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Gender In A Streetcar Named Desire

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A streetcar named Desire

A streetcar named Desire, is a play by Tennessee Williams written in 1947. It addresses the American society in the post modern society, gender roles and how it feels to be an intruder in an environment you aren’t used to. One of the most central aspects in “A streetcar named Desire” is the gender aspect. We witness Stanley and Blanche act due to the gender society gave them.

The main protagonist of “A streetcar named desire” is Blanche. Blanche was working as an english teacher, and she has a high interest in fashion. Blanche is dependent on males and women complimenting her looks, here is an quote illustrating my point: “And admire her dress and tell her she 's looking wonderful. That 's important with Blanche. Her little weakness!” As we can see, Blanche has a lot of focus on how she looks, but this quote also shows …show more content…

One of the symbols in the play is Blanche’s bathing. As said before Blanche’s name means white which could symbolize cleanliness. The bathing can be seen as a ritual to cleanse herself from her past such as the fact that she has lost Belle Reve and her husband. The bathing is also used by herself to calm down and cleanse her nerves, so therefor it has some effect to make her clean, but the fact that she often needs to bath shows her past can not be washed away or cleaned.

The streetcar symbolizes Blanche’s life: “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at--Elysian Fields” The desire can be interpreted as the Blanche’s desire on men, which is seen when she is flirting with Stanley and her dependency on complement. Her sexuality destroys her life, because her travel leads her to Elysian Fields, which is some kind of underworld in the greek mythology.

Another symbol is the meat which we have talked a little about. The meat which is a sex symbol that Stanley throws at Stella. It shows how men are more jokingly and open about their

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