Sexual Closeting In A Streetcar Named Desire

Strength, lack of emotion, aggression, and confidence are some of the traits society has assigned to men. The play A Streetcar Named Desire uses its lead character to support and portray these traits. The play takes place in the late 1940’s, a time when men and masculinity played a significant role in both households and society. Stanley Kowalski, the leading male, displays the timely masculine qualities while also showing what affect masculinity can have on those around him. Stanley is strong willed and very opinionated, allowing him to treat both men and women in a disrespectful way.

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).

In Tennessee William’s’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, a major theme that is present is the desire to escape. In the play, Williams clearly tends to favor the real world of Stanley and Stella Kowalski, than the imaginary world of the unfortunate Blanche Dubois. He demonstrates that when the two worlds intersect, reality will smash the artificial world of illusion. The first evidence that proves Williams alliance with reality, is Blanche’s life before New Orleans, in Laurel. Blanche had fell in love and married a boy whom she thought of as perfect in every way.

A Street Car Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams, which slowly uncovers Blanche’s prior life. Her troubled past causes her a lot of trouble when she tries to start over. She used to work as a teacher in Mississippi, however, she was forced to leave after she was caught having an affair with one of the students. This was typical behavior for Blanche since she had previously taken many lovers. Since she had such a hard time in Mississippi, she decides to move to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her husband, Stanley, in hopes of escaping her past.

Everyone wants to live a life they do not have. Some people want to be rich, while others want to travel the world and never work a day in their lives. In order to live the lives they do not have, many people create their own fantasies. Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire demonstrates Blanche and Stella’s lives as a lie, leading each woman to come face to face with their own realities realizing they will never live the lives they wish to live.

301617- A Streetcar Named Desire Lying as well as deception is a common theme in A Streetcar Named Desire for the characters. There is Blanche, whom, because of her deception and lying which has played a bigger role on the other characters than she goes and realizes. Blanche stated in scene two of A Streetcar

In the novel Feminist Critique A Streetcar Named Desire setting takes place in a city of New Orleans “ a cosmopolitan city where is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old part of town”(3). In this play masculinity means aggression, control, physical dominance, and even violence. These traits general lack of refinement, manners, sensitivity, and attractive. On the contrary many feminist like men, think that women should be able to stay home, raise children, attentive to the husband's needs, unstable, and emotionally sensitive. In the play there are many characters playing a masculinity and femininity role, but I will mainly focus on Stella, Blanche, and Stanley because their way of thinking and actions are very similar

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.

In literature, the presence the outsider can be traced from ancient Greek dramas to modern literature, from Medea to the Underground Man. Most of the literary works pertaining to the outsider focus on the conflict between the outsider and the insider, conflicts that arise from the Otherness of the outsider. For example, in Jane Eyre, the Otherness of the titular protagonist—her fiery spirit and her subverting idea of equality based on individual merits rather than social status—leads to her alienation and conflicts with the insider wherever she goes. However, Tennessee Williams, in A Streetcar Named Desire, explored a different dynamic—namely the conflict between two outsiders, Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois. In the domestic sphere

The Past and Present Society and its values are always changing and shifting in American history. This is true for the pre-war and post-war eras of World War II. Before the war, America’s society was the conservative type which wanted to represent high culture and elite status. After the war, however, the values which society once held close, were not important to people anymore. In 1947, only two short years after World War II, Tennessee Williams wrote the play, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” to highlight how the shift in time brought change in society.

“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.

The Second phase begins at the poker night game, at the night that Stanley drinks excessively and loses control by striking his pregnant wife. While the third phase was after Blanche’s departure to the mental hospital ( Walker 85). Stanley shows his love towards his wife by telling her “ Now , honey. Now , love. Now , now ,love ” (Williams 142).

Tennessee Williams wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Williams, 1947) It is based in New Orleans a new cosmopolitan city which is poor but has raffish charm. The past is representing old south in America 1900’s and present is representing new America post world war 2 in 1940’s. Past and present are intertwined throughout the play in the characters Stanley, Blanche, Stella and mitch. Gender roles show that males are the dominant and rule the house which Stanley is prime example as he brings home food and we learn of one time when he got cross and he smashed the light bulbs.

Examining Marriage in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee William’s 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in Elysian Fields, New Orleans, and portrays the marital situation of this time. This play illustrates conflict over the marriage of Stella and Stanley. This marriage can be seen as strict, and controlling but also full of lust.

The Role of Fantasy and Purpose in Individuals “I don’t want realism, I want magic”- Blanche DuBois (Williams 145). In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams presents readers with the acute presence of fantasy in individuals’ lives. Every character fabricates fantasies in his life to gloss over his struggles and forget each other 's flaws. A Streetcar Named Desire evaluates individual’s use of fantasy as a crutch to avoid the hard truths and give purpose to an empty life. Blanche DuBois, the protagonist of the story, uses fantasy to cope with her world crumbling around her.