In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller and “A Streetcar named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, both authors analyze men and masculinity through their male protagonists. The male protagonists under analysis are Willy Loman 's, Harold Mitchell, and Stanley Kowalski. All of these males mistreat their women; this mistreatment is a result of several factors, such as alcoholism and the power struggle to maintain masculinity. Both Williams and Miller use devices such as imagery, symbolism, setting, musical indicators, stage directions setting and character to illustrate men and masculinity with the main protagonists and the relationship the named with their female partners. The play “Death of a Salesman” shows many examples of men and masculinity …show more content…
Willy says [nothing her mending] “what 's that?” Linda says “just mending my stockings. They’re so expensive” Willy says [angrily, taking them from her] “I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! Now throw them out”(Miller 26)! Willy got mad very quickly because he knew that he cheated on his wife; Willy had bought the woman some stockings, so when Linda said something about stockings, he went into a panic so he started yelling at her. In the play, it shows Willy is soft and insecure not just a crazy man. Biff, Willy’s son had caught his father cheating on his mother and that made him feel angry at his father. Willy did not know how his son felt; Willy says [directly to Biff] “what’re you doing? What’re you doing?” Biff says [crying, broken] “will you let me go, for Christ’s sake? Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?...to bed” Willy says “Isn’t that isn’t that remarkable? Biff he likes me”(Miller 106)! So, Willy felt like Biff hated him, but Biff did not hate him; he was just hurt. Being soft and insecure is also equal up to men and …show more content…
In “A Streetcar named Desire,” Stanley and Mitch as the faces of men and masculinity inside this play. Stanley is a sweet, intelligent, caring, and sometimes, violent. Stanley is a violent man when he is drunk. This scene is the poker night; Stanley is having a lot of friends and having a lot of drinks; He is already drunk. Blanche turns on the radio stanley says to Blanche “turn if off” (Williams 54). Then, the stage directions says [Stanley jumps up and, crossing to the radio, turns it off. He stops short at the sight of blanche in the chair… again at the poker table] (Williams 55). Stanley is getting a little violence here. Stella says “Drunk drunk animal thing, you!...decency in you” (Williams 62). He had slaps her in her face, when Stanley is in front of his friends he get out of hand. He asks different in front of his wife Stella. In the real world, when men hang out with their friends, they feel like they are the boss, so they start to show out to proof that they are man enough to put women in there place. Knowing that when they are around their wife’s they act so different because if their friends see how men act, they would think that he is a coward. When Stanley is with Stella, he is sober and he is sweet and caring to her. The stage directions says [...they stare at each other. Then they come together with low, animal moans. He falls to his knees on the steps and presses his face to her belly, curving a little with maternity...He snatches the screen door open and
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Show MoreCharacter Analysis: Stanley Kowalski It is often said that men want to dominate women. Stanley Kowalski is a great example of this. This is shown through his actions, and the things he says about women. In “A streetcar named desire” by Tennessee Williams, the reader is introduced to Stanley Kowalski.
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).
Stanley Kowalski is cruel to Blanche and Stella throughout the story. Stanley constantly abuses Stella, physically and verbally, throughout the story. Stanley is the most harsh towards Blanche. On top of constant verbal abuse, Stanley does the unthinkable. “She sinks to her knees.
When Stella’s sister Blanche visits she picks up on his character quickly comparing him to caveman with animal like behavior. Threaten by Blanche’s influence on Stella, Stanley acts out by breaking glasses and even striking Stella even though she is pregnant. At the beginning Stanley tosses Stella, a
In the play Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams he uses characterization frequently to help develop his characters. One character he does this a lot with is Stanley Kowalski. Tennessee develops Stanley as a crude person, and he does this in different ways that are both direct and indirect. Tennessee Williams helps develops Stanley’s character through his actions. One way he shows that is by the way he treats his Wife.
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.
Society looks down upon actions such as viewing others’ sexual features while you are already married, which makes the reader appalled by Stanley’s character and makes the reader feel an extreme hatred towards Stanley even before the action of the play has begun. This account of Stanley and his actions establishes him as the villain in the play, but, in any story, there is always a hero to contrast the villain. Typically, this hero is the exact opposite of the villain, and, in this play, although it may not be clearly defined, Blanche is set up by Williams in the beginning to be the hero. Williams does this by depicting her as the opposite of Stanley with her sense of propriety and class that is juxtaposed with the harsh environment of Stanley’s world (Williams 1119). Although the reader becomes aware that Blanche is not quite the hero that she was expected to be as they play progresses, the reader is always compelled to take Blanche’s side when injustices are brought upon her by Stanley due to Williams’ careful construction of Blanche and Stanley’s characters in the very beginning.
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.
Stanley is a blunt, practical, and animalistic man who has no patience for subtleties and refinement. His animalistic character shows the moment he meets Blanche, when he, moving with “animalistic joy” (24), “sizes” Blanche up with “sexual classifications” and “crude image” in his mind (25). Under his stare, Blanche draws “involuntarily back” (25), a movement that foreshadows their later conflict and her subsequent demise. His practical and straightforward side shows when he interrogates Blanche about the sale of Belle Reve to make sure that his wife is not swindled. His straightforward, practical nature makes him “boom” out of impatience (46) and demands Blanche to cut straight to the point when she tries to talk in an indirect, subtle manner as befit a Southern gentlewoman.
He desires a normal life with Stella, without Blanche in the picture. As told in A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, “After exposing all of Blanches shameful secrets and destroying her plans to marry Mitch, Stanley completes her violation and subjugation by raping her, which drives her to insanity” (A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Silvio). Stanley desires a normal life without Blanche so bad, that he completely broke her to get it. Stanley also wants to be desired.
The themes of violence and power in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ hold an important role in the criticism of 1940s American society. Conflicts perpetuated by violence and power, such as abusive relationships and violent oppression are projected through the characters within the play. Williams uses these conflicts to highlight his criticisms of faltering values and social norms, from the perspective of an individual constrained by the expectations of a strict, Southern society. To begin with, there is an indefinite violence between men and women within ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Stanley Kowalski, a focal character, is the epitome of male dominance and primitive aggression.
In Scene 10, she deviously claims that she has just received a telegram from the millionaire, Steph Huntleigh, to explain why she is dressed up. At first, Stanley plays along, but once Blanche musters up the audacity to say that Mitch returned to their apartment seeking repentance, Stanley draws the line. He calls her out for her fictitious tales of her past, and states, “We’ve had this date from the start,” just before he maliciously rapes Blanche. Their natures root in primal, animalistic instincts, Stanley like a dirty hog, open and free concerning his sexuality, Blanche like a fox, sly and deceitful. Despite her incessant attempts to destroy her past, Blanche is unable to stop their sexual connection as she has had so many other men.
Playwright Tennessee Williams once said “a symbol in a play has only one legitimate purpose which is to say a thing more directly and simply and beautifully than it could be said in words”. He seems to take his own advice to heart when writing such a thought provoking play as A Streetcar Named Desire. While Williams makes extensive use of symbols in Streetcar, the use of animals and animal-like characteristics as a symbol are constantly used to define Stanley Kowalski’s character and convey his desires as primal and ferine. Stanley has the first line in the play and is immediately characterized by Williams with the use of his stage direction “bellowing” (Williams 244; sc. 1). Like a wild animal, Stanley has a desire for unrefinement and
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.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play.