Summary: A Streetcar Named Desire

Imagine a husband mercilessly beating down his own wife because he feels like less of a man. Imagine the wife who is so broken that she keeps coming back to the same man that breaks her. These events seem highly unlikely to happen today, however, back in the 1940’s these disturbing events happened more often than not. So often that a playwright named Tennessee William made a play around it. The play, A streetcar named desire, deals with the topic of abuse as well as desire, insanity and love. Stella, a woman who left her past to start a new one falls in love with a military man and settles. The man named, Stanley, is a hot tempered, blue collar man who can be an angel when he desires and a demon when he loses control. A demon that punishes

The play starts with an eager Stella waiting on her husband Stanley to come home. Then all of a sudden she hears someone hollering her name and a package of meat being thrown at her. If this was an act done by a man to a woman, especially in public, today then the consequences would differ drastically. Stella in the situation, “Cries out in protest but manages to catch it: then she laughs breathlessly” (Williams 4). It may be subtle but the abuse and the mistreatment of women can still be seen. Stanley throwing the meat at Stella symbolizes his sexual desires. Other than that the public also has no reaction to this act being done. One of the woman even, “rises from steps, laughing louder”(Williams 5). The women at the time aren’t aware of the fact that they are being abused and used for male fantasies. The male dominant era of the 1940s does not translate to the coexistence world of today. Today women are more aware of the things that men want and the things men will do to get

In the twenty first century, if a woman is physically abused she will most likely leave the man and settle for a life on their own. According to a statistics research on single mothers by, Single Mothers Guide.com, there are about twelve million single families living in the United States and about eighty percent of those families are single mother families. This in no way means that all eighty percent of the women were abused but at least they had the common sense and understanding to leave the man with whom they were unhappy. Stella from the play doesn’t have the same comprehension as most of the women have today. When a drunk Stanley beats the life out of Stella she runs away to her friend and neighbour Eunice. The readers are led to believe that Stella has left Stanley for good except in just a few minutes she is back into his arms. She justifies her actions by pleading to her sister by saying, “Blanche, you saw him at his worst last night.” (Williams 69). Her lack of awareness of the abuse that she faces is a key difference between the times of today and the times of