A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennesee Williams in 1947. The play follows the life of Blanche DuBios, a seemingly Southern belle who seekes refuge with her sister during trying times. She moves to New Orleans and lives there with her sister and her brother in-law where she is soon found to be hiding many of the things that happened in her past.
Gender/Queer Studies:
Tennessee Williams uses illusions to commentate on the greater society’s attitudes towards homosexuals. Homosexuals were forced to present themselves in illusory manners to be accepted within society. There is a short scene in the play where Blanche remembers the struggle and eventual suicide of a certain homosexual. To convey this message Williams uses different metaphors to show the struggle of staying hidden and in "the closet."
Psychoanalytical:
Blanche, the main character finds herself trying to balance between her vanity (id/carnal desires) ,and her ego, her need to be viewed as proper by society. Because of this balancing act, Blanche becomes unstable and irrational, often leaning heavily towards one area or the other.
Marxist Criticism
Through this lens one can view Blanche as representing an upper social class, as she was wealthy and Stanley (her sisters husband) as the lower class. Yet Blanche’s life, although deceitfully glamorous has many hidden faults. Despite this, she still tries to hold power over Stanley, as the upper class has done to the lower class. As the play progresses, one can see that the lower class eventually overcomes the upper class, a demonstration of the conflict and changes in America’s class system in the 1940’s.
Critical Disability Theory:
Blanche has many disabilities that she struggles with throughout the play, yet she often tries to hide them to create a perfect facade. One could analyze the disabilities that she has, such as denial, and why she perceives her disability as something that needs to be kept from society and the disability that this hiding brings her to.
It looks like you could pretty easily combine the Critical Disability Theory with the Psychoanalytical theory and look at how superego has affected Blanche and the way she sees her disabilities.
ReplyDeleteThe marxist criticism approach is pretty fascinating. Usually "classes" are seen as large-scale clusters of people, but by examining two individuals from separate classes, you're creating a sort of microcosm. This approach would also align well to new historicism; you could examine class struggles at the time.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I always thought of Critical Disability Theory as a physical disability, not mental struggles. I agree with Magda that this could be combined well with Psychoanalytical theory!
ReplyDelete