his anger, or mood when it comes to his wife Stella and Blanche. Stanley try's to change in the manner of seconds for Stella and promises her that he's going to stop drinking and change his attitude. But overall, Stanley doesn't keep his promises that he makes and ends up breaking them just so he can get his way. For instance, he promised Stella that he would stop drinking but doesn't go through with his word and continues to drink. Stanley is no better man then he can already be which is just a over controlling man.