Stanley's attitudes towards property In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams presents Stanley as the ultimate alpha male – he is in charge. The play was set in 1947, and so Williams highlights specific gender roles throughout the play, and one of the ways he does this is through the Stanley views property. The defeat of Belle Reeve is the possible success of Stanley, and his assumption means that the wife should be the husband's property; hence, whatever she has, the husband owns. It is argued that Blanche threatens Stanley's authority, since it is believed that the entire play is about a fight for power between Blanche and Stanley over Stella – who is considered by Stanley to be his property. The fact that Blanche is financially dependent on Stanley also makes her his property. Williams presents the loss of Belle Reeve as a symbol of Stanley's obsession with power and ownership - he is in control and desires the ultimate security. Williams, in the extract provided, repeats "swindled" to bring into light Stanley's persistence regarding the "papers" for Belle Reeve. This would emphasize, due to the last repetition being in italics, to the actor playing Stanley that his behavior is to be presented as over-dramatic, unreasonable and obsessive. Stanley is apathetic towards the loss of Belle Reeve – he is in it for the money incentive only – to him – money is power, and this is important because Stanley represents the 'New South,' America following the Civil War, which thrived due to embracing hard work and capitalism. Despite this, Stanley still has insecurity about his place in society, which can be seen when he defends his nationality "I am not a Polack" to Blanche. The paper of Belle Reve represents the power, money, and wealth – which ironically, Blanche and Stella used to have before they left the plantation. Use of Belle Reve = beautiful dream – significance of old South fading away. Through his incessive nature, Williams depicts an insecurity of Stanley - this can be depicted in scene 8: "you thought I was common" "I pulled you down off them columns". Williams is showing that Stella used to be part of Belle Reeve – the old South – but Stanley "pulled" her from this life. This powerful metaphorical imagery brings out the fact that Stanley feels he possesses Stella, he took her from her old life and claimed her. In that way, Williams presents Stella as Stanley's possession, and because Blanche endangers this domination that Stanley is exerting on Stella, Williams shows how the power struggle gets represented by Stanley's obsessive, dominant attitude to property. Stanley "brings home the meat" – Stella relies on him so she is his property. Williams also shows Stanley's attitude towards the paper through his dismissal of Blanche in the given extract: "I don't care if she hears me!" Stanley's blatant lack of disrespect to Blanche reflects his determined and authoritative attitude – Blanche is merely an object standing in the way of getting what he wants. In scene 8, Williams uses the prop of the train ticket back to Laurel to physically present the cruelty of Stanley: "I hope you like it". Williams is clearly using sarcasm to present Stanley as malicious – Blanche has invaded his property, and brought nothing but bad news. The ticket symbolizes, for Blanche, a return to her old, decaying life-and Stanley is quite aware of this-he is using her past against her. Blanche has been encroaching on Stanley's property for far too long now; the ticket represents the power that-as man of the house-he also owns the property he holds. Williams describes Stanley as manipulative about his property and those as his-and more to the point-what is not Blanche's use of "sister Blanche" is a term of address which is sarcastic and cynical, and he does not care for her, he is evil. Williams has also depicted Stanley as physically violent in the extracted piece where Stanley intrudes into Blanche's privacy and starts rummaging through her trunk: "jerks out an armful of dresses". The verb 'jerks' thus reveals a violent and impatient characteristic of Stanley- he feels possessing something, he is not about to lose to anyone else - the physical forcefulness therefore exemplifies the overwhelming and determined perspective regarding the piece of paper along with the fact of property-this belongs to him. All throughout the play Blanche has remained at Stella's place along or that of Stanley's and she, therefore being financially reliant upon Stanley. In the climax, scene 10, Williams presents the final confrontation-the culmination of the play that Williams has worked his way up to. Williams presents that because Blanche has been leaning on Stanley as his wife Stella does, he now believes he owns her: "swilling down my liquor!". Blanche has been stealing from Stanley – she has taken his property – threatened his relationship with Stella and proved to be nothing but a nuisance for Stanley since he arrived. The aggressive side of Stanley, presented in the given extract, is seen in scene 10 when Stanley "springs" towards her. The verb presents strong idea of animal imagery – like a lion – the king of jungle – springing towards his prey. Stanley rapes Blanche as he considers her as his possession. The stage direction informs in scene 1, that Stanley "sizes women up at a glance, with several classifications", this suggests that Stanley does not see women as equal beings, but rather an item which he can take advantage of, and this is exactly how he acts to Blanche. He both mentally and physically destroys her because he does not love/respect her. Williams presents a misogynistic and patriarchal society where the two protagonists of the play go head-to-head, and the female loses because she is the weaker character who cannot deal with the reality of the real world which Stanley represents. Williams presents Stanley as seeing not just Stella but women in general as his property – they are there for his taking – if he pleases. In the given extract Stella, Williams presents class difference between Stella and Stanley through their language. As stereotypical of female language, Stella offers long explanatory, sophisticated lexis: "how ridiculous you are being". Stella sounds composed and matter-of-fact. This has the effect of drawing attention to Stanley's more colloquial high frequency lexis: "open your eyes to this stuff!" the noun "stuff" is vague-it does not feel that he actually knows what it is-or for that matter what he is on about-but this man is just not going to let the subtle background superiority of the Du Bois sisters unsettle him. He comes off as sure of himself and better, despite the stark class difference which separates Stanley and Stella and brings into view their disparate backgrounds.  Stella is an old southern Belle, coming from a family of great wealth and has had a good education in comparison with Stanley, whose grandparents were Polish immigrants, and who is a blue collar worker with "greasy overalls". The class difference impacts on insecurity that Stanley worries he will not be able to satisfactorily provide for Stella, and so he notes and for this with his assertive alpha male dominance. His attitudes about property reflect his attitude about theExercise of power which he is able to harness and use to effectively pleasure Stella as well as, effectively, remove Blanche from his life in scene 11 when she is sent away to a mental institution. Stanley's attitudes towards property are thus preserved in congruence with his desire for power and his authoritative persona - he needs to be in control and refuse to be caught out or fooled, there is no getting past him.