A Street Car Named Desire

A Street Car Named Desire

Main Characters:

Blanche: a middle aged woman, who goes to visit her sister to escape her past, and drinks often.

Stella is Blanche’s younger sister who moved away from home, and married a guy named Stanley.

Stanley is Stella’s husband. He drinks a lot, and is very controlling over Stella.

What do I know about the story?

In the story Blanche goes to visit her sister, and Stanley. Blanche at first seems very stuck up and snobby, but then she really seems to be concerned about her sister. While Blanche is there she meets Mitch when all the guys come over for a poker game. Also while at the poker game Stella and Stanley get in a fight and Stanley hits Stella. While the guys grab Stanley to get him away from Stella, Blanche grabs Stella and takes her to stay with their neighbor. Mitch and Blanche start to date. While Mitch and Blanche are dating Stanley finds out that when Blanche was back home she had a reputation of sleeping around with lots of men. Stanley then tells Mitch about Blanche and instead of acting like a gentleman like he had been. Mitch acts like a completely different guy and tries to become intimate with her when Blanche keeps telling him no. Stella also finds out in the story that she is pregnant. While Stella is in the hospital having the baby, Stanley comes onto Blanche and rapes her. After the rape Stanley and Stella send Blanche to a Psych hospital.

What can you imagine?

I imagine that back home when Blanche was back home she was raped by someone else, and had issues with her father, possibly sexually abused. I also imagine that Blanche didn’t have as much money or as good of a life as she lead onto people. I also imagine that in the end all she had been through may have made her seem a bit crazy, but I do not believe she should have been committed.

What do you feel about what you read?

At first when I was reading the story I really didn’t like Blanche. I thought she was very selfish and didn’t care about anyone but herself. In the end after reading and talking about in class I really started to feel bad for Blanche and became sympathetic for her. I truly believe that she was abused in some way and that is why she is the way she is. As for Stella I was very aggravated when she went back to Stanley after he beat her. I wish she would have stayed away, and then what had happened to Blanche might have been different.