Southern women were not allowed to have much of a say in what happened in their lives in the early nineteen hundreds, and Tennessee Williams’ shows a lot of this in his play A Streetcar Named Desire. Women are to bow down to their husbands, and they do as they are told, but one person in particular shows that she will not let a man define her or tell her what to do. This character is Blanche Dubois. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams’ shows how Blanche has become a victim to her own self delusions and Old Southern attitudes after she had come to stay with her sister, Stella. Blanche became a victim of her own self-delusions because she has the attitude that the world should pay attention to her, and that she has the right to
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Blanche falls victim to her Old South attitude for many reasons. She first arrives at her sister’s house to find that she live in a duplex with two other people, a woman named Eunice and a negro woman. Blanche learns that Stella left the plantation to move in with the a negro woman, and Eunice. Stella lived in a two room building, and Blanche let Stella hear her hatred. “What are you doing in a place like this?” (Scene 1.1819) Stella takes that to offense because she likes the people around her, but due to the customs that Blanche was going by, the negro women received unpleasant looks and comments. “Those women characters who conform to culturally idealized passivity sink into decline” (Weber, 491). In result of Blanche being raised to think that way, she turns her thoughts onto those around her, and they quickly learn that Blanche is not a polite person. Blanche also has a problem about how she needs a man all of the time. She is very deceiving, and makes sexual comments to the men around her, and it eventually lead to her rape. Right before her rape, Blanche was talking about a fake man that she knew, and Stanley quickly figured out what was going on. Before she knew how to react she had began trying to get in touch with the man, but she was not having any luck. Stanley, Stella’s husband, was very drunk, and started yelling at Blanche. This then led to her rape, and her placement into the mental
Blanche falls victim to her Old South attitude for many reasons. She first arrives at her sister’s house to find that she live in a duplex with two other people, a woman named Eunice and a negro woman. Blanche learns that Stella left the plantation to move in with the a negro woman, and Eunice. Stella lived in a two room building, and Blanche let Stella hear her hatred. “What are you doing in a place like this?” (Scene 1.1819) Stella takes that to offense because she likes the people around her, but due to the customs that Blanche was going by, the negro women received unpleasant looks and comments. “Those women characters who conform to culturally idealized passivity sink into decline” (Weber, 491). In result of Blanche being raised to think that way, she turns her thoughts onto those around her, and they quickly learn that Blanche is not a polite person. Blanche also has a problem about how she needs a man all of the time. She is very deceiving, and makes sexual comments to the men around her, and it eventually lead to her rape. Right before her rape, Blanche was talking about a fake man that she knew, and Stanley quickly figured out what was going on. Before she knew how to react she had began trying to get in touch with the man, but she was not having any luck. Stanley, Stella’s husband, was very drunk, and started yelling at Blanche. This then led to her rape, and her placement into the mental