Genre Blog Post 1: A Streetcar Named Desire

       For this blog post, I will focus on the theme of gender, in A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. “[The “Blue Piano” goes softly. She turns confusedly and makes a faint gesture. The inhuman jungle voices rise up. He takes a step toward her, biting his tongue which protrudes between his lips.]” (Williams, 1170).

            In this novel, we see may scenes of abuse and patriarchy involved with Stanley. On page 1125 Stanley says to Stella, “How about my supper, huh? I’m not going to no Galatoire’s for supper!”. Even after she tells him that she made him a “cold plate on ice” he gives a sarcastic reply back. He’s not grateful for all that she does for him already, and can’t let Stella have one night alone with her sister, whom she was only taking out to dinner to be out of their way while Stanley had his poker game, which in my opinion, was a nice thought to avoid conflict, but of course there is still a problem with Stanley.

            The scene I want to mostly analyze though, is the one where Stanley rapes Blanche. First of all, it’s incredible messed up that Stanley even wants to have sex with his wife’s sister, another complete disregard for Stella’s feelings. Not to mention that Stella is also pregnant with his child. Also, Blanche is clearly unstable. She has many underlying issues with her deceased husband and the affairs she had after his death. Anyone with some type of heart, would probably avoid raping someone like that. You should probably avoid raping someone in any sort of manner though.

            One could argue though, that with Blanche’s past with her seventeen-year-old lover, and countless others, that she may have been open to having sexual relations with Stanley. But in my opinion, I think Blanche is uneasy about Stanley, as we see in their first meeting, “[drawing involuntarily back from his stare] You must be Stanley, I’m Blanche.” (1124).

            In consideration to Stanley’s personality, “[Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer. He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining that way he smiles at them.]” (1124) one can clearly see what kind of man Stanley is. He diminishes women based on how they can sexually please him, and that then determines how he treats a woman. I do think it’s interesting though how he victimizes himself, “’Pig-Polack-disgusting-vulgar-greasy!’- them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here!” (1160) for having to endure racial slurs from Stella and Blanche, but they have to put up with all of his disrespect towards them.

          The gender roles in this play are very clear. Stanley expects complete respect from Stella, and Blanche now that she is living with them, with no consideration of how he treats them, and their feelings. Stanley’s whole reason in the play as to why he doesn’t like Blanche is because of her “shady past” but has no problem contributing to the reason of why she is unfit to be married.