There’s something downright – bestial – about him!… He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There’s even something sub-human – something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something – ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I’ve seen in – anthropological studies. Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is – Stanley Kowalski – survivor of the Stone Age, bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle. And you – you here – waiting for him! Maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been discovered yet! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! – you call it – this party of apes! Somebody growls – some creature snatches at something – the fight is on! God!
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 4. Blanche breaks into a rant against Stanley and dehumanizes him to Stella. Using the language of metaphor and simile, she degrades him as an ape-like animal and unevolved survivor of the Stone Age. Blanche continues with insulting and condescending imagery about the primitive masculinity of Stanley and his poker party "apes." What she doesn’t realize, but the audience does, is that Stanley has entered the room and overhears every word. This an example of dramatic irony.
