A Streetcar Named Desire Gender Roles

Hunter Wilcox

ENGL 2130-005

Dr. Williams

21 April 2023

Essay II

The book “A Streetcar Named Desire,” by Tennessee Williams, is plagued with gender and identity roles. The typical gender roles and norms are deeply interwoven within the play. The play shows how society has certain rules about how men and women should behave and how those rules can be changed or broken. The play shows how these rules interact with things such as social class and sexuality. Throughout the play, these gender roles are played by three people: Blanche, Stella, Stanley. Each of these characters challenges what the “standard” gender roles are and how they interact with each other. Williams explores the association between gender roles and power dynamics by

Blanche wears exotic clothing while she lives in a run-down looking apartment in a bad part of town. This goes against traditional ideas, where women should be dressed modestly. When the book describes the scene, Blanche is described as “daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pear, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arraying at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district” (Williams 5). This quote contradicts what traditional gender norms are. According to those, women should dress and behave in a certain way that society has defined for them. Blanche chose to wear the white suit, fluffy bodice, pearl necklace and all the other “elite” items to show that she is a cultured and refined woman. When it is said that she looks like she is going to a summer tea, it tells everyone that there is obvious social class difference between Blanch, Stanley, and Stella. Blanche knowingly disobeys the typical gender norms and attempts to assert power over everyone else, including Stanley. One of the other ways Blanche disregards typical social norms is when she drinks and smokes. Although she insists that she does not drink, we know that she is a heavy drinker, smokes on a regular basis, and flirts with other men, which goes against the typical “ladylike” style. Blanche, however, does fall for some of the gender norms. When Blanche first makes sight of Stanley, after he came into the shared room from his poker game, she states, “Well, I never cared for wishy-washy people. That was why, when you walked in here last night, I said to myself "My sister has married a man!" Of course that was all that I could tell about you” (Williams 39). We can infer that Blanche was intrigued by Stanley’s hyper masculinity at first and thinks that Stella really married a true “man.” Overall, Blanche breaks most traditional gender norms, by rejecting