The Role of Women in America Around 1945

Blanche lives in a fantasy world where truth and logic are replaced by a fake humanity. At one point she says,

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

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”.

Blanche’s and Stella’s reliance on men and inability to support themselves are used to illustrate the subliminal pressure for women to follow society’s norms. Women without men are seen as weak, and those who break away from their rigid social classes are looked down upon. Since these social norms have been instilled into Blanche, she believes that she has to have a man fawn over her feet at all times. She realizes that she is aging and thus by engaging in sexual trysts with men, she thinks that she is still wanted and that she still has a place in society despite her current status. “After the death of Allan - intimacies with strangers was

Stella's marriage to Stanley, on the other hand, seems to have given her the happiness and fulfillment, which Blanche has attempted to find in a guilt-ridden life of loneliness with promiscuity. As a result Blanche has become neurotic and alcoholic, slipping increasingly into insanity. Stella, meanwhile, appears to have been thriving in a profane, coarse, but wholly satisfying sexual relationship with Stanley. Thus, superficially, the main contrast between Stella and Blanche seems to be one between sickness and health, perversity and normality, particularly in the sexual relationship. Stella is thriving; Blanche is disintegrating. But a closer examination of these sisters begins to show more complex differences in their characters and situations. Blanche is disintegrating for reasons other than sexual perversity, and Stella is paying a rather steep price for her so-called "normal" life with Stanley.

He likes to possess and control everything around him, he almost ‘owns’ Stella, and he has changed from her days at Belle Reve, pulling her “down off them columns and how [she] loved it”. But the arrival of Blanche, and her aristocratic ways annoys Stanley, as Stella begins to revert to her old ways. Blanche encourages her to stand up to him, and continually stresses the difference in their levels, although Stanley is not ashamed that he “was common as dirt”. Therefore, the only way that he can overcome Blanche and restore his authority is to beat her and triumph over her physically, which he eventually does. Although ironically, it is the effect of Stanley and his actions on her mind that finally provokes her downfall.

Stanley overhears these comments as they are ‘unaware of his presence’ (S4:pg.164*; and wants to dispose of Blanche to protect his marriage as Blanche has a hysterical determination to urge Stella to leave Stanley. Stanley refuses to accept Blanches’ conduct as she had no right to intervene and arbitrate as a guest in Stanley’s home supporting the idea that Stanley was preparing her downfall all along.

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.

Stella abandons Blanche in her time of need, partly responsible for Blanche’s struggles prior to the plays events. Struggles that played a role in Blanche's overall instabilities and insecurities. But why is Stanley the one that's ultimately responsible? Aside from verbally and physically abusing Blanche, He isolates Blanche from the people she loves, the only people she has left. He was the one who convinced Mitch to abandon Blanche by telling him about her past. “You're goddamn right I told him! I'd have that on my conscience the rest of my life if I knew all that stuff and let my best friend get caught!”(Williams,126) He is the one that silences Stella. He is aware of his power over Stella. He is the reason why Stella abandons Blanche. He manipulates Stella into forgiving him even when he abuses her. He makes sure she is dependent of him so she never leaves while also subtly attempting to persuade her into taking his side instead of Blanches. “Stella, it's gonna be all right after she goes and after you've had the baby. It's gonna be all right again between you and me the way that it was. You remember that way that it was?”.

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

Mitch says to Blanche and the end of scene six “You need somebody and I need somebody too. Could it be me and you, Blanche?” Explore the ways in which Williams presents and uses the relationship of Blanche and Mitch in the play as a whole.

As she sings this song, telling the story of her tendency to believe a more pleasant, warped view of reality over the actual reality, Stanley is telling Stella the horrifying truth about Blanche's scandalous past. These lyrics sum up Blanche’s approach to life. She believes that her lying is only her means of enjoying a better way of life and is therefore essentially harmless.

A very apparent character trait of Stanley is his love for his wife, Stella. In scene two, Stella and Stanley notice all the very nice things that Blanche has in her trunk. For Blanche being a poor girl, Stanley knows that she shouldn't have so many nice things. Stanley expresses his concern to Stella as he says, "It looks like you have been swindled, baby...". This shows that Stanley only wants for Stella what she deserves, and if Blanche is not sharing what money is also Stella's, then it upsets him.

bizarre, and an uncomfortable action to witness, and this only escalates when Stella is made to return and Blanche asks

A key theme in both texts is women’s reaction to male power, a man having a considerable degree of power over women is seen as the normality in A Streetcar Named Desire, and therefore it is not fought against. By comparison; the balance of power is challenged in Disgrace whereby Lucy, Melanie and Soraya are all making a living for themselves, without the aid of male protection. On the other hand, Melanie is a student, most likely supported by her father, a dominant male figure. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that men are seen as physically and mentally stronger than women in both of the texts. King Kimball observes that in Streetcar the man’s role as protector is only a way for a man to hide his greed, “paternalism mired in greed…”