Stella and Stanley are a married couple who live in Elysian Fields. Unexpectedly Stella’s older sister Blanche arrives at their apartment to stay for a while. She goes to stay with them because their family estate, Belle Reve, has been lost due to no payments. Blanche needs somewhere to stay and so she stays with the Kowalski family. Since Blanche arrived at Stella’s house, Stanley and Blanche clashed because he did not trust her. He did not believe that Blanche had lost the estate, but that she had sold it and the Kowalski’s did not receive any profit from the sell. From the time that Blanche met Stanley, she felt uncomfortable around him and even more when she saw that he was not being gentle towards her. Stanley’s superiority complex came from feeling threatened by Blanche because she was one to stand up to him. Stella never did confront him about anything, but Blanche took a stand against Stanley and his hatred towards strong women, which shows the misogynistic element of the play. Throughout her stay, Stanley made remarks about Blanche and how she criticized their home. One day Stanley overheard Blanche and Stella talking about him, Blanche was badmouthing him. Since that day Stanley was all about destroying fragile Blanche. On occasions Stanley had his friends over for poker night, and on one of those nights he got drunk and ended up beating Stella. Blanche could not understand why Stella would go back to a man who beat her, but Stella did not think anything bad about it. Knowing that Blanche was convincing Stella about leaving Stanley made him hate Blanche even more. The day of Blanche’s birthday celebration Stanley gives Blanche a bus ticket back to Laurel which makes Blanche sick. Stanley returns home where he finds Blanche drinking and packing. Stanley becomes angry with her because she threatens to smash him in the face with a broken bottle. He then continues by carrying her to the bed and raping her. A few weeks later Blanche lets Stella know about what Stanley did to her but Stella does not believe her and decides to kick Blanche out and stay with Stanley. A doctor arrives at the Kowalski’s home to take Blanche away because she is not in the correct state of mind, all this is done behind Blanche’s back. Stanley could not stand that Blanche was a stronger woman than Stella and that she stood up for herself. Stanley believed that Blanche was only there to turn Stella into a bad woman, which was not true. Stanley’s misogynistic attitude was what made Blanche dislike him as well and tell Stella that he had raped her.
