To what extent can one alter their reality? Based on what the beholder desires, they can either choose to live a life of conflict or harmony when it comes to interacting with those of a different gender and/or social class. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, two upper-class sisters, Blanche and Stella, go on to live separate lives after their family’s downfall. Stella submits to reality through a happy marriage with a lower-class man, Stanley, as they reside in a typical 1950s patriarchal household. Yet Blanche stays to maintain the family estate, the Belle Reve, but struggles after losing the property due to bankruptcy along with mourning the loss of both parents. After having a string of affairs with men upon relocating to a nearby hotel as a way to escape her painful past of losing her husband to suicide, she eventually seeks help from her sister. While Stanley’s alpha-male characteristics are initially attractive to Stella, Blanche’s arrival leads to Stella’s self-assertion. Consequently, Stanley takes notice of the shift in their dynamic and seeks to reestablish his authority to the point of transforming into a villain when inflicting cruelty on Blanche and his own wife. 

 While Stanley embodies the stereotypical qualities of the patriarch–a loyal husband, a provider, and a responsible father, his rawness and masculinity captivates Stella and arouses passion in their marriage. This is especially demonstrated when the play begins with Stanley bringing meat home while his neighbor, Steve, is asked to buy a sandwich “‘cause nothing’s left” (5). This contrast between both men highlights Stanley’s sense of responsibility, which is further illustrated when Stella introduces Blanche to her husband by referring to him as a “Master Sergeant in the Engineers’ Corps” (18) who often travels for work to support the family. However, their first encounter was not all that encouraging, especially when Stanley questions Blanche regarding the loss of Belle Reve. Knowing that Stella “is going to have a baby” (44), he references “the Napoleonic code” in which “what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband” (32). In this way, Stanley explains that as the provider of the family, he must “take an interest in his wife’s affairs” (45). However, Stella does not take issue with his train of thought since she perceives him as constantly thinking about their fortune and future as a family unit, something that she appreciates, especially when she remarks, “it’s the drive that he has” (53). Apart from Stanley’s inner qualities, he is also depicted as a man “strongly compactly built” (24), giving “a wonderful exhibition” of ‘animal force’ (79). In fact, it is Stanley’s physical charm that excites Stella and is described as “brutal desire”, which serves as the essential basis of the couple’s relationship. Stella confirms this when telling Blanche, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant” (81). Ultimately, Stanley’s masculinity is the basis of his “complete and satisfying center” (25). Therefore, as his sister-in-law, Blanche realizes that “the only way to live with such a man is to go to bed with him” (79) which is Stella’s job and not hers. In turn, the conflicts between them are predictable. 

 After Blanche’s arrival, while Stanley’s hostile attempts to reclaim the eroded authority in the household are deemed violent and inconsiderate, his motivation is understandable in regard to her condescendence and interference with the couple’s previous harmony. Before her sister’s visit, Stella is appeased by Stanley’s sexual magnetism and willingly adjusts her habits to his lifestyle. However to protect Blanche, Stella no longer submits to Stanley’s authority and she starts to give him instructions such as: “be nice to her” (30), come out with me while she is getting dressed (35). As consequence, there is even more tension, leading Stanley to believe that “the [Kowalskis] and the [DuBoises] have different notions” (35). This is especially demonstrated when Stanley further feels restricted when he arranges to have a poker game with friends at his home. Stella prioritizes taking care of her sister, telling him that she is “going to try to keep Blanche out till the party breaks up because [she doesn’t] know how [Blanche] would take it” (29). Furthermore, she does not make dinner for him as usual, and then when she returns, Stella asks the men to stop the game and finally asserts that “this is my house and I can talk as much as I want to” when Stanley demands that she keep quiet (54). Blanche also interrupts the game by intentionally showing her body behind the curtain, engaging Mitch in conversation, and turning the radio on again. As a result, Stanley is triggered and commits horrible violence on Stella. After this incident, when Blanche interrogates Stella about why she still returned to Stanley, Stella expresses her forgiveness “in a calm and leisurely way” (72), as she says she has always been “kind of thrilled by” his “smashing of things” (73). Regardless of Stella’s nonchalance, Blanche still attempts to pull Stella out of this potentially dangerous relationship. However, Stella “slowly and emphatically” replies that she is “not in anything she wants to get out of” (74). But, as Blanche reveals her views of Stanley to her sister, including describing him as “common”, “ape-like”, and a “survivor of the stone age” (83), he overhears everything. 

 However, once Stanley—driven by his continual loss of respect and control—discovers Blanche’s scandalous past, his indifference towards her motives and trauma eventually leads way to behaving as an actual villain. Since Stanley has been “told and told and told” by Blanche via sarcasm and insults that she and Stella “grew up under very different circumstances” (118), he aims to find a way to get her out of his house. He learns from Shaw that Blanche was “as famous in Laurel as if she was the President of the United States” but “not respected by any party” (119) because of her many romances with strangers in the Hotel Flamingo where she lived before moving in with them. After confirming this story prior to Blanche’s birthday dinner, Stanley tells Mitch, who would have married her. As Stella tries to comfort her sister after Mitch decides not to attend, she disrespectfully lashes out at Stanley, telling him that he is  “too busy making a pig of himself to think of anything else” (115) and that he is “disgustingly greasy” in which she orders him to “go and wash up and then help [her] clear the table” (116). Livid by the way his wife speaks to him by attempting to strip him of his authority, he becomes violent by hurling plates to the ground. He then asserts that "Every Man is a King" and “[he] is the king around [the house]” (116). Stanley then gives Blanche her “birthday gift” (136): a bus ticket back to Laurel, which sends her to the bedroom in despair as she is reminded of her painful past. Yet to make matters worse, Mitch later comes to meet Blanche to both confront and reject her. Thereafter, Blanche has a mental breakdown and later that night, Stanley angrily forces her into the corner of the room and rapes her to assert his dominance over her, making him confirm his role as the play’s inhumane villain. Due to his string of abusive and violent behaviors against Blanche, she is commited to the hospital in which he gets what he wants; for her to leave his home. Whereas a true man would have sought to help his sister-in-law in a time of need, especially in light of the fact that she witnessed the suicide of her husband after catching him have an affair with another man, he instead only adds to her trauma. Even when Mitch comes to learn about her past, there is no compassion for what she had endured, which was the reason why she acted out by engaging in “intimacies with strangers” (146). 

 What can be said for William’s play is that Blanche’s presence certainly transformed the dynamic in the Kowalski household, leading to conflicts rooted in class division and gender inequality. Though Stanley will do anything to maintain his dominance, Stella on the other hand understands that her sister is human and has suffered a lot, thus, she looks to help her. Yet Blanche also sees how Stanley’s behaviors, especially those that are violent against her sister, are alarming and she tries to intervene. The more Stanley feels threatened by these two women, the more he attempts to reclaim his authority to the point of committing a heinous rape crime and adultry. Throughout the play, Williams creates a vivid image of the implications of marrying into a different social class, how conflict arises among sexes, how couples can struggle when an outsider interferes, and how reality and desire fail to coexist. But ultimately, Williams illustrates the dangerous effects of Stanley’s toxic masculinity.