Gender Discrimination In A Streetcar Named Desire

Blanche’s financial decline, illuminating her vulnerability, links to Aristotle’s theory that the tragic heroine must fall, allowing the audience to relate to her. Her insecurities – “I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!” stereotypically reflects the insecurities women feel about their appearance and age. The uses of imperatives and exclamatory sentences suggests Blanche’s obsession over her appearance, a flaw leading her to dismiss her true identity. Her inability to avoid drink and her compulsive lies, demonstrated in her frequent references to Shep Huntleigh’s letters, makes her a more authentic woman than Stella, who is described by Williams as the “gentle, mild and contented one”. Blanche’s loss of identity, dominated by her homosexual husband’s suicide, exacerbates her solitude – “The boy-the boy died. (She sinks back down) I’m afraid I’m – going to be sick!” The fragmented, repetitive speech Blanche uses illustrates her guilt and pain, whilst the physical act of “sinking” highlights the extent of her regret, giving a sense of foreboding for her downfall. Her guilt is also exacerbated by the implied physical act at the end which shocks the contemporary audience, who would not sympathise with homosexuals, evoking pity and reinforcing that “Streetcar” is a tragedy for Blanche.

Throughout history empowerment and marginalization has primarily been based on gender. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, this idea of empowerment is strongly flaunted. Tennessee Williams’ characters, primarily Stanley, Blanche, Mitch, and Stella, conform the expected roles of men and women at the time. Although World War Two temporarily allowed women a place in the work force, they were dismissed from such empowerment when the war came to a close. Characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are accurate representations of the social historical context of that time. The power struggle between Stanley and Blanche conveys dominant ideas about gender such as the primitive nature, aggression, and

He abuses his wife Stella physically and emotionally as he strikes and hits his pregnant wife while Stella represents the self-deprecating, submissive wife who tolerates and excuses her husband behavior. Another central theme in Williams’ play is the theme of illusion; Blanche lives in a fantasy world of sentimental illusion. She exerts efforts to maintain the appearance of being an upper-class young innocent woman, even though she is a fallen woman. Another theme is the theme of loneliness as Blanche is lost and alone in the world and she desperately seeks protection and companionship in the arms of strangers. Mitch is another character who is a victim of loneliness and he needs to find a woman to love him the way his mother does. The theme of sexual desire is related to destruction. Blanche wants to be a lady but she continually tripped up by her sexual desire. Stanley leads a violent brutal desire and views Stella as a sexual object and his final act as he rapes Blanche emphasizes his lustful desire. The theme of hatred is prevailed throughout the play as Blanche’s insult and insolence aroused the hatred of Stanley. The play focused on the feeling of repulsion between

Within the space of a single chapter Levi details the loss of identity and all elements of personhood from the prisoners that entered at the beginning of the chapter, as their clothing and animalistic presentation effectively reduces them to little more than objects in the grasp of the Nazis. This is extremely disturbing, as a reader, to comprehend, and lies in stark converse with Blanche’s presentation in the closing chapter of streetcar, within which, clothes are instead bestowed by Williams upon blanche in order to emphasise her epitomisation of a perfected form of humanity, or at least to raise her above those who view her sexuality and promiscuity as worthy of accusation, or would afford her poor, perhaps even dehumanising treatment as a result. In this way, both authors utilise costume or clothing to portray their characters in different lights, however, although the direct effects on the reader 's interpretation of the character are different, they achieve the similar overarching effect of sending a crucial message as to the brutality and often wrongly discriminative nature of society over those men and women who have committed little fault, questioning both , ‘if this a man’ and ‘if this is a woman’.

The representation of gender roles is among the most prominent recurring subjects in theatre, literature and expressive art as we know it. Gender, and what it means to human beings, is a subject that is as difficult to precisely define as death, race, and the concept of existence. Anne Beall, Ph.D. graduate in Social Psychology at Yale University, details in her book The Psychology of Gender that “Gender is socially defined masculinity and femininity. Social psychology studies how gender is defined, created, and maintained through social influence, especially in the course of social interaction” (Beall; 10). The nature of gender roles is ultimately dictated by temporal, societal, biological and even geographical dimensions that are out of our control and though it is a given that gender as a concept has kept as relevant as it is ancient, there has only been under a hundred years of significant progress or general awareness on the matter. The subject matter of important art in any given time period is a reflection of that society’s most urgent struggles and the topic of gender has remained a constant across human history. The physical and emotional features of characters in art and literature are manifestations of the creator’s perception on subjects such race and gender. The message that a creator seeks to deliver on a topic, determines how they will convey the thoughts,

Stereotypical gender roles have existed as long as human culture has, becoming a natural part of our lives. Nevertheless, images and depictions of what we perceive to be either masculine or feminine in appearance and behaviour depend on the individual's perception. 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 resulting in their dependence on men. The play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in the 1950s in New Orleans following World War II, this violent and dramatic play discusses the ongoing struggle between men and women within the American society. The author; Tennessee Williams illustrates this struggle within the usage of the main characters, Stanley and Stella Kowalski, Harold Mitchell and Blanche Dubois. Although gender equality has improved immensely as the decades bypass, certain labels still continue to remain for both genders. In this time period, Tennessee Williams illustrates the expected roles for both men and women, and how these roles influence

In the novel Hidden Figures, the characters face many challenges do to their race and gender. In the early to mid nineteen hundreds, Women working was quite unconventional exceptional if they were African American. Therefore when NACA and Langley decided to start hiring African women, as the United States was midst a war, it was a step into greater equality. Similar to these ideas, the play A Streetcar Named Desire deals with the ideas of women equality and the dominance men have on them. The themes of these novels are fairly alike however they are also extremely different. The theme of Hidden Figures is the problems of race and gender and the inequalities the characters face, comparably A Streetcar Named Desire, faces the theme of women's oppression.

The dawn of the twentieth century beheld changes in almost every aspect of the day-to-day lives of women, from the domestic domain to the public. By the midpoint of the twentieth century, women 's activities and concerns had been recognized by the society in previously male-dominating world. The end of the nineteenth century saw tremendous growth in the suffrage movement in England and the United States, with women struggling to attain political equality. However, this was not to last however, and by the fifties men had reassumed their more dominant role in society. Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire around the time this reversal was occurring in American society. In this play male dominance is clear. Women are represented as delicate, reserved, and silent, confined to a domestic world that isolated them from the harsh realities of the world. By analyzing the character of Stanley; a masculine and Stella; a symbol of femininity; and other characters of this play, readers can clearly see how male-dominated world it was.

Blanche has just lost her last chance to be stable financially, emotionally and physically. The reader can most likely relate on some level with a loss of something once loved. The most shocking parts of the play take place in the last few scenes when Stanley takes out the ultimate aggression and abuse of power on Blanche; he rapes her while her sister is in labor with his child. This is a very hard concept to grasp. How could Stanley be so evil?

Women during these time periods, despite their desire for equality, were still expected to stay in their “lane.” Blanche, upon arriving, veers sharply away from that lane, and it is Stanley who fights to put her back in her place. During “Poker Night” Blanche is a nuisance to Stanley. She plays the radio, takes a shower, and even steals Mitch from the game. In this instance Blanche breaks away from her prescribed gender role of subservience and disrupts “the man’s world.” However, this is instance of independence is nullified moments later. As she conversates with Mitch she once again shows her dependence on men. “Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear” (2321). Blanche oversexualizes herself in an effort to gain his approval and boost her self-esteem.

Gender roles and expectations have a lot of impacts on our society and it needs to be changed in order to create a better civilisation. Although our society has ameliorated tremendously in the past years, there are still some discriminatory actions among genders that are affecting someone 's life negatively. Any remaining differential between genders need to be changed for a better moral standard of living.

Blanche deals with many issues the loss of loved ones, the loss of the family estate, the inability to deal with reality, rejection from others, and the rape by Stanley. Blanche has also become independent and assertive which is not the typical norm of a southern woman. She has been forced into a world she is not prepared for. Because of this Blanche begins to live in her own world, her own little fantasy. She also uses alcohol and sexual promiscuity to escape from the loneliness she has endured since her husband’s death. Williams shows us through the way Blanche speaks to the paper boy;

A strong contrast and fight for dominance is evident between the sexes. Men, unfortunately, contain all the power and women struggle to grasps whatever control they can from their oppressors. Such a strife is a universal female plight and so it is referenced and can be observed through all types of media and publications, including in the theater. A play that focuses on such a conflict is A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Throughout the play, Stanley Kowalski presents himself as the domineering male figure and Blanche DuBois is the female protagonist who challenges his authority.

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) critiques society’s idea of strictly categorizing men and women into roles based upon gender. Williams starkly highlights the vast difference between these assigned gender roles and the resulting consequences of placing these unobtainable expectations on people. The main difference between the two socially conceived genders correlates with the amount of power each gender holds and, therefore, how each gender reacts to the opposite. The female gender should submit all power to males resulting in men being in complete control over women. Masculinity becomes associated with manipulation and control, implying and encouraging female frailty and weakness. Williams exhibits this balance between masculinity and

Later that same night when Stanley comes from the hospital, Blanche encounters the same type of brutality. Stanley rapes Blanche, assuming that she has slept with so many men in the past, one more would not matter. In actuality, Blanche's action in the first part of the play indicates that on first acquaintance, when Stanley was a stranger, she desired him or at least flirted with him. But Stanley was never able to understand the sensitivity behind Blanche's pretense. Even when Stella refers to Blanche as delicate, Stanley cries out in disbelief: "Some delicate piece she is." It is, then, Stanley's forced brutality which causes Blanche to crack up. The rape is Blanche's destruction as an individual. In all previous sexual encounters, Blanche