Stanley's anger is shown through his physical actions as described in the stage directions, such as hurling and seizing Stella. His language like "Pig...Polak...disgusting...vulgar...greasy!" displays his pure anger. Stella provokes Stanley by telling him he is "disgustingly greasy", asserting her superiority in a way atypical of her. Stanley then reasserts his authority over Stella through an outburst of violence. The stage directions contrast Stella crying weakly to Stanley stalking her, showing his predatory and animalistic nature. Overall, Williams portrays Stanley as a man capable of physical and mental abuse to maintain his authority.

1. How does Williams show Stanley’s anger in this extract?
During this extract, we once again see Stanley’s animalistic way of asserting his authority over Stella.
As well as his physical actions, recognised through the stage directions, the vocabulary that Stanley
uses has connotations of his pure anger and violence, and the syntax that Williams uses represents
his tone, and his complete switch of behaviour from the beginning to the end of this scene.
It may be seen that it is Stella, and maybe even Blanche’s comments about him at the beginning of
the extract, that provoke Stanley’s complete burst of anger. Stella says ‘Your face and fingers are
disgustingly greasy. Go and wash up and then help me clear the table.’ Here, we see for one of the
first times in the play, Stella’s superiority over Stanley emerging, and although the denotation is just
of Stella telling Stanley to help clean up, which would be a perfectly acceptable thing to do even in
those days, it may also have a discourse of class superiority; by Stella describing Stanley as
‘disgustingly greasy’, and using the imperative towards Stanley which she rarely does, this may be a
sign of her physical revulsion towards him, as well as the fact that Stella is actually from a higher
social class than Stanley. Stella uses the adverb “disgustingly” to powerful effect; in this context, it is
low-frequency lexis, thus becomes a marker of her superior social status. The adjective “greasy” has
powerful connotations of physical revulsion. We know that Blanche expresses her disgust towards
the way that Stanley acts (due to his lower class) frequently throughout the play, however Stella
never voices this kind of superiority and normally defends Stanley. The emotive lexis ‘disgusting’ is
also quite patronising, and this assertion of her authority over Stanley may be the reason why he
feels the need to reassert his authority over her.
Stanley’s explosion of violence is not that surprising to the audience, however, especially in the film,
it displays his ability to physically bully Stella, and it shows Stanley’s aggressive personality at its
height. By using the verbs ‘hurls’ and ‘seizes’ in the stage directions, Williams is emphasizing
Stanley’s violent behaviour, and actually the idea of him physically bullying Stella. Stanley then
switches to the asyndetic syntax to list/quote the things he has been called throughout the play-
‘Pig…Polak…disgusting…vulgar…greasy!’. By Williams asyndetically listing these nouns and
adjectives, it shows how completely angry he is as he does not have the concern, or time, to use the
word ‘and’. Williams also uses exclamatory syntax by frequently using exclamation marks during
Stanley’s outburst of anger. This is actually a harsh contrast to the previous speech of Blanche telling
her ‘parrot story’ earlier in the scene- Stanley’s speech is disjointed by the use of asyndetic listing,
and his ultimate anger is portrayed through the exclamatory syntax, and the imperative orders that
he gives to Stella, however earlier in the scene when Blanche tells her ‘parrot story’, especially in the
film adaptation, her tone is delicate and sweet, and in this sense her use of exclamatory syntax
represents her dream-like humour, and her naivety.
Williams also uses specific verbs in the stage directions followings Stanley’s outburst of anger to
portray features of Stanley’s personality, by contrasting ‘Stella begins to cry weakly’, with ‘Stanley
stalks…’. The adverbweakly shows Stella’s utter fragility and her physical and mental apathy.
However, in contrast, by using the word stalks, Williams is describing Stanley’s animalistic features,
like a predator would stalk their prey, and could be anticipating the future events, as the verbstalk
could be features of a rapist. This word, coupled with the physical action of Stanley lighting a
cigarette as directed in the stage directions, shows his complete disregard for Stella’s feelings.

2. In conclusion, much of Stanley’s anger is shown through his physicality, as Williams writes in the
stage directions. The verbs ‘hurls’ and ‘seizes’ show his spontaneous, uncontrollable explosion of
anger, however the verb ‘stalks’ may present his calculated anger towards Stella, and his ability to be
able to control and manipulate her. These together represent, to the audience, a man who has anger
building up throughout the play, which reaches its climax in this scene, however, once he has
reasserted his authority, continues to display features of a twisted man with an unfit mental state,
which is ironic as he criticises Blanche and attacks her mental state frequently throughout the play.
Williams, overall, portrays Stanley as a man capable of physical and mental bullying, and who
degrades whoever opposes his authority.