Stanley Kowalski Quotes

STANLEY: Catch!
STELLA: What?
STANLEY: Meat!
[Be heaves the package at her. She cries out in protest but manages to catch it; then she laughs breathlessly. Her husband and his companion have already started back around the corner.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. Stanley is the 20th century version of the primitive caveman hunter gatherer, as depicted in this opening scene with his wife Stella. He is portrayed as the dominant one in the marriage. And she the submissive one who catches the meat he throws to her to cook for them. The way Stanley "heaves" the package of meat to Stella is symbolic of the sexual relationship between them.

[Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependency, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. This description of Stanley presents him metaphorically as a very sexual brightly colored male bird that dominates the female hens. His primitive, animalistic, and alpha male nature is highlighted.

[His heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them.]

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. Stanley’s hypermasculinity and strongly sexual nature are highlighted in this description of him. The metaphor of him as the "gaudy seed-bearer" emphasizes his extreme virility and that he is a man who takes pleasure in exercising his manhood.

STANLEY: What’s all this monkey doings?
STELLA: Oh, Stan! [She jumps up and kisses him which he accepts with lordly composure] I’m taking Blanche to Galatoire’s for supper and then to a show, because it’s your pok’r night.
STANLEY: How about my supper, huh? I’m not going to no Galatoire’s for supper!
STELLA: I put you a cold plate on ice.
STANLEY: Well, isn’t that just dandy!
STELLA: I’m going to try to keep Blanche out till the party breaks up because I don’t know how she would take it. So we’ll go to one of the little places in the Quarter afterwards and you’d better give me some money.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. Gender roles are on display when Stella announces to Stanley that she is taking Blanche out for a meal and a show. It’s poker party night for Stanley and his male friends and Stella believes that it’s not be the place for her sensitive sister to be. Unused to his wife going out, Stanley exerts his male authority and demands to know about his supper. As man of the house he expects his wife to cook a hot meal for him every night. He is not happy that she is leaving a cold plate for him. Blanche’s arrival has upset the balance in the Kowalski household. Stanley is resentful that is no longer getting all the attention from Stella and she is prioritizing Blanche over him. We also see the theme of social class here, with Galatoire’s being a high-class French restaurant which working class Stanley doesn’t want to go to. Stella’s financial dependence on her husband is shown when she has to ask him for money.

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.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Stanley is upset over the loss of the Belle Reve plantation and the possibility that Blanche has deceived Stella about it. Asserting his male dominance, he explains to Stella about the Napoleonic Code, whereby any property belonging to her belongs to him. He thinks that Blanche may have swindled Stella out of her inheritance.

It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you’re swindled under the Napoleonic code I’m swindled too. And I don’t like to be swindled.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Stanley tells Stella that Blanche has "swindled" her out of her Belle Reve inheritance, which Blanche claims has been lost to the family. Stanley questions the fact that Blanche has produced no documents or deed of sale to show a sale or transfer of the family plantation. If Blanche has swindled Stella, then she has cheated him too, he reasons as he claims his rights to any property owned by his wife.

I got an acquaintance who deals in this sort of merchandise. I’ll have him in here to appraise it. I’m willing to bet you there’s thousands of dollars invested in this stuff here!… Here’s your plantation, or what’s left of it, here!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. A suspicious Stanley unpacks all the furs and jewelry Blanche has brought with her and demands to know how she could afford to buy these on a teacher’s modest salary. Stella explains that it is all inexpensive stuff. But Stanley is convinced she bought all with the proceeds of the sale of Belle Reve and so stole their inheritance.

The treasure chest of a pirate!… Pearls! Ropes of them! What is this sister of yours, a deep-sea diver who brings up sunken treasure? Or is she the champion safe-cracker of all time! Bracelets of solid gold, too! Where are your pearls and gold bracelets?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Stanley’s intense dislike for Blanche is laid bare when he rips through her trunks and pulls out her personal belongings. He uses a metaphor to compare what he finds to a pirate’s treasure chest. Blanche’s jewels may be fake costume jewelry, but Stanley believes they are the real deal. He sarcastically says Blanche must have been a pirate, deep-sea diver or champion safe cracker to acquire such wealth. He bitterly asks where Stella’s pearls and gold bracelets are, reflecting the theme of social class.

STANLEY: It looks like you raided some stylish shops in Paris.
BLANCHE: Ha-ha! Yes – clothes are my passion!
STANLEY: What does it cost for a string of fur-pieces like that?

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Having rifled through Blanche’s trunk full of clothes and belongings looking for information about Belle Reve, Stanley confronts her. He doesn’t trust her and believes that she used the money from Belle Reve to buy expensive things for herself. Blanche has a passion for clothes, having an intense interest in her appearance.

I don’t go in for that stuff… Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a woman that didn’t know she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more than they’ve got. I once went out with a doll who said to me, "I am the glamorous type, I am the glamorous type!" I said, "So what?"

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. When a flirtatious Blanche starts fishing for compliments about her looks from Stanley, he is having none of it. He dismisses her attempts to emphasize her femininity and asserts his male dominance. In an obvious jab at Blanche herself, he says that some women credit themselves with being more attractive than they actually are.

BLANCHE: You’re simple, straightforward, and honest, a little bit on the primitive side I should think. To interest you a woman would have to – [She pauses with an indefinite gesture.]
STANLEY: [slowly] Lay… her cards on the table.

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Blanche talks of the kind of man Stanley is and sees him for what he is, primitive and animalistic. She appears to be flirting with him. When Stanley responds about the kind of woman he prefers, his words have a sexual suggestion to them.

STANLEY: You see, under the Napoleonic code – a man has to take an interest in his wife’s affairs – especially now that she’s going to have a baby.
[Blanche opens her eyes. The "blue piano" sounds louder.]
BLANCHE: Stella? Stella going to have a baby? I didn’t know she was going to have a baby!

– Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 2. Stanley plays the part of the dominant male as he invokes the Napoleonic code, saying that whatever property his wife owns he owns too. The rising volume of the blue piano music is used here to signal the possibility of conflict.
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