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stanley - Coggle Diagram
stanley
themes
masculinity
"gaudy seed-bearer" pride in masculinity and sexuality , powerful and sexual dominance shows masculinity as rooted in his sexual endeavours and accomplishments
"pulled you down off those columns" masculinity as trumping gender and class as his masculinity allows
degreadation of his wife "baby" "baby doll"
stanley is forced to fit the carefully constructed mould of masculinity particularly post-war and forced to adopt this role without acknowledging the traumas experienced in war
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gender
"gaudy seed bearer" Stanley's gender allows him to express his sexualty ostentatiously without any rebuttal , perhaps this creates some conflicts in the play with Blanche who is constantly punished for her attempts to flaunt her sexuality
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violence
'r' scene is a clear act of sexual violence and an attempt to claim dominance and superiority over Blanche
Stanley ‘stalks fiercely into the room’ and ‘with a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out of the window’. - violent nature
domestic violence is disregarded as "passion" [STANLEY gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh] Stanley is a crude, domineering man who is physically imposing
context
Stanley's power over the women in the play reflects the wider masculine dominance particularly considering the tensions with men returning from the war Stanley resorts to this sexual aggression when he feels the need to assert his dominance and masculinity, showing him to be dependent on sexual violence to mask his emotional fragility which was not accepted by society at the time. Williams suggests that this fragility may be attributed to the changing roles of women in the 1950s - post war rise in autonomy
"i was common as dirt" exemplifies the hope the American dream has injected into the WC and the belief in social mobility with hard work
Coult: 'Stanley Kowalski is a symbol of this modern world, a masculine world, a world of machines and harsh individualistic brutality'
Bubb: 'there is a hint of admiration in his tone when presenting Stanley' - could be argued that Stanley is left unpunished for his violent masculinity - unpunished for the rape of Blanche, violence against him
stanley represents the new, industrialised, immigrant America
key quotes
'I was common as dirt'
'I pulled you off them columns and how you loved it'
"STELLLAHH"
"gaudy seed bearer"
'acts like an animal, has animal's habits' , "ape-like"
symbols & stagecraft
"bellowing" , "heaves" “shoves it roughly” and “kicks ”Williams uses verbs to amplify Stanley's rough and aggresive nature. this physical asssertion of dominance over Blanche is a clear display of machismo
"Bowling! , Come On" use of monosylllabic words shows class differences
'coloured shirts' and "blue denim rough work clothes" represent the intense , passionate masculinity Stanley performs
" the hot trumpet sounds louder" symbol for stanley - Williams uses a mixture of digetic and non-digetic sound to demonstrates the inevitable dominance of masculinity over femininity
Bubb would argue that in some ways "there is a hint of pride in his tone when presenting Stanley" (Even in the new america) particularly through the dominance of this brash instrument