Essay Question

I do not believe that Williams aligns himself with Stanley’s way of life or Blanche’s. Both represent two heavy extremes – neither of which is presented positively or as something to aspire to.

Blanche is a tragic hero and, therefore, it is expected that she will be someone that we pity. Indeed, Williams makes certain that an audience would feel pity to some degree or other for Blanche when he subjects his character to horrific events such as loss of her family, rape, and forcibly being sent to a mental institution. These events alone, with a less skilled writer, may not fully evoke pathos. However, Williams subverts Unity of time so he can make these events occur over a long period of time. The effect of this on an audience would be that we get to slowly watch Blanche’s downfall and her descent to madness. Not only does it feel more realistic, but this slow process does cause pity as we get to see her go from the woman in the beginning of the book to who she is at the end. “I was flirting with your husband,” is a line she says to Stella. Blanche is a flirty, cheerful person. In the first scene, where the stage directions say “Blanche springs up and runs to her with a wild cry” it shows her as happy, cheerful. Indeed, she’s quite hopeful that she could settle down with Mitch, a realistic dream, and she’s excited to see her sister have a baby, if not a little envious. This is, whilst not ideal, a new start for her. She is also quick to defend herself, “What in the name of heaven are you thinking of! What's in the back of that little boy's mind of yours?” and quick to defend her sister, “My sister is going to have a baby!” This is all gone and ruined for her by the end.  She has become a shell of herself and cannot separate her reality from her fantasy. Whilst she is jumpy in the beginning, she becomes unable to control herself in the end. Hearing Stanley’s voice from the other room causes her to “finally (speak) but with sudden hysteria.” When she is led away at the end, it is in complete surrender; she can no longer find enough strength to fight and defend herself.

Blanches destruction is also deeply personal to her. When her husband killed herself and her family died and left her with nothing in the world other than her guilt – she turned to sex. She says “Men don't even acknowledge your existence unless they're making love to you.” Sex made her feel safe and made her still feel attractive. The way in which Stanley breaks Blanche is, first, through revealing her sexual exploits, not allowing her to keep this a private method of coping. The shame that Blanche feels for having sex is evident in the way she lies about it. She distances herself from girls who have sex when she says to Mitch that he must be used to “the kind (of girls) that get lost immediately, on the first date!” Stanley tells us that Mitch “thought she had never been more than kissed by a fellow!” Blanche is not proud of her sexual life – it lead to her being asked to leave Laurel. Stanley makes sure she cannot escape it. Then, the ultimate destruction for Blanche, there is the rape scene. Blanche is sexually violated and this removes the safety from sex for her. She cannot find comfort in it as it has become a punishment for her, an act meant to destroy her.  This personal destruction creates pity for Blanche, showing the Williams did pity her.

Yet, whilst I believe that Williams has pity for his tragic heroine, I’m not sure that it’s right to say his sympathies lie with her. At some points preceding the rape, we, as an audience, feel no pity for Blanche. When she kisses the young man, we see that Blanche is not starting afresh in New Orleans and she is not bettering herself. We cannot feel pity for her when we learn that she had sexual relations with her student – an act of statutory rape. By 1920 almost all states had raised their age of consent to 16 or 18. The boy’s age is never mentioned but it’s possible that, because of the level Blanche taught he could possibly have been around 17, making it legal in some states. As well as this the novel is set in 1947, meaning that this is technically illegal. It must be taken into account that, as the victim was male, the rape would’ve been seen as less severe due to toxic masculinity and stereotyping that men ‘always want sex’ and would be lucky to have it with an attractive teacher. This is still a problem today and would’ve been even more of a serious issue today. This will strike a modern audience more than the original audience as we have more sympathy for male rape victims in modern times. However, it would still strike the original audience as wrong. Not only was age a factor but also that Blanche was an authority figure in the boy’s life misusing her positron. Blanche is incredibly flawed and sometimes this takes away sympathy from her.

As well as this, Blanche loses the power struggle between her and Stanley. Her fantasy ideals are presented as a flaw – something that prevents her from living her life. It stops her from being able to adapt. It shows that someone with Blanche’s outlook on life – ignoring reality – cannot survive in the world. Blanche is punished for her hamartia – her refusal to accept reality (which encompasses all of her flaws as it is a direct cause of them – her refusal to living in the real world leads to her needing protection and validation, leading to promiscuity ect.) This shows that, whilst Blanche may have Williams sympathies in some ways, he does not think that Blanche’s way of living is right, nor is it something to aspire to. She does not have his sympathies in this sense.

Stanley is the antithesis of Blanche. For starters, he wins the power struggle. He survives. He gets what he wants – his wife, his son, Blanche gone. This shows Stanley as a strong person. We know that Stanley is strong physically, he is described as “strongly and compactly built” and he works in manual labour. He’s also a war veteran, a sign of not only strength buy a position that makes him more sympathetic as most people admire the ex-military. He is also emotionally stronger than Blanche and does not collapse. Whilst he is an angry man, this is done to show dominance rather than just because he can’t control himself. His anger isis a shown when he hits his wife, throws a radio out of the window, throws a plate on the floor or gets otherwise violent. However, when he hears Blanche talking about him whilst he is outside, he remains calm and doesn’t let her know. This is because he knows it will benefit him to keep himself under control.

Stanley also adapts easier than Blanche can. He lives in the new world. He can deal with the intermingling of races, which is a huge positive and is something that has made the age we live in now possible. He can also accept the violence that goes on around him – Steve and Eunice – and he and Stella can move past their own violence. This is, arguably, is negative as abuse is normalised in Elysian Fields but it still shows that Stanley is accepting the real world rather than retreating into a Fantasy.  He remains grounded in reality all through the play, even when it’s not easy for him. He never pretends to be anything that he’s not – being open about it, saying “How right you was,” in relation to Stella thinking he was common.

However, Stanley is not a positive character. He is the antagonist. It’s more than unlikely that Williams wanted his audience to sympathise with an abuser considering that he suffered emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his father Cornelius Williams, who it is speculated that Stanley is based off of.  His anger and his need for dominance turn everyone against him in the end. Stella is beginning to doubt him, evident in the line “I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing.” Mitch threatens to kill him. Steve and Pablo are disgusted with him. The manner in which he sends Blanche away leaves everyone shook and they know he is to blame. Mitch even says “this is your fault.

Moreover, rapists are not intended to be sympathised with as rape is considered amongst the most heinous crimes. It is unarguable that what Stanley did was not in any way just or right. Modern audiences and audiences of the time would both be expected with the same level of disgust at someone threatening to “interfere” with another, especially another in the mental state that Blanche was in. He physically intimidates her, threatens her and then forces himself upon her with plans to ‘interfere’ with her despite her threatening to stick a broken bottle in his face – not an act that most would consider appropriate foreplay or consent.

In conclusion, Stanley and Blanche are both characters that Williams has put time and thought into with flaws and virtues, like real people. However, they both represent two toxic mentalities that are presented negatively. Blanche has Williams pity but he does not align himself with her way of life. Stanley is presented as an antagonist; though he is an antagonist with some virtues, they are not enough to redeem him or earn him Williams sympathy.