Genre Blog Post:Drama

In this blog I am going to talk about a certain theme in the play A Streetcar named Desire. The theme I am going to explore is gender roles in the play and see what impacts it has on the play. I think a line that fits this pretty good is when Mitch says "Poker shouldn't be played in a house with women". (1137) I think when exploring this we will see this theme played out and how certain genders are portrayed by the other gender.

To connect this you see this theme presented in many works in many other classes. One I want to talk about that really was a jump start for the Women movement to give themselves independence is Margaret Sanger. I feel like I can connect her beliefs that I learned in History 102 to this play. She believed that with Birth Control a women would be able to control her own destiny and be her own persona and the man wouldn't control her. I can somewhat connect this to the play in a way. In the play the women seem to have little control of the household as the men seem to be in control of things, or at least act like they are. They look down on the women and it shows when they are told to do stuff or they cant have any secrets to themselves. For example, Blanches suitcase was looked through by Stanley because he didn't trust what she all had and had nothing from the estate. I feel like with Margaret arguments that women should be more independent and be less dependent on the men cause in the play it can show the consequences of this as the women seem to not have much power in this play.

When referring back to the quote from above you can see the women's discrimination shown in that line. When he says that, he basically is saying that women are not worthy to be around while to MEN are working a very strategic game of poker that women cannot be around or interfere at all. I fell like this is a shot at them seeing that Mitch thinks that the women are inferior and don't have the privilege to be around while the game is taking place. You can see these themes shown to in other parts of the play as well. For example when Stanley goes on his rant about the Napoleonic code on page 1129. He basically saying that whatever is hers is his. Showing that she has no power over him and that he can go and take whatever she owns because its his as well. Almost treating her in a way that she is his property and can do whatever he want with her and her stuff. Another thing that goes on within the play is the domestic violence of the relationships between the couples in the play. It always seems that someone is hitting another for an argument. For example, when Stella kept on turning on the radio during the poker game. Stanley eventually got mad and started hitting Stella showing his dominance over her.

I think by looking at the play this way shows inequality between the genders and the roles the woman would have to play under the mans shadow. This gives the impression throughout the play of the discrimination of women and how their treated as objects through the play. My best examples are the treatment Stanley has towards the two women, Stella and Blanche. With this analysis and looking for this theme I can see the picture much more clearly when reading this play. I think this issue can lead to the whole inequality between men and women. This can be connected from today to the year this play was made and see the comparisons and differences of the time.