AQA 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 woman. 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
Marlon Brando as Stanley in Kazan's film adaptation
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.” (Scene 1)

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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.

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 in a suburban setting would gain prominence. 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 - a figure caught between two masculine
ideals: that of passionate manhood and that of the man as father figure.

Initial Performance Context

The play was first performed in 1974, when a feminist consciousness was emerging. To a
contemporary audience sympathetic to emergent ideas around male domination and gender
equality, Stanley’s brutish 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.

Feminine Codes of Conduct

To truly comprehend the overarching dominance of the hegemonic male characters, we must
take into account 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’.

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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 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). 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 sexual history, her provocative dress habits (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 with no repercussions. He is a “richly feathered male bird amongst
hens” (Scene 1). 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

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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 Stella ultimately results in her 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).

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.

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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’

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 (following page)

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 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 image
"competition, before Stanley's brutish rape, connecting
aggressiveness, and finally “I’d have that on my his animality with his sexuality.
domination are the rules," is conscience for the rest of
the primary method of my life if I knew all that
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.

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 “go
proleptically underlining the lack of compassion towards wash up and [..] clear the table”
notion that the sexualised her, giving us an insight into after calling him “disgustingly
male gaze drives their his own superficial greasy” illustrates his controlling
relationship. understanding of sexual nature - he cannot stand being told
relations. Such relations are what to do by women.
Here, physical violence is only deemed significant to
interlaced with sexual desire him if men serve the This further highlights his
and machismo exploitation. dominant and superior disparaging attitude towards
From the harsh position. women - if they do not please him,
onomatopoeic verb “whack” they do not deserve verbal or
to the pornification of her The proleptic irony is physical respect.
“thigh”, Williams gives us an evident here as we later find
insight into the out in scene 9 that for
Blanche, it was much more

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 objectification of women in psychological, to “fill (her)
1940’s America. 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 regain
primal level. Stanley sees extreme. control are illustrative of his
relationships based on carnal superficial and fragile masculinity.
lust. By rejecting Blanche and
claiming that she is not the Huey Long was perceived as a
ideal woman he naively tyrant who abused his position of
thought she was, Mitch and power using intimidation and
Stanley draw attention to the aggression.
discrepancy between how
women really behaved and
the type of behaviour that is
expected of them

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.

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 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.

“[He crosses off his bedroom,

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

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 iof his difference.

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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
happens because she poses a 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 clothes-based symbolism. Blanche's fragility
is mirrored in her now “crumpled white satin gown” as opposed to Stanley's macho
and imposing “brilliant silk pyjamas”. 'Crumpled' foretells the physical violence
Stanley will do to her, which will break her.
❏ 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 sees his world for what it is.
❏ He corners her in the bedroom, refusing to move out of her way. He "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.

Scene 11: The Tragic Ending

One of the play’s most disturbing moments of the play occurs in Scene 11. Williams deliberately
uses repetition to highlight the destructiveness of masculinity. The atmosphere is
“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.

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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 like Stella 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.

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 debase
meat towards his wife. He purple, a red-and-white her actions and place 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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 by 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 does not fit the emerging 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 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.

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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.

Allan kills himself after being found with another man by Blanche, who tells him that he
“disgust[s]” her (Scene 6). This brutal rejection from somebody he had loved, possibly in combination
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.

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 white 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 Mitch, who rejects her for her sexual history in the same way that Blanche
rejects Allan for his sexuality. Mitch tells her that 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 complicity masculinity are ostracised and die both literal and psychological
and social/ symbolic deaths.

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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 habits 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”.
❖ Mitch remains one of the only ones who is truly moved and internally destroyed by
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.

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 - that there are
certain activities and spaces women should be excluded from. Mitch’s misogyny and prejudice
comes to the fore in Scene 9 when he 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

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poker scene but simply states that women should not be present. 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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