Comparison Of Marriage In A Streetcar Named Desire And The Awakening

In both A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and The Awakening by Kate Chopin, marriage is depicted negatively in a way that is at odds with how most typically regard marriage. A Streetcar Named Desire shows a man who limits and beats his wife, but she won't leave him despite that. Somewhat similarly, The Awakening depicts a time-period typical marriage and a woman who desperately wants to escape that oppressive structure. This commonality between the books led me to wonder if the authors’ depiction of marriage was influenced by the marriages they saw or experienced in their lives. I explored their personal experiences with marriage, what their family life was like, and what gender roles and marriage was like in the time period they

The post World War II marriage dynamics and gender roles were both uniquely new and regressive; "As men returned home from war, couples who were separated for years eagerly made up for lost time. More couples married in 1946 than in any other year in American history to date" (Post War Weddings). There was a huge boom in marriages, which also created the baby boom, leading the nuclear family to be “the heart of American society” and the ultimate goal for women to be “ marriage and motherhood” (Post War Weddings). This retracted the relative freedom women had during the war, as they had to make up the workforce in place of the men, but now, the men were coming back and could become employed at their old jobs again, creating a dynamic that suppressed women’s freedom in and outside the house, as an ideal nuclear family would consist of the mother staying home with the children and obeying her husband. The rush into marriage and having children also created a lot of unhappy marriages that were stuck together because it wasn’t socially acceptable to get divorced. Many men also came back from WWII with PTSD or a dominating attitude, believing they are inherently deserving of respect. As Tennessee observed this in the relationships around him, he reflected it in his writing, specifically in A Streetcar Named Desire. Stanley believes that “what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa,” which was a common attitude of the time and shows his dominance over her, even though he softens it by also saying what is his also belongs to her (Williams 32). He lords his power over her and wants to control her and what she owns, giving her minimal freedom over her life, like many men of the time period. In a less obvious and overt way, Stanley is also the only one between him and Stella that has a job, giving him