“Don’t hang back with the brutes.” Is this what Stella has done at the end of the play. (A streetcar named desire, Tenneessee Williams)

Throughout ‘A streetcar named desire’, Williams’ character Stella is the one that the majority of the audience are able identify with; for she is the only middle ground between her husband, Stanley and her sister, Blanche who’s clashing personas are also representative of the conflict between the New South and the Old South. Yet, because Stella has lived her entire life around people more domineering and imposing than her, she has inevitably led a philanthropic existence. Her decision at the end of the play to stay with the brutal Stanley, despite Blanche’s influence’s (which has made her reconsider Stanley) and the knowledge that she was raped by her own husband, reflects some of Stella’s main values on life: security and social acceptance. In order for Stella to survive she needs to be surrounded by people stronger than herself.

Since Stella was a young girl in Belle Reve, to her present situation in New Orleans, her life has been lived around characters that...