⒈ What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm
No man wants to sleep with a woman who has already been had by What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm men. Now, it is not just the Abraham Lincoln: One Of The Greatest Presidents of violence, but the conflict that shows who is who in the play. When the next election came, the. The largest portion of my paper will What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm into a variety of these essays and What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm articles. Tennessee Williams story of pi them an uncompleted first draft of the play. The result of this was how the Northern capitalists led What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm South away from agriculture What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm economic dependence, and how they used their wealth to further grow the American industry. Because she has been with many men, What Does Blanche Criticize Stanleys Actions As Animal Farm now belongs to all men, and Mitch feels entitled to her body, attempting to take control of her. People who were once ridiculed for their poverty were now fairly prosperous owning their own land but still found themselves inactive members of politics. Williams, Tennessee.
Historical context of Animal Farm
Did you like this example? A professional writer will make a clear, mistake-free paper for you! Stuck on ideas? Struggling with a concept? Get help with your assigment. Leave your email and we will send a sample to you. Email Send me the sample. Thank you! Please check your inbox. Sorry, copying content is not allowed on this website Ask a professional expert to help you with your text. Ask expert for help. Enter your email below and we'll send you the sample you need right away. By clicking Send Me The Sample you agree on the terms and conditions of our service. By melding sex and violence together, Stanley has manipulated Stella and those around him into believing the physical pain he causes her is a product of love.
Audiences viewing A Streetcar Named Desire have grown up in a patriarchal society, where the understanding is the more sexual partners a man has the more successful and powerful he is, whereas the more sexual partners a female has the more undesirable and tainted she becomes. Before knowledge of her promiscuity, Mitch treated Blanche like a human being, seeking to connect with her emotionally and taking their courtship slowly.
Because she has been with many men, she now belongs to all men, and Mitch feels entitled to her body, attempting to take control of her. Her scandalous sexual history becomes a factor when considering her rape. Blanche lies because there would be no way for her to survive if she told the truth. No one would want her. Instead of speculating about her past they would be certain of the reality of the situation and no longer want anything to do with her. Blanche knows that she will no longer be wanted as a woman because her sexuality is all that she is worth. Rape has been used as a tool to gain control from the bedroom to the fields of war. Women, who have only recently been allowed to fight in wars or been in a position of political power to order the beginning of one, are targeted by the opposing army and raped.
This is a power play, to psychologically shake the enemy by taking something that can never be given back. As a white male in the United States, Stanley was born with status. While he comes from a lower class than Stella and Blanche, his gender comes with built-in power and dominance, and he is used to a certain amount of respect. In his drunken anger, unable to defend himself with words, he resorts to physical force to regain control of his house and his wife. Bert Cardullo argues:. Rather, he does so because he has been physically attracted to her from the start and has been encouraged by her on at least one occasion, and is able to fuel his desires with knowledge of her checkered past in Laurel.
It is undeniable there is a mutual fascination, if not attraction, between Stanley and Blanche. Blanche flirts with Stanley, spraying him with perfume and answering his accusatory questions with a coy smile. To begin with, it is impossible for one person to force another person into action. A fully grown adult could never be made to do something they do not truly want to do. I believe that while Stanley did not plan to rape Blanche, he found himself in a convenient position to regain his power as king of the house, asserting his dominance over Blanche, and invading her so personally that she cannot recover.
Stanley would not have raped Blanche if there had been the slightest chance she would regain her strength and credibility. Stanley knew that by demonstrating complete control and exerting a power over her she could never hope to match, Blanche would be reduced to a woman unable to even speak his name aloud. Cardullo further argues:. The language and assumptions Cardullo uses to formulate his argument are blatantly promoting rape culture and victim blaming. He first point addresses the fact it is Blanche and not Stanley who physically threatens the other, with a tone that suggests he is surprised Blanche would even attempt to defend herself at all, or perhaps is capable of it in the first place.
Stanley is clever enough to realize that any physical indication of force would point to his guilt, and is aware that Blanche has suffered a great deal of mental damage, enough that would lessen her will for survival. Stanley does not use physical force because he does not need to. He is well aware he has terrorized Blanche enough where she will fold under pressure without him having to exhert any extra effort. Sexual consent is not the absence of no. It is callous and small-minded to assume all rape victims are dragged away kicking and screaming. There are many forms of rape, and all of them legitimate no matter the amount of struggle exerted by the victim. In the moments leading up to picking her up and taking her to the bed, Stanley has already decided what he is going to do.
His movements are calculated and unfaltering, like an animal stalking his prey. By raping her she becomes a whore in his eyes, who provoked him into sleeping with her, and he feels justified in thinking that was who she is all along. His comments show a complete lack of understanding toward women, as well as a lack of empathy toward rape victims. No doubt Cardullo and those who decided to publish his work do not even recognize the damage that speaking in this way can cause, however subtly. Sexism has been so internalized many are no longer able to see it, or do not want to. I see Blanche become the bravest and most heroic figure in this scene, as she attempts to hold her mind together while defending her body.
She continuously attempts to diffuse the situation, always moving away from Stanley and speaking to him in a civil manner despite her fear. Blanche is not prideful enough to deny she needs help, and attempts to call for help. She is resourceful and makes a weapon, defending herself even when Stanley is closing in on her. And, most importantly, she recognizes that further struggle once Stanley grabs her could mean further pain.
I see Blanche in the moments before her rape as the strongest she has ever been. Quite often, Blanche and Stanley are seen as symbols of forces much larger than themselves. Williams utilizes symbolism in many aspects of his play, from names such as Elysian Fields, to colors, to the sounds and disruptions outside the apartment. It is no stretch to suggest that Blanche and Stanley also represent something larger than themselves. Critics keep returning to this interpretation of the play because it is easy to see such dichotomies between Blanche and Stanley, and it allows the critic to keep the characters at a distance.
When the individual is no longer a person but instead a representation of something larger, there is an amount of desensitization that occurs, and, similarly to sexual objectification; the person ceases to have thoughts, desires, and agency. All of her words now have double meaning, her actions scrutinized and blown out of proportion, and she is no longer a human being. Her rape becomes a metaphor for the ways of the new world evolving and destroying the old, traditional ways, rather than a violent act against a woman. Similarly to Adams, W. Stanley is id, exhibiting animalistic behaviors, led only by the most basic of desires. Blanche is superego, lying and shading harsh light to appear to be the cultured, mythical ideal.
To suggest that Stanley is controlled only by his desires and therefore rapes Blanche out of pure sexual need reduces him to an animal. It would be difficult to argue that Blanche is a likable character. She is relatable, obviously flawed, and devastatingly human, but possesses qualities few could say are desirable. She is vain, insulting, high-minded, thoughtless, judgmental, and manipulative, as well as a liar. Her callousness is further revealed in her actions after discovering the man she loved was a homosexual.
When she describes to Mitch the circumstances surrounding her guilt, she is unable to even put to words what she saw transpiring in the bedroom between Allan and their older male friend. This indicates a sense of betrayal, that Blanche cannot bring herself to imagine her husband destroying the sanctity of their marriage all over again. I know! Blanche did not have a choice in her rape. Her autonomy as a person was stripped away and she was invaded on the most intimate and personal of levels. Blanche lay before Stanley, bare, vulnerable, helpless, and undeserving of such a fate. Patriarchal society favors strong, white men, praising them for their sexual conquests, celebrating strength, power, and brutality.
The more manly and aggressive, the more admirable. Blanche is everything men fear; she is beautiful, appearing in white and acting in every way a virgin, when in reality she is tainted and damaged. No man wants to sleep with a woman who has already been had by many men. She is damned for exercising the same rights as men, seeking pleasurable sexual experiences in the hope that one man will find her beautiful and desirable enough to marry, because that is all she has been told she is worth. While she may not be the most likable person and her past is racked with guilt, Blanche in no way deserved to be raped. I find this assumption deeply misogynistic.
To assume Blanche dies after being taken to the asylum is to further assert that a woman is worth nothing, and has nothing left to fight for, once she has been so badly damaged and violated. These words inspired me to write a short play featuring Blanche in the asylum, alive and overcoming her traumatic experience the best that she can. In my mind, Blanche overcomes her traumatic experience and while she lives in the illusion she is living in a hotel rather than an asylum, she is still fighting to escape the walls that confine her. I also imagined her falling in love again, desperate to feel adored again, and trusting that the man she loves will save her from the doors that lock her in.
I believe that rape victims have every capacity to rise above their past and regain the love and trust they felt before. When the man she loves betrays her and it appears she will be stuck inside the asylum forever, Blanche gives in to her delusions, tosses aside the guise of a proper, Southern woman, and escapes into the night. I believe Blanche is capable of making it on her own, to live in the world without leaning on the arm of a man, and that she has experienced enough trauma and grief that she will return to the world much wiser. I attempted to write in the same style as Tennessee Williams, using similar sentence structure and highly poetic language. I utilized similar stage directions, including sounds from the outside world that signify a change in the action.
Something I chose to do was have Blanche remain anonymous throughout the majority of the play. She simply begins as a woman; scared, alone, in love, desperate, hopeful, and strong. I wanted to write Blanche without all the preconceived notions that manifest from reading or seeing A Streetcar Named Desire. I wanted people to relate to her, not to see her as one of the most influential female characters in the theatre canon. When she is finally called by name, the pieces fall into place, and, hopefully, there is a realization that Blanche, as overdramatic, manipulative, and vain as she is, was always capable of great power and courage.
Adam, Julie. Bodis, Klara. Harvard Library. Cardullo, Bert. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, Kolin, Philip C. Westport, CT: Greenwood, Lahr, John. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. New York: W. Martin, Robert A. Critical Essays on Tennessee Williams. New York: G. Hall, Miya-Jervis, Lisa, and Andi Zeisler. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Vlasopolos, Anca. Williams, Tennessee.
A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New American Library, You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account.
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