Edexcel English Literature A-level

A Streetcar Named Desire: Themes

Hegemonic Masculinity

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Introduction
Hegemonic masculinity, a concept which is part of Connell’s (1995) gender order theory,
can be defined as a practice that authorises and encourages male domination, therefore
justifying the subordination of women and non-hegemonic males.

The theme of hegemonic masculinity is central to both Williams’ play, but also to the wider
social and cultural contexts of post-war New Orleans.

While hegemonic masculinity is the most obvious form of masculinity presented in the play,
through Stanley and Steve, the presentation of masculinity is not monolithic; there are
also non-hegemonic masculinities on display or hinted at, through the Blanche’s gay late
husband Allan and the comparatively effeminate Mitch. Despite Mitch’s beta-male status,
he enforces norms of sexual purity, showing that it is not only alpha males who reproduce
misogynistic ideologies which oppress women. Allan commits suicide after being walked
in on by Blanche, who then expresses her disgust for him. Allan can be seen as a victim of
heteronormativity.

Through A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores a moral problem concerning the
extent to which societies polluted by patriarchal ideals, bestow power upon the privileged
(men like Stanley Kowalski) and allow them to exploit the vulnerable (women like Blanche
DuBois and Stella Kowalski). Williams’ portrayal of the vulnerable Blanche as a symbolic
foil to the brutish Stanley, and specifically her tragic deterioration, acts as a social
commentary on the treatment of women who owned their sexuality and rebelled against
the patriarchal social norms of the time.

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Relevant Social and Historical Contexts

Masculinity and the New South

The cultural clash between Blanche and Stanley is wholly symbolic of the ostentatious
values of the Old, aristocratic, South, versus the societal evolution that saw the
awakening of the industrial working-class New South. In the New South, immigration, and
especially, masculinity became key drivers of the American social landscape.
Masculinity is socially constructed and thus must be contextualised to period and place.

Andrew Rotundo has traced the history

of masculinity in the US in his book
American Manhood. He argues that in
the 18th century, masculinity was
‘communal’. However, the rise of the
market economy and of the republican
government in the late 19th century
saw a shift to self-made manhood, a
masculinity based on the ability of a
man to make something of himself
and to support his family. This idea
lingered into the 20th century and was
then replaced by a ‘passionate
manhood’: the expression of the self,
either in the workplace or through
hobbies, is paramount. The ideology
of passionate manhood evolved as a result of WWII. Men had gone off to fight and had
returned to a prospering economy. These veterans were not so concerned with proving
their manhood after facing death in WWII; they were more concerned with living in the
way they desired. This idea of a man pursuing his passions and pleasures was the
dominant idea of American masculinity immediately following WWII. In this context of
passionate manliness Williams creates Stanley Kowalski.

Williams’ focus on Stanley’s pleasure and enjoyment is clear in the stage directions.
Williams writes:

“Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with
women…branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the
auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation
of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio,
everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.”

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Stanley’s pleasure is prioritised over Stella and Blanche’s comfort. In the poker scene,
he shows no regard for their wellbeing, asking them to “go upstairs and sit with Eunice”
(Scene 3) and ignoring the fact that it is 02:30 and the noise is stopping them from sleeping.
Stanley is the embodiment of passionate manhood; nevertheless he also displays
elements of self-made masculinity; he emphasises his role as a breadwinner when he
ostentatiously throws a bloody package of meat at his wife in the opening scene.

Finally, the play is set in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, the dominant masculine ideal would
evolve from that of the passionate man to that of the father figure. This was the era when
the image of the white, middle-class American family would gain prominence, in a suburban,
white-picket fence setting. Men were expected to commute to the city while providing for
their families in the suburbs. Thus, by this time “The suburbs bec[a]me a central fact of
postwar America and the new arena for proving one’s manhood” (Kimmel). Men were
providers, protectors and possessors. The heavy load of expectations provoked, in men,
fear and anxiety, and any perceived threats to one’s masculinity often resulted in
defensiveness and aggression. We see this in the tension between Blanche and Stanley.
Blanche questions Stanley’s intelligence and humanity and her mockery of him eventually
leads to her rape. Likewise, when Stella calls Stanley an “animal” in Scene Three, he hits
her. In his propensity for violence when his masculinity or ego is threatened, and in his
valuation of his own pleasures and desires, Stanley can be seen as a figure that
represents masculinity in transition.

Initial Performance Context

The play was first performed in 1947, when a feminist consciousness was emerging. To a
contemporary audience sympathetic to these emergent ideas around male domination and
gender equality, Stanley’s british mannerisms and violent behaviour would be scarring,
shameful and condemned.

❖ At the time, Stanley in many ways symbolised the world of masculinity and fierce
individualism.
❖ Many observed women’s unjust subservience and suffering. However, a
movement that would address this was just emerging.

Feminine Codes of Conduct

To truly comprehend the overarching dominance of the hegemonic male characters, we
must understand the rigid gender norms of the South. Williams introduces the social and
sexual hypocrisy of post-war America when Stanley alludes to the ‘Napoleonic Code’ in
Louisiana, subtly exposing the deep-rooted cultural misogyny that controlled women’s
behaviour and reputation in society.

For context, the Napoleonic Code was a legal code acknowledged in New Orleans from
French colonial rule that gave a husband authority over his wife’s assets. Although
Stanley does not have control over his wife’s assets, he seems interested in gaining control
over them. Stella is also economically dependent on Stanley and since she can see no
way of living without him. This is hinted at when she justifies choosing to ignoring Blanche’s
rape accusation: “I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Scene 11).

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Essentially, Stella is presented with two options: believe Blanche and feel forced to leave
Stanley, or disbelieve her and continue living with him. The first does not seem like a viable
option; thus she feels she has no choice but to pretend that Stella is mistaken.

In addition to women’s economic dependence, women were also expected to stay chaste.
Blanche does not conform to expectations of chastity. Thus Stella and Blanche are both
ultimately constrained: condemned and trapped.

The Treatment of Blanche: Sexual Hypocrisy

Blanche’s portrayal of herself as a chaste and delicately civilised schoolteacher is at
odds with her history of sexual pursuits, her provocative dress habits (in red silks, satin
and costume jewellery) and her attempts at seducing a “Young Man” - flirting with him
and kissing him. Blanche has a “masculine energy” in seducing the Young Man, which an
audience of the 1940s may have found irrational and disturbing. While Blanche is
ashamed of her past - which manifests in her compulsive washing as well as her aversion to
light - she also attempts to regain her sexuality. However, she is constantly condemned for
it, and ultimately rejected by Mitchell for her sexual history. In contrast, Stanley’s
unapologetic sexual prowess is encouraged through being a “richly feathered male bird
amongst hens” (Scene 1) with no repercussions. Thus, sexuality is one of the ways
that gender inequality is exposed.

Stella’s Subservience
When Stanley physically abuses a pregnant
Stella, Williams exposes the extent of his
toxicity and manipulation. Even then, she is
unable to differentiate his abuse from his
so-called “nature”. Here, she excuses all of his
wrongdoings and views them through an
essentialist lens, whereby that brutish
physicality is expected of him as an alpha
male.

Surprisingly, Stella is actually “thrilled” and

aroused by his bestial qualities, emphasising
that “there are things that happen between a
man and a woman in the dark” and therefore,
she uses his sexual desires as an excuse to
“make everything else seem unimportant” (Scene 4).

Stanley's psychological hold over her ultimately results in Stella’s subservience and
entrapment, to the extent that she cannot even recognise it, or bear to leave him, even
though this ultimately is at the cost of Blanche’s sanity (“I couldn't believe her story and
go on living with Stanley", Scene 11).

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According to Panda, the “Stanley-Stella relationship is one of the supreme examples of
hierarchization of activity/passivity opposition” Stanley’s activeness instantly pacifies
Stella and puts her in an insubordinate role, thus highlighting the patriarchal ideology of the
play. Stella excuses and naturalises Stanley’s behaviour through a gendered framework.
She is also both his complement and is polar opposite.

Stanley Kowalski and the New American Man

Sexually volatile, animalistic physicality and ‘gaudy’ masculinity infiltrates A Streetcar

Named Desire leading to the tragic disintegration of Blanche and her ‘moth’-like femininity.
Sexual dominion and violence were the key characteristics of the ideal New American Man.
Stanley becomes the embodiment of the archetypal machismo and capitalist greed
which permeates this post-war landscape.

● He is an emblem of the new America, in which one (granted that he is a white, or

white-aligned, man) can become whatever he wants to be regardless of background.

While Williams constructs Stanley’s base and animalistic mannerisms as a physical

representation of the New American man, he exposes Stanley’s masculine power as rooted
in two key aspects of his privilege:

1. His unapologetically sexual male gaze

2. His physicality through being the archetypal ‘Alpha Male’

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 Stanley’s Sexual Dominion: the Unapologetic Male Gaze

Stanley’s alpha male persona accords with the fact that he is of the only unapologetically
sexual characters, projecting his sexuality freely in both his interior (with Stella) and
exterior spaces (with Blanche).

● Although he abuses Stella earlier in the play, she ultimately continues to stay with
him and surrenders to his force and manipulation.
● While Stella is at the hospital giving birth to his child, Stanley rapes Blanche: the
culmination of his sexual act with Stella coincides with the tragic culmination of his
destined “date” with Blanche.

In male-dominated domains, anxieties over masculine power and position are defined
and expressed through physical, and often sexualized, acts of violence.

Key Scenes Depicting Stanley’s Sexual Domination

Scene 3 Scene 7 Scene 8

[Stage Directions] The men are Blanche is being attacked “Stanley [..] spear(s) his fork into
at “the peak of their by Stanley’s manipulation, the remaining chop which he
manhood, as coarse and and cruel enigmatic and eats with his fingers”
direct and powerful as euphemistic revelation of
primary colours”. For these his knowledge of her sexual Williams deliberately includes a
men, this game, in which past. deeply primal and animalistic
"competition, image of Stanley’s mannerisms,
aggressiveness, and finally “I’d have that on my right before his brutish rape,
domination are the rules," is conscience for the rest of connecting his animality with his
the primary method of my life if I knew all that sexuality.
asserting their masculinity and stuff and let my best
proof of their machismo. The friend get caught!”
presence of other men as well
as Stanley’s drunkenness Stanley’s hypocrisy and
creates a threatening false victimisation of Mitch
atmosphere. being ‘caught’ exposes the
extent of the repercussions
for women if men discover
they have deviated from
accepted norms of female
sexuality.

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 Immediately as the women As Stanley explains to Stella “[he hurls a plate to the floor]
enter in Scene 3, the stage that Blanche realised “the [...] [he seizes her arm]”
directions indicate that jig was all up!” when the
“Stanley gives a loud whack superintendent found out, it Stanley’s abusive, physical
of his hand on her thigh”. conveys Stanley’s complete response to Stella telling him to
proleptically underlining the lack of compassion towards “go wash up and [..] clear the
notion that the sexualised her, giving us an insight into table” after calling him
male gaze drives their his own superficial “disgustingly greasy” illustrates
relationship. understanding of sexual his controlling nature - he cannot
relations. Such relations are stand being told what to do by
Here, physical violence is only deemed significant to women.
interlaced with sexual desire him if men serve the
and machismo exploitation. dominant and superior This further highlights his
From the harsh position. disparaging attitude towards
onomatopoeic verb “whack” women - if they do not please him,
to the pornification of her The proleptic irony is they do not deserve verbal or
“thigh”, Williams gives us an evident here as we later find physical respect.
insight into the out in scene 9 that for
objectification of women in Blanche, it was much more
1940’s America. psychological, to “fill (her)
empty heart” after the
death of her husband.

“They come together with If men discover any “Remember what Huey Long
low animal moans” their deviation from accepted said - Every man is a King! And I
relationship exists norms of virginity and am the King around here!”
predominantly on a deeply chastity, their reactions are Stanley’s forceful attempts to
primal level. Stanley sees extreme. regain control are illustrative of his
relationships based on carnal superficial and fragile masculinity.
lust. By rejecting Blanche and Huey Long was perceived as a
claiming that she is not the tyrant who abused his position of
ideal woman he naively power using intimidation and
thought she was, Mitch and aggression.
Stanley draw attention to the
discrepancy between how
women really behaved and
the type of behaviour that is
expected of them

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 Stanley’s propensity for “Sister Blanche is no lily” “It’s gonna be sweet when we
violence is encouraged by his “Dame Blanche''. Stanley can make noise in the night the
intoxication. There is almost a ironically calls Blanche way we used to and get the
primal, ‘sub-human’ and “Sister Blanche”. She coloured lights going” Here
animalistic sense of literally is Stella’s sister, but Stanley euphemistically refers to
masculinity to him, as he a title would also be given to sex. Stanley is often associated
bellows ‘STELL-LAHHHHH!”. a nun. Stanley therefore with lurid colours - the poker night,
This yell connotes mating call plays with her name in an the opening scene - and it seems
and is cohesive with the initial ironic reference to her he prefers lurid colours during sex,
description of him as a ‘richly sexual past; Blanche is no too. The connection between
feathered male bird among nun. He also plays on the coloured lights and sex, and lurid
hens’. association between purity colours and Stanley links Stanley’s
and the colour white. character to sex. Red is also linked
Despite what her name to sex later in the play, when
suggests (‘blanche’ / ‘blanc’ Stanley calls what will be the night
is French for white) Blanche of the rape a “red-letter night”.
is not morally pure, thus she
is “no lily”. “Dame
Blanche” may also be a
reference to her affected air.
Stanley’s repeated
reference to Blanche’s
sexual history reveal the
extent of society’s
preoccupation with female
sexual purity, and the way
that women’s sexual
history could be used as a
weapon against them.

Stanley constantly tries to “[He crosses off his bedroom,

undermine female agency as ripping off his shirt, and
it represents a threat to his changes into a brilliant silk
masculinity. Stella and bowling shirt]”
Blanche laughing during the
poker night annoys Stanley as The casual violence of this gesture
their enjoyment of a “ripping” foreshadows the
conversation that doesn’t violence he will do to Blanche in
involve him marginalises him Scene 10.
- someone who believes he is
“King” (Scene 8). He
responds to their laughter with
a command: “You hens cut
out that conversation in
here”.

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 However, Stella fights back
and says “This is my house
and I will talk as much as I
want to!”

The word “hens' ' recalls the

stage directions which
describe Stanley as a “richly
feathered male bird among
hens”, reminding the reader of
the text of his difference.

Other Key Moments/Scenes that Reveal Stanley’s Sexual Dominance

Scene 10: The Rape Scene

Stanley's sexuality and virility are interconnected. This is clear whenever his machismo
is challenged by those who are his social inferiors (Stella and Blanche); his response is
sexual abuse and violence. Many argue that Stanley’s unforgivable violence towards
Blanche results because, ultimately, it is in fact she that poses the biggest threat to his
masculinity.

Stanley emerges victorious as he acts according to the expected behavioural norms for
males. Contrastingly, Blanche is ostracised and abused as she continually fails to resign
herself to subordination on the basis of her gender.

❏ The surreal theatricality of the rape scene, as illustrated by the Expressionist “lurid
reflections” and the phrase “red-letter night”, foreshadows Blanche’s trauma.

❏ Williams signals the imminent rape through colour symbolism of Blanche’s fragile
delicacy in her now “crumpled white satin gown” as opposed to Stanley's macho
and imposing “brilliant silk pyjamas”.

❏ Williams creates a primordial, jungle-like feel to the scene through stage directions;
the “night is filled with inhuman voices like cries in a jungle flame”. Stanley's
animalistic nature is matched by the surroundings. Blanche’s “Darling Shep”
fantasy is gradually destroyed, and she is seeing his world for what it is.

❏ He corners her in the bedroom, refusing to move out of her way, "springs" at her,
shouting "Tiger - tiger!" as he captures her. Blanche's silent resignation as Stanley
carries her “inert figure” to the bed indicates her ultimate mental and physical
disintegration. Stanley seems to mock and confirm Blanche’s accusations that
he is an animal through his exclamation.

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Scene 11: The Tragic Ending
One of the play’s most disturbing moments of the play occurs at Scene 11. Williams
deliberately uses repetition to highlight the destructiveness of masculinity. The
atmosphere is once again “raw” and “lurid”, recalling the “lurid nocturnal brilliance” of
Scene Three, which proleptically warns us of the play’s tragic denouement.

➢ After Blanche is misunderstood and taken away, Stella finds herself trapped in her
husband’s manipulation. Stella is crying about Blanche, and Stanley, in an attempt to
comfort her - or, perhaps, finding an opportunity to take advantage of her - lets his
“fingers find the opening of her blouse”.

➢ His misogynistic act serves as a commentary on his lack of respect for Stella’s
personal existence.

➢ Stella’s sexual objectification and Stanley’s sexual male gaze is all that remains.

Stanley as the ‘Alpha Male’

The ‘alpha male’ is theorised as a man who dominates, leads and imposes his will on
others. The majority of other men wish to be him and women are undeniably attracted to
him. As explained in detail below, Stanley’s alpha male tendencies are demonstrated
through his domineering, violent outbursts and his power over Stella.

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Key Scenes Which Demonstrate Stanley’s Alpha-Male Masculinity

Scene 1 Scene 3 Scene 7

Williams intentionally crafts The “Van Gogh” painting, Stanley describes Blanche as
our first impression of with its typically lurid colours, trying to “squirm out” of a
Stanley in Act One as complements the “sort of situation in which she was
audacious, vivid and lurid nocturnal brilliance” found to be involved with one
unapologetically sexual. He of the poker night scene. of her students. She was
is "roughly dressed” in Williams details the scene’s unable to because they “had
“blue denim work clothes" saturated colours: “vivid her on the hook good”. The
and "heaves" a package of green [...] solid blues, a animalistic imagery debases
meat towards his wife. He purple, a red-and-white her actions and places her in a
knows and likes to be in check, a light green”, as position of vulnerability and
control. well as the “vivid” green shame.
and red of a watermelon.
These rich colours illustrate
the men’s animal natures;
acting as a proleptic irony
for Stanley’s behaviour at the
end of the scene.

The opening description of Stanley demonstrates that he When Blanche alludes to

Stanley as a working-class makes the rules as he Shakespeare’s Hamlet by
man wearing a “bowling “tosses some watermelon verbal scene-painting
jacket” while carrying a rinds to the floor”, without (pragmatographia) in saying
“red-stained package from any regard for the fact that “Possess your soul in
the butcher’s” illustrates his Stella lives in the house, too. patience!” to Stanley, her
primitive masculinity fascination with the world of
through the grotesque colour fantasy and ornamentation is
symbolism and barbaric evident. However, Stanley
zoomorphism. He then yells with “(with feels his masculinity
heaven-splitting violence) threatened and immediately
The package of meat he STELLL-AHHHHH!”, resorts to verbal arrogance
bears emphasises his role as demonstrating his animal “It’s not my soul I’m worried
breadwinner - or someone tendencies. about”, cynically cutting down
who literally ‘brings home her theatricality. This
the bacon’. exchange is also an example
of the play’s conflict between
realism and expressionism.

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 Stanley’s entrance into the The setting of the artificially “Hey, canary bird! Toots!
house is one of violence and vivid kitchen (“electric bulb” Get OUT of the
aggression, as he “throws “raw colours”) not only BATHROOM!”
the screen door of the alludes to Blanche’s façade
kitchen open”. Williams of innocence but also Here, Stanley asserts his
describes this casually, as it introduces a sinister and verbal dominance over a
comes from the “animal joy hellish ambience. vulnerable Blanche,
of his being”. The epicentre completely degrading her
of his life consists of “his through the
heartiness with men”, his dehumanising reference
“rough humour” and to a bird. The bathroom is
“pleasure with women”. the only space where
From this description we see Blanche can engage in
that Stanley socialises with fantasy, and thus her own
men, and his relations with space of freedom. His
women are solely sexual. vicious language cruelly
disfigures her happiness.

In the Elia Kazan film

adaptation, however,
Stanley’s character is seen
saying this less
aggressively.

Scene 7 “Lie Number One”

“Lie Number Two” Stanley’s
patronising and hyperbolic
tone to pinpoint all of
Blanche’s alleged failures or
lies is another trait of the toxic
alpha male archetype - he
must defeat those
subordinate to him.

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Alpha Male Masculinity and Hegemonic Masculinity

While Stanley is undoubtedly an alpha male, he does not conform to hegemonic masculinity
as defined by Connell (1995). Hegemonic masculinity, according to Connell, is synonymous
with power: those who conform are usually heterosexual, white and middle-class. Stanley
is only the former; while modern audiences may view Stanley as white, whiteness in 1940s
America was more exclusionary. Irish, Eastern European and Southern European
immigrants to America were often discriminated against and denied housing, and moreover
viewed as ‘other’ or ‘not-quite-white’. This means Stanley would have been denied many
of the privileges granted to ‘real’ American men, and has led Gloria McMillan to - perhaps
controversially - label Stanley the play’s ‘Polish African American’. We see a hint of this
prejudice through Blanche othering Stanley ‘You healthy Polack’ (Scene 8). She also
doubtfully asks if his friends are ‘Polacks?’ (Scene 1). She also expresses disbelief that
Stella is sleeping with Stanley when she exclaims ‘In bed with your--Polack!’ (Scene 1).
This pause perhaps also signals the extent of her disgust; she does not want to admit that
her sister is with a man of Polish origin, and therefore pauses before forcing the word out.
Despite Stanley asserting that he is ‘one hundred percent American’ (Scene 8), he would
have been othered and snubbed by many, and thus does not hold the same power in the
world that he wields in his household.

Stanley does not fit another of the typical criteria for hegemonic masculinity: he is not middle
class. Stanley is squarely a blue-collar worker, signalled immediately and unmistakably by
his “blue denim” and bloody package of meat (Scene 1). Denim was the workwear of
choice for manual labourers; due to its sturdy qualities the prospectors of the California Gold
Rush wore denim. The meat also indicates that Stanley is working class; it is roughly
wrapped and soaked with blood - lacking the delicate presentation of meat wrapped in a

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butchers catering to the middle class. Stanley takes pride in working-class hobbies and
pleasures: poker, bowling, “rough humour”, “drink and food and games” (Scene 1).
Nevertheless, he would have also been aware that he belongs to a subordinate class - one
that is exploited and pathologised by the middle and upper classes. Furthermore, he would
have less and less fitted the emerging image of the ideal man: the breadwinner father
figure, with his white-collar job in the city and his children, wife and domestic appliances
behind his white-picket, suburban fence.

Stanley takes pride in his brutish masculinity, but we can see his verbal and physical
dominance as perhaps a reaction to the knowledge that he is othered and subordinate in
the social hierarchy. When he is reminded of his other, working-class status (e.g.
derogatorily by Blanche), he lashes out. Thus, his alpha male persona is perhaps in a way
of compensating for the fact that he does not possess hegemonic masculinity. By
demonstrating his power in the domestic space, Stanley can bridge the gap between what
he believes he should be - “King” (Scene 8) - and how he is seen by the outside world.

Non-Hegemonic or Subordinate Masculinity

Allan Gray
Those who do not display alpha masculinity or conform to hegemonic masculinity are, to a
greater or lesser degree, ignored and even marginalised or ostracised. This is the case
with Blanche’s late husband, Allan Gray, who is gay and dies via suicide before the play
begins.

Allan is a symbol of Blanche’s traumatised past. Many psychologists and psychiatrists in

1940s America, including the American Psychiatric Association, considered
homosexuality a mental illness or even a sociopathic personality disturbance.

These horrific attitudes towards homosexuality are well presented in Williams’ play: Stella
initially describes Allan as a “beautiful and talented young man”. He then suddenly
becomes a “degenerate” - a reference to his sexuality. The latter descriptor reveals that
homosexuality was viewed as an unnatural aberration and a perversion of morality, and
the disgust that is evoked as a result.

Allan kills himself after being found with another man by Blanche, who tells him that he
“disgust[s]” her (Scene 6). This brutal rejection by somebody he had loved, as well as
possibly his own internalised homophobia and fear of being exposed, become too much to
bear, and he shoots himself. In essence, Allan is a victim of hegemonic masculinity, which
is based on machismo and heterosexism. Allan’s difference from the other male characters
is signalled by his name - Gray - which contrasts with Stanley and his posse’s lurid colours.
It also signals his need to camouflage himself in order to survive, and therefore the half-life
that he is condemned to live.

Williams, like Allan, was gay. His position as a gay man - and therefore somebody who
embodied subordinate masculinity - allowed him to critique hegemonic / alpha masculinity
from the sidelines, seeing and identifying with its many casualties.

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Allan and Blanche are both victims of hegemonic masculinity, and Williams this plays by
linking them to each other through language and symbols. ‘Blanche’ is French for white, and
an English verb for bleaching through lack of exposure to sunlight. It is thus a shadowy tone,
allied with grey. Neither blanche nor grey are true colours. Thus, they are allied with each
other - and contrasted with Stanley, who is associated with lurid or primary colours. Blanche
is also linked to Allan through Mitchell, who rejects her for her sexual history in the same
way that Blanche rejects Allan for his sexuality. He says he was “fool enough to believe
[she] was straight” (Scene 9). The last word recalls Allan’s sexuality and Blanche’s
revelation that she has found it out.

Through Allan and Blanche’s fates, Williams exposes the way that those who do not embody
hegemonic or complicit masculinity are ostracised and die both literal and psychological
and social/ symbolic deaths.

Harold “Mitch” Mitchell

Stanley is presented as the alpha male, while Mitch is portrayed as a beta male. As Marie
Lund explains in her article ‘Harold (Mitch) Mitchell’s role in the demise of Blanche Dubois in
A Streetcar Named Desire’, Williams presents Mitch as an “unusual antithesis to the
prevalent depiction of a man”. Here, she explains that Mitch is still a strong masculine
character, but lesser in comparison to Stanley, due to his relatively effeminate nature:

❖ Mitch’s complexity and vulnerability is what Stanley uses to dominate him. He is

clearly more sensitive than others, evident when he contemplates leaving the
Poker night due to his care for his “sick mother”, saying that “she don’t go to
sleep until I come in at night” (Scene 3).

❖ As the stage directions point out, Mitch has an "awkward courtesy” when he
politely addresses Blanche “How do you do, Miss DuBois?" Here, Williams
exposes the derogatory mindset of this society; to treat a woman with respect,
rather than to sexually objectify her as Stanley does (to both Stella and Blanche, as
explored earlier), is seen as “awkward” and unconventional. Mitch is unable to
conform to the alpha male tendencies that Stanley carelessly does.

❖ Mitch encompasses an almost boyish fragility, which is arguably what Blanche finds
so endearing. This is evident in her interpretation that Mitch is, in fact, “superior to
the others” due to his sensitivity.

❖ Mitch remains one of the only ones who is truly moved and internally destroyed
about Blanche’s treatment, screaming “I'll kill you! [He lunges and strikes at
Stanley]” to which Stanley recklessly replies “Hold this bone-headed cry-baby!"
(Scene 11). Here, Mitch uses verbal and physical violence, mirroring Stanley’s
alpha male tendencies. However, he does it out of grief and respect for Blanche -
while Stanley does the polar opposite.

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Mitch is allied with Allan; Allan is described as possessing a “softness and tenderness
which wasn't like a man's” although is he not overly “effeminate looking” (Scene 6).
Likewise, Mitch is sincere, sensitive and gentle. Nevertheless, his sensitive, gentlemanly
nature is a facade which gives Blanche a false sense of security. Mitchell may be kinder
than Stanley but he still buys into ideas about gender difference and enforces ideals of
female sexual purity.

His prejudice is hinted at in Scene 3 when he states that "Poker shouldn't be played in a
house with women." While this statement might stem from a desire to protect Blanche and
Stella from drunkenness and violence, it reproduces the idea of separate spheres - there
are certain activities and spaces women should be excluded from. Mitch’s misogyny and
prejudice comes to the fore in Scene 9 when destroys Blanche’s self-worth after
discovering that she is not the emblem of purity he desires. His misogynistic claim that
“you’re not clean enough to bring in a house with my mother” (Scene 9) helps to
dismantle her psyche. He also accuses Blanche “lapping [up liquor] all summer like a
wild cat!” (Scene 9). This animalistic and dehumanising portrayal of Blanche reveals his
lack of sympathy for her. His ultimate rejection of her reveals how widespread the male
fixation on female chastity is. His reproduction of ideas about gender difference and
female sexual purity reveals him as belonging to the category of complicit masculinity. He
does not question Stanley’s alpha male behaviour during the poker scene but simply states
that women should not be in his presence. Likewise, he does not challenge ideas around
female sexual purity but instead reproduces them, and is therefore complicit in Blanche’s
downfall.

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