ipl-logo

Streetcar Named Desire Gender

1919 Words8 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Violence presented in a streetcar named desire

A Streetcar Named Desire

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a symbolic and mythical play by Tennessee Williams. The author’s successful play focuses on social matter and the everyday life of the characters. The characters in this play include Blanche DuBois, who travels on a streetcar named desire to visit her sister, Stella, in New Orleans. Through the play, several unusual acts happen such as the violence towards women, male dominance and a tense relationship occurs between Blanche and her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Also Blanche realizes her sister’s attachment and affection towards her husband who has a rough and harsh character throughout the story. Stella’s lack of interest and weak sisterly relation and Stanley’s continuous abusive …show more content…

Even though Blanche had a recognizable personality, in the article of Lauren Seigle, the author claims that the result of this kind of person Blanche DuBois has become is the fact that she lost her husband after knowing he’s gay and also the presence of Blanche in New Orleans with her sister is an effect for this horrible loss. Accordingly, Blanche didn’t deserve that miserable ending as some affirm after what she has been through.
In the play of Tennessee Williams, there were gender roles and women were treated faultily, they were abused by men. Some examples include, in Scene 3, Stanley beats his wife, Stella, in Scene 4, their neighbor beats his wife, Eunice, as well, and in Scene 10, Stanley rapes Blanche. This shows that women in “A Streetcar Named Desire” happen to be weak against the opposite sex, or controlled and overpowered by men. To illustrate, in the article by Roth Foley about women being victims in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the writer mentions that Stanley’s visible aspect provides an intuition on how to control women, and lead them using their weaknesses destroying them. Blanche and Stella were both victims of male dominance, they were Stanley’s toys and he could take advantage with any of them without considering that Stella is

Show More
Related
1085 Words | 5 Pages

The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is about an emotionally unstable lady named Blanche. She moves in with her youngest sister and her husband because the landlord took the land away from Blanche because they could not pay for it anymore. After being their for a while Blanche starts remembering her horrible past which is something she was trying to do in the first place. The husband of Stella, Stanley Kowalski was also someone that made Blanche’s life miserable for complicating everything and harassing her in every possible way. Death is one of the most symbolic terms in this play.

Read More
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.

Read More
1526 Words | 7 Pages

Thesis: Light is symbolic of realism or to put it cruder the ugly reality. Darkness is symbolic of fantasy or the fabrication created by characters. Introduction: Throughout the play and film adaptation of, A Streetcar Named Desire, we view the main characters progression throughout the thought provoking story.

Read More
783 Words | 4 Pages

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the main characters, Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski, share a great dislike and distrust towards one another, ultimately becoming the basis for the story’s conflict. Their common contemption stems from their contrasting personalities and backgrounds, their incompatibility of being able to function under the same environment, and inability to adapt to the situations they find themselves in. Although Blanche detests Stanley and the manner in which he behaves in, she realises that he is a necessary part for Stella’s life in New Orleans, an environment that greatly differs from the southern aristocracy that Stella and Blanche once lived in. Blanche expresses this idea by stating, “Oh,

Read More
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).

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

The Destruction of the Belle Reve Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is a wonderfully tragic story of the delusional Blanche DuBois, whose lies are unfolded and destroyed by the misogynist Stanley Kowalski. Throughout the play, Blanche frequently lies about her past, who she is, and what she’s done. Each lie she tells slowly unravels the next until she is caught, drowning in her own pathetic lies, forced to surrender to the malicious consequences dealt by Stanley. Similar to James Gatz, Blanche is obsessed with covering up her past actions, and creating a thin cloak of lies; however, James’ past is merely one of social degradation, Blanche carries the weight of her own horrible decisions.

Read More
1266 Words | 6 Pages

A streetcar named desire was written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, in purpose to show the “declining of the upper class and the domination of the bourgeois middle class in the U.S.A. where the south agriculture class could not compete with the industrialization.” Blanche Dubois the protagonist of our story, a southern beauty that is trapped by the restrictive laws of her society. But she broke them, and eventually put herself in a state, where she had no job and no house. So she had to go to her sister, Stella and live with her and her sister’s husband, Stanley. While staying there, she created a façade for her to hide her flaws and kept acting as a lady, where she is anything but that.

Read More
1245 Words | 5 Pages

Stereotypical gender roles have existed as long as human culture has, becoming a natural part of all of our lives. Within each gender lies a variety of stereotypes and expectations. Most notably for men they are often depicted as tough and the family provider. Whereas women are often shown to be soft and vulnerable. Throughout the play A Streetcar Named Desire the author; Tennessee Williams illustrates the main characters, Stanley, Stella, Mitch and Blanche with these stereotypes.

Read More
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

Read More
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.

Read More
1534 Words | 7 Pages

Overall, A Streetcar Named Desire is showing the downfalls of not expressing sexuality while doing the rare thing of showcasing sexuality in the context of a society that dismissed and condemned it. Tennessee Williams was a gay man who knew the frustration of living in a time period that demanded his sexuality be repressed. Through the play, he communicates how high a price individuals had to pay for expressing their desires. In Blanche’s case, her expression of sexuality led to her being committed to a mental institute, and in Allen Grey’s case death. Despite this Williams also imparts to his audience the negative impacts of disguising one 's sexuality behind the guise of what is considered normal and proper.

Read More
1371 Words | 6 Pages

Williams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.

Read More
1547 Words | 7 Pages

Tennessee Williams wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Williams, 1947) It is based in New Orleans a new cosmopolitan city which is poor but has raffish charm. The past is representing old south in America 1900’s and present is representing new America post world war 2 in 1940’s. Past and present are intertwined throughout the play in the characters Stanley, Blanche, Stella and mitch. Gender roles show that males are the dominant and rule the house which Stanley is prime example as he brings home food and we learn of one time when he got cross and he smashed the light bulbs.

Read More
608 Words | 3 Pages

In A Streetcar Named Desire, the author Tennessee Williams exaggerates and dramatizes fantasy’s incapability to overcome reality through an observation of the boundary between Blanches exterior and interior conveying the theme that illusion and fantasy are often better than reality. Blanche, who hides her version of the past, alters her present and her relationship with her suitor Mitch and her sister, Stella. Blanche was surrounded by death in her past, her relatives and husband have passed away, leaving her with no legacy left to continue. The money has exhausted; the values are falling apart and she is alienated and unable to survive in the harsh reality of modern society. Throughout the novel Williams juxtaposed Blanche’s delusions with

Read More
1220 Words | 5 Pages

The 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams tells the story of the sweet, polite, but willfully oblivious Blanche DuBois’ difficult relationship with her rough & tough brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche loses the family plantation, she travels to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, to visit and temporarily live with her sister, Stella. Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go. Problems arise between Stanley and Blanche when Blanche begins a series of lies and half-truths, and belittles Stanley, labeling him as “common” and “barbaric”. Things escalate between the two because of Stanley’s drunken rage taken out on Stella, but also because Stanley begins to become suspicious and aware of Blanche’s many lies and cover-ups.

Read More

More about Streetcar Named Desire Gender

Related Topics

Open Document