In America today, many are standing up to their oppressors. Many women have come forth with harassment and discrimination allegations. Many African Americans are standing up to prejudiced police forces. The “Me Too” and “Black Lives Matter” movements give a voice to those who are oppressed. Although it still exists, oppression today pales in comparison to the realities certain groups of Americans encountered in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Analysing two different works, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Richard Wright’s Native Son, oppression in America is evident in two very different cases. Wright’s work depicts racism while William’s exemplifies sexism. A common theme Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Richard Wright’s …show more content…
In Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, the women are oppressed. First, Stanley is bigger than Blanche and easily overpowers her, taking advantage of her inability to fight back. While Stanley’s wife, Stella, is in the hospital giving birth to their child, Stanley rapes Blanche. He says, “Let’s have some rough house… We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!” (162). This was one of Blanche’s last interactions with Stanley before being sent away to a mental institution. People did not believe her. When she reported the rape, her own sister, Stella took Stanley’s word over hers in an attempt to protect Stella’s own future with Stanley. Bad things can happen to good people; in this case, Stanley raped Blanche and she is the one who ends up being punished while Stanley goes on with his life without repercussion. Second, Stanley acts with no regard for his pregnant wife in the hospital. He cheats on Stella with her sister. It is implied that Stella is aware, but she does not confront Stanley about it and they continue with their unhealthy relationship which is controlled by Stanley. Stanley’s cheating on Stella and raping Blanche exemplify that he does not value the rights or wishes of the women in his life. His actions depict oppression through sexism as it was in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Similarly to Stella and Blanche, in Richard Wright’s Native Son, the main character, …show more content…
Society is not solely to blame for the treatment Blanche receives. Some of the poor treatment is a direct result of the things she has done. Blanche worsens her situation with unhealthy coping mechanisms. She tries to fill the void left by her husband with meaningless, short sexual encounters with strangers. When Blanche is in the bath, Stanley tells Stella the true reasons behind Blanche’s unwanted presence. In scene 7, he says about Blanche’s employment, “She didn’t resign… they kicked her out of that high school… –and I hate to tell you the reason why that action was taken–a seventeen-year-old boy she’d gotten mixed up with!” (Williams 122). Blanche was also kicked out of the Flamingo Hotel for similar reasons. It is clear the reputation she creates has left her without options. Blanche is not alone in making bad decisions. Although society may have drastically stifled Wright’s characters’ freedoms and opportunities, it is not alone to blame for the oppression Bigger faces. Some decisions and actions he takes deeply worsen his situation. For example, Bigger is not just a product of the environment he grew up with. Bigger chose to be part of a gang. He wasn’t born into it like the kids of Harper High School in southern Chicago today. His siblings are not involved in crime the same way he is. Bigger chooses his life of crime: robbing,
She tries to hold on to him but is unable to keep him attracted. Blanche is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her out own fantasies. She has no concern for anyone’s well being, including her own. Thus, this is her utter most harmful demise. She has no realistic outlook for the future.
Finally, Stanley rapes Blanche because “he has tried and tried to keep her down to his level” (Kagan 26) but she cannot go there. The rape is his way of getting her there. In the powerful scene where Stanley loses total control of his actions and strikes the person whom he has sworn to protect, love and cherish, William's shows Stanley's lack of control and hatred of the new threat in his life, Blanche. What makes this scene so important to the topic is the way that the three characters react once the party has broken up. Blanche is in her usual state of panic; Stella has retreated upstairs, while Stanley stumbles around calling out 'Steeelllaaa' in a drunken sweaty animal-like manner. Surprisingly Stella answers her mate's calls and embraces him, the two of them exchanging words of compassion and kisses. Stanley then picks up Stella and carries her off to his den to make love, which is Stanley's way of apologizing. Stanley has to be the dominant male figure in all his relationships, not only with Stella and Blanche, but with his friends as well. He is a leader and instantly rises to the challenge whenever his status is threatened.
Blanche has gone against everything that Stanley has worked for; she thinks she can lie to the people in her life, she adds a style of personality that Stanley has been offended by, and she pushes his limits with music, lighting, and her clothes. Blanche manages to challenge him by doing all these things. Not only does Blanche challenge him, she has moved into his life unexpectedly, drank his liquor, and continues to destroy his way of life.
For her to “have [her] existence admitted by someone”, she engages in various trysts; according to her, “men don’t—don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you”. The commodification of sex aligns with Stanley’s values. He weaponises it, using it to violate Blanche at the end of the play to expunge her from his household. Although it would be morally egregious to suggest as such, Blanche’s submission to this tenet has inevitably set her up for such a tragic end. It emboldened Stanley, who posits that “[they’ve] had this date right from the start”, given Blanche’s endorsement of such an
Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.
Stella, too, is a major character who lives in a world of hopes and fantasies. Stella’s tears over her sister as Blanche was taken away at the end of play reveals that Stella’s fantasies have been crushed by Stanley’s brutality. Stella calls her sister, “Blanche! Blanche! Blanche!”(142) , as if she does not want to let go of her sister. In spite of the fact that Stanley tried to justify and to relief her, Stella knows that something acquitted and abandoned had banished. She knows that her happy and humble world and her sister’s hopes had gone. Through her fantasy world, she thinks she could keep her sister for ever, but fantasy does not always work and makes life appear as it should be rather than what reality is. Also, Blanche imagines the doctor as a gentleman who is going to rescue her from a life that she imagines it as a life that does not want to accept her. Blanche finishes the play by saying, “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (142). Blanche’s irony is demonstrated for two reasons. First of all, the doctor is not a gentleman; he came to take her to a mental health care. Second of all, strangers are not kind to her; they are kind only for trade of sex. Instead, they feel sympathy for her for creating a world where she is the victim. Blanche never perceives stranger’s kindness as something that people take advantage of. Instead, she thinks that Stanley is the one who does not treat her well, although he wanted
The end of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is filled with turmoil, as Blanche is being taken away by a doctor while Stanley and his friends are playing poker. The main cause of this chaos is due to the fact that Stanley raped Blanche in the scene before, however Stella chooses not to believe her sister. Stella states, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 165), showing that Stella made her choice between her sister and her husband, a long anticipated moment since the beginning of the play. It was always known that Stella would choose Stanley, and always will choose him, because he is the man she loves and the one she chose to marry. However, despite the fact that this was seemingly the right choice to make, especially since Stella
The first encounter we see between Blanche and Stella was not good at all. Blanche starts criticizing the conditions in which Stella lives. Blanche wants the best for her sister and she does not want that her sister to suffer the way she did. Until this moment Stanley has not sympathized with Blanche, also he hates her because she wants to change the way they lived. Blanche in her confusion, flirts with Stanley many times during her visit to Stella’s house. Stanley does not return any feeling of love towards Blanche, instead he rapes her.
Throughout Blanche's stay at his house, he feels that she has drunk his liquor, eaten his food, used his house, but still has belittled him and has opposed him. Thus, he must sit idly while watching his marriage and home being torn apart. Stanley’s retaliation is slow but calculated, beginning to compile information about Blanche's past life he must present her past life to his wife so that she can determine who is the superior person. He feels that having proved how degenerate Blanche actually is, he is now justified
The relationship between Stella and Stanley begins to change when Blanche arrives to see her sister, Stella. In Act…, it is evident Stanley takes interest in what Blanche wears and the way she behaves taking long baths and her unwillingness to discuss the sale of Belle Reve. Unwilling to listen to Stella when she tries to explain to him how delicate of a topic he sale of the plantation and her sister’s well-being is
It was not just her self that put her in the lime light of being a victim; it is also her new change of environment and people. Stanley is Stella's husband; he is described to be very masculine and aware of his sexual magnetism. “Strongly, compactly built”. He is mostly at ease with people however, if they lack loyalty and affection to him, he will bully them. Especially women, as he believes them just to be easy conflict. It is seen in scene 3 that Stanley has little respect for women. “I said to hush up!” This is addressed to his wife who is seen emotionless and impassive in this play. As for Blanche how is fussy and at edge, she would be very effected by the crude attitude that Stanley presents and so tries to hysterical take Stella away from her husband. Stanley does not forget of this act of interference and makes him all the more determined to be rid of Stella’s “charity case”. The real reason for Stanley’s bulling is that Blanche immediately received all Stella’s attention. “How about my supper huh? I’m not going to no Galatorires’ for supper” This made Stella dominant in power over Stanley and Blanche, something Stanley was not used to. “I put you a cold plate on ice”.
Although there is nothing wrong with Stella offering her sister a help and let Blanche stays in her place, but the biggest missing component, in this case, is the cause a huge embarrassment, that is Stanley. Stanley is Stella’s husband, they live together with peace and entertainment so far; nevertheless, the involvement of a third person would interrupt or even shatter the situation, and this person is Blanche. Stanley represents the new rising Americans, and we can envision him as urban-hunkey. His lifestyle is full of manhood; he goes to bowling, loves poker party, and we gain the picture of him as an aggressive, dominant and very sexual person. To satisfy Stanley is quite simple, first, his sexual desire would override his other senses, which means his sexual relationship with his wife is extremely important to him; second, Stanley enjoys maintaining stereotypical gender roles in his home and being respect as the head of the household. After Blanche’s visit, both of his old habits are being disturbed because Blanche takes herself as someone who’s more superior which goes against his gender role and she sleeps right across them with only a thin layer of the barrier which also stops his lovely night party with his wife. These reasons caused Stanley being so unsympathetic to the way Stella treats Blanche, which furthermore
The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not
Although Stanley’s power works mainly to downgrade Blanche, his violent and aggressive nature also disempowers Stella. She is abused during poker night, a moment of masculine bonding. Following the poker night she is made powerful when she retreats to Eunice’s Flat. However, she returns to disempowerment when she leaves Eunice’s flat and Stanley ‘bears her into the dark flat’. Stella’s decision to stay with Stanley is not based on choice, but rather on the fact that she must. This enforces the dominant belief that women are unable to support themselves, emotionally and financially.
He, in A Streetcar Named Desire, dramatically highlights the strength of men over weak-status women, represented by Blanche. It is Stanley who points out the rumors of Blanche in the past. He wants her to leave only because she tries to escape the reality, a sign of tenderness. As brother-in-law, Stanley does not give a hand to Blanche, obviously finding out something stange on Blanche. He is melicious and derisive when he verbally attacks Blanche and debunks her past things.