1. Pham 1
Chau Pham
Mr. Kumin
English III Honors
7 June 2010
How does Williams create your impressions of his characters? Is it done merely through
dialogue? If not, what other components of the play help characterize Blanche, Stanley, Stella,
and Mitch?
Tennessee Williams, a great American playwright, is renowned for his impressive prose
and great characterization. In his play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams portrays his
characters through dialogues, their interactions and his descriptive scene introductions.
Through the way she talks, Blanche revealed herself as a hysterical and superficial
person. She considers herself superior to others in her conversations. When Eunice leads her
inside Stella’s apartment, she wants to “get rid of her” as soon as she walks in. As she meets her
sister, Stella, she can’t help but saying that her place is horrible. She talks constantly about
herself and doesn’t give a chance for Stella to say a word. She goes on and criticizing how
solemn a condition that Stella has lived in. Given that Blanche has no place to live but to come to
her sister for help, she should have no reasons to condemn Stella’s life. On the contrary, she even
uses phrases (Williams 12) such as “Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe!— could do it justice!
Out there I suppose is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir!” Such comment exposes how
important material things are to Blanche and reveals her superficial characters. Through
dialogues, Williams gives his readers an impression of Blanche as an insincere and self-centered
character.

2. Pham 2
Stanley, on the other hand, is portrayed mainly through Williams’ introductory prose. He
describes Stanley as a “strong, compactly built” man whose “animal joy in his being is implicit
in all his movements and attitudes” (24). He is very masculine and always takes pleasure in
women. Williams illustrates Stanley’s characters with animalistic behaviors by his using of
various words such as “a richly feathered male bird among hens.” This portrayal gives the
readers a vivid picture of a rough, powerful man who is in control of the situations. Stanley’s raw
manner is also illustrated in the violent ways in which he beats his wife and his disrespect to
Blanche. He ordered Blanche to turn off the radio and when she didn’t; he comes to the room
and throw the radio out of the window. His violence and abrupt manner are characterized
through a combination of dialogues, and concise language.
Characters such as Mitch and Stella are characterized in the same manner, not through
mere dialogues but through their interactions as well. Thus characters in A Streetcar Named
Desire are very vivid and unique, which make a play a successful piece of literature.