Blanche and Stanley, polar opposites. A pragmastylistic analysis of interactions from Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire

Abstract

The paper is an attempt at demonstrating how the language used by fictional dramatic characters contributes to their characterization, that is, how the readers (audiences) perceive them based on inferences drawn from a variety of textual cues. These cues include explicit selfand other-presentation as well as implicit hints retrieved from conversation structure, aspects of turn-taking or features of the language used by the character. In this paper, Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski from Tennessee Williams’ play The Streetcar Named Desire are analyzed and characterized as being polar opposites.

Keywords

• American drama
• pragmatics
• pragmastylistics
• characterization