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Gender Roles In A Rose For Emily And A Streetcar Named Desire

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Throughout history, gender has mostly been a foundation for both power and discrimination. The short story A Rose For Emily and the play A Streetcar Named Desire both highlight this concept of empowerment. In A Streetcar Named Desire, every character follows gender stereotypes. The only exception is Mitch, a traditional man who reacts to situations differently than other men at that period in history. He and Stella share a lot of similarities. Mitch is incredibly forgiving, despite Blanche betraying him and having affairs. Stanley portrays Stella's stereotypically domineering husband. He intentionally establishes his power throughout the entire play and movie. The short story A Rose For Emily similarly portrays gender roles, with "the men …show more content…

Because of his gender, Stanley has power. Stanley asks for forgiveness when he returns. When Stella forgives him, he proves once more that he is in charge. Stella's character has the least intriguing traits. This is because she fulfills everyone's requests. Blanche is the most intriguing character. Despite being very different from Stanley, she seeks authority through intimate relationships rather than through violence. In other ways, Blanche uses the mistreatment of women at the period to win people over and do much more. Stella and Stanley play roles that are extremely traditional for this time period. When Blanche comes in, everything changes. Stella serves as a portrayal of the typical wife of this time period. She lets Stanley and Blanche frequently walk all over her. Because it was so typical, this character role didn't engage the play's audience as much as the other characters did. Stanley's influence mostly damages Blanche, but Stella is also affected by his violent behavior. During poker night, a time for male bonding, she is mistreated. Stella's choice to stay with Stanley is not a conscious one; rather, it is a

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Stella serves as the buffer between Stanley and Blanche and tries to the best of her abilities to keep the hostility down by requesting Stanley to show kindness to her sister, scolding him for his rude behavior towards Blanche, and defending Blanche when Stanley insults her. She also defends Stanley and ignores his violent outbursts whenever Blanche tries to convince Stella of Stanley’s abusive nature and that she needs to leave him because of it. Stella acts as Blanche’s caretaker and enjoys waiting on her. She supports and encourages Blanche in her courtship with Mitch. She also understands Blanche’s delicate state of mind, but she did not realize how severe Blanche’s mind has developed.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

He regretted it and was crying for her to go back to him and love him. Also, love in this story is filled with insecurities and secrets. Blanche and Mitch would have been official, but Mitch believed what he was being told about Blanche and did not want her for hearing she was not “pure”. Stanley and Stella are in

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978 Words | 4 Pages

Stella’s sister, Blanche, sees through the illusion and can see how toxic the marriage really is. Stanley and Blanche come from distinctly different backgrounds, Stanley is from the working class while Blanche comes from wealth. Williams uses these two contrasting points of views on marriage, to show the issues of possessiveness, class, and sexism. When it comes to Stanley’s marriage to Stella, one of the most notable characteristics is how possessive Stanley is. An example of this is when Stanley found out that Blanche and therefore Stella, lost their estate.

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

The power to dictate how an individual’s life will proceed and autonomy over your own. Blanche’s presence instigated a loss of control for Stanley, not only because of Stella but because Blanche belittled him. Her aristocratic background is a huge contrast to Stanley’s immigrant and working-class environment, which Blanche constantly reminds him of. In the scene where Stanley accuses Blanche of defrauding Stella of her inheritance, Blanche states that Stella escaped the affluent social class to which her family belonged by fleeing to New Orleans and marrying Stanley, leaving behind all of its pretenses, family name, and issues, and with it her inheritance. To Blanche, Stella left her alone to deal with their family issues; however, from Stanley’s perspective, Blanche deprived Stella of her riches, which he considered being his as well.

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1755 Words | 8 Pages

Throughout the whole play, Blanche's presence, actions and thoughts have had an effect on all the characters, especially Stella, Stanley and Mitch. Whether it was Blanche's fantasy prone personality clashing with Stanley's "living in the physical world" ideologies, Stella's culpable irresponsibility contrasting with Blanche's dramatic nature, or Blanche's promiscuity causing Mitch to become disgusted by her, enough to completely shut down any hope for starting a romantic relationship, her character has been very successful in bringing out different sides of the other characters that we may have never learnt otherwise. This is why, when Blanche is institutionalised against her own will, the reactions of these three characters reveal their true

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727 Words | 3 Pages

Stella fell in love with a blue-collar worker namely Stanley. She was mesmerized by his officer suit and shiny medals in first look. As the play progresses Stella’s and Stanley’s relationship became worst. Stanley’s masculinity overtook Stella.

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999 Words | 4 Pages

Soon, the audience creates sympathy for Mitch after the tragic events that occurred in his past. Throughout the scenes of Streetcar, he serves as a gentleman towards Blanche. Both Mitch and Blanche can be described as being in a codependent relationship that is founded on desperation and loneliness from the emotional damage in which they have suffered. However, the romance slowly vanishes when Stanley advises Mitch about Blanche’s past in Laurel in addition to witnessing Blanche kiss a young man, whose job is to collect money for their local

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When he is questioned by Blanche in front of his friends he throws a fit, in a way that could be interpreted into showing off for his friends. He takes his anger out on Stella and hits her. After Stella leaves with Blanche, he calls for her nonstop until she finally comes back to him. He needs Stella just as much as she needs

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783 Words | 4 Pages

She brings this sense of superiority to Stella who unintentionally tries to distinguish her background from Stanley as well. Stanley recognizes the fact that Blanche looks down on him forcing him to assert his masculinity over her. Stanley’s dominance over the household and Stella is being questioned upon Blanche’s

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741 Words | 3 Pages

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, the main character, Blanche DuBois, travels to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski. Throughout the play, sexulaity is seen as a strong motivator for many of the characters actions. Early in the play, Stanley is introduced as a particularly sexual character, “ Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence... He sizes women up with a glance, with sexual classifications…” (Williams 25).

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1491 Words | 6 Pages

These tensions carry on into the next scene of the play when the two sisters return home while Stanley is hosting a poker party. He tells the two to visit Eunice, the landlord, until the poker game was over but Stella refused. Blanche and Stella go to the back of the apartment and Blanche plays some music. This angers an already inebriated Stanley and he throws the radio out the window. He tries to hurt Blanche but ends up hitting Stella for trying to stop him from doing so.

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652 Words | 3 Pages

It also highlights Stella’s submissive nature, and how she conforms to the sexist societal expectations of a helpless and fragile woman. Although the surrounding male characters disregard Stanley’s abuse, the audience is repulsed by it and identifies it as morally wrong. This shows how Williams is criticising the acceptance of this abusive behaviour in society, using Stella’s dilemma as a victim to plea for a change. Stanley is even abusive when displaying his

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685 Words | 3 Pages

Stella, to some extent, supports this, referring to 'things that happen between a man and a women in the dark'- sex- but saying that they 'make everything else seem – unimportant'. This shows that Stella is so attracted to Stanley's passion that she is willing to excuse his violent nature, and it also shows that she believes their relationship is about intimacy, however the caesura before 'unimportant' could show that she is still affected by Stanley's actions, despite her attraction to him. Blanche appears to reduce Stanley and Stella's relationship to merely

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698 Words | 3 Pages

The Fight for Dominance In today’s society, gender norms convince men that unless they are able to control women, they are weak. Considered the inferior gender, women must find new ways to prove their own strength, whether it be through manipulation or their sexuality. The battle between the two continues as men strive to remain dominant, often by immoral means, and women attempt to gain the upper hand. In the screenplay, “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, the sexual tension and struggle for dominion between Blanche and Stanley is evident, and as the play continues, Blanche's promiscuity and Stanley's predatory nature foreshadow an inevitable confrontation.

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

Stanley thought money was going to fix the issue. Blanche still continued to get into Stellas head about him but she wasn’t trying to hear it. Blanches independency was what created space between her and Stella because of their opposite views on situations. And due to that fact, Stella saw Blanche as a judgemental

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