Written Task 2 Question 3 (A Streetcar Named Desire)

including Outline

Written Task 2 (HL)

Question: How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Text: ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams

Focus: How and why is the working class of post-war America presented as dominating and powerful through the character of Stanley?

Outline

Introduction: By placing Stanley at the centre of the working class community and presenting him as animalistic, overpowering, and insensitive, Williams could be reflecting and commenting on their commanding acquisition of authority in a post-war America rife with social change.

Key Ideas

Emotionless representation:Often, Stanley is portrayed to fulfil his own needs and desires while showing a disregard for Blanche and Stella’s emotions. This comes through in the contempt for Blanche’s fragility and his forceful acquisition of ‘pleasure’, and brings to attention the single minded, egocentric roots of the power and dominance of the working class.

Animalistic representation: Through Stanley’s interactions with Blanche, Williams presents Stanley as animalistic through his use of imagery and word choice, perhaps mirroring a battle between the aristocracy that Blanche represents and the working class that Stanley represents. His crude and violent treatment of her (in order to assert dominance and power, removing the old aristocracy in society to take its place) highlights the inhumane nature of the working class’ post-war acquirement of control over America.

Overpowering of women: Stanley’s authoritative treatment of women in the text (particularly Stella) highlights his need to re-establish the masculine supremacy that was partially lost during the war as women grew out of the domestic sphere and into more prominent social roles. Through this, Williams is expressing the fact that the post-war prosperity proved to be harmful to women rather than beneficial – it proved that the overpowering force of men (particularly those in the working class) was oppressive.

Written Task 2:

In Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Stanley’s character could be viewed as representative of America’s newly mobilized post-war working class. This impression is created by establishing Stanley as being of ‘medium height, and strongly, compactly built’, similar to the masses of blue-collar workers in the growing automobile and aviation industries at the time. Furthermore, his similarity to the other working class characters in the play (i.e. Steve, Pablo and Mitch) suggests that he is the ‘norm’. Hence, Williams uses the characteristics of being emotionless, animalistic, and overpowering (in relation to women) to not only portray Stanley, but also the working class, as dominating and powerful. However, the negative connotations associated with these characteristics suggest that Williams has done so in order to reveal the inherent flaws in this ‘dominance and power.

Through depicting Stanley as emotionless, Williams is highlighting to audiences the selfish, self-serving nature of the working class. This could be to reflect their relentless pursuit of the ‘American Dream’ at the time; James Adams has said, ‘[the American Dream] has been a dream of being able to grow to the fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations.’ In pure self-interest, Stanley’s determination to satisfy himself tramples over the emotions of the ‘older civilizations’ in the form of Blanche and Stella. In Scene 8, when Stella confronts Stanley about Blanche’s sensitivities and his treatment of her, Stanley responds by saying, ‘delicate piece she is.’ This short sentence suggests a curt response, and brings out his stubborn nature (in that he is not willing to listen to Stella and change his stance). The stage directions in Scene 1 reveal that ‘the centre of [Stanley’s] life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it […] with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.’ The fact that he has control over both the ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ of pleasure highlights his ability to use and control others. The plosives in the ‘power and pride’ emphasize the force Stanley often employs in order to exercise this ‘taking’ of pleasure. This is demonstrated in Scene 11, when Stanley’s ‘fingers find the opening of [Stella’s] blouse while she is sobbing. The audience is left with an impression of him that is highly distasteful. His fixation on sexual pleasure means that he shows very little respect or regard for Stella’s emotions at the time. As a broader interpretation, Williams might be commenting on the flawed nature of humanity in general – in our single-minded pursuit of growth and development, we lose sight of basic human values and societal norms. That is, individual needs and desires are paramount, while the needs and emotions of others are of no consequence.

Audiences are also presented with a disregard for basic human values and related moral considerations through Stanley’s animalistic portrayal, especially during his encounters with Blanche. In Scene 1, Stanley remarks, ‘oh, yeah, in Laurel, that’s right. Not in my territory.’ The lexical choice of ‘territory’ suggests that he is highly possessive over what is ‘his’, in a very animalistic manner.

Through the power struggle between the two characters, Williams could be reflecting the ‘territorial’ battle (the territory being post-war America) between the ‘common man’ (the working class Stanley represents) and the wealthy aristocracy that Blanche represents; a battle that Stanley eventually wins. However, the brutish manner in which Stanley asserts his authority and ousts Blanche is repulsive. In Scene 10, Stanley ‘takes a step towards [Blanche], biting his tongue which protrudes between his lips.’ Here, the image of him closing in on his prey, augmented by the description of the snake-like protruding tongue reminds the audience visually of Stanley’s vicious and forceful characteristics. Williams could be prompting his audience to consider that while the working class’ power and dominance led to social upheaval and the supposed betterment of the ‘common man’ (triumphing over oppressive Southern aristocracy) it took on a savage, vulgar, and primal form. Blanche’s rape and the associated brutality induce a fear of Stanley and his predatory instincts, and consequently a fear of the force that the new working class brought with it.

Not only did the working class’ post-war command over America come at the expense of ‘Blanche’s society’, but also at the expense of the newfound liberation experienced by the ‘average woman’ during the war years. Stanley’s rhetorical question in Scene 2, ‘since when do you give me orders’, hints at his desire to maintain pre-war gender hierarchy; during the war many women joined the workforce and war effort, discovering independence and relief from the traditional household duties they were limited to before the war. This sentiment is further emphasized when Stanley shouts, ‘that’s how I’ll clear the table! Don’t ever talk that way to me!’ The imperatives, or orders, are clear assertions of power that aim to dismiss Stella and her views. The exclamation mark suggests both his anger and having lost authority while away fighting the war, and his strong, urgent desire to win it back. Audiences are inclined to sympathize with Stella as Williams emphasizes the brief and fleeting nature of women’s influence in society, telling us that social and gender roles are rigid due to the sheer ‘muscle’ of masculinity (another source of the working class’ power and dominance).

Philip Allan writes, ‘Streetcar is set just after the seismic upheaval of the Second World War, and Williams dramatizes a remarkable postwar transformation of America in which the economic transformation of men like Stanley will underpin the dawning of a new age of prosperity’. It is the discussed ‘power and dominance’ of men like Stanley that helped push America into a phase of world dominance and prosperity. Therefore, by presenting us with the brutish, selfish, male-centric and unsavoury roots of this prosperity, Williams is saying that perhaps in reality, the ‘golden age’ of post-war success was questionable in its holistic benefit to society as a whole.

994 words.

Works cited:

Adams, J. 1931. The Epic of America. Greenwood Press.

Allan, P. 2011. A Streetcar Named Desire (Philip Allan Literature Guide for A-Level). Oxford: Hodder Education.

Williams, T. A Streetcar Named Desire. London: Penguin.