Characters

Question 1

Blanche Dubois

Answer 1

• the plays tragic heroine whose weakness and her failure to understand others leads to her downfall/breakdown, downward spiral into insanity and eventual committal to an institution.

Question 2

Stella DuBois/Kowalski

Answer 2

Stella is Blanche’s younger sister and a member of the once-wealthy and upper-class DuBois family of Belle Reve. She now is married to working-class factory part sales man, Stanley, and is said to find his rough, dominant manner attractive.

Question 3

Mitch

Answer 3

is Stanley’s friend and workmate at the factory - they were in the same regiment in the war together. At first, he is fascinated by Blanche and wants to marry her, however, he cannot face the truth about her past and abandons her.

Question 4

Stanley Kowalski

Answer 4

Stanley is of Polish descent, although born in the USA and proud of it. “What I am is a one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on Earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polak” - (Scene Eight). He could be seen as the play’s antagonist, responsible for bringing about Blanche’s downfall. As well as having being an army engineer in WW2, serving as a master Sergeant, Stanley’s current job is a factory part sales man. Despite this working-class job, Stanley likes to think he is knowledgeable - “In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic Code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa.” Stanley is married to Blanche’s sister Stella, and resents any suggestion that he is her social inferior.

Question 5

Steve

Answer 5

we learn less about Steve than we do Eunice. Steve’s main role is to be one of Stanley’s friends at the poker party.