This scene points up Blanche as the definite outsider. In attempting to get Stella to see Stanley as a common and bestial person, she succeeds only in alienating herself from Stella.
Blanche begins to feel her desperate situation. Here she first conceives of contacting her old acquaintance, Shep Huntleigh, who will develop as a symbol of her potential escape from this world.
Blanche’s view of Stanley, that he is common and bestial—a survivor of the stone age bearing home the raw meat from the kill—does characterize the essential nature of Stanley. It should be remembered that the first scene showed Stanley bringing home a package of raw meat and tossing it to Stella. And Blanche’s description also serves to illustrate how utterly different he is from the type of man Blanche has known.
This scene does not give us a direct confrontation between Blanche and Stanley, but instead and equally important, there is a confrontation between the two concepts of life represented by Stanley and Blanche. And at the end of the scene when Stella throws herself at Stanley, it is an obvious victory for Stanley.
Even though Stanley feels victorious in this encounter, we must remember that he has overheard himself referred to as common, bestial, and vulgar. Blanche has called him a savage and a brute. This has occurred in his own home. Therefore, his resentment of Blanche and desire to be rid of her is quite justifiable. Later when he rapes her, the rape will be partially motivated by his resentment of her attitude toward him.
