Stanley from A Streetcar Named Desire as character in a tragic - Essay Example

? Stanley from "A Streetcar d Desire" as character in a tragic THESIS Tennessee Williams` character Stanley, from "A Streetcar d Desire" , makes a suitable character in a tragic play, despite the fact that he does not match all of Aristotle`s four criteria needed for the ideal character in a tragic, namely goodness, propriety, true to life, and consistency. When you read the play Stanley is a credible tragic character, so there must be something in Williams` art that makes one forget Aristotle`s criteria. This is what I will attempt to demonstrate in my paper, by looking, one by one, at the four attributes Aristotle deemed necessary. INTRODUCTION John Stuart Mill stated that "it is the privilege and proper condition of a human being, arrived at the maturity of his faculties, to use and interpret experience in his own way. It is for him to find out what part of recorded experience is properly applicable to his own circumstances and character." (Abrams, M.H.; Donaldson, E.T.; Adams, R.M.; Monk, S.H.; Lipking, L.; Ford, G.K.; Daiches, D., 1979, p.1062) Stanley can do that very well: he knows how he wants, or rather how he can live, and he is aware of the power he has over others. He knows that he must look after his interests and he would do almost anything if the circumstances allowed him to do so. He is a powerful character and this is proved by the condition of the other characters in the play, who just stand and let him run his life (and theirs, for that matter) without really considering someone else`s interests. GOODNESS When it comes to Stanley, this is by far his weakest point. I believe it would be hard to find a single selfless, unmalicious gesture from Stanley in the whole play. Consider, for example, the "gift" he makes to Blanche on her birthday: a bus ticket to go back home, thus telling her that she has to leave his house. However, the fact that he is not a good person does not make him an unsophisticated human being. On the contrary, as John Stuart Mill said "The human faculties of perception, judgement, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference are exercised only in making a choice." (Abrams, M.H. et. al., 1979, p.1063) Stanley makes many choices throughout the play, and he is a very calculated person, for that matter: for example, he chooses to tell his friend directly what he had found out about Blanche`s past, instead of, say, blackmailing her. But then again, as she is presented in the play, Blanche has very little left to give, and Stanley seems to be aware of that. Stanley is not good when he relates to Stella, either, whom he abuses verbally and physically and on whom he cheats while she is at the hospital, giving birth to their child. As a proper negative character, he feels that she would not leave him even if he abused her, so he goes on with his way of life undisturbed. It must be mentioned that it is not easy to live the way Stanley does, despite the fact that he seems to be having his way all the time. In doing that he must use all he can give: he must observe in order to see, judge in order to forsee, discriminate in order to decide, and, once he has decided, he must be firm and self-controlled in order to stand by his decision. (Abrams, M.H. et. al., 1979, p.1063) Even in real life, he who can do that is assured to get something extra every now and then, but at a cost that not everybody is willing to pay – the loss of any possible friends. PROPRIETY This trace of character of Stanley`s brings us to the second quality Aristotle deemed essential – propriety. Stanley has it – that is, the courage to act "manly". The moral nature of his "manly" acts is not to be questioned at this point, really, because they do not condition one another. Actions can be of three kinds: produced entirely by some external force, for which we cannot be held responsible (when someone takes your hand and hits somebody with it, it cannot be considered your fault in any way), produced out of ignorance, for which we are also not to be deemed responsible (faked ignorance is not included here) (you swing your hand and accidentally hit somebody standing behind you) and voluntary acts, made after choosing among various possible individual actions, for which we can be questioned. (www.philosophypages.com) In the case of actions produced in ignorance, there is a moral law that applies when you fake ignorance, a law which states that it is wrong to commit such acts without a good excuse. As for the voluntary actions, it is suppossed that during deliberation an individual assess what is good and what is not and chooses a course of action consequently, having the power both to do something moral and to breach morality and do wrong. (www.philosophypages.com) Stanley`s acts are some sort of a mix up between these three categories. Many acts (especially those regarding his attitude towards Blanche) are calculated and assumed, while others (like his behaviour towards Stella) are half-calculated, half spontaneous, specific to his very nature. He does not have bad feelings for Stella, he may even love her in his own way, but he is not complex enough to treat her rightly. Anyway, no matter how his actions are, as a character Stanley does display propriety. TRUE TO LIFE This trace is particularly strong in Stanley. If he is anything, he is a man well adapted to the world he lives in and, for the better or for the worse, he manages to survive. Unfortunately, this constant battle for survival makes Stanley bitter, cruel, angry and violent. It is because of this struggle that he doubts Blanche`s explanations of how the family lost their fortune, and it is because of this doubt that he finds out that Blanche had been lately earning a living as a companion lady, if not worse. So, basically, Blanche`s destruction is the indirect fault of the hard times she is living in, a time when everbody tried to stay afloat and no one had any understanding for those less lucky in succeeding. Problems such as theirs were not new when Tennessee wrothe his play. About 60 years earlier Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) "was one of the first to diagnose the ills that industrial capitalism brought to society. He saw the plight of the factory hand whose labour was the source of wealth (...) exploited, underpaid, discarded (...) and condemned to the workhouse". (Alexander, M., 2007, p.263) Stanley feels all the hardships of the capitalist, competitive and cruel society in which he lives. And he is true to life because he reacts and takes action according to the spirit of the times: he drinks a lot because that is what people usually do in order to forget the difficulties; he beats Stella because society allows it and because he must take out his fury on somebody; he makes Blanche miserable and he drives her to insanity because a woman like Blanche could find no defence in the world she lived. And despite all these, everybody goes on with their lives as if that was the right way for things to happen. So being true to life is Stanley`s strongest feature as a tragic character, even more so than being consistent. Good or bad, Stanley is a typical product of his society. CONSISTENCY This trait is also strong in Stanley, but it is not his strongest. He is consistent up to a point (unfortunately in a bad and malicious way), but his consistency breaks when he himself is overwhelmed, and then, ironically, he can behave a little better to Stella, too. He is consistent in his behaviour towards Blanche, whom he starts by disliking, continues by constantly making her miserable and ruining her possible marriage (although, given Blanche`s past, it probably would have been unlikely anyway) and finishes up in great style by raping her while Stella is at the hospital having the baby and then by denying his act, which makes Blanche go crazy and determines Stella to send Blanche to a nuthouse. Stanley`s consistency makes good drama and matches very well what Nadelson said: "As a reader, the stories I am drawn to are mostly the quiet sort, in which drama arises directly out of the intersection of a character`s desire and fear. My favourite writers find ways to externalize these internal conflicts without obvious contrivance, forcing their characters to face their fears and desires directly, while still staying true to a story`s complicated psychological, emotional or moral core". (Nadelson, S, 2011, Web) Stanley`s consistency shows that Tennessee himself writes in a consistent manner and not, for example, as Sneed said she wrote: " I don't outline when I start a story and never really know what's going to happen until I write the next sentence." (Sneed, C., 2011, Web) The art of Tennessee is that, despite Stanley`s consistency, his drama is still provocatively unexpected in development, and that, too, makes Stanley a valid tragic character. CONCLUSIONS Stanley is a valid tragic character in regards to three of the four of Aristotle`s qualities: propriety, true to life and consistency. As a tragic character Stanley is not "good", in the sense that he does not appear to have any positive moral trait about him or any superior, moral intentions whatsoever. But three strong traits are enough to make him a powerful tragic character, and it is more than laudable for Tennessee that he managed to create such a character without perfectly complying with Aristotle`s demands. Stanley is not as worthy a tragic character as Hamlet is, but then again, Hamlet is the product of another literary age with whole different realities and values. Stanley is a very good tragic hero for the modern age in which he is created. Works cited Abrams, M.H.; Donaldson, E.T.; Adams, R.M.; Monk, S.H.; Lipking, L.; Ford, G.K.; Daiches, D., (1979). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. John Stuart Mill. From On Liberty. From Chapter III. Of Individuality as One of the Elements of Well-being., WW Norton & Company, U.S.A., Print. Pp. 1062-1063. Alexander, M. (2007). A History of English Literature (second edition). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Print. p.263 Nadelson, S., American Literary Review (online) (issue Spring 2011), Don't Look Now: The Drama of Seeing. Web. Sneed, C., Literary Review (online) (issue Spring 2011), Inspiration: Your Title Here. Web. Williams, T. (2009). A Streetcar Named Desire. Penguin Books Ltd., London. Print. www.philosophypages.com Second, the hero must have propriety, or 'manly valor.' Thirdly, the hero must be 'true to life.' And finally, the hero must be consistent. Read More