Mélanie Urvoy
English 102-005
13 February 2012
Research paper
A Conflict as a Poker Game In the early twentieth century, women were still dependent on men. It was difficult for a woman to have a job and be financially independent. In addition, at this time, women had to keep their virginity to have a chance to get married. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is placed in the picturesque French Quarter in New Orleans. The play starts when Blanche DuBois comes in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella after she lost the family plantation Belle-Reve because of money problems. She then meets her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, a World War II veteran. As soon as they meet each other, a mistrustful rivalry starts between them. A Streetcar Named Desire depicts the conflict between two opposing views as a poker game between Blanche and Stanley for control.
From the beginning of the play, Williams starts distinguishing Stanley and Blanche by their mentalities. In fact, Blanche has the Old South mentality. She grew up in a plantation where she learnt how to behave as an aristocrat whereas her brother-in-law is an industrial and a Polish immigrant representing the New South. Blanche is described as delicate and fragile whereas Stanley is rude and violent. Blanche lives in a world of illusion. She acts as a queen and wants the men to treat her like it. Unlike Blanche, Stanley lives in a rude world, a world where if a person are strong enough physically and mentally, he or she can succeed.
In addition, Williams opposes Stanley and Blanche by their description. First of all, he opposes their names. While Blanche means “white” in French and seems to represent innocence, Kowalski means “blacksmith” and represents the rudeness, the violence, and the primitive side of Stanley. Secondly, Williams opposes his main characters physically. Indeed, he describes Blanche when she arrives in New Orleans as “daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district” (Williams 1.1805). Blanche’s description contrasts with Stanley’s description when she meets him for the first time. He is, in fact, showed as a person “of medium height, […] and strongly, compactly built. Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes” (Williams 1.1812). Blanche is dressed all in white, “white suit” and “white gloves” that refer to her name and to innocence. Then, the word “animal” used for Stanley’s description already prepares the reader for rudeness and violence from Stella’s husband.
Even if they are different Stanley and Blanche have similar needs and wants. In fact, Stanley expects everyone to respect him and wants to control everybody. He already controls Stella, but Blanche’s arrival is seen as a threat to control Stella. Stanley does not want to fail. He is used to working and fighting for what he wants. Unfortunately, Blanche is used to having men’s attention and controlling them by her charms. Both of them are used to being in control and do not want this to change. They also give a lot of importance to money. In fact, Blanche tries to live like an aristocrat but she has a teacher’s salary. For her, “a teacher’s salary is barely sufficient for her living expenses” (Williams 6.1843). As Fang Wei expresses in “Blanche’s Destruction: Feminist Analysis on A Streetcar Named Desire”, “evidently, her meager incomes are barely enough to maintain her extravagant life. So, it is quite natural that she has to turn to men for help after the suicide of her husband, death of relatives and loss of her manor.” (104). She could decide to reduce her needs and spend less money on useless clothes, but she likes the money and the expensive things too much to give them up. When she realizes that she will need Stanley to help her financially, she tells her sister that “maybe, he’s what [Blanche and Stella] need to mix with [their] blood now that [they]’ve lost Belle-Reve” (Williams 2.1819). Even after Stanley rapes her, she thinks that a rich man is going to come to pick her up and take care of her. She always needs a man to take care of her financially. Just as Blanche is interested in Stanley only because of his financial support, Stanley seems to really show interest to Blanche only when he learns that she lost the plantation. As soon as he learns the loss of the plantation, he asks many questions about it by invoking the Napoleonic code that says that “what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa” (Williams 2.1815). The readers can think he married Stella only because of this plantation, and the money he can own.
Moreover, they both have sexual needs. As Nina C. Leibman affirms in her paper entitled “Sexual Misdemeanor/Psychoanalytic Felony”, Blanche’s “actions toward both Mitch and Stanley express some need for physical contact” (29).We also know that Blanche’s “improvident grandfathers and fathers and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications” (Williams.2.1819). The heredity might explain why Blanche, after the suicide of her homosexual husband, has many affairs with different men in Laurel. Even if she tries to avoid having too many affairs in New Orleans, she still needs to have sexual contacts. The readers understand it when she asks Mitch, “Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir?” (Williams 6.1840). Sex is also an important part of Stanley’s life. However, since Blanche is living with him and Stella, they cannot make love and he misses it. In fact, he tells Stella that “ it’s gonna be sweet when [they] can make noise in the night the way that [they] used to and get the colored lights going with nobody’s sister behind the curtain to hear [them].” (Williams 8.1850). In addition, after he hits Stella and she comes back to him, their reconciliation is carried out by making love. For both of them, the sexual needs are increased by the alcohol issues. When Stanley plays poker or wants to celebrate good news, such as the close birth of his son, he starts drinking a lot and mostly becomes violent. Blanche drinks during the whole play from her brother-in-law’s alcohol, and all the drama happens when one or both of them are pretty drunk.
Despite the hate they have for each other, Stanley and Blanche desire each other. As W. Scoot Griffies expresses in his paper entitled “A Streetcar Named Desire and Tennessee Williams’ Object-Relational Conflicts”, Blanche and Stanley “are attracted to each other with the sticky attractions of abused to abuser, and vice versa” (113). Blanche even admits that she “was flirting with [Stella’s] husband!” (Williams 2.1819) when she was asking him to button the back of her dress. Even if she desired him at the beginning, the hate she feels for him is stronger and she definitely stops being interested by him as soon as the competition/ poker game starts. However, when the power change hands and Stanley gets it, his desire for Blanche expresses itself. In fact, Stanley rapes Blanche at the end of the play and “rape is motivated at least in part by sexual attraction” (Thornhill and Palmer 11-12).
Similarities increase the hate between Stanley and Blanche and lead to a competition like a poker game. Both of them want to control Stella and run the house as they want. However, only one of them can do it because they do not want to share the power. As W. Scott Griffies thinks, Stanley “feels that he must destroy her, or be destroyed.” (112). For these reasons, a competition takes place between them. This competition is described by Williams like a poker game. The last sentence of the play, “This game is seven-card stud” (Williams 11.1867) means that “it has been nothing but a game of poker, of this particular type of poker we call seven-card stud poker where some cards are dealt face up, hence known by the others” (Coulardeau 44). They play their cards one after the other to convince Stella that the other is bad. Before the first poker night, they just dispense the cards. Stanley is looking for information about Blanche that can confirm the doubts he already has about his sister-in-law whereas Blanche tries to find a way to take control of Stella and make her leave Stanley. Blanche is the first one to show her cards. In fact, the morning after Stanley hits Stella during the poker game, Blanche tries to convince Stella to leave Stanley and run away with her. She uses her imagined advantages such as culture and civilization to discredit Stanley’s best card, his manly charisma and his male sexuality that complement his barbaric and destructive side. The second one is Stanley who, at the end of the play, has already discovered what Blanche did not say about her embarrassing past and tells everything to Stella, who hides it from Blanche. At this moment, he gives his final card; he rapes her. Blanche’s expression, “Cards on the table” refers directly to a card game between Blanche and Stanley (Williams 2.1818). As Daniel Brooks expresses in “William’s A Streetcar Named Desire”, “Just as with the cards in his hands, [Stanley] has, through bold and aggressive action, achieved his conquest of Blanche and regained his dominant position.” (179-180).
However, the fight is unfair and even the staging is against Blanche. When Blanche tries to convince her sister to run away from Stanley, her brother-in-law is coming in the house, but she cannot realize it because of the streetcar’s noises that hide Stanley’s arrival. In addition, at the end of Blanche’s critique of Stanley, another streetcar passes and the noise makes Blanche stop. Moreover, the streetcar is associated with Stanley and his industrial word. The complicity between Stanley and the streetcars already announces Stanley’s victory because Stanley can see the game of his opponent without her knowing. Stanley wins the poker game but Blanche does not completely lose. On one hand, the readers can think Stanley won the competition for the power because he got Stella and Blanche is somewhere where she will not bother him anymore. On the other hand, the presence of the baby is the visual reminder of Blanche interposed forever between Stanley and Stella. In fact, the baby is born the same day as Blanche’s birthday and the day Stanley raped his sister-in-law. The baby is the memory of each of these events. In addition, the blue color of the baby’s blanket reminds the reader of the color of Blanche’s dress when she left for the mental home.
Despite their differences, Stanley and Blanche possess similarities that lead to a competition won by Stanley for the control of the house and Stella. Blanche’s visit changes the whole life of the characters. Blanche is the main character but as in the play, Stanley competes with her for having the status of the dominant force in the play.

Works cited
Brooks, Daniel. "Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire." Explicator 65.3 (2007): 177-180. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
Coulardeau, Jacques. "A Streetcar Named Desire The Media are Stepping on Our Toes." . Université de Paris IX-Dauphine, 2004. Web. 12 Feb 2012.
Griffies, W. Scott. "A Streetcar Named Desire And Tennessee Williams' Object-Relational Conflicts." International Journal Of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 4.2 (2007): 110-127. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
Leibman, C. Nina. "Sexual Misdemeanor/Psychoanalytic Felony." . Cinema Journal, 1987. Web. 12 Feb 2012.
Thornhill, Randy, and Craig Palmer. "Rape and Evolution: A Reply to Our Critics." . 2003. Web. 12 Feb 2012.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Booth and Mays. 10th edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.
Wei, Fang. "Blanche's Destruction: Feminist Analysis On A Streetcar Named Desire." Canadian Social Science 4.3 (2008): 102-108. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.