A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams - Research Paper Example

Research Paper- Play- A Streetcar Named Desire INTRODUCTION A number of careful investigations and examinations have revealed the complexities in the play regarding the characters and their role in the play. Nevertheless, playwright Tennessee Williams has attempted to reveal the reactions made by the characters in terms of their words and actions in more realistic manner, but complexities associated with the character models, themes music and set of the play can be apparent throughput the play (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003”). Blanche, who played as the key character in “A Streetcar Named Desire” has been observed to face numerous obstacles and challenges due to the fierce and dominant roles of the male characters, especially Stanley and the male-centric society. Throughout an in-depth understanding of the masculinity is being portrayed as the unwavering and most dominant gender by playwright Williams. THESIS STATEMENT The research paper explores an in-depth understanding about the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” and describes about how this play reflects the relationship between sex, death and desire. Moreover, the paper also tends to critically explore why desires are often considered destroying people’s mind. In order to critically address the defined aims of the paper, the discussion includes strong claims of the play supporting by play review, dialogues and quotes in the context of conventional feminist theory and model. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE PLAY IN RESPOND TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEX, DEATH AND DESIRE The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” has been critically observed to build a strong relationship between humanity characteristics such as sex, death, and desires. According to an in-depth understanding of the play, the characters, dialogues, and situations reflect a clear understanding about the human feelings along with desires over various individual goals. The fear of death of Blanche’s manifests her fear of losing beauty and aging. She often concealed actual age of her and would appear in light that would hide her faded color. In the play, Blanche seems to believe that through repeatedly emphasizing her sexuality especially with the men younger than herself can only enable to get back her teenage bliss and avoid death. With this regard, it can be claimed that the playwright in “A Streetcar Named Desire” has controversially highlighted the reflection of feelings of a women. However, in the initial chunk of the play, Williams clearly suggests the sexual history of Blanche is the prominent factor leading to her downfall. The lifelong pursuit regarding her sexual desire has also led her to banish relationship with others. Moreover, the sexual desires of Blanche also lead to her leave her hometown Laurel and finally at the end of the play, in pursuit to remain as teenage bliss she experiences social isolation (Thomieres, “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars”). In addition, the play also depicts that the sexual history of Blanche is also a major factor resulting of death for other characters in the play as well. Throughout the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche has been observed to undergo haunted situation due to the death of her precursor, which she attributes to their “epic fornication.” Furthermore, the suicide of her husband also results from her disapproval regarding his desire of homosexuality. In this regard, the message that can be obtained in this situation firmly reflects desire of an individual in the form of unrestricted promiscuity, which often leads to involuntary departures of an individual (Thomieres, “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars”) The scene nine of the play can also be regarded as a major reflection, which provides a major understanding that the works made by Williams accustomed by a blend of sex, death and desires. According to the scene nine of the play, Blanche reacts with dreadfulness as the Mexican woman selling “flowers for the dead” prophesied about her fate. During this scene, a madness feeling has been clearly recognized, which can be reflected with bringing out the flaws such as her inability to meet her sexual desire and desperate horror regarding human mortality. The message obtained from the ninth scene of the play reflects a clear understanding that “A Streetcar Named Desire” involves a closure view of the relationship among the three elements including sex, death and desire (Thomieres, “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars”). CLAIMING REFLECTION OF THE PLAY IN A FEMINIST THEORY Feminist Literary Criticism. With reference to a theoretical perspective, term feminism has been observed to change the way through which the literary works are structured, taught and/or evaluated. In order to obtain a better understanding regarding how the genders are most frequently portrayed in the feminist theory tends to infringe the assumptions proposed in the social sciences and philosophy (Bauer, “Stereotypical Gender Roles and their Patriarchal Effects in A Streetcar Named Desire”). With due considered to the characters observed in the role play, there is a number of examples that can be criticized in the context of conventional feminist theory. Few of the major criticisms that can be made from the role play “A Streetcar Named Desire” have been discussed hereunder. Masculinity is being Portrayed as the Dominant Gender. According to the observation of the play, Williams has centrally focused on exposing the dominant characteristics throughout “A Streetcar Named Desire.” In this context, the incident of Stanley’s rape of Blanche can be taken into account of masculinity dominance. However, the awful respond of the members in the society along with Stella, sister of Blanche have also refused to accept the acute situation faced by Blanche. The feminist critics who are more likely to convinced by the knowledge that the differences in genders are culturally accustomed rather it is developed inborn. The interpretations of the literatures regarding the feminist theory significantly reflect the dominance behavior of men on women, mostly by the heterosexual European whites. The attitudes of these particular white males are often recognized to impose their will on females and they also try to convince for their inferiority, which can be evidently identify in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Bauer, “Stereotypical Gender Roles and their Patriarchal Effects in A Streetcar Named Desire”). Gender Inequality. The play also portrays a gender inequality within the household. In this regard, when Stanley was asked by Stella to wrap-up his game after returning from night-out, he simply ignores the request. This type of reactions made by Stanley simply describes a gender inequality in the household of Stella and Stanley. From the perspective of feminist theory, the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” reflects enormous complexities. With reference to the understanding from the reviews, it is evident that the play comprehensively reflects a story of a woman named Blanche. The problems associated with the character i.e. Blanche are distinct from difficulties encountered by general women. Moreover, her limitations along with approaches are unusual as compared to a powerless woman. Nevertheless, Williams has also designed a character, named Stella, who is challenged in terms of deciding concerning the contending parties. Her choices along with decisions reflect concession in order to deal with constraints on a particular woman which not only mirrors the women in the twentieth century, but in majority of human account (Seigle, “Blanche Dubois: An Antihero”). Domestic Abuse. With regard to a feminist viewpoint, female exploitation should not be a encouraged. Throughout the understanding of the play, it has been ascertained that the playwright demonstrates a common situation of domestic abuse by Stanley with both Blanche and Stella. Accordingly, Stanley tends to exhibit annoying behavior on Blanche and was always excused by wife Stella due to his drinking habits. Therefore, continuous excuses of his abusive behavior have become a common issue in their household, which can be duly criticized in the context of a feminist ground (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003”). During the final scene of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Williams reflects his sympathetic tenor toward Blanche touchable through exploiting vulnerabilities surrounding her other characters and society in the play. Corresponding to the iconic statement observed in the play, “A look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience shows on her face” illuminates the vulnerabilities faced by Blanche using a different stage direction. In addition, the comment, “she turns her face to (the doctor) and shares her stares at him with desperate pleading” also reflects about her perplexity that she has undergone by the acts of the society. With reference to the aforementioned quotes, it is quite evident that the vulnerability leaves Blanche to be sharply exposed amidst the unsympathetic and unresponsiveness acts of the people, who witness her downfall in the particular society wherein she has been occupied (Seigle, “Blanche Dubois: An Antihero”). EVALUATION OF THE EXAMPLES RELATING TO THE FEMINIST CRITICISM According to a brief understanding of the key examples discussed above, a number of consequences can be considered. Firstly, the aforesaid example of criticism significantly magnifies the incapability of women in terms of performing necessary deeds to survive in the masculine society. Following with the criticism of incapability of women, the role play “A Streetcar Named Desire” also depicts that as compare to men, women are relatively incompetent and they are more dependent on the masculine society. The acute pain and disrespectful experience of Blanche in this respective role play significantly portrays incompetent and dependent behavior of women in the society (DiSchiavi, “Tennessee Williams' Women in a Man's World”). Therefore, the claim can be strictly criticized on feminist theoretical perspectives. On the other hand, the inability of leaving the abusive and rapist husband also reveals the weakness of Stella in the individual moral perspective. However, her decision to not leave her husband further reflects her relationship with Stanley as a wife who can never leave her husband even the person demonstrates abusive behavior. Stella agrees to stay with a rapist and an abusive husband due to her household obligations and for their child. She often feels insecure without the presence of her husband in this society (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003”). Moreover, William’s works in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” have also undergone major criticism for portraying women i.e. Blanche and Stella as the sufferers and failures. According to various scenes of the play, it is witnessed that the women characters in the play are dealt with various negative impressions of the men and the society. The way of interaction of males about the female, immorally discusses about their desires or sexual habits, which can be critically identified as a major subject area in the play. From a feminist perspective, the scenes describing Stella’s acceptance of spousal abuse can be a considered as a dismayed subject by the playwright (Dorff, “A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams”). However, the aforesaid claim might not be considered as a fair criticism regarding the playwright as majority of the plays written by Williams are long prior to the modern wave of women's movement or feminism. Williams was also identified not to prescribe the behavioral characteristics of his female fellow in the plays. Nevertheless, he was revealing a type of behavior that he had personally witnessed in the past. According to his works, it can be identified that all women too remain in different kinds of abusive relationship, which is curiously developed by their tormentors with painful and unreceptive responses (DiSchiavi, “Tennessee Williams' Women in a Man's World”). It cannot be denied that, the women characters in Williams’ plays are often considered to be the finest portrayals. However, the women characters in most of the Williams’ plays are also amongst the anti-stereotypical and complex. In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the character of Blanch reflect dual role of both victim and villain. The primary cause of her victimization is associated with the suicide of her husband and her suffering as a widow in the society (Bak, “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003”). The issue of rape is also considered to a major claim of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which has been observed as a specific complex problem for most of the women. During the invasion regarding the female body, women are inimitably vulnerable against the masculine attack frequently with the aim of obtaining domination, not just only for the purpose of sexual release. According to a general description, rape victims are most frequently revealed as the maiden sufferer. In contrast, proponents of feminist admire women who are more likely to fight for their possession or right by making counter responses. In the play, Blanche has flirted with Stanley by engaging in a verbal combat and challenged his power and ability. Her character in the play reflects desperate behavior due to the continuous dominance from the masculine society along with unabated challenges (Bak, John S. “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003.”). In the Play “A Streetcar Named Desire” marginalized right of the women can also be claimed. In relation to a feminist theoretical perspective, it can be contended that the masculine societies have substantially marginalized the women since the past centuries. The valid methodology within a feminist literary criticism is basically to study works determining how oppression of women is perpetuated or their rights are condemned in the societies. Moreover, analyzing feminist theory propounds how the societies perceive the roles of women as they transmit any gender related issues. An in-depth understanding of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” revealed that the women characters are most frequently marginalized towards their possession or interests wherein both Blanche and Stella undergo major complexities due to the continuous invasion from the male-controlled societies. The contention can also be claimed regarding their continuous sufferings even after divested by their personal feelings due to the death and sexual inabilities of husbands (Seigle, Lauren, “Blanche Dubois: An Antihero”). CONCLUSION The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” portrays few social stereotypes against women through characters namely Blanche, Stella and Stanley. According to the review of the play, the contentious claims have been made in this research paper due to the severe vulnerabilities and perplexities faced by the female characters throughout the play. However, the evaluation of the play through feminist perspective was enormously a major complication associated with play. Indeed, the research paper evaluated few major claims in response to the severe pains and hurdles faced by the key characters such as Blanche and Stella. Although the proponents of feminist theory have contended the works performed by Williams, but his works were centrally focused, promoting the actual feeling that tends to arise from various types of consequences. Williams’ sympathy has been significantly observed to emphasize on the actual rights of the women and strongly disagree about the stereotypical inequalities and differences prevalent in the society. Works Cited Bak, John S. “Criticism on a Streetcar Named Desire: A Bibliographic Survey, 1947-2003.” Cercles, 10 (2004): 3-32. Print. Bauer, Christian. “Stereotypical Gender Roles and their Patriarchal Effects in a Streetcar Named Desire.” Högskolan i Halmstad Sektionen för humaniora Engelska (2001): 61-90. Print. Dorff, Linda. “A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.” Theatre Journal 49.2 (1997): 227-228. DiSchiavi, Michael. “Tennessee Williams' Women in a Man's World.” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 15.4 (2008): 18. Print. Seigle, Lauren. “Blanche Dubois: An Antihero.” Boston University Arts & Sciences Writing Program, 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. Thomieres, Daniel. “Tennessee Williams and the Two Streetcars.” The Midwest Quarterly (n.d.): 374-391. Read More