A Streetcar Named Desire AP Essay – Calvin Chan Per 2

Societal barriers serve as boundaries that reject outliers from the common kind. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois, a once wealthy Southern gentlewoman has lost everything of reputable value: property, reputation, and job. Descending into the bourgeois New Orleans neighborhood is near impossible for DuBois; her past stature is insignificant in the environment. A fallen mistress in a strange new society, DuBois becomes the eyesore of the new-to-her, male dominated society.

The first asymptote alienating Blanche is her socially middle class background and attitude in definitive contrast to the masculine ideals of her surrounding peers. Blanche attempts to signify her clear superiority over the working class people. By presenting herself in this manner, Blanche identifies herself as an outlier, even imposing questions upon her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. As a result, she exposed her former promiscuous activity and drinking habits, a clear contradiction to the image she was trying to uphold, further degrading her rank in the social hierarchy.

One of the deepest conflicts that segregate Blanche from society is the gender-oriented role of women in the New South. Early in the play, Blanche developed contempt for Stanley when he beats his wife. However, in the new environment, the upper class status holds no significant values. Unlike her sister, Stella, who retired her upper class status for the impudent Stanley, Blanche refused to acknowledge the new customs of the new society. The working class men have little patience for Blanche’s attitude, as proven through Stanley’s raping of Blanche. Eventually, she bows to the male-dominant hierarchy of the New South and becomes submissive to the new culture.

The class and gender-oriented differences that led Blanche to the extremes of society drove her to a state of insanity. Through the characterization and development of Blanche, Williams identifies the distinct patriarchal structure of a male-dominant society. In the gender-oriented community, moral values are highly different than those in equality-stressed societies, resorting to the traditional hierarchy where men remain at higher vertical displacement than women.