Pablo Gonzales
Pablo Gonzales is one of the poker-playing friends who regularly gather at the Kowalski apartment, a figure who, though given little individual dialogue, serves as a consistent part of the male-dominated environment that clashes with Blanche DuBois's fragile sensibilities. He is identified in the original Broadway production as having been played by Nick Dennis, and his presence helps populate the world of Stanley Kowalski with a chorus of working-class men whose values and behaviors stand in stark opposition to Blanche's refined pretensions.
Identity and Role in the Poker Circle
Pablo is introduced as one of the four poker players—alongside Stanley, Steve Hubbell, and Harold Mitchell (Mitch)—who sit around the kitchen table under a vivid green glass shade, wearing colored shirts and representing men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct as the primary colors. During the poker night in Scene Three, Pablo participates in the game's rough banter, calling out "One-eyed jacks are wild" and suggesting someone go to the Chinaman's for chop suey. He is also the one who, when Stanley is losing, observes that Mitch has "ants now" because he has "seven five-dollar bills in his pants pocket folded up tight as spitballs," a remark that Stanley amplifies with a mocking prediction about Mitch depositing his winnings in a piggy bank. Pablo's function in these scenes is to be part of the collective male voice that Stanley dominates, a background figure who nonetheless contributes to the atmosphere of casual, sometimes cruel, masculine camaraderie.
Participation in the Aftermath of Violence
When Stanley strikes Stella during the poker night, Pablo is among the men who rush forward to restrain him, grappling and cursing as something is overturned with a crash. After Stanley is forced, pinioned by the two men, into the bedroom, Pablo suggests that "coffee would do him a world of good, now," a practical, almost tender remark that contrasts with the violence that has just occurred. Later, in the final scene, Pablo is again at the poker table when the Doctor and Matron come to take Blanche away. He is present when Stanley, prodigiously elated, boasts about his philosophy of luck, and when Pablo curses Stanley's luck in Spanish—"Maldita sea tu suerto!"—Stanley responds with an ethnic slur, calling him "greaseball." This exchange underscores the casual bigotry that runs through Stanley's circle and further marks Pablo as a figure who, despite being part of the group, is subject to Stanley's contempt.
Thematic Significance
Pablo Gonzales, though a minor character, contributes to the play's exploration of class, ethnicity, and masculinity. His Spanish name and occasional use of Spanish mark him as part of the diverse, working-class population of the French Quarter, a world that Blanche finds both fascinating and horrifying. He is one of the "apes" Blanche describes in her tirade to Stella, part of the "party of apes" that gathers for poker night, grunting and swilling and gnawing. His presence, along with Steve and Mitch, helps create the social ecosystem that Stanley rules, a world where physical strength, crude humor, and male bonding are paramount, and where Blanche's delicate illusions cannot survive. Pablo's final appearance, sitting silently at the poker table as Blanche is led away, underscores the play's tragic conclusion: the brutal, everyday world of the poker players continues, indifferent to the destruction of the fragile woman who passed through it.
