Society In A Streetcar Named Desire

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play. As the movie goes on, it becomes more and more clear what Tennessee Williams is trying to convey to the audience. This being, Southern culture was deeply corrupted in many ways and the societal norms of the time period were like a drug that people

In the 1940’s men were thought of as the heirs to women. Tennessee Williams uses Stanley Kowalski as a model for how cruel and unusual men treated women at the time. Throughout the film Stanley is seen as a very abusive man with absolutely no right judgement. In today’s society the way he treats women would be morally unacceptable. However, during the 1940’s this sadistic man was seen as a true man. During this time men brought in the money for the household, while the mother’s would stay at home and watch over the children of the family. With this came a sense of pride and authority for the men. Throughout the film Stanley continually abuses Blanche and even goes to the extreme of raping her. He depicts an animal-like man with no awareness of morals. When he gets angry he has no control of his reactions and results to physical violence. In one particular scene in the movie Stanley becomes furious with Blanche’s disrespect towards him and proceeds to tell her that he is the king of the house and she is to do as he says. It seems that Stanley felt a sense of achievement by making women fear him. Tennessee William uses this wicked man to help the audience see how Southern culture displayed unethical

We treat each other with great coarseness and continually make no effort to change. It is often evident that those who are treated with such disrespect become extremely grotesque people. There is a plague of corruptness in society everywhere. This plague is not only alive in the South, but in all of society. These poor morals portrayed in the film are spread throughout society and continue to be an issue today. While we may not have the same abuse of women that the south had during the 1940’s, we still have an abuse of greed, pride, and