How Does Blanche Change In A Streetcar Named Desire

In A Streetcar Named Desire, many people have analyzed Blanche, her descent into madness, and what might have become of her. However, fewer people think about Stella, or what happens after the closing of the play. Stella most likely stays with Stanley after the close of the play, instead of leaving him as Blanche requested. Throughout the play, we have seen Stella as a fairly round character, but she has changed very little since the beginning. Her relationship with Stanley has not changed much either. While Blanche certainly left an impact on Stella and Stanley’s life, it was not enough to warrant a huge change, and Stella remains very much the same person she was at the beginning of the play.

In Scene 4 of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche

She still lives in the same neighborhood, and the same house, and did not show any signs of leaving or wanting to leave. She still loves Stanley, despite his abuse and somewhat disrespectful attitude towards her. The only things that have changed are her opinion on Blanche, and for a few brief moments she showed disrespect towards her husband instead of absolute submissiveness. In regards to Stanley, Stella appears to echo Blanche’s words when she calls her husband a “drunk – drunk – animal thing” (Scene 3). It is unlikely that Stella has reacted this way before, and highly likely that Blanche’s attitude towards Stanley was the reason she had an outburst. She does not appear to defy him very much anywhere else in the play, showing that Blanche’s influence, while existing, is not enough to change Stella. In regards to Blanche, during Scene 4 Stella says to Blanche “I’d forgotten how excitable you are. You’re making too much fuss about this”. By the end of the play, she goes past “excitable” and into “insane”, calling a doctor and sending her sister to a mental asylum. The thought of her husband sexually abusing her sister was too much to bear and believe – Stella would very much rather close her eyes to the horror than see