Stella with Blanche:
Stella and Blanche grew up together at Belle Reve. Though Stella has since abandoned Belle Reve, the way she has grown up still influences her behaviour. We can see this in the way that she objects to being hollered at in the first scene, before Blanche has even arrived. And even though we're told that the intermixing of races if fairly easy in Elysian Fields, when Stella approaches the two other women - she only addresses Eunice and she ignores the negro woman. Much, much later in the book, Blanche's babbling to herself includes a line regarding 'getting a coloured girl to do (the work)' Stella grew up thinking she was better than other races and that is still present in her interaction here. Though, she seems to have tried to bury her upbringing in order to live with Stanley. This is reversed with the arrival of Blanche. When Blanche turns up, she suddenly becomes embarrassed of the size of her home as if only just looking at it from an outsiders perspective, she begins to call Stanley out for eating like a pig, and she becomes slightly less docile and domesticated.
This was done to show how someone with an upbringing like the DuBois sister's could learn to change and learn to adapt to situations like Elysian Fields. This shows us that Stella is willing to accommodate but, more importantly, it highlights that Blanche is not. One of Blanche's key flaws is that she cannot cope with change. This is why she cannot cope with the loss of Belle Reve, the change in her social status, and retreats to a fantasy where everything is the same. Even though it puts such a strain on her mental health, she'd rather have that than learn to accept her new social status an her new surroundings. Tennessee Williams made Stella adaptive purely to contrast against Blanche. If she didn't exist within this novel, then it may appear that he was saying "the upper-class cannot adapt and change," however he wasn't trying to assign this flaw to the upper class as a whole, just to Blanche as a character.
It's very clear that Stella loves Blanche very much. She's so excited to see her older sister again and, when the two embrace, it is a clear display of how much they've missed each other. She puts up with Blanche's problems, even when they cause problems for her, without complaint because she loves her sister. She's happy to let Blanche stay with them because she wants Blanche to have a roof over her head, she waits on her because she wants her to feel at home. She gets angrier with Stanley than we've ever seen her get before when he ruins her chances with Mitch - because Stella wanted Blanche to be happy. Williams did this to show that Stella is a loving and kind woman. This ensures that we all feel pity for her across the course of the play and evoking pathos is something that all tragedies should aim to do. On top of this, at the end of the play, when Blanche is raped, Stella decides not to believe her and sends her away. This makes us ask, what happened to the kind woman who loved her sister above all else? Why does she allow this to happen? Because, as much as she loves her sister, she loves Stanley as well and, more than that, she is dependant on him.
Stella with Stanley:
Stella loves Stanley. We can tell from their very first interactions - when she wants to go watch him bowl. Though she'd be having no fun as she wouldn't be bowling, she's happy from just being around him. When she talks to Blanche about him, her adoration for him is evident in the way she speaks. Although, at the same time, it reeks of dependency. She cannot stand to be away from him. She cries when he's away for a night and she nearly goes mad when he's gone for a week. Stella doesn't know who she is without Stanley. I, alongside the majority of modern readers, saw this as a sign of a toxic relationship. However, the reason that a modern audience would interpret this in such a way is because we have pamphlets in doctors offices, lessons in schools, and constant exposure to the warning signs. The original audience may have seen this and thought nothing of it at the very first, only realising how it was a problem after the abuse had already become undeniable - after the poker scene - and would then compound it all together. This would make the realisation even more shocking in that scene, increasing drama and tension.
It's impossible to deny Stella's role as an abuse victim. She's beaten by Stanley in the poker scene and Eunice tells us that she hopes they call the police 'like last time' which lets us know that this has happened before. Not only that, but he's aggressive constantly. He breaks the radio, he smashes plates, he bangs around. He regards Stella telling him to 'be nice to Blanche' as her bossing him around and overstepping her boundaries, he gets upset when she goes to a show because she won't be there to make his food. Again, some of these would be dismissed by the original audience as gender roles were still strictly enforced and a man would expect his wife to be waiting in the kitchen with a hot meal on the stove. However, both audiences would recognise physical abuse in this scene as it is so blatant. Stella's abuse further the characterisation of both Stanley and Blanche clearly. Stanley exists within this play as a critique of toxic masculinity - a feminist concept that suggests that the manner is which men are expected to behave and the gender roles imposed on men in our society is dangerous and detrimental. Toxic masculinity tells us that men aren't emotional in the way that women are, they're naturally angry, they're naturally violent, all they care about is sex, they don't respect women ect. Stanley plays into most of the masculine stereotypes, right down to his job - manual labour - and his love for cars. It furthers Blanche's characterisation as seeing her sister so badly hurt worsens her mental state. It's also so that Stella would definitely take Stanley's side - as she is his victim and therefore she cannot go against him out of a mix of fear and love - and this would leave Blanche without a single person in the world to support her. This is a part of her destruction. However, on face value, Stella's abuse barely furthers any narrative for her. It's not a critique. It doesn't spark any change in her. It doesn't change her story at all. But, what her abuse does do for her own narrative is that it makes the conclusion more tragic as she is left to raise a child with her abuser.
Stella as a passive, flat victim:
It's easy to see Stella as a flat and boring character who is in the story only to serve the plot and has no real personality outside of being both a victim and a housewife. She plays into both of these roles incredibly well. She has no life outside of the what the plot demands. Her only interest seems to be Stanley and being around Stanley. She has no friends and interacts with no one other than Stanley, Stanley's friends, Blanche and Eunice - her neighbour. She only enjoys watching her husband bowl and spending time with him. She cleans up after him, even when it's him who made the mess, she cooks the meals, and she appears to have no job. It could be that she's away on maternity leave, of course, but if she has a job then she's not at all invested in it as she never mentions it. Why would Williams want to write a flat character? Pre-defined character archetypes are already set in place and a character can be assigned a role without time being spent developing them. This gives us more time to spend developing the main characters, in this case, Stanley and Blanche.
However, I do not believe that Stella perfectly conforms. When Blanche is angry with her, she says that the best she could do would be to leave Belle Reve and make her own way - this shows her as someone with ambition and drive, though that may have gone away once she met Stanley and settled down with him. With the arrival of Blanche, she becomes more confident and she begins to grow. She yells at Stanley, calls him a pig, asks him to clean his own plate. She begins to grow away from this role and become more of her own person. With Blanche's fall, Stella retreats back into her role because of the safety that it awards her. When we see her growth as an individual, it fills us with hope that she may be able to get away from Stanley and grow as a person. Williams did this so that he could crush that hope at the end to evoke pathos to its full potential.
Stella as a trophy:
Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski are from two parallel words that should've never intersected. Stella is the reason that they are brought together as she is Stanley's wife and Blanche's sister. She is essential to the play she is the reason that these two character interact at all, therefore there would be no conflict without her presence. She is the bridge between these two worlds, the connector. Both Stanley and Blanche fight for Stella's attention and affection. Stanley wants Stella to remain the way that she is and stay with him whilst Blanche wants Stella to realise the weight of the situation she's in and leave. Though Blanche's goal is well-intentioned and you cannot fault her for trying to get her sister to leave an abusive relationship, it must be said that part of Blanche's reasoning is steeped in selfishness as she wanted to get away from Stanley herself and it would be easier with her sister by her side.
Stella serves Williams plot by bringing these two character together and keeping them together by acting as a trophy to win and to fight over.
Stella as a Madonna:
There are two stereotypes of women that show up frequently within literature. This distinction can be referred to as the 'Madonna V. Eve.' The Eve figure is the seductress; she's dangerous; she enjoys sex; she doesn't conform to her gender stereotypes. Then, there's the Eve. She's an angelic figure and a woman of the house. She's maternal and is either already a mother or she dreams of having children. However, despite this, she doesn't enjoy sex. She's not a sexual figure in the slightest. She's an innocent housewife. She confirms to her gender roles. She's a good woman.
Stella plays into being a Madonna. She's presented as a good woman who's loyal to her husband, who is naturally maternal and has a baby on the way. She's a housewife figure. She's the angel of the house. It's very easy to pin Stella into that box and it wouldn't be wrong to do so. However, there are some way in which Williams subverts this. The biggest would be that Stella openly enjoys sex. There are a lot of references to Stella having sex. Blanche talks about Stella being in bed with her Polak, Stanley talks about making noise in the night. Stella and Stanley are very sexually active and Stella does not pretend to be virginal and pure. Williams was very clever in the way he did this. He made Blanche fit closely to the Eve figure, though she also subverts it somewhat, and Stella into a Madonna. This was done to show the two sisters as polar opposites - which shows us that it wasn't Blanche's upbringing that made her into who she was and that she could've just as easily turned out like Stella. However, by subverting one or two aspects of the Madonna figure, this shows that Williams does not condemn women for having sex. With Blanche being 'punished' through rape and having promiscuity as a hamartia, it could easily be interpreted this way- that Williams held distaste for sexual women. But by having Stella also enjoy sex, this interpretation is harder to argue.
Stella as an individual, a conclusion:
Stella is, on the surface, a flat and uninteresting character. It takes a further look into her character to reveal that she's quite a bit more than that. She's not only intrinsic to the plot of the story and to both Stanley and Blanche's character arcs but she's also a character with a lot of untapped potential who subverts many common tropes and has a complex, grey morality.
