Streetcar Character Profiles

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Blanche

Personality

  • Eccentric - "uncertain manner"
  • An outcast - "incongruous to the setting"
  • Anxious - "sits in a chair very stiffly", "her glass, which shakes in her hand", "my-nerves broke", "nervously tamping cigarette"
  • Animated - "speaks with feverish vivacity", "runs to her with a wild cry", "a mood of hysterical exhilaration came into her"
  • Sensitive - "I can't be alone", "something that suggests a moth"

Role

  • Used as a symbol for the conventions of the Old and Deep South
  • Oppose the conventions of the newly industrialized world that Stanley holds
  • She encaptures the consequences of being unable to adapt to one's surroundings or to accept societal reform
  • To show the audience the significance of being able to move with change and adapting around change to live with it
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Blanche

Development (growth & change)

  • Enters with a white outfit - "white suit", "ear-rings of pearl, white gloves" so Blanche is initially introduced as pure
  • Her purity and facade is revealed as we gradually hear of her past, causing her white gown to become "soiled and crumpled"
  • Her mental state declines as the play progress, especially just before and after scene ten where she is sexually abused - "Lurid reflections appear on the wall", "she is drinking to escape it", "sense of disaster closing in on her", "the music is in her head", "speaks with sudden hysteria"

Other

  • She is Stella's sister, about "five years older"
  • Come to New Orleans due to the loss of her old home, Belle Reve, and is not financially stable
  • Has a troubling past that catches up with her. Allen, her husband commits suicide, leaving her mentally, financially, and maritally unstable
  • She attempts to move on from her past and so attempts to find solace in Mitch, Stanley's best friend, who rejects her after he finds out about her past
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Stella

Personality

  • Submissive - "she cries out in protest but manages to catch it"
  • At rare times attempts to be assertive - "don't holler at me like that", although she is shown saying this "mildly"
  • Impressionable - Blanche's comments on Stanley rub off on Stella - "'disgusting-vulgar-greasy!'-them kinds of words have been on your tongue and your sister's tongue too much around here!"
  • Weak and vulnerable - "Stella begins to cry weakly", "she cries quietly"
  • Dependent on breadwinner Stanley - "When he's away for a week I nearly go wild! "And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby..."
  • Five years younger than Blanche
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Stella

Role

  • To serve as a bridge between the two contrasting worlds of Blanche and Stanley, only answer to peace between the two sides. The only sign of hope of compromise/coexistence although proves unachievable in the end
  • Part of the New Orleans community living in the new world of industrialization-symbolic of the new and reformed society yet still ground and restricted by her roots that she is desperate to leave behind. Blends in with the "spirit of life which goes on here"
  • A desperate attempt to produce an image of a perfect, stereotypical family
  • Symbolic of the members of society able to adapt to their environment, contrasting Blanche and her inability to adapt

Other

  • A mother, wife, and sister - Scenes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 11 are her key scenes
  • The only character that seems to support Stella from the start to the end is Eunice, who checks up on her and allows her to stay in her house for protection from Stanley in Scene Three. She appears to be a symbol of solace for Stella and her only true safe haven although she "seems to be having trouble with Steve", allowing her and Stela to relate to each other's struggles
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Stella

Development (growth & change)

  • Suffers progressively through the play due to Blanche and her mental deterioration
  • Passive from the opening, with her growing out of passivity in the progression of the play, although she does not maintain this persona as she remains ignorant at the close and is passive to Stanley and his "bestial" nature as Blanche is taken away
  • Becomes uncertain, apprehensive, and anxious throughout the longer Blanche stays - begins to cry more and more, with her at her most expressive state at the end of Scene Eleven when "there is something luxurious in her complete surrender to crying now that her sister is gone" - suggests she has been reserved and bottling up her emotions for some time
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Stanley

Personality

  • Impulsive/Aggressive - "...to the small white radio and snatches it... he tosses the instrument out the window." "the sound of a blow" "he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light bulbs with it"
  • Judgemental - Example; Stanley telling all Scene 7 "But Sister Blanche is no lily! Ha-ha! Some lily she is!" "I’ve got th’ dope on your big sister, Stella... You know she’s been feeding us a pack of lies here?... cat’s out of the bag! I found out some things!" "That girl calls me common!"
  • Animalistic physical behaviour (work, fight, sex) - Example; Blanches monologue Scene 4 "He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There’s even something sub-human..."

Role

  • Represents the new, heterogeneous America which Blanche doesn't belong to as shes a relic of defunct social hierarchy
  • Sees himself as a social leveler - "I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it" "Ticket! Back to Laurel! On the Greyhound! Tuesday!"
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Stanley

Development (growth & change)

  • Down to earth character proven harmfully crude and brutish
  • Disturbing, degenerate nature first hinted when beats his wife, fully evident when ****** sister in law - no remorse
  • Animosity manifests in actions - investigation of her past, birthday gift, sabotage relationship to Mitch

Other

  • Polish heritage but born and raised in America - "I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack"
  • Hate for Blanche motivated by the aristocratic past she represents - sees as untrustworthy
  • Hobbies are gambling, bowling, sex, drinking 
  • Ends with Stanley as an ideal family man, comforting his wife and holding newborn
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Mitch

Personality

  • More sensitive than the others, gentlemanly behaviour since the start 
  • Lives with his mother, teased as a mama's boy - "No—not at my place. My mother’s still sick!"
  • Clumsy, sweaty, and unrefined interests like muscle building - "My shirt is sticking to me." " Last Christmas I was given a membership to the New Orleans Athletic Club... It was the finest present I ever was given."
  • Lacks the romantic perspective, spirituality, and understanding of poetry and literature of Blanches chivalric hero 

Role

  • Mitch isn't the most important character, but he plays a significant part in the development of the plot. Shy, clumsy, slow-thinking, he acts as a foil to the shrewd, loud, domineering Stanley. 
  • His role is to offer Blanche the promise of a safe haven, to spur Stanley indirectly to find out about Blanche’s past in order to protect his old buddy. 
  • Mitch’s interest in Blanche encourages Stanley to think of her as sexually desirable; yet another factor in the catastrophic events of Scene Ten.
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Mitch

Development (growth & change)

  • Is respectful of Blanches wishes when she doesn't want to sleep with him - "Just give me a slap whenever I step out of bounds."
  • Until he is told about her sordid sexual past; he is angry and embarrassed about how he was treated - "Christ! That pitch about your ideals being so old-fashioned and all the malarkey that you’ve dished out all summer... But I was a fool enough to believe you was straight."
  • Believes he deserves to have sex with her even though he doesn't respect her enough to think her fit to be his wife - "Mitch rises and follows her purposefully... He places his hands on her waist and tries to turn her about." "I don’t think I want to marry you anymore... You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother."
  • The main difference between Stanley and Mitch's treatment of Blanche underscores Mitch's fundamental gentlemanliness
  • He desires and makes it clear he wants to sleep with Blanche however doesn't **** her when she cries out - "Get out of here quick before I start screaming fire!... Fire! Fire! Fire!" "With a startled, gasp, Mitch turns and goes out the outer door."
  • He sheds tears after Blanche struggles to escape the doctor which shows he genuinely cares for her - "Mitch lunges and strikes at Stanley. Stanley pushes Mitch back. Mitch collapses at the table, sobbing."
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Mitch

Other

  • Blanche plays with his intelligence; speaking french as he said he doesn't understand it - "Understand French? Naw. Naw. I— Voutez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"
  • Mitch and Blanche are drawn together by the mutual need for companionship and support; believe themselves right for one another - "I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my—experience— I have never known anyone like you." 
  • They both have experienced the death of a loved one - "There’s a story connected with that inscription... The girl’s dead now." "Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think." "I loved someone, too, and the person I loved I lost."
  • Mitch is the only person other than Stella who seems to understand the tragedy of Blanches madness
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Extra

Blanche was taken by a doctor to presumably be put into a mental institution as a result of her psyche breaking. This happened due to multiple factors; constant death, the trauma of her husband, loss of belle reve, and the final breaking point being the **** by Stanley. 

The illusion of Shep is a sort of self-soothing for her as Shep represents everything she lost, her past self/youth, her status, and her luxury lifestyle.

Blanche - delusions of grandeur

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