“Feminine Alienation”
Women in today’s society strive for equality. However, a century ago, the female gender is treated very differently. People believed in patriarchy, where women are solely dependent on men. The two plays, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, sparked controversial opinions on the position of women striving for conventional respectability in society. Nevertheless, if they stand out from their cultural norm, these female characters are often alienated from their society. Blanche and Nora thought they could live up to the expectations of their community without being truly happy. In Blanche’s case she was not able to accept the fact that her sister, Stella, was part of a different
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In A Doll’s House, Torvald and Nora shared an interesting father daughter relationship, even though they are a married couple. Torvald described his wife to have a “young, trembling loveliness”, as though her being frightened excites him. His need to be protective and manipulative shows his desire to be in power and also the father figure. Before all the secrets were revealed, Torvald confessed to Nora, “I’ve often wished that you could be threatened by some imminent danger so that I could risk everything I had - even my life itself - to save you.” He wants her to suffer so that he could look heroic. The dramatic irony truly shows his insincerity because after she reveals that she borrowed money from Krogstad, he immediately rejects her. The play evolves around the idea of the husband controlling the finance in the relationship. Mrs Linde explains, “Because a wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent.” However, Nora talks about her borrowing money full with pride, yet her expression gives a sense that this whole process and documentations are very new to her, “In business, you know, there are things called ‘quarterly payments and ‘instalments’...” When she talks about earning money, she ends her sentence with “like being a man”, to her being a man is greater than being a woman. This idea is also portrayed again as she talks about her …show more content…
For instance, both Stanley and Steve abused their wives and after the violence, the wives accept their husbands, as if nothing happened. This is how the men show their superiority. This idea is portrayed from the beginning as Stanley always enjoys the idea of things that are his should be in his control. For example, “his radio, his car, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of gaudy seed-bearer”. However, Blanche has been living in Stanley’s house, but does not belong to him. Therefore, towards the end of the play he proves that she is his by raping her. Not only that, his rowdy nature; “pulls open”, “jerks out”, “jerks open”, “kicks” and “hurls”, is an allusion to how he treats the women in his house. When Blanche and Stella points out Stanley’s barbaric behaviors, Stanley burst into a fit, “Remember what Huey Long said--’Every Man is a King!’ And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!” He instantly becomes angry and insulted by the women. He has a big ego and demands respect in his
The most ostentatious of the group, Stanley is a flawed man that is forced into the role of husband and father by the women around him. Stanley enjoys avoiding his real life and problems by socializing with his other equally macho friends playing poker and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol which in turn makes him stereotypically violent towards his wife. Stanley’s actions to Blanche as well are possessive and domineering as he looks through her things and criticizes the gifts she has garnered from the various suitors she had. “After Stanley's rummaging around in the trunk, Blanche exclaims: "It looks like my trunk has exploded" (38). When he violates that space - "Stanley crosses to the trunk, shoves it roughly open, and begins to open compartments" (41) - he betrays Blanche's intimacy. Rapaciously investigating the love letters, "He rips off the ribbon and starts to examine them, Blanche snatches them from him, and they cascade to the floor." Furious, she shouts: "Now that you've touched them, I'll burn them" and then starts scooping "the floor, gathering
He is a very dominating: he overpowers his timid wife, Stella, constantly, to keep her from leaving him. He is very proud of his American heritage, several times referencing to his being in the United States Army and is enraged when Blanche calls him "common," or a "Polack." He seems incapable of refinement, and does everything whole-heartedly: he claims to love Stella thoroughly and hates Blanche vehemently. Stanley is honest to the point of brutality, and he does not care about offending others. Further, He even brags to Mitch about raping Blanche. He despises Blanche because they are opposites. His hatred of Blanche is so great that he rapes her, causing her final mental breakdown.
Although Stanley’s power works mainly to downgrade Blanche, his violent and aggressive nature also disempowers Stella. She is abused during poker night, a moment of masculine bonding. Following the poker night she is made powerful when she retreats to Eunice’s Flat. However, she returns to disempowerment when she leaves Eunice’s flat and Stanley ‘bears her into the dark flat’. Stella’s decision to stay with Stanley is not based on choice, but rather on the fact that she must. This enforces the dominant belief that women are unable to support themselves, emotionally and financially.
One could say that the novel is simply just how one group of people all succumb to desire, and how this leads to their downfalls. However, when viewed through the lens of Feminist Criticism, one can see that it is not that simple: Stella and Blanche are women of their time. They wish to have a happy home, with someone to love them and a comfortable life ahead of them. This is the wish that society has conditioned them to want- Stella would never strike out on her own and though Blanche does so, all it does is bring her shame and heartache. A Streetcar Named Desire displays the view of women in this society, and how, if they decide to stray from the path dictated, it will only lead them to self
In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in
In A Dolls House, Torvald has a very narrow definition of women 's roles. He believes that it’s a woman duty to be a mother and a good wife, however he thinks women are helpless and childlike. Nora’s understanding of freedom changes during the play. In the first act, she believes that she will be “free” as soon as she repays her debt, because she will be able to devote herself to her domestic responsibilities. However after she gets blackmailed by Krogstad she reconsiders her understanding of freedom and questions whether she is happy in her house. By the end of the play, Nora seeks a new kind of freedom. She wishes to be relieved of her family obligations to pursue her own ambitions, beliefs, and identity.
The point of Stanley aim for power over women, especially over Blanche not his wife Stella. Between with Stanley and Blanche have a lot of thing going on. The audience show unbiased toward to Stanley, getting
During this period, women were subjected in their gender roles and were restricted over what the patriarchal system enforced on them. Everyone was brought up believing that women had neither self-control nor self-government but that they must capitulate to the control of dominate gender. The ideology that “God created men and women different - … [and they should] remain each in their own position.” (eHow, Ibsen's Influences on Women's Rights) is present in A Doll’s House with Nora’s character, as she is seen as the ideal women during the Victorian Era, who is first dutiful as wife and mother before to her own self. Whenever Torvald gives Nora money, she spends it on her children so that they are not “shabbily dressed” (Act 1). Though she loves her children it is all the more shocking when she leaves them.
Desire is prominent in Stella and Stanley’s relationship; Stella is drawn to Stanley because he has a strong male sexuality and he is drawn to her because of her traditional feminine sexuality. Stanley abuses Stella, and when Blanche finds out she is perplexed. Stella explains that, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant.”(1.4). Stella and Stanley stay together because they use sex to smooth out their disputes. Stanley views sex as an important aspect in marriage (Panda ). He views women as sexual objects; Williams gives an insight on Stanley, he says, “[Stanley] sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing through his mind”(1.1). Stanley ends up raping Blanche at the end of the play; thus causing Blanche to lose her sanity. Although Blanche’s husband is only mentioned a few times in the play, the audience is able to see that his own sexual desire leads to his
Finally, Stanley rapes Blanche because “he has tried and tried to keep her down to his level” (Kagan 26) but she cannot go there. The rape is his way of getting her there. In the powerful scene where Stanley loses total control of his actions and strikes the person whom he has sworn to protect, love and cherish, William's shows Stanley's lack of control and hatred of the new threat in his life, Blanche. What makes this scene so important to the topic is the way that the three characters react once the party has broken up. Blanche is in her usual state of panic; Stella has retreated upstairs, while Stanley stumbles around calling out 'Steeelllaaa' in a drunken sweaty animal-like manner. Surprisingly Stella answers her mate's calls and embraces him, the two of them exchanging words of compassion and kisses. Stanley then picks up Stella and carries her off to his den to make love, which is Stanley's way of apologizing. Stanley has to be the dominant male figure in all his relationships, not only with Stella and Blanche, but with his friends as well. He is a leader and instantly rises to the challenge whenever his status is threatened.
Blanche and Stella have a dependency on men that both gets them in trouble and saves
The play portrays Stanley’s masculine character in the very beginning. Williams writes, “Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher’s” (Williams 13). Williams uses props to emphasize Stanley’s ‘primitive’ masculinity. Another use of pros by Williams to portray male dominance, “Stanley, Steve, Mitch, and Pablo wear colored shirts, solid blues, a purple, a red-and-white-check, a light green, and they are men at the
Gender identification refers directly to the way in which a character manifests particular aspects relative to their sex. Literature pertaining to both pre and post-World War II often categorizes these identities into two separate entities: masculinity and femininity. For the characters of Williams’s play, socially acceptable and appropriate behaviors are classified by gender and are represented by Stella and Stanley, while challenged by Blanche and Mitch. With the depiction of a 1940’s male-controlled culture, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams shows a stark contrast between the traditional depictions of men and women, specifically in a struggle for dominance and the oppression of conforming to appropriate behaviors deemed by their
Especially the American south was an epitome for patriarchal society (90). Women were meant to be inferior to men and had to fit into the “good girl” picture, otherwise they were close to shunned by society. The play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, depicts such a patriarchal society. The main conflict is between the protagonists Blanche DuBois and her brother in law Stanley Kowalski, which ends with Blanche being admitted into what seems to be a mental facility. I will argue that the patriarchy, which is especially represented by Stanley Kowalski, is the cause for the mental destruction of Blanche. In order to do so I will first elaborate what is actually meant by the term patriarchy. Then I will try to explain how Stanley Kowalski can be seen as an epitome for a patriarchal man and how he fits into the attributes attached to such. In the second chapter I will try to define the role a woman had in the patriarchal society of the 1950s and to whether Blanche DuBois fits into it or not. Last but not least I will attempt to connect the dots and show how Stanley, as the representation, and the patriarchy itself lead to Blanche’s mental
to be a “hopeless creature” as he calls her, but Nora through the story is