Theme of Tennessee Williams’ plays Essay

A Streetcar Named Desire conforms to the outlook that a major subject of Williams’ dramas is that of human gender. Assorted facets of human gender are explored through the diverseness and complexness of the characters. Whilst Stanley Kowalski epitomises maleness through his cardinal strength and power. and the progressively delicate Blanche DuBois efforts to cleaving to the feminine function of the Southern Belle. these are merely facets of their characters. The fact that their relationship is one of struggle. is representative of their worldviews. However. to cut down A Streetcar Named Desire to the degree of mere ‘battle of the sexes’ would be excessively simplistic and does the drama an unfairness by taking to disregard its complexnesss.

Superficially. at least. Blanche DuBois conforms to predominating constructs of gender wherein she adopts features that are seen to typify muliebrity. Such traits are conceived as representing feminine behavior. and include features such as passiveness. acquiescence and emotionalism. Whilst these traits are surely apparent in Blanche DuBois. she is. of class. a far more complex character than such simplification would first suggest and. hence. can non be so easy labeled. It would be possibly more accurate to see Blanche in visible radiation of Judith Butler’s suggestion that “gender is something that we ‘do’ “ ( Selden. 116 ) .

This construct more accurately encapsulates the sense that Blanche chooses to follow a function of muliebrity. efficaciously playing a portion by conforming to a stereotyped function. in this instance. that of the Southern Belle. The acceptance of this function provides Blanche with a comparatively stable sense of individuality. or at least an facet of individuality. necessary for her ain self-preservation. As with Amanda Wingfield. in The Glass Menagerie. Blanche DuBois seems to fight in a changing universe and by following an facet of individuality that is associated with the yesteryear. she is able to happen at least impermanent comfort.

From our earliest brush with Blanche. we are made rapidly cognizant of her preoccupation with ‘appearance’ . Initially this focuses on the visual aspect of Stella’s place. “this atrocious place” ( 120 ) . which compares so negatively when contrasted with the hereditary place of Belle Reve. However. Blanche’s existent preoccupation shortly becomes apparent as she chides Stella for neglecting to state a word about her visual aspect ( 122 ) :

You see I still have that atrocious amour propre about my expressions even now that my expressions are stealing! ( 123 ) .

The fact that she ‘laughs nervously’ whilst looking to Stella for ‘reassurance’ indicates Blanche’s insecurity. All that has been familiar in Blanche’s universe has changed. and now that age is altering her personal visual aspect. her insecurities are heightened. However. the duologue between the sisters evokes a sense of ritual wherein Blanche seeks blessing and Stella responds “dutifully” ( 123 ) proposing that Blanche’s insecurities are deep rooted and predate the coming of age. As Stella instructs Stanley:

…admire her frock and state her she’s looking fantastic. That’s of import with Blanche. Her small failing! ( 132 ) .

This is a changeless motive throughout the drama and Blanche’s ‘little weakness’ reflects the fact that her sense of self-identity demands changeless bolstering. particularly now that her young person has passed by. It besides reinforces the impression of Blanche as following a function and the necessity. as with any act. for an audience. sooner a sympathetic 1. For Blanche an audience is necessary to enable her to perpetuate her constructed self-image. Regards and changeless reassurance are required to keep the function she has adopted ; it is hence necessary for her ‘audience’ to invariably appreciate her ‘performance’ .

When sing Blanche’s behavior with others. we find that she is most despairing to affect her male audience. and it is at such times that she feels the demand to trust to a great extent on her female gender. Indeed. the character that she has adopted is aimed at pulling male attending instead than female understanding. This becomes evident through a conversation with Stella wherein Blanche describes her treatment with Stanley sing the destiny of Belle Reve:

I feel a spot rickety. but I think I handled it nicely. I laughed and treated it all as a gag. called him a small male child and laughed – and flirted! Yes – I was chat uping with your hubby Stella! ( 141 ) .

Blanche seems unable. or at least unwilling. to ignore this character when covering with work forces. Such behavior has become accustomed. a fact that becomes progressively obvious in her relationship with Mitch. After a day of the month together. and despite the fact that Blanche did non bask the eventide. she still behaves in a mode in which she believes she is obliged to make. As she explains:

I was merely obeying the jurisprudence of nature…

The 1 that says the lady must entertain the gentleman – or no die! ( 175 ) .

Blanche surely understands how to utilize her gender. but she is non driven by her gender in the sense of passion and desire. Blanche wants her relationship with Mitch to work. non because she wants him per Se. but because of what such an result would stand for. The chance of such a relationship is viewed as an flight from her present fortunes where she considers herself to be a load. A successful relationship will give Blanche the chance to “rest” and “to breathe softly once more! ” ( 171 ) . Such pick of linguistic communication clearly indicates the strain involved in go oning her parody. and goes some manner to explicate her trust on intoxicant for a impermanent sense of flight.

Of class. in order to follow the function of Southern Belle convincingly. semblance becomes a necessary factor. Blanche is content in the illusive universe that she creates where she can try to recover her passing young person. going person that she feels she should be. Illusion is besides necessary in that it offers an flight from her sexually promiscuous yesteryear. whilst dissembling the truth of the yesteryear from her household and Mitch. However. Blanche seems to accept her past behavior as inevitable sing the outlooks of work forces:

Peoples don’t see you – work forces don’t – don’t even acknowledge your being unless they are doing love to you. And you’ve got to hold your being admitted
by person. if you’re traveling to hold someone’s protection ( 169 ) .

The fact that Blanche equates ‘people’ with ‘men’ high spots the fact that she feels really much a portion of a patriarchal society. where work forces evidently hold the power and do the judgements. Ironically. but non out of the blue. such a society is hypocritical in its position of Blanche as it in private condones. so enables. Blanche’s sexually promiscuous behavior whilst publically reprobating it. Blanche’s determinations appear to hold been chiefly driven by her desire for ‘protection’ . whilst her upbringing and her place as a adult female in a patriarchal society. nurtures a trust on work forces.

In this instance. the outlook is that a adult male will ‘rescue’ her. Of class. she experiences merely changing grades of failure in trying to get away from the state of affairss she finds herself in. Yet. despite this. it is still male blessing that Blanche seeks. Blanche retains the hope that by going portion of the semblance. by emulating antique values. that she will pull Mitch and hence the ‘protected’ life of breeding and kindness that she so longs for.

I have suggested that an illusive universe is a infinite for Blanche to live over her passing young person. and we find that in order to make so she uses darkness to reinvent herself as immature and guiltless. Blanche lies to Mitch about her age. stating him that Stella “is slightly older” ( 150 ) than herself. when Blanche is in fact at least five old ages older than Stella. Blanche adorns the bare light bulb in the flat with Chinese lanterns ( 150 ) to debar the rough visible radiation of truth. as it were. from the possibility of being discovered as older than she has suggested. We learn from Mitch that Blanche refuses to run into him until “after six and so it’s ever some topographic point that’s non lighted much” ( 203 ) .

Blanche finds the dark ‘comforting’ ( 203 ) . as she prefers to reject pragmatism in hunt of ‘magic’ ( 204 ) . The character she feels is necessary to pull Mitch is besides necessary for her ain interest as she allows herself to experience immature and unscarred once more. Her wont of taking baths is symbolic in this respect. The long baths are efforts to rinse away the yesteryear. whilst they besides represent an effort at some sort of religious cleansing wherein Blanche ever announces after a bath that she feels like “a bran-new human being! ” ( 135 ) . Yet. the fact that she keeps returning to the bath leads to the decision that this semblance does non last really long.

Whereas Blanche adopts a sexual character. Stanley. and to some extent Stella. are driven by their gender. Their relationship is often portrayed as cardinal and animalistic. their babe is cogent evidence of Stanley’s virility and Stella’s birthrate ; an avowal of an intensely passionate relationship. This is at odds with the genteel outlooks of the Old South. the universe that Blanche represents. Of class. Blanche has besides strayed from the values expected. nevertheless. her sexual relationships are a agency to an terminal. she is non sexually driven and does non see the sense of passion and desire apparent in Stella who finds it intolerable to be apart from Stanley:

I can barely stand it when he is off for a night…

When he’s off for a hebdomad I about go wild! ( 125 ) .

Stella has chosen a life built on a powerful sexual relationship which makes “everything else seem – unimportant” ( 162 ) . With this belief she deems ‘unimportant’ the fact that Stanley beats her. she forgives him and to repeat the physical bond between the two. they seem to hold no demand for words. alternatively they “come together with low animate being moans” ( 154 ) . Their relationship seems to typify life through the regenerative powers of desire and reproduction. in contrast to Blanche’s sexual relationships with work forces as disempowering and finally destructive.

Stanley plays the function of the ‘Alpha’ male. evident in his demand to rule. This is evident from the first fire hook game where Stanley seeks to rule the ‘group’ of both work forces and adult females. When he is disobeyed. he reacts violently. the force intensifying as events advancement. During the fire hook game. Blanche defies Stanley by turning on the wireless ; his reaction evokes images of animalistic behavior as he is described as still hunt:

…fiercely through the portieres into the sleeping room. He crosses to the little white wireless and bits it off the tabular array. With a yelled curse. he tosses the instrument out of the window ( 151 ) .

When Stella admonishes him for his behavior he physically attacks her. a premonition of the intervention that Blanche will finally have from Stanley. There is surely a sense of inevitableness in the concluding force that Blanche experiences at the custodies of Stanley. as he tells her. “we’ve had this day of the month with each other from the beginning! ” ( 215 ) . Blanche has been a consistent menace to Stanley’s authorization. particularly in respect to Stella.

Stanley is the self-appointed King. ( 195 ) grounds of his sense of male laterality. a unafraid place that has been undermined by Blanche who is seen as adversely act uponing Stella’s sentiment about her hubby. Stella appears to hold become influenced by Blanche’s perceptual experience of Stanley as uncouth and animalistic. and this becomes evident in the linguistic communication she uses to warn Stanley. He responds:

Don’t of all time talk that manner to me! ‘Pig – Polack – gross outing – vulgar – greasy! ’ – Them sort of words have been on your lingua and on your sister’s lingua excessively much around here! ” ( 194 ) .

But Stella is finally complicit in Blanche’s devastation as she chooses Stanley over her sister. despite the fact that she is cognizant of the force that Stanley is capable of. Stella chooses to believe Stanley. utilizing semblance merely as Blanche has done. because she “couldn’t believe her narrative and travel on life with Stanley” ( 217 ) .

Another facet of gender that plays a important function. is the gender of Blanche’s immature. dead hubby. It is clear that Blanche is haunted by the find of his homosexualism and the ensuing guilt that she feels sing his self-destruction. Beyond this nevertheless. it is clear that the find of her husband’s gender caused irreparable to Blanche’s sense of individuality. Stella describes Blanche’s attitude toward Allan:

I think Blanche didn’t merely love him but worshipped the land he walked on! Adored him and thought him about excessively all right to be human! ( 190 ) .

It is clear that Blanche was left lost and isolated by Allan’s decease. and she admits that she searched for comfort by kiping with work forces:

…intimacies with aliens was all I seemed able to make full my empty bosom with…I think it was panic. merely terror. that drove me from one to another. hunting for some protection…” ( 205 ) .

However. the strictly sexual relationship does non offer the kindness. comfort and protection that Blanche is so dying to happen. Her form of behavior becomes a barbarous rhythm ; as Blanche becomes more and more despairing to exorcize memories of Allan. she adopts progressively inappropriate ways of acting therefore adding to the memories that she is trying to exorcize. Although Blanche’s ‘intimacies with strangers’ do non supply emotional fulfilment. they do supply the male attending that she craves in order long pillow her sense of individuality as an attractive adult female. It is dry that Blanche views the old love letters and verse forms that Allan wrote for her as her most cherished ownerships:

Everyone has something her won’t Lashkar-e-Taiba others touch because of their – intimate nature ( 139 ) .

The verse form and the emotional relationship that they represent are far more intimate than the physical relationships Blanche has had with other work forces. The fact that Blanche has a penchant for immature work forces. conforms to her usage of semblance where she seeks to animate. to re-experience. the idealized relationship which she has so urgently longed for. Her inappropriate relationship with a 17 twelvemonth old pupil. the relationships with immature soldiers at Belle Reve. and even in New Orleans we gain a fugitive glimpse of this behavior with the ‘young man’ from the Evening Star ( 172 ) . whom she kisses and reluctantly dismisses:

Run along now! It would be nice to maintain you. but I’ve got to be good and maintain my custodies off kids ( 174 ) .

Guilt hangouts Blanche as does the “rapid. hectic polka melody. the ‘Varsouviana’ “ ( 200 ) . which merely fades after the concluding gunfire has been heard. Just as Blanche’s “expression of disgust” destroyed Allan. it is Stanley’s disgust at the parody that Blanche has been playing. that finally destroys her. The events of scene 10. where Stanley rapes Blanche. are accompanied by the sound of “inhuman jungle noises” which rise up ( 215 ) “like calls in a jungle” ( 213 ) . This parallels the primal. animalistic image that has been built of Stanley. and the outlook that he will respond violently to anyone that he feels is a menace.

It has been said of Williams that his dramas seek to capture “the truth of human experience” ( Bigsby. 36 ) . Indeed. A Streetcar Named Desire conforms to this position in every bit much as the characters are far more than stereotypes but instead complex characters that are influenced by. driven by and destroyed by facets of human gender.

Bibliography

Williams. Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. in A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays. erectile dysfunction. E. Martin Browne. St. Ives. 1987.

Bigsby. C W E. Modern American Drama 1945-1990. Cambridge. 1992.

Selden. R. Contemporary Literary Theory. Prentice Hall. 1997.