Throughout A Streetcar
Named Desire it was pretty apparent that there were several different
themes. The one that I was caught on was the role that men play, masculinity.
It was seen several times throughout the play, but my favorite one that I zoned
in on was found on page 1137, when Mitch said, “Poker shouldn’t be played in a
house with women.” This is all happening in the middle of the scene where
Stella is calling Stanley a drunk and there are lots and lots of action taking
place.
When considering this theme in my life I definitely had to
take a step back and really consider what parts this play and I have in common.
The only thing that I could think of is how we all live in a male centered and
male dominated world, a.k.a. patriarchal society. This is around us right now
with how the president of the United States is male, and always has been, along
with other positions that are held by men. Also, when I take a step back I can
see how my dad is the one who, for the majority, makes the decisions for our
family, so I could also say he has an “obsession with control”. When in all
reality he usually makes the decision that is right for all of us, and not just
what is best for him.
Now if we were to dig a little deeper, some people around us
suffer from unhealthy relationships because of such control that their
boyfriend and sometimes even their girlfriend have. When looking at Stella and
Stanley’s relationship we can see that their relationship isn’t the healthiest
because of the way Stanley treats Stella. In the play we also read how Stanley
hit Stella. This can be referred to as male violence. If we look at the quote, “Poker
shouldn’t be played in a house with women”, we can see that there are definite
separations from gender roles and men think that they get to order the women
around. Even some of the comments such as “women don’t play poker” made my
blood boil…like honestly, I can play poker if I want too. This was just two
examples from the play that showed masculinity.
When looking at broader implications of the theme, we can
see that this is also brought too, and can be compared to patriarchy. When comparing
my previous knowledge on how a man should treat a woman and vice versa it had
me putting up red flags while I continued to read the play. This doesn’t only
connect to patriarchy, but even to relationships and domestic violence. Some of
these comments were made in previous paragraphs! I hope you enjoyed reading my
blog, until next time. J
That comment is so interesting--why do you think women are excluded from playing, and not even supposed to be in the house? Is there something about gambling/playing cards that is particularly patriarchal and/or dangerous for women? I wonder if we see any other instances of women being excluded from events/activities in the play.
ReplyDeleteI think they were excluding the women because of what is all going on during a game of poker. Typically you think of alcohol consumption, swearing, talking stupid and being stupid when you think of a poker game. All of these things are considered "unladylike." So of course in a play where gender roles are quite obvious, women would be excluded. Instead, they had to go see a show and have dinner at a fancy restaurant. I happened to notice there were a few times where women were not invited to participate and one was in the beginning when Stanley and his buddies were bowling. It's ridiculous to think that women couldn't do these things with the men.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wrote about the same theme and I definitely agree with what is said about Stanley and Stella's relationship. There are so many other places too where the relationship dynamics are a little messed up. The woman who lived upstairs is always calling her husband back from the poker games, why doesn't he hit her? It's odd to think of because the play makes it seem like violence is okay between Stanley and Stella, but other character do partake in those behaviors.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my blog about gender roles, which touched on this subject a little bit too. One thing that I brought up in my blog was how Stella was trying to take Blanche out to eat so that the women wouldn't be "in the way" of the poker game, but Stanley still had to complain about not having dinner then. That part kind of sucks because Stella was just trying to avoid conflict, but Stanley still found a problem with it because his needs weren't being met, which means that Stella was doing something wrong. You're passage about the poker game though made me think, if the women weren't allowed to play and were just getting in the way, then why didn't they go to some one else's house to play?
ReplyDelete