A Streetcar Named Desire Feminist Analysis

In Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche is a woman that stands firm in her old southern ways. So much so that she is often a victim of her own self-delusions, and her southern mindset is often the reason for this; Blanche lies about her drinking problem, the reason she lost her job, and her wealth. Before and during A Streetcar Named Desire takes place Blanche falls victim to the men like Stanley that take advantage of her which ends up mentally destroying her throughout the play. Blanche’s character shows us that throughout the play the old southern ways of the south are slowly dying out and are being replaced by the New South 's morals. William does a good job of crafting this play to represent the past dying out and

Blanche sets herself up to live in an alternate reality which is not healthy for her mentally. The first addiction that Blanche hides that the audience sees is when Blanche first arrived in New Orleans and was waiting for Stella to come back from the bowling alley. While waiting for Stella to return, she poured a half tumbler of whiskey and tossed it down. This disproves that she is not very ladylike though she tries to make people believe she is. She then went and lied to Stella while they were at the bar. At the bar she ordered scotch instead of a water and made a questionable attempt to say that she was not an alcoholic. This may not have affected Blanche at the moment, but this addiction is one of the lies that she has made for herself that eventually sends her on a downward spiral. The second illusion that Blanche presents to the audience is that she took a leave of absence. This was not the reason that she had to leave her job and this lie ends up costing her a man that could have filled a void in her life, but instead he left her because he found out the truth albeit through

Blanche represents the old southern ways of The South, while the contrast to her is Stanley who represents the new Industrial Age. Throughout the story Blanche is constantly trying to recreate her past and bring things back to the way they used to be. This happens when she tries to persuade Mitch to be her suitor, but this is ruined by Stanley because he told Mitch the horrific past of Blanche. This makes Blanche realize that her past will always haunt her and this is where the readers start to see the old south dying out. Stanley finishes destroying Blanche by physically and sexually assaulting her. Stanley told Blanche that “We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning.” (X. 1875.) If a person were to really dive into this quote, they would realize that Williams was trying to say that this was the final moment for the Old South and Stanley, who is the New South, was delivering the final blow. Williams did a wonderful job creating the way The South died out because it was not a happy ending to a time period, and when Blanche lost her sanity, it did not bode well with the