"A Streetcar Named Desire" and it's connection to our modern world

At the end of the play when Stella says to Eunice “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley,” she’s saying she couldn’t have both, so she chose the easier option.  She’s avoiding the truth by trusting Stanley, whom she knows to be aggressive and temperamental.  “…I know how it must have seemed to you and I’m awful sorry it had to happen, but it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it.  In the first place, when men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen…” (Stella 1194). Stella is excusing Stanley from his actions and treating his behavior like a routine incident.  She doesn’t see it as anything more than what happens when Stanley gets angry and something she has learned to live with.  Stella is simply blinded by her affection towards him and as a result chose him over her own sister.  She is very ignorant of Stanley’s behavior throughout the play.

            The recent Penn State scandal also represented ignorance and denial.  The assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, was accused of sexually abusing several underage boys on or near the campus.  A few colleagues of his, who were high-level school officials, were either charged with perjury, suspended, or dismissed for failing to inform the police.  Since the allegations were towards a man who had an associate in higher places, head coach Joe Paterno, those who knew about it either didn’t believe it or chose not to.  Clearly they knew what he was doing wasn’t right but they didn’t approach anyone to put a stop to it.  If anything was said, it would give the famous football program a bad reputation which wouldn’t be good press for the prestigious school.  Stella is also subject to this because she knows how Stanley can react when something doesn’t go his way, but because of her love and attraction towards him, she is in denial.  If Stella had listened to Blanche, she would have had no choice but to leave Stanley and lose the relationship she had with him.  In the end Stella, to save her marriage, lost the only family she had.  In the same sense Joe Paterno lost the love of his life, the football program, and Penn State took a hit to their stellar reputation.