Dubois Gender Roles

In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, we are introduced to the Kowalski and DuBois worlds. Kowalski's are a young couple comprised of Stanley and Stella, and then there's Blanche Dubois, who is Stella's older sister. Stella is the bridge between the two worlds. In the beginning of the play we see that there are strong gender roles in the couple, and we learn that Blanche is a single English teacher. Throughout this essay, we will see how the world of the Kowalski's and the world of the DuBois's are so different.
We learn at the very beginning of the play that Stella and Blanche DuBois come from a very elite and wealthy background at their family plantation, the Belle Reve. Since Stella got together with Stanley, Blanche came to find that her sister is living in the exact opposite atmosphere from what they grew up with, and blue collar dump. With Stella and Stanley, everything seems to be out in the open, and they don't try to act like what they are not. …show more content…
Stella was quick to defend Blanche, but Stanley was ready to kick her out as the town did to her. The reveal of the life Blanche leaves without a Mitch, who she thought would marry her, so she could live the true southern lifestyle as a married woman. Blanche later lies that Mitch came to beg for her back, which was a lie and also another act. A trend she continues with. In the end, we see that Stanley is gritty, masculinity driven, blue collar, Polish man, that lives life as he desires, and Blanche is a southern aristocratic woman that likes to put on an elite, worry-free lifestyle, just to mask her messy and distressed past. Stella in the end again is simply a bridge between these two worlds that is stuck in the middle of the difference but want to stay close to Stanley and Blanche even though they are on far sides of the spectrum of lifestyles and has a strong tie to both troubled