Preview

Rape In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
958 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rape In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
Rape is not a crime of irrational, impulsive, uncontrollable lust, but is a deliberate, hostile, violent act of degradation and possession on the part of a would-be conqueror, designed to intimidate and inspire fear (Susan Brownmiller). In Tennessee Williams “A Street Car Named Desire”, one of the main characters, Blanche, in this play goes through the experience of being raped and the effects that come from it. By Williams allowing Blanche to get rape in the play, it resulted in having a massive effect on the play and led to the downfall of the rest of play and of Blanche. I want to explore the reasoning and factors why the rape had such a effect in the play. “We’ve had this date with other from the beginning!” (Williams 1464), these were the words that were said to Blanche right before being raped, the character that raped her was Stanley. At the start of the play Stanley could be seen as a egalitarian hero for the story, some of the reasons that this could happen is because of the loyalty to his friends and passion he had for his wife , Stella. He has a hatred towards Blanche once he begins to see what type of person she truly is, she can come off untrustworthy and attempts to fool everyone he knows into believing she is superior to them. Throughout the play, this hatred builds to a point where Stanley’s main goal is just to get …show more content…
In a article called “A Streetcar Named Misogyny”, written by Kathleen Margaret Lant, she discuss how Stanley’s hatred towards Blanche is one of the main reason for her downfall. He goes to every extend to find out what Blanche true life was before she arrived in New Orleans. This hostility can be found in some of the actions he does towards Blanche, for example the investigations he does about her past, his birthday gift to her or him sabotaging her relationship with Mitch towards the end of the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Accommodation theory streetcar names desire
    • 917 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Accommodation theory streetcar names desire

    The dynamic opposition between Blanche and Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most important forces in the play. Williams creates and maintains an antipathy and tension between them so that, despite the audience’s horror at what Stanley does to Blanche in scene 10, the fact that there is a final clash between the two characters comes as no surprise to us. Stanley’s gruesome boast to Blanche before the rape, ‘we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’, whilst shocking, is also a neat comment on the way Williams has structured the play.…

    • 917 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary: A Streetcar Named Desire
    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary: A Streetcar Named Desire

    In scene four of “ A Streetcar Named Desire” Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she can get out of her situation with Stanley, but Stella insists she is not in anything she wished to get out of. Stella makes it clear that she is happy about her relationship with Stanley through their sexual chemistry by saying “ But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark”. Stella believes that there is nothing wrong and she can’t understand why Blanche is so frantic. Blanche tries to persuade Stella that her situation with Stanley is just desire by arguing, “ What you are talking about is brutal desire- just- Desire!- the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another…”…

    • 212 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is Blanche’s Illusionary World Broken Down in the Play by Others?
    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Is Blanche’s Illusionary World Broken Down in the Play by Others?

    The primary noticeable difference between Stanley and Blanche are the worlds that they both come from. Blanche believes in an illusionary world of which the upper and lower class people are separated, education is valued, races are separated and purity is preserved. In contrast, Stanley comes from a patriarchal society, which is morally corrupt, sinful and amoral. In the opening scene, the stage directions “her expression is one of shocked disbelief. Her appearance is incongruous to this setting” conveys her difference in class and how Blanche already does not fit into this new world foreshadowing the end of the play when Blanche is pushed out of the new world. The dialogue “ they mustn’t have- understood- what number I wanted” highlights Blanche’s confusion as she arrives at Elysian Fields, which suggests that Blanche is entering into a world that she does not belong in. The use of the derogatory terms “negro”, “brown” and “one white and one coloured” all suggest that unlike in Blanche’s illusionary world, Stanley’s world, New Orleans does not separate races instead they intermingle. Throughout the play there are many references to animalistic qualities. Blanche is represented, as a “moth” of which is fragile and attracted to light, which leads to danger and death. Stanley is compared to a lion, a predator of power and strong…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis
    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis

    The main character in a drama entitled "Street Car Named Desire", written by Tennessee Williams, is an emotional woman by the name of Blanche, who has many afflictions. The setting of this play is in the state of Louisiana. Blanche has the potential to be a very vigorous woman, if she chooses to tap into that unidentified strength. All her life, she’s managed to face scrutiny from every possible direction. She has been ostracized from her community, lied to throughout her entire marriage, lost her inheritance, battling with alcoholism, and invests her fate and well-being in men. Blanche is a wandering soul, who’s wrapped up in life’s misfortunes, and is commonly misunderstood.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams
    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Character Analysis: A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams

    A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams is a play about a southern lady named Blanche from Mississippi visiting her sister Stella, who is married to Stanley and currently living in Elysian Fields, New Orleans. Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields, and throughout her entire stay with Stella and Stanley, there is tension and conflict occurring in Stella’s house. Even though Blanche and Stella were brought up in the South under wealthy conditions, the conflict is mainly caused by Blanche’s dislike of Stanley because, as a blue-collar worker, Stanley's status is lower than the DuBois’. In another aspect, Stanley’s conflict is caused by him being suspicious of Blanche since her arrival. Blanche explains to Stella that…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Streetcar Named Desire & Mean Girls
    • 1013 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Streetcar Named Desire & Mean Girls

    The main characters in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ are Blanche, Stanley and Stella. Blanche is from old world America. She moves to New Orleans with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley after she goes through a bad time in her life and losses her job along with her family house. Blanche has power over her sister, and she abuses this power. This is first demonstrated when Blanche asks her sister to get her a drink from the drug store and she does so ‘Blanche- Honey, do me a favour. Run to the drug-store and get me a lemon-coke with plenty of chipped ice in it! – Will you do that for me, Sweetie?’ This demonstrates the power of fear which Stella feels. She believes that if she does not comply with her sisters ‘orders’ then she will have a more stressful and difficult life so she obeys.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche's Lies Essay Example
    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche's Lies Essay Example

    Blanche's lies create escalating conflict between she and Stanley, often revealed in his dealings with paper. In fact, when Stanley first physically violates Blanche, it is through paper. In Scene II, in an effort to uncover Blanche's past and subsequent lies, Stanley rummages through her personal trunk, discovering love letters from Allan. When he “ snatches them up, she speaks fiercely 'the touch of your hands insult them!'”(40). Again, the paper is a metaphor for Blanche; here, the paper is not white (“blanche”) but, like Blanche herself, marked, as the letters have writing on them and they are yellowing with age. Blanche considers them dirty when Stanley touches them—foreshadowing the rape. They are private, not displayed for Stanley, but he finds them anyway—as he does later when he exposes her sexual past.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stanley Kowalski Quotes
    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stanley Kowalski Quotes

    In the stage directions it says that “ Stanley seizes her arm “ (Williams 131 ). This quote from the play tells how Stanley approaches Stella about him being the king of the house and how the things that he said, were the ones to be done. Stanley will do whatever it is that it takes to have what he wants, whether it is the right thing to do or not. One example that shows this about Stanley is in scene ten, it says “ She moans. The bottle-top falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed. The hot trumpet and drums from the Four Deuces sound loudly “ (Williams 162). This explicitly tells how Stanley forced Blanche to have sex with him, basically raping her. This also tells the readers that Stanley does not really have that much respect for his wife as he says he does. If he was to actually and truly have any kind of respect for his wife, he would of never done anything like that to Blanche.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Realism In A Streetcar Named Desire
    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Realism In A Streetcar Named Desire

    Stanley looks past the fake front that people put on and focuses on what is real and ignores the “Hollywood glamour” and lies that surround them (39). Stanley does not want any deviation from what is known to be true and wants “no ifs, ands, or buts” (43). Deep down Stanley needs to unearth any falsehoods when anyone feeds him a “pack of lies” no matter how dark they are (118). Regardless of the awful truths of Blanche’s life, Stanley states the truth in the simplest sense, and he finally reveals Blanche is not “such a refined and particular girl” as he gives out her dark truths. He pushes away Blanche’s pleasant dream and posters the harsh truth of Blanche’s problems in plain sight so no one, not Mitch, Stella, or even Blanche can not miss it. Ultimately, Stanley feels no empathy for anyone, and digs up the lies and falsehoods that surround…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    "A Streetcar Named Desire"- Scene 10
    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "A Streetcar Named Desire"- Scene 10

    Stanley wants to “bury the hatchet and make it a loving-cup” (p.140,l. 2-3), but Blanche declines his offer. He tries to find his silk pajamas, because he always wears it on special occasions like this one. Stanley is actually hoping for a son, so he is already thrilled about the call from the hospital. Blanche keeps talking about Mr. Huntleigh, which is a gentleman and he respects her. She is also saying that she is “a cultivated woman” (p.141, l.4) She has some things to offer, like the “beauty of the mind”, “richness of the spirit” and “tenderness of the heart” (p.141, l. 8-9) and thinks of herself as “a very, very rich woman” (p.141,l.14), but she has been silly about “casting her pearls before swine.” (p.141,l.14-15) Stanley doesn’t like the word swine, because she means him and Mitch. Blanche is telling Stanley about Mitch coming to the apartment earlier, but she told him to go. But he came back with a box of roses to beg for forgiveness. But Blanche couldn’t forgive him and she also realized that their ways of life are too different, so it wouldn’t work out well. “Our attitudes and our backgrounds are incompatible.” (p.142,…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stanley Vs Dubois
    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stanley Vs Dubois

    Stanley comes from Polish descent but proudly claims to be born and raised in America. At the start of the play, Stanley is portrayed as loyal friend and a passionate husband. When Blanche DuBois arrives at the Kowalski’s apartment, Stanley seems to immediately distrust her. The reader learns that Blanche has lost most of what she once had. Blanche’s last living relative is her sister Stella, who she tries to convince to leave her husband and marry into higher social status. After a month passes, Stanley learns about Blanche’s distasteful past. With this information he informs Mitch, his friend and Blanche’s potential suitor, and his wife Stella. After a heated argument with Blanche, the reader is left to believe that Stanley rapes Blanche. No one believes Blanche and her accusation that Stanley raped her. Week’s later, the doctor arrives to take Blanche to an insane asylum. Stanley fights to gain control over Blanche, in order to get her out of the house and into the doctors hands. Stanley claims to be a social leveler and is the driving force behind Blanche’s entry into an insane asylum. Stanley has a desire to refine America by manipulating and controlling his surroundings. Stella, seems to be impacted by his passionate and forceful ways, blinding her from reality. However, if Stella was able to see passed Stanley’s masculine facade, it is possible that she…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis Essay
    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Streetcar Named Desire Character Analysis Essay

    Stanley is impolite and brutal, "He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications" even at his wife's sister. He offends Blanche by changing his sweaty T-shirt in front of her and rudely asks what happened to Blanche's marriage. During the card game, Stanley, storming into Blanche's bedroom, throws the radio out of the window and beats his pregnant wife. He pulls all of Blanche's belongings out of her trunk and looks for anything valuable for sale. Stanley snatches up Blanche's papers, which are old letters and love poems from her young husband, from her trunk and begins to read them. His cruelty can also be seen in his investigation of Blanche's past, the one-way bus ticket back to Laurel for her birthday present and his disclosure of Blanche's secrets to…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Street Car Names Desire
    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Street Car Names Desire

    Blanche Duboise reenters Stella’s life with expectations to be welcomed. She is quickly mistaken upon meeting Stanley. As a result of Stanley and Blanches differences, they did not share any form of a positive relationship. Because of this, Blanche does not approve of her way of living nor the man she is in love with. Blanche states with a superior attitude, “Well if you’ll forgive me- he’s common!” (82). Stella, insulted by her sister, is left unsure of whom to side with. This unapproved notion of Stanley, adds to the sympathy towards Stella as she is not receiving the respect and trust of judgment from Blanche. As a victim of verbal abuse, the empathy for Stella is caused by Blanche’s actions.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desired
    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Streetcar Named Desired

    Blanche, Stella's is by far the most complex character of the play. An intelligent and sensitive woman who values literature and the creativity of the human imagination, she is also emotionally traumatised and repressed. This gives license for her own imagination to become a haven for her pain. One senses that Blanches own view of her real self as opposed to her ideal self has been increasingly blurred over the years until it is sometimes difficult for her to tell the difference. It is a challenge to find the key to Blanche's melancholy but perhaps the roots of her trauma lie in her early marriage. She was haunted by her inability to help or understand her young, troubled husband and that she has tortured herself for it ever since. Her drive to lose herself in the "kindness of strangers" might also be understood from this period in that her sense of confidence in her own feminine attraction was shaken by the knowledge of her husband's homosexuality and she is driven to use her sexual charms to attract men over and over. Yet, beneath all this, there is a desire to find a companion, to find fulfilment in love. She is not successful because of her refusal or inability to face reality, in her circumstances and in herself. Blanche has a hard time confronting her mixed desires and therefore is never able to sort them out and deal with them. She wants a cultured man but is often subconsciously attracted to strong, basic male characters, perhaps a response to her marriage with a cultured, sensitive man which ended in disaster. So although Blanche dislikes Stanley as a person, she is drawn to him as a type of man who is resoundingly heterosexual and who is strong enough to protect her from an increasingly harsh world. This seems to be the reason for her brief relationship with Mitch, but it becomes clear to Blanche that Stanley is the dominant male here and she begins to acknowledge that fact. When…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire Play Analysis
    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Streetcar Named Desire Play Analysis

    Since the beginning of time writers haven chosen a variety of themes to include in their works. The most widely used and complex theme is love. Love is not a specified as a certain feeling or action. For centuries literary plays have employed love into accomplishing their intended outcome of their play. The theme of love emphasizes mutual love, mutual esteem and freedom to choose. Writers tend to make the theme of love become personal and understandable when coming to life in a play. Three writers made this possible in plays using the main theme of love. Three plays that show the complexity of love are “A Doll House” by Henrick Isben, “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, and “A Midsummer…

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More