The Role Of Rape In A Streetcar Named Desire

Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has

As the reader reaches the end of the story, the need for a completion of the characters and who they are is imperative to the final understanding of A Streetcar Named Desire. Despite Blanche’s desperate attempts to sell her story, the qualities that she described herself as having that appealed to mean—“beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart”—remained largly unconfirmed due to her unreliable narrative and Stanley’s interferience (source). As Blanche’s attempt at a story of herself fails, the story of Stanley prevails and reaches a frightening conclusion. No matter how offensive and repugnant it is, the inevitability of the rape is the inescapable end to Stanley’s story. While Stanley has managed to blow holes

The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who goes to live with her sister after she loses her home in Mississippi. Between the hardships of her previous life and the way she is treated now, she is not in a good way by the time the play ends. She basically has a mental breakdown. There are three stages of Blanche’s mental state. She lives in a fantasy, Mitch rejecting her, and Stanley raping her, Blanche is mentally unstable by the end of this ply.

The role of women in the 1950 was seen to be repressive and constrictive in many ways. Society placed high importance and many expectations for these women on behavior at home as well as in public. Women were supposed to fulfil certain roles, such as a caring mother, a diligent homemaker, and an obedient wife. The perfect mother was supposed to stay home and nurture so society would accept them. In fact, even if a woman wanted to voice an opinion, her lack of education would not allow it . The play A Streetcar Named Desire is set during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s period where it describes the decline of a fading Southern belle named Blanche DuBois. The women in this play are represented to be dependent and submissive in nature and in addition they are also seen to be manipulative. However, Williams has also portrayed these women to be independent and taking control of the situation. This can be seen through the use of the main characters

In America, rape has been around since the 1800’s. Rape culture in the U.S. started with white men raping black women during slavery and unfortunately it was allowed. When black women were raped, they wouldn’t consider it a crime because it was the norm. According to the article, “History of the Rape Crisis Movement” written by Gillian Greensite, “White men would get in groups and rape black women.” African American women had no rights and therefore no voice to protest these action until 1866, when a group of African American women finally spoke out about being raped during a memphis riot by a gang of white men. (Sniffen)

A Streetcar Named Desire is a socially challenging play in light of the way in which Tennessee Williams depicts the capacity of human nature for brutality and deceit.  He takes the viewpoint that, no matter how structured or 'civilized' society is, all people will rely on their natural animal instincts, such as dominance and deception, to get themselves out of trouble at some stage in life.  William's has created three main characters, Blanche Dubois, Stella Kowalski and Stanley Kowalski. Each of these characters is equally as civilized as the next, yet all are guilty of acts of savagery on different levels.  Throughout the play Williams symbolically relates these three characters to animals, 'savages,' through the disclosure of

The setting of the play is limited to the Kowalskis’ apartment and the street directly outside. Williams' play certainly has unity of place; the entire drama takes place in the French Quarter in New Orleans. This unity of place helps to create the conflict between Stanley and Blanche as a fight for territorial dominance because she is an intruder in his home, bringing values and ideas that he hates. The setting is significant as it helps the audience to realize the conflict between Blanche and Stanley. The bed is a central feature in the setting of the play and the bathroom functions as a place of refuge for Blanche (O'Shea 11).

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most renowned 20th century American plays and films. The playwright is Tennessee Williams, a respected author whose works artistic and structural merit warrants their study into the 21st century. There are numerous aspects and points Williams makes with his works, including "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of the richness this text offers, this paper will focus upon issues of mental illness and abuse in the play. No doubt an aspect that makes Williams' characters so vivid are their flaws, weaknesses, and desires. Where a person's character lacks weakness and what a person desires reveal a great deal about that person and provide insight into the choices they make. The paper will discuss aspects of abuse and mental instability in the characters and plot of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and will reference the play directly to underscore any points.

In the beginning of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche first arrives from Laurel Missouri and immediately becomes the antagonist. As the play goes on Stanley starts to go against Blanche. At the end of the play Blanche becomes the victim. In the end, Stanley sent Blanche off to a mental asylum. This plays demonstrates domestic violence. In the beginning of the play A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams shows how society accepted it and ignored it.Stanley, one of the characters in the play, found domestic violence to be a positive and very sexual part of him and his wife, Stella's, relationship. Throughout the play, Williams shows that he believes that it is wrong.

In Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” madness continues to get progressively worse in the lives of the main characters Stanly, Stella, and Blanche. Because of low self esteem and her delusional thought process Blanche is most affected by the madness. Blanche’s delusional life style leads her to compulsively lie, live a promiscuous life style, and alcoholism. Blanche tries constantly to deal with her own madness, but her delusional mental state is constantly effect by the people around her. Although she causes most of the problems in her life some of her madness is justifiable. By the end of the play Blanche can no longer fight off the madness and is sent to an insane asylum. Even though most of the madness that occurs

A tragic hero in literature is a type of character who has fallen from grace, where the downfall suggests feelings of misfortune and distress among the audience. The tragic flaw of the hero leads to their demise or downfall that in turn brings a tragic end. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” The characteristics of a tragic hero described by Aristotle are hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis and catharsis which allows the audience to have a catharsis of arousing feelings.

Rape has been an ongoing issue within society for centuries. In early times, men raped women for reproductive purposes. Today, it is still believed

Feminist scholarship has argued that rape ideology encourages and justifies sexual coercion, trivializes sexual violence and demeans and devalues women who have experienced sexual assault. The foundation of this argument is based on women's experiences in patriarchal societies. Due to the fact that

Even today the word “feminism” still has a bitter taste to it. Though it basically just means equality between men and women (feminine) still many people refuse to label themselves with it. Some even fail to recognize the problem in the first place since they are not directly affected by it. But for every dollar a man earns a woman still only get between fifty- five and eighty cents (Tyson 85), the phrase “you throw like a girl” is still an insult and while it is fine for a women to dress in men clothes a man in women clothes is often shunned and ridiculed. My personal explanation for this is that our society thinks that it is degrading for a man to be female. It often still seems that our society thinks that women’s sole purpose is to please

     Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.