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Is Stanley Kowalski a Tragic Villain?

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Is Stanley Kowalski a Tragic Villain?
Is Stanley Kowalski simply a tragic villain?

A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947 is a play that is perceived with the variance between a man and his sister-in-law. Stanley Kowalski immediately captures the attention of the audience through Williams’ excellent portrayal of the intensely strong willed character, furthermore Williams forms Stanley into an exceedingly masculine character who will always have his way or no way and makes his opinions vey clear to those around him “why don’t you women go up and sit with Eunice” this declaration from Stanley shows that he his very sexist, this was very typical of men’s attitudes to women in the 1940’s because the patriarchal society at the time meant that men wanted control over women, as men felt they were far superior to women, because of this Stanley has more of a hubris persona as his actions and ambitions led to the protagonist of the play having a harmartia. A tragic villain is a character, normally an antagonist that does not truly intend to be a villain. So in Stanley’s case, Stanley can be alleged as an tragic villain as he is violent towards to Stella, for paradigm hitting her and using animalistic behaviour towards other women, which was an example of a stereotypical male in the 1940’s as they wanted to be in have supremacy over women, conversely he is being aggressive because he is aggravated by the fact that Blanche is living with the couple and inspiring trouble between them.
At the start it is very translucent that Stanley does not have anything in opposition to Blanche for instance when the twosome first meet Stanley is very interested in Blanche’s past “what do you teach, Blanche?” This indicates that Stanley is very intrigued by her sister-in-laws past and wants to get to know her; this shows he is not a tragic villain at this phase of the play as he has not yet shown signs of being an antagonistic.
Conversely, on the other hand Stanley is teasing Blanche by taking his



Bibliography: 1811 words http://www.cercles.com/n10/bak.pdf http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/streetcar/canalysis.html#Stanley-Kowalski

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