Stella Kowalski - Character Analysis

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. 

Eat Me - Literal Meaning

In Eat Me, a woman is fed up by her male partner until she is obese. At some points, it seems she enjoys food and at others, it seems she is being force-fed. At one point, she becomes so fat that when she rolls on top of him to engage in intercourse, she suffocates him and he dies. The ending is rather ambiguous as she tells us that there was "nothing left in the house to eat" implying that she either starved or ate her partner

Eat Me - Title

The title gave several initial impressions

1. Food - The most obvious link is to food and fatness
2. Wonderland/Fairytale - This is a phrase seen on food in Alice in Wonderland and gives us the impression of a fantasy world. This tells us that this may not have really happened and it may be an extended metaphor.
3. Temptation - There is a sexual element to this phrase that links to the sexual themes present in this poem
4. Control - This is imperative and is a command

 

Eat Me

Eat Me was written by Patience Agbabi. She is a British, bisexual, feminist woman and so her experiences will likely translate into her poetry, making them full of issues relating to sexuality and the life of a woman. We can see the themes of misogyny, gender roles and body shaming present in Eat Me

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: All of the burden descended on my shoulders

Blanche felt that she had too much to take care of and that is was too much for her. This was a contributing factor in Blanche's mental decline and becomes an explanation for why she needs people to take care of her now.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: You left

Blanche holds a grudge against Stella for leaving

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE:
Well, Stella--you're going to reproach me, I know that you're bound to reproach me

This shows Blanche's guilt. She expects Blanche to blame her because she blames herself. This is a contributing factor in Blanche's mental decline.

Quotes from Scene 1

[STELLA looks up with a radiant smile]

Stella adores Stanley - her love for him is unquestionable. She is at her happiest talking about him. Again, to an audience of the past, this wouldn't be necessarily worrying - it would simply serve to portray her as a doting housewife, the 'ideal woman.' A modern audience can recognize this attitude as worrying.

Quotes from Scene 1

STELLA [half to herself]:
I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night...
BLANCHE:
Why, Stella!
STELLA:
When he's away for a week I nearly go wild!
BLANCHE:
Gracious!
STELLA:
And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby...

Stella is 100% dependent on Stanley and she cannot function as a regular person without him. This is an explanation for why, at the end, she chooses not to believe her sister - as she cannot live a life without Stanley. To an audience in the 1940's, this may not have been as extreme and wives were almost expected to be reliant on their husbands (though attitudes were changing so responses would have been mixed) but, to a modern audience, this would be recognized as incredibly toxic and a warning sign of abuse. 

Quotes from Scene 1

STELLA: A master sergeant in the engineers corp.

Stanley was ex military. This could suggest a reason for his aggressive behavior and be considered a virtue for him - as most people who've served their country are given respect.

Quotes from Scene 1

STELLA: ... try not to - well - compare him with the boys that we went out with at home.

Stanley is not one of the sort of boys that Stella's parents would have allowed her to date due to his crass nature and poor background. He's different from the other men she's had in her life and that suggests what she might like about him. It's human nature to want what you're told you can't have and he excites her in a way that the boys at home never did.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: I brought some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends in.

This shows that Blanche wanted to be liked by Stella's friends and cared about what they thought of her. From what we know about Blanche already, we can assume she see's herself as better than these people but she still cares a great deal about what they think of her. Blanche wants approval from everyone. It also shows that Blanche thinks that if she looks nice that Stella's friends will like her more - even though the inhabitants of Elysian fields are not as likely to be swayed by expensive clothes and staples of wealth - and this shows us, again, how much importance Blanche places on her attractiveness.

Quotes from Scene 1

STELLA: Stanley is polish, you know.

Stanley erupts at a later point when Blanche refers to him as Polish, telling her that he is not and that he is American. This suggests that Stella doesn't know her husband as well as she thinks she does as she also thinks of him as Polish rather than American. It can also be indicative of her background - suggesting that she has the same xenophobia as Blanche and refuses to accept Stanley as a 'real' American.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE [dubiously]: Wonderful, honey. I don't like a bed that gives too much

At this point, Blanche knows that she's complained too much and feigns satisfaction with the bed. Though it is somewhat obviously fake, it shows that Blanche is willing to make some effort to accept the place and tone herself down - though she finds it hard due to her background and due to the stress that is placed on her later. It asks the question: If Stanley had not been present and the only problem had been the change and loss of status, would Blanche has learned to accept change? 

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. 

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: I don't see where you're going to put me!

Blanche knows that there's no place for her in Stanley and Stella's home. She knows that she doesn't belong.

BLANCHE: Wonderful, honey.

She knows that she's already complained far too much  and she tones it down. The bed situation is far from wonderful or ideal but Blanche pretends that everything is fine for Stella's sake.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: Stella, there's - only two rooms?

The apartment is quite claustrophobic and is too small for three people to live together. It tells us that our characters cannot get away from each other. There is no privacy. This becomes a problem later on in the play.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: You see I still have that awful vanity about my looks even now that my looks are slipping.

This line suggests that Blanche's vanity and narcissism is really just a facade and she doesn't think very highly of herself. It would explain why she is so desperate for compliments and for other people to tell her that she is beautiful.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: I want you to look at my figure! You know I haven't put on one ounce in ten years, Stella?

This is another quote that makes Blanche seem vain and suggests that she puts a heavy amount of importance on her body. It evokes pity when we see how desperate she is for validation.

Quotes from Scene 1

BLANCHE: ... like a cherub in choir ...

This is an example of religious imagery. Blanche calls Stella's self control "beautiful" showing that she thinks Stella's purity is admirable - suggesting that she may be jealous of the way Stella appears like a cherub in choir, suggesting that she wants her 'purity' back.