Literary and Cinematic Examples

Cinematic Character

Django Django Unchained, by Quentin Tarantino (2013) By Jesús Páirez Jorge

Django tells the story of a slave who lacks the disposition to endure his position and who in the film plays the role of a bounty hunter in search of redemption and vengeance. But beyond that, his life is laced with a romantic story of passionate love, something very common in the stories of Sexual 8s.

This Quentin Tarantino film tells the story of Django, a slave freed by the bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in 1858, two years before the American Civil War. Schultz needs Django’s help to identify some criminals, and in exchange, he promises him freedom. Once freed, Django becomes Schultz’s apprentice, and together they form a bounty-hunting partnership. Thus, he quickly moves from a situation of submission and enslavement to becoming a free man and bounty hunter.

At this point, out of necessity, opportunism, and above all, for the powerful thirst for vengeance accumulated and revealed throughout the plot, which gives meaning to his own life. Sometimes, as spectators, it is not clear whether his partner is still under the yoke of the first slave masters who enslaved him, or if he himself enslaves himself. Indeed, he does not hesitate when asked what the first thing he will do as a free man is: his response is clear and concise—“find my wife and buy her freedom.” Much of the film’s plot unfolds with that ambitious goal, which at times seems even more significant than creating a new life or enjoying his newfound freedom.

We are dealing with a character of rough, stubborn nature and difficult submission. And taken by such peculiar motivation, which shapes his behavior and way of existing, combined with his romantic and protective nature, everything typical of this character for whom possessiveness is obsession.

Thus, we get an idea of what his temperament was like as a slave, something described very well in the scene where Carrucan, his former owner, tired of his escape attempts, tells him: “Django, you’ve got guts.

The monkey’s got guts. But I don’t need a n***** with guts.”

Django is too rebellious a slave to be adequate; his impulsivity exceeds his ability to behave according to that situation (or even to simulate it), that is, to obey the designs of a master and lord. The Sexual 8 remembers humiliation suffered, facing submission, unable to tolerate it, manifesting himself openly and shamelessly even at the cost of exploding in his own trap or losing his life.

Django’s pride is incompatible with his situation of oppression, so he constantly tries to escape to save his wife, Broomhilda. Not precisely a resigned slave who resigns himself to stay shackled by his established condition in that era because of his color. He is a rebel who does not allow himself to be broken. And even when he is caught, punished, and whipped, he resists without giving in.

In Django appears the protective figure who, even at the cost of his physical integrity and dignity, takes on all responsibilities and suffers greatly seeing Broomhilda punished. So much so that he is willing to receive all blows and even beg for mercy for her. Although he is not capable of bending for himself, he can beg for his beloved.

In addition to the aspects mentioned, there are two scenes occurring at separate moments in time where we see the fixation (revenge or rebellion) typical of an E8’s character, as cognitive obsession, largely driving and directing his life. The irrepressible thirst for vengeance becomes the engine and direction toward which his fury and available power are channeled.

On one hand, when he is shown in a flashback, kneeling, begging John Brittle not to whip his wife, offering to be beaten instead, and Brittle, with a proud and humiliating tone, replies: “I like the way you beg, boy.”

And then, as a sequence linked to the previous one, we see Django as a free man earning his living as a bounty hunter, dressed in a flashy outfit (something improper for a Black man at the time), and with an attitude far removed from that of a slave. He hunts this man, just about to whip another, and without dissembling, with warlike and resentful bearing,

holding a threatening gun in his hand, says: “Do you remember me?” He shoots him in the heart, wounding him fatally, and adds before he dies: “I like the way you die, boy.”

He immediately lashes and kills with fury (later shooting the rest of the Brittle brothers), showing the exhibitionism typical of the character. Deeds must be done; concrete acts must be shown. It’s part of the phallic-narcissistic form, accurately described by Claudio Naranjo as “the peacock with the most feathers in its tail.”

At this point, Django lets loose and shows his hidden side, his most sincere and profound pain, which drives the decisions he makes throughout the movie. He releases himself so much that, even when approaching the plantation where he is to rescue his wife, Schultz (his mentor and bounty-hunting partner) warns him not to be carried away by his thirst for vengeance, because it is true that while he has the ability to maintain composure, the moment he has long awaited, patience and temperance, turn into weakness. Because what seems to be burning inside him is not precisely patience—the virtue that best coexists with this type of personality.

He is impulsive and reactive, with little strategic capacity, seeking the most immediate redemption possible.

At the end, we see an ode to vengeance: Django, able to flee freely with his wife, returns to Calvin Candie’s plantation to kill all of Candie’s henchmen and attend his funeral. There, in an act of revenge and contempt toward those who had despised him and hunted him, he kills them all, some with a special touch of mockery and rage: he shoots one in the genitals, kills the owner’s sister, and finally shoots the old butler Stephen (slave and slaver, Black and oppressor), leaving him to die in agony.

Another characteristic of the character, proper to a Sexual 8, is his extravagant and striking way of being in the world. The most memorable image is of him in a blue suit with a white scarf, something inconceivable in his time and race, a new symbol of defiance and conquest. During the film, Django becomes stronger and more despotic, more aggressive and arrogant than white men themselves. As if he gave the impression of being a tyrant greater than any other; not one who pretends, but one who owns it.

And finally, the movie ends with a flourish of equestrian dominance, symbolically saying: “Here, the tamer (dominator) is me.”

All this shows us a character of two faces, and within each one, his two antagonistic versions: a rebellious slave, uncomfortable with submission and willing to rebel even at the cost of harsher punishment; and a man with power, capable of behaving like a true slaver and tyrant, with a coldness that seeks redemption from his wounds through atrocious vengeance.

Literary Character

Stanley Kowalski A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) Based on the play by Tennessee Williams By Leonor Cabrera Torrado

From the beginning, Tennessee Williams presents Stanley Kowalski as someone intense, impulsive, visceral, shouting the name of his wife, Stella, and throwing himself into her arms as corresponds to a sexual Enneatype 8. That package of bloody flesh is a metaphor for Kowalski’s animality—someone who, as we will see throughout the play, is carried away by his impulses and by a lust that leads to a tragic end.

The title of the play speaks of desire, but we could just as well substitute that word with lust, since if there is something the work of Williams has, it is an atmosphere of sexual tension that at some point must explode, contrasting Kowalski’s animality with Blanche DuBois, his sister-in-law, who represents the old Southern aristocracy—refined and decadent.

Kowalski, son of Polish immigrants and a World War II veteran, is presented from the beginning of the play, set in New Orleans in the 1940s, as a hard, self-made man, of great brute force and self-assurance, all characteristics related to sexual Enneatype 8.

He is an impulsive, dominant, territorial character, driven by intense energy that needs confrontation, possession, and marked presence. His way of relating to others is permeated by dominance, desire, and constant challenge. Stanley lives from the body and his instincts: he moves around the house in his undershirt, throws objects, speaks loudly, and does not hide his emotions.

He works as a laborer in a factory and lives with his wife, Stella, who is pregnant, in a small apartment where heat, noise, and sweat are part of the oppressive atmosphere in which the play unfolds. As the text progresses, the oppressive environment in this space becomes evident. Indeed, Kowalski is presented as territorial, and if something threatens his control—like Blanche’s unexpected visit—it jeopardizes his dominion over his territory and himself, increasingly driving him to “know the truth” and expose her, something very characteristic of this Enneatype, which insists on using truth as a weapon to unmask others.

One of his obsessions is to fight against what we could call social hypocrisy, represented by Blanche, daughter of an aristocratic family, of good and delicate manners, but to Kowalski’s eyes, someone hiding something. The Enneatype 8 is antisocial because he distrusts

appearances and social conventions, since he was once, in childhood, a victim of this society that he can no longer bear. And this is precisely the key Blanche touches in Kowalski: she represents good manners, politeness, and social correctness.

Blanche arrives at the beginning of the play in the working-class, multicultural neighborhood of New Orleans, where her sister lives in an old red-brick building, to stay for a while after losing the family home, Belle Reeve. This mansion embodies the glorious past of Southern aristocracy in the United States, and its loss has a double meaning in the play: on one hand, it symbolizes the end of an era and the fall of a class sustained by appearances; on the other, it marks Blanche’s personal downfall, unable to adapt to the new world. This new, modern world, embodied by Stanley Kowalski, a working-class man and postwar America, represents a man proud of his intense identity, of his strength, of not caring about being rough and showing it. This personality symbolizes the advance of the practical over the sentimental, something very typical of sexual Enneatype 8.

Blanche’s arrival alters the balance of Stanley and Stella’s marriage, who had moved away from her Southern aristocratic family to the city. There she met Kowalski, with whom she immediately had a fast, impulsive, and passionate encounter. These traits are also present in their relationship, where conflict, fighting, and intensity of reconciliation are also an important part of their dynamic as a couple, as corresponds to someone of this character.

The first scene showing this dynamic between Stanley and Stella appears in the first act and serves to give us a deeper look into the character. It takes place in the Kowalskis’ kitchen, where Stanley and his friends—Steve, Pablo, and Mitch—are playing poker in an atmosphere charged with intensity and alcohol. Stanley, having lost at the game, becomes increasingly frustrated and aggressive. When Blanche and Stella return to the apartment, the presence of women interrupts the game, which irritates Stanley even more. Stella tries to calm him down, but Stanley, in a fit of rage, throws the radio out the window and ends up hitting her. Stella flees to the neighbor Eunice’s apartment, while Blanche tries to comfort her.

Later, Stanley, regretful, goes out into the courtyard and desperately shouts his wife’s name: “Stella!” The need to impose his control and his emotional dependency are evident here; driven by love and addiction, Stella returns to him, and they reconcile intimately in their bedroom.

Scenes of this kind are often narrated for Sexual 8s, who in their relationship with their partner need domination and power, a dependency that puts the relationship at risk. Beneath this lies the incapacity to tolerate frustration, the fear of being hurt, and the need to dominate. The character of Stanley in the play shows how Sexual 8 energy, when used to avoid frustration, serves his desire, passion, and anger.

This dominant attitude also manifests itself strongly in his relationship with Blanche. From the beginning, Stanley perceives her as a threat: she not only comes to disturb his space but represents a world he despises—an artificial refinement, emotional manipulation, and the decadent privileges of a social class to which Blanche no longer belongs but to which she still clings. Faced with this fragile and theatrical image, Kowalski reacts with provocation: he wants to dismantle the mask, because he suspects that Blanche hides something and wants to expose that lie at any cost.

Blanche activates in Stanley his need to reveal the truth, typical of the E8. His obsession with discovering the truth about Blanche is not gratuitous; it is part of his need to dismantle appearances, social masks, and hypocrisy. For these E8s—direct and overwhelming—there is a need to unmask hypocrisy, believing themselves to be in possession of truth. In a key scene, Stanley says: “I’ve investigated you, Blanche. I know what you’ve been doing.” He cannot bear for her to maintain an identity he considers false, and therefore attacks her with facts, humiliations, and a gaze full of both desire and contempt.

The tension between them grows scene by scene. Stanley rummages through her belongings without permission, laughs at her clothes and jewelry, full of contained desire and aggression. She, for her part, responds with ambiguous coquetry, forced fragility, and small gestures of defense, until she eventually assumes the confrontation. But the dynamic has a clear course: Stanley needs to conquer, possess, and destroy—if not surrendering, something very typical of this Enneatype, where the impulse to dominate the other reaches the point of living the pain of the other and crushing them with sadism and satisfaction, because that’s the only way he can feel he possesses and controls.

The culminating moment of the play is the scene in which Stanley rapes Blanche after having won the symbolic and emotional battle; it is the final act of a process in which Kowalski seeks to dominate Blanche at all costs. What greater domination than possessing her sexually? Let us recall that the neurotic need characteristic (passion) of sexual Enneatype 8 is possession—a possessiveness that seeks to own the other’s soul, which he ultimately achieves. In this climactic moment, Stanley, drunk and triumphant, returns home and finds Blanche alone, vulnerable, and dressed in a white nightgown. After an argument in which she tries to resist with her theatricality, he turns off the light—another powerful symbol. The light as truth and conscience is replaced by the shadow of instinct—and he takes her by force. This scene, beyond its brutality, represents the symbolic act of Stanley’s domination over Blanche. Stanley does not only physically destroy Blanche but annihilates everything she represents emotionally and symbolically: nostalgia, fragility, sensitivity, romantic illusion.

Blanche tells her sister Stella that Stanley has raped her, but Stella does not believe her. This moment is one of the most painful and revealing of the play because it shows not only

Blanche’s emotional collapse but also the power Stanley exerts over his wife, a domination that transcends all boundaries. Blanche is in shock, completely disoriented. She tells Stella what happened, trying to explain herself, saying she cannot continue living in that house. She does not scream or accuse with fury; she says it brokenly, far from her initial strength. But Stella, although visibly shaken, chooses not to believe her. She explicitly says: “I can’t believe it. If I did, I couldn’t go on living with him.”

With this phrase, Stella makes an emotional and tragic choice: she chooses her home, her stability, and her bond with Stanley, at the cost of guilt and suspicion, but she needs to cling to what she has so as not to collapse as well.

Blanche, completely shattered by this violation and Stella’s choice, ends up living in her own invented reality. She believes she is going on a trip with a friend and does not resist when the doctors come to take her away, deeply disconnected from reality. In the midst of silence, Blanche utters one of the most emblematic lines of the play: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

This painful and poetic line reveals her deep loneliness, fragility, and need for consolation, even in her final moments of lucidity. Blanche is the tragic victim of a society with no space for the fragile, the sensitive, the feminine wounded, represented by Stanley, who embodies the victory of the raw and realistic over illusion and beauty.

In this work by Williams, it is clear how this subtype of E8 does not seek merely to be strong; it seeks intensity, total absorption, and proof of power. Deep down, it is moved by a need to avoid feeling vulnerable and to avoid betrayal at all costs. That is why Stanley reacts so strongly to Blanche—because she reflects back to him, unintentionally, everything he cannot tolerate within himself: emotional dependency, insecurity, fear of not being loved, and ultimately, vulnerability.

Stanley Kowalski is a dramatic example of how far the Sexual 8 can go in its most excessive version, when it does not find another way to channel its energy besides domination and control. He also embodies the darker sides of the Enneatype 8 described by Claudio Naranjo: powerful, visceral, full of life, but also perilous, because when feeling threatened, he can destroy what he loves most, especially what is delicate and fragile.