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Feminist Perspectives on A Streetcar
Named Desire (emag 99)
Ian Todd ranges across several pieces of Feminist criticism, both from
the past and more recently, and demonstrates that there is no one single
Feminist reading of Tennessee Williams’ play but rather many different –
sometimes competing – angles.
In 1947, Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire introduced audiences not only to
arguably the most iconic portrayal of a faded Southern belle ever to grace the modern stage but, in
Blanche DuBois, to a fictional creation who continues to provoke considerable debate even today.
In this article I will outline how different Feminist perspectives can offer refreshing and alternative
insights into both the character and the text itself.
Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is a particular type of political discourse that commits itself to deconstructing and
making explicit the many ways in which the ideology of male dominance (or patriarchy) infiltrates and
shapes the sexual politics at work within a text. Thus, many Feminist commentators see Blanche
DuBois as the victim of an all-pervasive and oppressive patriarchal ideology within the play.
Tennessee Williams as a Misogynist
For the Feminist critic Kathleen Lant, however, this patriarchal ideology extends beyond the text to the
playwright himself. In her article ‘A Streetcar Named Misogyny’ she argues that Tennessee Williams –
though part of a marginalised and victimised minority – was nevertheless a product of the dominant
patriarchy in the power politics of American society. Conditioned by it, he saw no compulsion other
than to use Blanche as a crude tool in his misogynistic arsenal to further undermine and devalue
womankind by painting her as a little more than a
loud-mouthed and flirtatious whore.
For evidence, she cites Blanche’s unwillingness to rescue her husband, Allan Grey, from his slide into
self-destruction. Blanche is shown by Williams to offer neither physical nor emotional support for her
husband, thus ensuring righteous condemnation by the audience for her inaction.
Moreover, Lant argues that Stanley’s sexual assault of Blanche is simply presented by Williams as ‘a
crime of passion’ rather than one of ‘violence, cruelty and revenge’. This effectively portrays Blanche
as the progenitor of her own victimisation and rape; the act itself becoming the workings of poetic
justice perpetrated as just reward for a life of promiscuity. The fact that the play then ends with
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Blanche’s removal to a mental institution, in Lant’s reading, merely serves as the final and conclusive
act by Williams to degrade and dehumanise womankind.
Early Criticism
Lant’s view that Williams is guilty of misogyny also finds some resonance in early critical reactions to
the play. It is notable that when the play first appeared on stage in 1947, many commentators
perceived Blanche to be a disreputable and unwholesome figure rather than one whose situation
deserved sympathy. Robert Leeney, for instance, the theatre critic in the New Haven Register,
described Blanche as a ‘confirmed liar’ and ‘moral outcast’ who employed every
feminine whim in her dealings with her younger sister [...] and the assortment of men whose
paths cross hers.
The director Elia Kazan also ensured his own stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire reflected
this misogynistic view of Blanche. As his production notebook makes clear, he perceived Blanche as a
dangerous and destructive force who posed an existential threat both to Stanley’s sense of
masculinity and the state of domesticity he had established through his marriage to Stella. This
directorial interpretation certainly seemed to have had an impact on early audiences, some of whom
reportedly cheered at the close of Scene X just prior to the ensuing act of rape.
At a time when the nation was recovering from the trauma of WW2 and intent on promoting the
values enshrined in the traditional all-American family, it was hardly surprising that the character of
Blanche should be seen as a threat to the domestic ideal of a stay-at-home wife and mother.
Nor should it be surprising that the perception of ‘Blanche as villain’ is one that has gained some
traction in critical circles. In more recent times, for example, both Ruby Cohn (‘The Garrulous
Grotesques of Tennessee Williams’) and Richard Law (‘A Streetcar Named Desire as Melodrama’) have
promoted the view that Blanche’s rape comes as the result of her own licentious demeanour.
Blanche as Victim
This is not a wholly unanimous Feminist reading of the play, however, with critics all speaking with a
single unified voice. In a riposte to Katherine Lant, Anna Vlasopolos (‘Authorising History: Victimisation
in A Streetcar Named Desire’) has questioned the assertion that Williams is a misogynist, insisting
instead that it is the misogynistic forces at work within society and not Blanche herself that is being
condemned by the playwright. Thus, in the final scene of the play, it is (she argues) the indifferent
attitude of other characters towards Blanche’s removal to an asylum that Williams is condemning as
being symptomatic of a misogynistic society that chooses to ignore the suffering of women. It is
against this background that Blanche’s iconic line:
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers
condemns – through biting irony – the heartless edifice of an oppressive patriarchal ideology.
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As for Blanche being compliant in her own victimisation, Vlasopolos points out that Williams’ use of
stage directions clearly absolves Blanche from any complicity in her rape. In the text, Williams writes:
Lurid reflections appear on the walls around BLANCHE. The shadows are of a grotesque and
menacing form […] they […] move sinuously as flames along the wall spaces.
Indeed, Blanche herself is heard to cry out:
Stay back! Don’t you come towards me another step or I’ll… I warn you, don’t, I’m in danger!
Thus Williams, she argues, cannot be seen as being in any way complicit with, or seeming to
condone, Blanche’s rape.
Blanche Redux
Taking yet another tack, there are other Feminist critics who reject any idea that Blanche is portrayed
as the defenceless and passive victim of an oppressive patriarchy. Instead, they choose to see Blanche
as strong, self-aware and audacious; someone who is both ready and willing to challenge the
patriarchal forces that stand in opposition to her.
In this reading, Blanche is shown to be acutely aware that the patriarchy oppresses women by making
them function as either servants or as an objectified source of male pleasure. We see these two
elements combine in Scene IV when a heavily pregnant Stella tidies up after Stanley’s drunken
outburst. Blanche is quick to condemn:
Stop it. Let go of that broom. I won’t have you cleaning up for him!
Instead, she offers Stella the chance to leave Stanley and set up a commercial enterprise of their own,
free from the patriarchal forces that keep her in a state of submission. Unfortunately for Blanche,
Stella has internalised an ideology that promulgates the inferiority of women and she refuses.
Blanche is also astute in discerning how highly the patriarchy prizes female youth and beauty. She
realises that only by maintaining the illusion of youth and beauty can she retain some semblance of
power in a system that exists to oppress her. Thus, she takes great care to conceal her true age,
effectively playing the patriarchal value system at its own game. For instance, in Scene III, Blanche
responds to Mitch’s comment: ‘You are Stella’s sister are you not?’ with:
BLANCHE: Yes, Stella is my precious little sister. I call her little in spite of the fact she’s
somewhat older than I. Just slightly. Less than a year.
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In this feminist reading, Blanche also attempts to retain some power within the patriarchy by
exploiting her sexuality. She appears dressed in virginal white when she first arrives in New Orleans,
openly flirts with Stanley, then Mitch, and even the young man collecting for the newspaper. She even
adopts the role of the traditional widowed and chaste Southern Belle in her liaison with Mitch by
refusing to ‘put out’.
Indeed, Blanche shows throughout the play that she is unwilling to conform to the sexual mores that
the patriarchy places upon women. Her numerous sexual encounters with the soldiers camped near
Belle Reve; the various men she meets in Laurel at the Hotel Flamingo and even her taboo
relationship with the young student at her school which precipitates her dismissal, are all in conflict
with a patriarchal ideology that means to control the narrative of sexual conduct. Thus, Blanche’s
sexual history is condemned, while that of her male counterparts is not. We see this most clearly in
the hypocrisy of Mitch who claims Blanche is ‘not clean enough’ to meet his mother, yet is proud
enough to boast of his own sexual history in showing off the engraved inscription on his cigarette
case by a previous lover.
Condemnation of Blanche’s sexuality, however, is not enough. For the patriarchy to survive, its
ideology must continually be reasserted and this is achieved through the final actions of Stanley. First,
he removes the protection Blanche has constructed for herself by puncturing the web of fabrications
she has created.
STANLEY: There isn’t no millionaire! [...] Take a look at yourself […] I’ve been on to you since the
start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes!
He then divests her of any remnant of power and autonomy she may still possess over her own body
by raping her.
Finally, he ensures any possible future threat is nullified by consigning her to a mental asylum; thereby
perpetuating a legacy where a woman who was deemed to have rejected established sexual and
social mores was declared insane and institutionalised.
The implication is clear: to challenge the value system of the patriarchy is an act of insanity. The
permeating virus must therefore be physically removed from society in order to prevent further
contamination. The fact that both Stella and Eunice are complicit in this action clearly demonstrates
the extent to which the ideology of the patriarchy has indoctrinated the mind set of Blanche’s fellow
sisterhood.
Multiple Feminist Readings
Reading A Streetcar Named Desire (or, indeed, any other text) from a Feminist perspective does not
necessarily lead to a single consensus reading. As in this case, there can be competing interpretations
that can not only enhance our understanding of the text under interrogation but also of the nature of
sexual politics at work in society itself.
emag Archive
Pitiful Desire – A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 90, December 2020
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17/03/2023, 12:12 English & Media Centre | Articles | emagazine
The Language of Stanley and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 50, December
2010
Blanche in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 82, December 2018
A Streetcar Named Desire – A Critical Discussion of the Rape Scene, emagazine 10,
November 2000
Old South versus New America – A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 69, September 2015
Piano, Polka and Songs – Music in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 75, February 2017
Exploring Streetcar on Stage and Film, emagazine 14, December 2001
New Orleans in A Streetcar Named Desire – Its Significance and Symbolism, emagazine 84,
April 2019
Gendered Language and Cultural Identity in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 62,
December 2013
Simon Bubb: A Streetcar Named Desire – A Tragedy of the Powerless, emagazine 92, April
2021
Presentations of Masculinity – A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 59, February 2013
Drama – Naturalism and Expressionism, emagazine 35, February 2007
Setting of A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 37, September 2007
Lights, Music, Action – Motifs and Symbols in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 45,
September 2009
A Streetcar Named Desire – The Story of the Poker Night Painting, emagazine 93, September
2021
Costume in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagazine 95, February 2022
National Identity in A Streetcar Named Desire, emagplus for emagazine 96, April 2022
Article Written By: Ian Todd taught both English and Media Studies in several state secondary schools.
This article was first published in emagazine 99 (February 2023).
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