Women in A Streetcar Named Desire: Feminist Critique
The play A Streetcar Named Desire, considered as one of the finest work of Tennessee Williams. Like any other traditional plays the presentation of women in the play are of submissive characters, dependent and controlled by men. The female characters projected from the lens of male point of view through which society likes to comment or judge on a woman. The purpose of this paper is to show how patriarchy domination of female characters and marginalized characters subordinated to the secondary position through feminist criticism. The paper will try to give the women a voice and space. Moreover, it will give them the platform or the spotlight, previously given to the men in the text. The analysis will present the idea of feminist by Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowalski that men and women are equal and their individuality be valued by the society who always holds them back and makes them inferior physically and mentally. In addition to exploring the themes of feminism and patriarchy in A Streetcar Named Desire, this feminist essay will delve into the societal and historical context in which the play was written.
Feminism is a variety of political, social movements and ideologies that share a common goal or motive and that is to establish, and achieve and maintain the political, economic, personal, professional, social equality of the sexes. It also includes the idea that society gives importance to male and view the world through their lens, and how women treated unfairly everywhere. Feminist theory focuses to understand gender inequality and emphasis on the issues like gender politics, body politics, etc. Not only has it provided a critique of these social and political issues, but it also emphasized on the topic of upgrading women's rights and interests. Other themes talked about in feminist theory are discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, and patriarchy. Feminist criticism is a character of literary criticism that stands on feminist theory. It mainly comments on the male dominated literature by using feminist principles. It shows how stereotypical and misogynist literary works can be towards women and it even addresses how the men in the texts are glorified and prioritized.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams does make Blanche DuBois as one of the prominent characters but throughout the book, it speaks how certain characteristics highlights the male characters demeaning the women characters. It speaks how the term sexuality, observed differently for male and female. It speaks how Stanley being a womanizer and flag barrier of domestic violence in the end wins over Blanche through the most horrible act as rape. On the other hand, Blanche, the one who ends up in a mental asylum by her sister gets totally an opposite transformation in her life. In this play, Williams presented women as powerless, weak and someone whose only alternative in such a patriarchal society is to find a suitable partner, get married and settle down. Both the sisters, Blanche and Stella were married, but their choices of partners were not suitable. Blanche married a man whom she loved more than anyone else in this world, but later discovered that he was a homosexual man. When he committed suicide, it left her guilty and traumatized for her entire life. Stella, on the other hand, married a man who was inferior to her socially, but who was epitome of arrogance, aggressiveness and physical violence, abusing her physically and leaving her voiceless. Blanche DuBois a lonely, depressed, and mind-distorted southern female. Born and brought up in South, living a luxurious and poised lifestyle but still the self-contained South was a personification of patriarchal society. Simone de Beauvoir writes in her book The second sex, “males don’t interpret females according to females themselves, whereas they regard females as independent ones… males can be taken as the reference to define and distinguish females, while the reference to define and distinguish males cannot be females. ‘She’ is the Essential in opposition of the Inessential. ‘He’ is the subject and the Absolute, whereas ‘she’ is the Other”. Here, be seen that, male domination at its highest peak making females considered as the “other”. It, be seen that a relationship of subordination and dominance, the essential and inessential, and the other and self between males and females are prominent. Therefore, in patriarchal society, male’s position is positive and females play a passive and inessential role. In the text, the rivalry between Blanche and Stanley shows that whether it is South or North men are assumed the center of the society control money, power and even women. They form their own standards to evaluate women and power. Women live a life totally depending on them, both economically and mentally. Moreover, there is tendency toward the idealism, romanticism that women have to be beautiful, appear beautifully, and behave graciously, these traits were visible in Blanche as she dressed and prepared herself with all the luxurious accessories of her. However, if examined properly, they were the happiness left in Blanche’s traumatized life. Not only that, as a rich Southerner, brought up in comfort and luxury it was the only lifestyle familiar to her. Nevertheless, society has locked up a woman and created concept towards her based on appearing beautifully and behaving graciously. Moreover, failing in matching up the criteria would provide them the tag of a fallen woman. Though Blanche was someone, who excelled in both of the traits but due to ideology differences with Stanley made her a rival of Stanley. Both of them were different but one aspect was common which was in any condition holding up to their ideologies and winning in it.
When the play started, Blanche already tagged as a fallen woman. Blanche always had escaped the reality because it was too much harsh for her. Her husband Allan, the love of his life death gave her trauma for lifetime. Moreover, in order to relax her she seeks few ways such as hot baths for 3-4 times a day, always concern about dresses and head wears which is also a part of her Southern upbringing. When it came to sexuality and desires Stanley as a male figure always got away being a womanizer but the story is different for female figures. Blanche after her husband’s death engaged with men, which made her a controversial figure. Women not expected to have physical desires even on their own or else the society would disgrace her. Addition to that even the same men who enjoyed quality time with her in a room some time ago would intentionally fail to recognize her or would not even bother about her. Her sexual acts raised questions and pointed finger at her whereas Stanley being a womanizer, rapist and a cheater never received those tags. Now, the question rises was this because he was a man belonged to a patriarchal world, which seems to overlook the faults of its men. Alternatively, was this because as expected Blanche was not behaving gracefully? By behaving gracefully, the patriarchal world always meant to be dominating upon women and women being calm, polite and in under controlled by men. The concept that sexual freedom only given to men gave the society an idea that any women trying to be in that position deserves to be shamed in front of the world.
However, the victim of the text was Blanche but her sister Stella too faced domestic violence from her husband Stanley. Koprince in her essay stated that, “until the 1970s the problem of domestic violence was virtually ignored in American society. Wife-beating was considered a “family matter” rather than a crime or a serious issue. Women were typically expected to deal with the problem themselves, to keep it behind closed doors”. Men always had this idea that raising hands on their wives or any other female as their birthright. They think of it as an achievement to their manliness. Because they consider their wives as properties, which they take for granted, but at the end when it comes to physical desires or any other desires they return to their wives as if nothing happened. Stanley Kowalski in the text, the epitome of masculinity, specifically toxic masculinity was not someone just a charming, hardworking man who have outburst on few occasions. Rather he was a vicious man, someone who was fond of violence, aggression and had desire for control over people, which made him an excellent example of an abuser. On the other hand, Williams portrayed Stella as a typical wife who was submissive and weak, tolerates, and excuses her husband’s behaviour in the name of “love”. It seemed like a cycle of domestic abuse, which had no end. This also helps to understand Stanley’s most horrible and brutal act in the play: the rape of Blanche DuBois. Here, fingers pointed on the typical unequal gender roles between the Kowalski family members where the husband, the abuser and show off so-called masculinity and DuBois sisters, the female characters victimized. There was no doubt that a man like Stanley liked to show his masculinity through aggressive behaviours to commit to his manliness. As stated before that only for physical desires they would come back to their partners, so that they could fulfill their desires whereas the women thought of it as their love and affection. Women are objects to them to devour. In Act 1 Scene 3, Stanley angrily rushed towards Stella to raise his hand on her after the radio incident with Blanche. Stella was pregnant and before he could have committed anything terrible, his friends cooled him down. The next morning, everything was normal as if nothing happened last night. Blanche was shocked at the behaviour of her sister but Stella made her understand that he was under the influence of drinks and poker and he somehow outburst. The whole scene shows how the wives always overlook the faults of their husband like a typical one.
After the rape incident, expected of Stella to be in her sister’s side but rather he was on her husband’s side. She decided to send her sister into a mental asylum, which would ease away the complications at her household. This shows Stella as a passive woman who depended completely upon her husband for him to control and arrange. She has no voice, no identity of her own. Stanley’s raping of Blanche not only was a crime and sin towards her but also towards Stella, it was an act of cheating on his wife. However, shockingly she accepts everything wrong and submits to his husband. Both the sisters were struggling but at least unlike Stella, Blanche tried in her own ways to live her life and overcome those struggles. Stella also escaping like Blanche from the reality, from the responsibilities and end up being a doll trophy wife for Stanley present. The only way to defend her decision was thinking that as she was having a baby she needed support mentally and financially from her husband. She had a roof over head and husband who provided which was important to her at that time even more than her sister was. She was practical, realistic minded who thought of making peace with Stanley, and get rid of Blanche to reduce complexity. Blanche staying at her house might remind what happened between her and Stanley but considering all the aspects though it was practical it was not ethical. She compromised her own morality by taking decisions, which wronged her and her sister too. It shows how reasonable but how weak a female character be written who was given no intelligence and a voice even when the culprit was standing right in front of her. On the other hand, Stanley had given the upper hand on Blanche with whom he had a war from the beginning. He not only questioned Blanche’s sexual behaviours but also at the end used sex as a weapon to destroy her. From the beginning, due to backgrounds and ideologies both had tensions between them. He wanted to break Blanche on her knees, surrendered to him because as a dominating and sexist man he could accept to lose to a woman. However, Blanche was strong enough to shield herself from Stanley’s blows; at the end, sexual imposition not only destroyed her physically but also mentally and psychologically. At last, he had the ultimate win over her, which he desired from the start.
On conclusion, these women presented as victims, attempted to survive in a male-dominated society since the male characters portrayed as strong and dominant in contrast to the female. They have either to accept physical abuse and bad treatment or face a fate similar to Blanche. Feminist perspective makes clears it for the reader to understand that how the authors has placed the women aside from being a major part in the text, whereas they can contribute and flourish as much as men do. However, it has put attention to the male-dominating society more and the portrayal was not enough in utilizing the female characters in a positive and effective way.
Works Cited
- Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Vintage Classic, 2015.
- Koprince, Susan. 'Domestic Violence in A Streetcar Named Desire.' Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (2009).
