Genre Blog: Drama; Streetcar Named Desire

One of many themes with in Streetcar Named Desire is abuse/gender roles. Stanley and Stella have a very specific type of relationship throughout the book. A quote that displays this is when Stanley says, "All Right. I'll wait till she gets through socking in a hot rub and then I'll inquire if she is acquainted with the Napoleonic code. It looks like you have been swindled, baby, and when you're swindled under the Napoleonic code I'm swindled too. And I don't like to be swindled. (Bayum, Levine 1171)"

The theme of gender roles goes back to last semester when I took Women in Pop Culture. We learned a lot about feminism and how gender roles were developed. Before first wave feminism it was common for men to be extremely overbearing compared to today where equality isn't achieved, but it's closer than it used. I think back when the play was written abuse in married couples was more common and that's why Stella always brushes it off throughout the play. Men were highly entitled in 1947 when the play was written and women were used to that. I also think Stella was a more outspoken women who really did try to rule her house just as much as Stanley. Also when Stella found out that Stanley had raped Blanche she really didn't have a choice, but to trust her husband over her sister which is an interesting dynamic.

The quote above is important because not only does it show gender roles and Stanley's need to get his chunk of Stella's share, but it's also a turning point within the book. After the quote is said, Blanche begins to act differently which gives readers a hint that there may be something being hidden from then. The gender roles comes out in that quote because it shows that Stanley could possible to jealous of what Stella once has, he often gets mad when he is compared to where Stella came from, so I think that this is his way of taking part of that away from he so he has part of it. Who even really knows if the Napoleonic code it a real thing-which it is, but only in Louisiana was it adopted as a code stating that men have a piece in their wife's dealings. Wikipedia says that the most common use of the Napoleonic code defined as a men having a piece in their wife's dealing is in this play alone (paragraph 25).

This play was written so long ago that viewers or readers of the play wouldn't have even batted an eye at the abuse that took place throughout the book. I'm almost positive that gender roles were never even discussed once as the play came out either. If feminism and the fight for equality would have been as prodomient as they are today I'm not sure that the play would have had the abuse that it did. Personally, I don't think that it plays such a huge role that it's necessary to include every detail of it. Again, if the public were as sensitive as the public today many people would think the play is really messed up because the physical and sexual abuse it's a necessity. I do feel that the play could go on without those aspects, but of course it wouldn't be the same.

Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton anthology of American literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. Print.

"Napoleonic Code." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Mar. 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.