English Essay

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennesse Williams uses confrontation as a mechanism to highlight the domination of men in the patriarchal post-war landscape of New Orleans. During this period, America was seen as an oppressive society where women were expected to be subjugated to being submissive partners. If they stepped out of line, men would use confrontational methods to remind them of their status such as physical violence. A Streetcar named Desire explores the violent, abusive nature of New Orleans through Stanley’s relationships with women as well as Mitch’s reaction to Blanche’s illicit past.

At the beginning of Scene 3, Williams uses a semantic field vivid colours to highlight the masculine atmosphere of the Poker Night and to foreshadow the unsuccesfulness of Stella’s attempt confronting men. As part of their costumes, the characters Stanley, Steve, Mitch and Pablo are wearing “solid blues”, “purple”, “red-and-white-check” and “light-green”. These colours have connotations of being bold, powerful and authoritative. Williams wants his audience members to realise that these men should be seen as parallels to the colours of their costume and to prepare them for the successful physical abuse of Stella. Later on, Stella confronts Stanley by shouting to him “Drunk – drunk – animal thing, you!” Here, the use of fragmented dashes and exclamatives positions Stella’s actress to speak with a furious tone of voice. This is because Williams wants the audience to understand how Stella is entrapped in an unequal systems and she needs to attempt authority in order to control “the gaudy seed bearer”. Stanley responds to her angry confrontation with his own physical one as “there is the sound of a blow”. Through the use of sonics, Williams wants to communicate to the audience that, at this moment in time, violent confrontation is successful in subjugating women into their steryotypical role. Contexually, a 1940s-1950s audience would understand the nature of this scene and would be able to relate to both Stanley and Stella. This is because the women of New Orleans were forced into a position of being mild and meek housewives whilst the men dominated due to the view that males should be in charge of their families.

Later on, in Scene 9, confrontation is seen as a tool which allows women to be shamed for going against stereotypical behaviour. Mitch humiliates Blanche by destroying her presentation of purity and her desire of living in a fantasy world. His confrontation can also be seen as somewhat physical since he “tears the paper lantern” and “turns the light on” after she openly admits to lying about her behaviours. Williams’ use of physical actions aims to highlight to the audience that once again confrontation is destructive to the lives of women and relegates them to being forced to conform to gender steryotypes. Later on, Williams constructs symbolism to highlight the lethal consequences of Mitch’s confrontation with Blanche. A Mexican woman is selling “Flora para los muertos” as well as the continuation of the “polka” music. A motif of death is reinforced and recycled which aims to foreshadow that Blanche’s social death is approaching fast. Williams wants the audience to see that Blanche’s inability to conform to culturally cultivated gender norms has led to physical confrontation which has ruined her last chance at stability thus meaning she must be banished from society. Once again, Williams’ intended audience should have been able to understand why Mitch feels the need to confront Blanche in this manner. Women, like Blanche, were subjected to double standards in terms of sexuality. They were expected to be “clean” rather than performing dirty, inappropriate and obscene acts of sex. Females who behaved like this did not have a place within this society.

The climatic scene 10 should be considered as the most confrontational scene within the play. This is due to the fact that Blanche is sexually assaulted by Stanley, marking his pentulament victory over her. The mood and atmosphere on the stage is heated and tense due to the fact that there are “lurid reflections” on the wall and Stanley is wearing “brilliant silk pyjamas” which is a juxtaposition to Blanche’s “soiled” and “crumpled” evening gown. Once again, Williams’ use of expressionist, plastic theatre hints to the audience that Blanche is about to get her come uppance due to her energetic, masculine approach towards sex. He wants the audience to know that, at this point in the play, confrontation is fatal, dangerous and is powerful enough to destroy Blanche’s sanity. The stage directions enforces the idea that Blanche is now helpless in this sexual confronation since she “moans” and “sinks” leaving her “inert”. The use of vocal and physical actions aims to show that Stanley and his sexual confronation have been victorious. This is signalled by the use of music as the upbeat instruments the “trumpet” and “drums” are played onstage. By the end of Scene 10, Williams’ intentions were that the audience should realise that confrontation, especially violent and sexual confrontation, is the driving force towards Blanche’s downfall. It has ruined her sanity and any chance of stability she once had. In the past, the audience understood this well and naturally expressed their pleasure at this. Many members cheered as Stanley raped Blanche at several productions. They believed that Blanche’s harmatia (her masculine behaviour) should lead to her tragic downfall due to their patriachal attitudes towards women at the time.

Overall, Williams’ use of confrontation allows audiences to see that it was socially unacceptable for women to break out of their stereotype as passive, loyal, obedient housewives. If they did, they would be disciplined by men who would always obtain a victory over them. Women should not challenged hegemonic masculinity and should not obtain to confront men. This would lead them to become victims like Blanche and Stella became.