A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire was absolutely my favorite piece of literature we have read thus far. There were definitely some characters that I liked more than others, but overall I liked each character in a different way. I thought all of the different backgrounds and personalities of these characters really added something special to the story. Blanche Dubois happened to be my personal favorite. I have wrote two of my blogs about her already, so I will focus on another aspect of the story for this blog. Stella, Blanche's sister who is married to the "crazy" Stanley, was also one of the most intriguing characters to me. Stella possesses the same aristocratic background as Blanche, but she did not follow in the same footsteps as her sister. She was not worried about marrying into money, or keeping up her high class image. She fell in love with a middle class polish man, and was extremely happy and content with her life. Although there were a few instances in the book that made me question their relationship, I think the fact that she is not bothered by his class in a time period like this is absolutely remarkable. After Blanche comes to their home in Mississippi, Stella is completely torn between her sister and her husband, and somewhat put in the middle between the two. In the end, she stands by her husband Stanley, possibly because they were soon going to be having a child together. At the end of the story, after Stanley rapes Blanche, Stella seems to be in some sort of denial. She cannot bring herself to believe her sister, and allows her to be dismissed to a mental institution. I thought that Stella's character faced alot of difficult decisions throughout the story. It was very interesting for me to read the outcome of all the situations she got herself into to. The problems between her husband and sister, the drunk fight with her husband, the baby, and the rape are alot for a woman to deal with. I did not particularly agree with all the decisions she made, but I think she is a very strong woman for being able to come out of all this okay.