Brando Vs Stanley

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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), directed by Elia Kazan and adapted from the Tennessee Williams’s 1947 play, revolves around the complexity of Blanche DuBois, a seemingly kindhearted woman who has issues with honesty and romance. However, the adaptation reveals another complex character in Stanley Kowalski. In the film, there are circumstances in which Blanche and Stanley each act in a morally justifiable ways and in morally corrupt ways. Both characters are suspicious and hard to read. The film characterizes Stanley as an animalistic, unrefined man, which Marlon Brando’s performance captures through his physicality and his strong training in character development. However, Brando’s performance of Stanley Kowalski also reveals that Stanley…show more content…
Marlon Brando varies his voice and his gestures to convey Stanley’s shrewdness and sensitivity, yet Brando also uses his body and talent to convey that Stanley is consistent in his overarching chauvinism and simplicity. The first scene in which Brando portrays Stanley’s emotional nature occurs after he physically abuses Stella, and Stella runs away to her neighbor, Eunice’s, home. As Stella and Blanche hide in Eunice’s apartment, Stanley waits in his house, where he gets choked up and begins crying and sniffling. Brando’s lip quivers as Stanley cries and paces back and forth, which exhibits Stanley’s vulnerability and uneasiness. Then, Stanley walks outside and stands facing Eunice’s apartment, screaming Stella’s name repeatedly. At this…show more content…
After receiving criticism from Stella and Blanche on his lack of dining etiquette and hearing Stella demand that he cleans up after himself, Stanley swiftly throws his plate and throws it off the dinner table. He stands up, points his fingers at the plates he just destroyed, and begins talking sternly yet calmly to Stella and Blanche, saying “Now that’s how I’m gonna clean the table. Don’t you ever talk like that to me.” Brando exhibits Stanley’s calmness through his voice in that Brando keeps a slow pace, pauses frequently, and does not change his pitch as Stanley goes into a speech about his frustration with the sisters’ pretentiousness. Both Stella and Blanche keep their heads facing downward during Stanley’s speech, which Stanley enjoys, as he wears a long sleeve shirt and suspenders, reflecting a more civilized Stanley than viewers are accustomed to seeing. Stanley, while chewing his food, declares, “I’m the king around here, and don’t you forget it,” with a confidence that Brando portrays in his body language, with his hands on his hips yet again. He then throws his drinking glass against at the wall, in a more calculated manner than his usual tantrums, as evident by Brando’s menacing smirk and his unaffected tone when mockingly asking Stella, “My plates [are] all cleared up now. Do you want me to clear yours?” When

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