STELLA+KOWALSKI

//'Stella comes out on the first floor landing, a gentle young woman, about twenty-five, and of a background obviously quite different from her husband's.'

// Stella means star or like a star in Latin, although she lives in a shabby apartment building in a lower-class section of New Orleans. It could be argued that she is the star of her husband’s life and the star that led Blanche to New Orleans.

Stella is forthright and unapologetic about the nature of her relationship with her husband, and although she loves her sister, she is pragmatic and refuses to let anything come between her and Stanley.

Opening- “…..and of a background obviously quite different from her husband’s” suggests that Stella has a very different background from Stanley, she still loves him, she sees him very different from the other men she sees. Stanley is a factory worker, which Stella sees him as very manly. Stella loves Stanley because he is different, he expresses himself in a violent way, (scene three) Stanley throws the radio out of the window, but Stella instead shouted at Stanley’s poker friends “Drunk-drunk-animal thing, you! All of you- please goes home!” IN scene four, Stella describes their wedding night, telling Blanche how Stanley “. …smashing the light bulbs with it” and she was “ …sort of- thrilled by it…” In Blanche’s eyes, she sees him as a violent and an aggressive “ animal” but in contrast, Stella loves the way Stanley is.

Stella is always the one being pushed around and an unstable character. It is seen through her conversation with other characters. In the last scene, sending Blanche away would be the only choice, if she wants to stay with Stanley, but she at the same time hesitated her action “ I don’t know if I need the right” Stella is always the one stuck in Blanche and Stanley which makes her character very unstable. But at the end she had to send Blanche away for Stanley and their baby

Stella is completely different from Blanche. She is a gentle and passive woman and after marrying to Stanley, she has to join the lower class and endure her husband's bad temper where Blanche isn't someone that can adapt to changes. Stella also dresses differently from Blanche, although Blanche moved in with Stella and Stanley, she still dresses in white and with necklaces and ear rings of pearl.

Stella chose to stand on Stanley's side at the end and as Blanche is taken away, Stells has feelings of guilt, loss, and betrayal. This is because she has sacrificed Blanche in order to save her marriage.

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