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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CATAMARCA
FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
LICENCIATURA EN INGLS
Subject: Literatura de Habla Inglesa despus de la 2da Guerra
Mundial
Professor: Silvia Luca Fernndez
Student: Heber, Russo
University Registration number: 1537
Academic year: 2012
TP n 6
A streetcar named desire: Male and female relationships
A Street Car named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams is a
postmodernist
play which exposes the life of post-war American society and the
social differences
which have an important effect in the characters interrelations.
Social and domestic life
is depicted through the representation of two male characters,
Stanley Kowalski and
Mitch. The views about the opposite gender are also depicted
through Stanley and
Mitch who seem to have two different attitudes towards the
opposite gender.
Under the background of a poor neighbourhood in New Orleans
Kowalskis life and
relationship with Stella and Blanche start to emerge to reveal
his personality. Stanley is
depicted as a dominant male who tries to impose his decisions by
force and rudeness.
Unlike Stella, he is of humble origins, probably coming from an
immigrant polish family
whose educational background can be seen through his behaviour.
Stanley often treats
Stella in a rude way who, in spite of the fact that he is not an
affluent man, loves him
and refuses to leave him, accepting many of the features of his
harsh personality. The
intermingling of classes as a result of changing post-war
society can be observed
through Stanley and Stella whose economic situation is a
reflection of many people in
the fifties who tried suffered the effects of the transition of
a changing milieu.
Kowalskis behaviour is strongly criticized by Blanche, Stellas
sister who does not
agree with the way he treats her and his lifestyle, furthermore,
she constantly
encourages her to leave him and to look for someone more
suitable to her. Stanley
embodies the features of a man affected by the drastic social
changes which cause an
imbalance reflected on different aspects of his life. His
relation with Stella is the main
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sign of how his frustrations derive in sudden changes of mood
which his wife and his
life at home.
There is another male character who represents a fairly
different image from
Stanleys is Mitch who in spite of sharing some characteristics
with Kowalski, has amore sensitive personality and it is reflected
in his relationship with Blanche. Mitchs
perspectives about emotional life are also very different from
Stanleys; he gives the
impression of enjoying family life more than his counterpart
does.
A major trait in Blanche and Stella is that (they) are bound to
(there) his
husbands economically and emotionally. Both women at a certain
stand rely on their
husbands to achieve contentment. In the play they cannot obtain
economic stability
without mens support, in the case of Blanche through marriage
she is able to obtain a
respectful status and economic safety. Marriage in the case of
Blanche and Stella
becomes a symbiotic relationship since both women depend on
their men either
economically or emotionally. In either case the only way to
change the course of their
lives is by means of resorting to the opposite gender. This is
an aspect that reveals the
remains of an old social system which did not leave completely
behind old conceptions
about gender relationships.
Gender prejudices can also be observed through the relationship
between Mitch
and Blanche. Blanches promiscuous past has meant to her an
undesirable image
which at the long term brings trouble to her in his relationship
with Mitch. There are two
issues involved in the image Stanley and Mitch have about
Blanche. First, Stanley uses
her past in order to create an uncomfortable atmosphere around
her which has an
effect on theMitchs views about her. Second, it is the how
society prescripts the way
women should behave act that affect to a great extent the means
of achieving moral
and economic independence. She cannot attain honourwithout mens
approval of her
actions; therefore, it is a sign of the way men still regulate
society.
Williams shows aspects of society that were supposed to vanish
with an
emergent society in which values were supposed to have changed
because of the
appearance of new conceptions, however, the play shows how
deeply ingrained are
old conceptions and the effect that they still have in modern
societies.
