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Gender Struggle and Women's Predicament in Tennessee Williams' A Street

Car named Desire

Article · May 2010

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Assistant Lecturer Ammar Shamil Kadhim 92 ‫ ﺍﻟﻌﺩﺩ‬/ ‫ﻤﺠﻠﺔ ﻜﻠﻴﺔ ﺍﻻﺩﺍﺏ‬

Gender Struggle and Women’s Predicament in

Tennessee Williams’ A Street Car named Desire.

Assistant Lecturer Ammar Shamil Kadhim

Department of English-College of Arts
University of Baghdad
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to shed light on the theme of Gender Struggle
and Women’s Predicament in Tennessee Williams’ A Street Car
Named Desire .The paper tries to show William's dealings with the
critical social themes like Men's Brutality and women's predicament.
The paper exposes the complete shift of the balance of power between
the genders in America after the two world wars. Williams illustrates
society’s changing attitudes towards masculinity and denounces the
society's attitudes towards women in America at that time. He rebels
against the cruelty of the modern age and regrets the disintegration of
the values of the south and their being replaced by the disruptive forces
of modern life. In the end of the play, brutality and ruthlessness of the
main male character Stanley, win over gentility and delicacy of
Blanche, the main female character in the play. Stanley beats his wife
Stella horrifyingly and rapes his sister-in-law Blanche, showing no
remorse. Yet, Blanche is an outcast from society, while Stanley is the
proud family man. The play then has a moral lesson and social satire as
a literary work belongs to the school of art for the sake of life and not
art for the sake of art.
Tennessee Williams wrote on isolated and lonely people of America
and especially women. The heroines of his plays all suffer from
physical or emotional injury and seek fulfillment from a mate. In the
words of Arthur Ganz "He is especially expert at creating sympathetic
women like the faded southern belle in the Class Menagerie (1945), the

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touching spinster in The Night of Lquana (1961) and the pathetic

Blanche in A Street Car named Desire. (1947) " 1
The plot of Street Car Named Desire can be summarized in a story a
desolated woman named Blanche DuBois. Reared in Old South
aristocratic traditions, she lived elegantly in the family homestead,
married a man she adored, and pursued a career as an English teacher.
But her life fell apart when she discovered that her husband, Allen
Grey, was having a homosexual affair which has led to his committing
suicide. Blanche sought comfort with other men, many men. Then, she
was fired by the authorities after she had a relation with one of her
seventeen-year-old students. Meanwhile, relatives died and she could
not keep up the family home. Eventually, creditors seized it. The play
begins when Blanche arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister,
Stella, and her crude husband, Stanley Kowalski. Though scarred by
her past, Blanche still tries to lead the life of an elegant lady and does
her best, even lying when necessary, to keep up appearances. When
Blanche begins to fall for Mitch, one of Stanley's friends, Stanley finds
out as much as he can against Blanche to discourage the relationship.
He succeeds, finding out, by way a co-worker, about her relationship
with the student and her exploits at the Flamingo Hotel, and other
things. After Stanley presents a bus ticket back to Laurel to Blanche on
her birthday, Stella goes into labor and Stanley takes her to the hospital.
When he returns, however, Mitch has come and gone, telling Blanche
that she is not clean enough to live in the same house as his mother and
therefore can't marry him. Stanly is alone with Blanche. She struggles
to get away, but is subdued under his strength and is raped. Blanche
goes mad.2
A Street Car Named Desire is characterized by the noticeable
absence of the male protagonist who has heroic qualities. Indeed, the
polar opposite of what a literary chivalric hero might be, is represented
in the leading male character of the play, Stanley Kowalski who is
muscular, forceful, and dominant. His domination becomes so
overwhelming that he demands absolute control. This view of the male
as a large animal is revealed in the opening of the play where Stanley is

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Stanley is described by Blanche as a "survivor of the Stone Age" 3 .She

says about Stanley that "He acts like an animal ,has animal's habits!
Eats like one, moves like one, talk like one! There is even something –
subhuman-something not quite to the stage of humanity"(p.70).
Stanley is further depicted in this primitive light by numerous traits
that he exhibits: uncivilized manners, demanding and forceful behavior,
lack of empathy, complete selfishness, and a chauvinistic attitude
towards women. That is quite evident through his bad treatment of his
wife Stella. He beats her and is impolite to her in front of other people.
He rarely takes her suggestions and often scolds her. Stanley only acts
kindly to Stella when he wants her to satisfy him physically. 4
Male characters of the play A Street Car Named Desire believe that
the only responsibility for women is to be their husbands' service and to
be good wives. On the other hand, society forces women to have
dependence on men .Both Blanche and Stella see male companion as
their only means to achieve happiness .Stella is mistreated by her
husband, but she refuses to abandon him. Blanche sees marriage as her
only possibility for survival. She looks at her marriage to Mitch as her
means for escaping destitution and when he rejects her because of
Stanley's gossip about her reputation ,she immediately thinks of another
man, the millionaire Dhep Huntleigh, who might rescue her. 5
Stanley is clearly the more dominant figure over Stella. Throughout
the play there are numerous examples of the power he possesses of her.
One of the examples of his severity towards his wife is in the first scene
of the play when he throws a piece of meat up to Stella as he turns the
corner heading for the bowling ally. He makes no motion to stop, run
up the stairs and explain to his wife what’s going on, similar to what
would occur in an equal relationship. Instead he continues down the
street like a boy with no responsibilities. When Stella asks him about
his destination and if she could come to watch, he agrees but doesnot
stop to wait for her. This scene demonstrates how Stella follows
Stanley along, and serves him according to what he wishes to do and
when he wants to do it.6

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Stella is often abused physically through various incarnations of

male violence. There are two examples of Stanley's maltreatment of his
wife .The first one is when Stella at midnight asks him about when will
be the end of the poker game and he gets mad and hit her:
Stella: How much longer is this game going to continue?
Stanley: Till we get ready to quit.
Blanche: Poker is so fascinating .Could I kibitz?
Stanley: You could not. Why don't you women go up and sit with
Eunice?
Stella: Because it is nearly two-thirty A.M....
[A chair scrapes. Stanley: gives a loud whack of his hand on
her thigh.]
Stella: [Sharply.]
That's not fun, Stanley. (to Blanche) It makes me so mad when he
does that in front of people. (p. 63)
Shortly after this incident, comes the second incident when Blanche
turns the radio on in spite of Stanley's objection. He gets furious and
snatches the radio and throws it from the window. Stella objects his
rude behaviour, he beats her hard in front of the guests although she is
pregnant:
[Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He
crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table. With a
shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out the window.]
Stella: Drunk, drunk animal thing, you! [ she rushes through to the
poker table] all of you –please go home !if any one of you one spark
of decency in you-
Blanche: [Wildly.] Stella, watch out, he's... [Stanley charges after
Stella.]
Men: [Feebly] Take it easy, Stanley. Easy fellow,-let's all-
Stella: You lay your hands on me and I'll... [She backs out of sight.
He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow, Stella
cries out. Blanche screams and runs into the kitchen. The men rush
forward and there is grappling and cursing. Something is
overturned with a crash.]

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Blanche: [Shrilly.] My sister is going to have a baby!

(pp., 65-6)
In scene eight, Stanley responds to Stella’s request to clear the table in
the following way:
Stella: Your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy. Go and
wash up and then help me clear the table.
[He hurls a plate to the floor.]
Stanly: That’s how I’ll clear the table! [He seizes her arm.] Don’t
ever talk that way to me.
Pig- Polack-disgusting-vulgar greasy!
[…She cries out in protest…Her husband and his companion have
already started back around the corner. (p. 82).
This call for violence is not a mere consequence of the physical
inequality between the genders, but is an example of male abuse of
power and position, in order to further their own dominance. Yet Stella
is not affronted by such actions, and instead remains true to the
stereotyped submissive female.7
When Stella first met her husband, she realized he had a violent
temper, and she was somehow thrilled by this fact. She was warned of
his nature before they were married, but she couldn't help falling in his
admiration. Stanley takes care of her and knows what is best, and she
knows she cannot take care of herself. When Stella chooses to remain
with Stanley, she chooses to rely on, love, and believe in a man instead
of her sister. Williams does not necessarily criticize Stella—he makes it
quite clear that Stanley represents a much more secure future than
Blanche does.8
Stella and Blanche are sisters, and this blood relationship suggests
other similarities between the two women. They are both part of the
final generation of a once aristocratic but now moribund family. Both
show a great deal of culture and sensitivity, and because of this, both
seem out of place in Elysian Fields. Finally, both Stella and Blanche are
or have been married. It is in their respective marriages that we can
begin to trace the profound differences between these two sisters. 9

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Williams uses Blanche and Stella’s dependence on men to expose

and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old
to the new South. Both Blanche and Stella see male companions as
their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for
both their sustenance and self-image. 10
Before one can understand Blanche's character, one must understand
the reason why she moved to New Orleans and joined her sister, Stella,
and brother-in-law, Stanley. She went there because her belongings in
the world amount to a trunk full of gaudy dresses and cheap jewelry.
Our compassion for Blanche increases as Blanche’s fear of death
manifests itself in her fears of aging and of lost beauty. She refuses to
tell anyone her true age or to appear in harsh light that will reveal her
faded looks. 11 She tells Stella about the reasons of her coming to her
house saying" I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be
alone Because as you must have noticed- I 'm- not very well " (p.55 )
Stanley and Blanche become as polar opposites, with Stella as the
link between them Stanley and Blanche become mortal enemies, and
Stanley dedicates himself to Blanche's destruction. The clash between
Blanche and Stanley according to Singni Lenea Falk is "inevitable" for
they represent two opposite views of life. 12
Stanley’s interference in his wife’s affairs, with regard to the
Napoleonic Code, a code of law recognized in New Orleans from the
days of French rule that places women’s property in the hands of their
husbands. Stanley is upset over loss of Belle Reve property and
possibility of Stella being cheated by Blanche, He addresses his wife
Stella saying:
Stanley : Have you ever heard of the Napoleonic Code?
Stella: No, Stanley, I haven't heard of the Napoleonic Code and if I
have ,I don’t see what it-
Stanley: let me enlighten you on a appoint or two ,baby.
Stella: yes?
Stanley: In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic Code
according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband
and vice versa… (p. 32).

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Blanche says to Stanley, after he accuses her of depriving Stella out

of her inheritance:
There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of
years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident
grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the
land for their epic fornications — to put it plainly! . . . The four-
letter word deprived us of our plantation, till finally all that was
left — and Stella can verify that! — was the house itself and about
twenty acres of ground, including a graveyard, to which now all
but Stella and I have retreated. (p. 61).
Blanche cannot accept that the past is gone to stay and she
maintains an air of superiority over people like Stanley. She in her
turn also urges her sister to leave her husband in the name of progress
and civilization. She says that Stanley resembles an animal more than
he does a man.
God! Maybe we are a long way from being made in God's image,
but Stella my sister, there has been some progress since then! Such
things as art-as poetry and music –such kinds of people some
tenderer feelings have had some little beginning !that we have got
to make grow! And cling to and hold as our flag . In this dark
march toward whatever it is we're approaching . . . Don't hang
back with the brutes!" (p. 70).

Blanche seems to be interested in Mitch who is one of

Stanley's friends. He is unmarried man lives with his ailing mother.
Blanche tells him that she’s younger than Stella (although she’s five
years older) and that she is in New Orleans to look after Stella, even
though she is there because she has nowhere else to go. She also says
she is an old maid schoolteacher (although she was married once to a
homosexual who committed suicide), and that she teaches high school

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English (although she was forced out of her job for having an affair
with a student). 13
For herself, Blanche sees marriage to Mitch as her means of
escaping destitution. Men’s exploitation of Blanche’s sexuality has left
her with a poor reputation. This reputation makes Blanche an
unattractive marriage prospect, but, because she is destitute, Blanche
sees marriage as her only possibility for survival. In the romance with
Harold Mitchell, Blanche finds another sensitive, lonely person who
just like her , needs tenderness and love.This is quite clear in the
following conversation between them.

Mitch : You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be

— you and me, Blanche?
Blanche: Sometimes –there is God –so quickly. (p. 78).

When Mitch rejects Blanche because of Stanley’s gossip about her

reputation, Blanche immediately thinks of another man—the
millionaire Shep Huntleigh—who might rescue her. Because Blanche
cannot see around her dependence on men, she has no realistic
conception of how to rescue herself. She does not realize that her
dependence on men will lead to her downfall rather than her salvation.
By relying on men, Blanche puts her fate in the hands of others. 14
Williams suggests that Blanche’s sexual history was a cause of
her downfall. When she first arrives at New Orleans, she says she rode
a streetcar named Desire, and then transferred to a streetcar named
Cemeteries, which brought her to a street named Elysian Fields. This
journey allegorically represents the journey of Blanche’s life. The
Elysian Fields are the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Blanche’s
lifelong pursuit of her sexual desires has led to her eviction from Belle

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Reve, her keeping out from Laurel, and, at the end of the play, her
expulsion from society at large. 15
At the end of the play, when Blanche's secrets were revealed, she
retreats into her own private fantasies enables her to partially shield
herself from reality’s harsh blows. Blanche’s insanity emerges as she
retreats fully into herself, leaving the objective world behind in order to
avoid accepting reality. At the end of the play, the Frightened Blanche
picks up the phone receiver and requests the number of “Shep
Huntleigh of Dallas,” who she says is so well known that she need not
provide the operator an address. Stanley emerges from the bathroom in
his pajamas. He leers at her. She smashes the top of a bottle and
threatens him with the jagged edge. He subdues and rapes her. 16
When Geraled Weales discusses the theme of what the play is
about, he refers to a letter which was sent by Williams to Joseph I.
Breen the chief sensor of the Production Code, making a plea to retain
the integrity of movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire. In this
letter Williams says: "The rape of Blanche by Stanly is a pivotal,
integral truth of the play, without which the play loses its meaning,
which is the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, and the delicate by
the savage and brutal forces of the modern society." 17
John Gassner argues that " A Street Car named Desire
communicated a sense of crass fatality; of life of a woman destroyed
by frustration in love against which pretensions and illusions are a
pathetic and futile defense"18 Joseph Wood Krutch when discusses the
case whether Williams was subjective or was having dramatic
objectivity concludes " But though there is in the pays certain dream
like or rather nightmarish quality, the break with reality is never quite
made, and nothing happened that might not be an actual event." 19
Kenneth Tynan argues that Blanche represents the south in one
way or another, he adds that most of William's writings deals with the

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south in naturalistic manner and portrays it as decent he then concludes

that the fall of her represents the decline of the past: :
When, finally, Blanche is removed to the mental house, we should
feel that apart of civilization is going with her .Where ancient
drama teaches us to reach nobility by contemplation on what is
noble, Modern America drama conjures us to contemplate what
might have been noble ,but is now humiliated ,ignoble in the sight
of all but the compassionate. 20
Although, some sympathy also goes to Stella who puts up with
more than she needs to as she takes the abuse from both her husband
and sister which create a harsh reality for herself. She wants to please
her sister and wants to have the love of her husband. Yet, she is
passively submissive to her husband. In the words of Durant de Ponte
"Blanche is ultimately lost and thus becomes a fit subject for modern
tragedy" the sympathy then according to him must clearly go to
Blanche rather than her sister Stella, who has copulated and joined the
enemy. 21
Benjamin Nelson agrees with Ponte and when discusses the
question "with whom does the writer's sympathy lie? " , he says " I do
not possibly see how they could favor anyone but Blanche DuBois" ,he
goes on arguing that " for Blanche chooses the dream of the past and
becomes the victim of this impossible choice. Her greatness is that she
does choose it rather than make the adjustment which Stella makes…
for Blanche destruction is preferable to barbarism". 22 Signi Lenea Falk
in his discussion of the play, refers to the words of the critic Brooks
Atkinson who found the play as "almost unbearably tragic because The
audience are profoundly moved as they have been sitting all evening in
the presence of truth."23 Thus, the classical concept of catharsis is
existed and the moral lesson is successfully delivered to the audience.

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Conclusion

Society’s mistreatment of women is vividly represented in the

characters of Blanche Dubois and her sister Stella the two sisters who
used to live in the glory days of the South, when their Belle Reeve
estate provided them with a genteel life that is no longer possible for
either of them. One of the sisters, Stella, has accepted her misfortunes
and is contentedly wed to Stanley Kowalski a working man. The other
sister, Blanche DuBois, cannot face the acceptance of her faded past
and the bright light of reality. Blanche comes to visit Stella and Stanley
and is horrified by their dour environment. Blanche is portrayed as a
tragic heroine. The play presents a tragic conflict between the sensitive,
neurotic Blanche Dubois and crude, animalistic Stanley Kowalski.
Stanley is depicted as a symbol of a brutal male-dominated society. The
themes of A streetcar Named Desire are mainly built on conflict, the
conflicts between men and women, the conflicts of race, class and
attitude to life, and these are especially embodied in Stanley and
Blanche.By representing these truths to the masses, Tennessee
Williams poses a question to society, as to whether or not these
representations are accurate hoping that his works will contribute in
social reform.

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Bibliography
• Academic American Encyclopidia, 1989 ed .
• Bigsby, C.W.E ."Street Car to Glory" in Twentieth Century
Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, ed. Jordan Y. Miller .
New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.
• Falk, Signi Lenea. Tennessee Williams .New York: Twayne
Publisher, Inc. Ltd. 1972.
• Gassner, John ed., Best American Plays .New York: Crown
Publisher, Inc., 1979.
• Jackson, Esther M. “Tennessee Williams” in the American
Theatre ed., Alan S. Downer, (Voice of America Forum Lectures,
1967.
• Krutch , Joseph Wood " Review of Streetcar Named Desire " in
Twentieth Century Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, ed.
Jordan Y. Miller .New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.
• Nelson, Benjamin .Tennessee Williams: The Man and his Work.
.New York: Ivan Obolensky, Inc.1961.
• Ponte ,Durant de. "Williams Feminine Characters" in Twentieth
Century Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, ed. Jordan Y.
Miller .New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.
• Tynan , Kenneth "American Blues: The Plays of Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams ." in The Modern American Theater, ed.
Alvin B. Kernan .New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.
• Weales, Gerald. “Arthur Miller,” ed., Alan S. Downer, The
American Theatre .Voice of America Forum Lectures, 1967.
• Williams, Tennessee .A Streetcar Named Desire in Best American
Plays, ed. John Gassner .New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1980.
• Williams, Tennessee "A Streetcar Named Desire." in The Norton
Introduction to Literature. Seventh Ed. Eds Beaty and Hunter. New
York: Norton and Company, 1998.

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Notes
1 Academic American Encyclopidia, 1989 ed .,s .v "Street Car Named
Desire" by Arthur Ganz.
2 C.W.E. Bigsby, "Street Car to Glory" in Twentieth century
Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, ed. Jordan Y. Miller
(New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.), p. 56.
3 Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire in Best American
Plays, ed. John Gassner (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
1980),p.70. Subsequent references to this edition will appear in my
text.
4 Signi Lenea Falk, Tennessee Williams (New York: Twayne
Publisher, Inc. Ltd. 1982), p.86.
5 Benjamin Nelson, Tennessee Williams: The Man and his Work.
(New York: Ivan Obolensky, Inc.1961), p. 134.
6 Ibid, p. 139.
7 Falk p.87.
8 Ibid, p. 88.
9 Nelson, p.,134.
10 Ibid, p., 135.
11 Esther M. Jackson, “Tennessee Williams” in The American
Theatre ed., Alan S. Downer, (Voice of America Forum Lectures,
1967.), p. 97.
12 Falk, p.86.
13 Nelson, p. 144.
14 Ibid, p.145.

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15 Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire." in The Norton

Introduction to Literature. Seventh Ed. Eds Beaty and Hunter. New
York: Norton and Company, 1998),p.2075.
16 Ibid, p. 2076.
17 Geraled Weales, Tennessee Williams (New York: North Center
Publishing Company ,1965),.p763.
18 John Gassner ,ed., Best American Plays (New York: Crown
Publishers, Inc. 1980),p70.
19 Joseph Wood Krutch " Review of Streetcar Named Desire " in
Twentieth century Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, , ed.
Jordan Y. Miller (New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.), p. 40
20 Kenneth Tynan , "American Blues: The Plays of Arthur Miller and
Tennessee Williams ." in The Modern American Theater, ed. Alvin
B. Kernan (New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1986.), p . 41.
21 Durant de Ponte "Williams Feminine Characters" in Twentieth
century Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire, , ed. Jordan Y.
Miller (New Jersey: Prentice –Hall, Inc, 1971.), p. 56.
22 Nelson, p. 145.
23 Falk, p.87

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