It is clear that Stanley and Blanche are polar opposites. What do you believe Tennessee Williams is conveying about people, the South, and motivations through these two characters? (The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight, Nov. 20, 2013.)
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Stanley and Blanche are complete opposites because Stanley is primitive and Blanche comes from high-class, Southern money. Because of their different backgrounds, they do not really understand each other. Williams is showing how people who do not get along in real life often cannot understand the ways of people who come from completely different backgrounds. William also divides the South. He describes New Orleans as a place with all sorts of people living together, and he describes Belle Reve, a plantation, as a place of affluent white people who live “hoity-toity” lives. He shows how varied the South was during this time period through his use of verisimilitude in his descriptions of the two southern places. Though Stanley and Blanche are complete opposites, they have similar motivations. Stanley, the primitive one, acts on instinct and lust. Blanche, feeling the pressure of loneliness and loss of money and social status, drinks and flirts around with guys to take the edge off of her emptiness. Williams shows how people from completely different life styles are driven by self-satisfaction.
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