Environmental impact in Tennessee Williams's plays

¶ … Streetcar Named Desire?

The playwright Tennessee Williams was known for gritty family dramas and his presentation of frank sexuality, which came across as sensationalist at the time that many of his plays were written, but have aged into fine representations of American cultural dynamics. His three most renowned plays all feature this interplay of sexuality and family dynamics: The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire. However, Streetcar differs from the other plays in that its protagonist, Stanley Kowalski, is largely without redeeming features. More than any other character in any of his plays, Kowalski appears to be Williams's opposite in many significant ways, perhaps personifying the things that Williams both adored and hated about the South to which he was born.

To understand any of Williams's plays, it is critical to understand the American South in the period prior to the Civil Rights Movement. It was a place of exaggerated chivalry, and the role of women was seemingly elevated by this system. However, it is important to consider that chivalry was, in many ways, a gilded cage for women. Women who violated social norms were considered un-ladylike, and therefore, in many ways, fair game for the predatory behavior of males. Furthermore, when men did act as predators towards these women, they were frequently not chastised for that behavior, but, rather, seen as providing an appropriate punishment for women who defied gender norms.

Women were not the only ones expected to adhere to rigid gender norms in the South during this time period. Men were also expected to play a very specific social role. That role was one of dramatic and enhanced masculinity. The hyper-masculinity was considered a hallmark of lower-socioeconomic class Southern males, and the frequently boorish behavior that accompanied such hyper-masculinity was not considered maladaptive at that time period. On the contrary, males who did not exhibit such hyper-masculinity were considered maladaptive.

One must consider Williams's against the background of the stereotype hyper-masculine Southern males when considering the impact of his environment on the story in Streetcar. Williams was not a hyper-masculine male. On the contrary, Williams was a very effeminate bookish man who had been plagued by childhood illnesses, which prevented him from engaging in the types of physical activities that would have been representative of males of his time period. Moreover, Williams was a homosexual, which further removed him from the predatory male archetype established in the Southern culture of his time period. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Kowalski, one of Williams's most complete villains is such a prime example of predatory male sexuality. Kowalski is a violent, brutal rapist who hits his wife and rapes his sister-in-law, and appears to have no redeeming qualities.

However, it is important to realize that, as a homosexual man during a time period when homosexuality was considered socially taboo and in a place where that taboo was even more exacerbated than in the rest of the country, Williams undoubtedly struggled with issues surrounding his sexuality. These issues come through in his portrayal of Kowalski. He imbues Kowalski with a type of brooding sexuality that makes him initially seem appealing, not only to audience members, but also to Blanche, the future victim of his violent sexual assault. Moreover, he has managed to earn the love and loyalty of Stella, the one character in the play who is a seemingly non-complex good character. Even after Stanley assaults Stella, Stella appears to love him and be loyal to him. This portrayal of Kowalski's violent male sexuality as somehow appealing probably speaks to Williams's own experience growing up as a gay men around men like Kowalski. On the one hand, Williams may have found these men to be sexually attractive to him. At the same time, he almost certainly feared discovery by these men, and feared what type of harm they might do to him. Furthermore, it seems reasonable that some of these fears would be directly related to sexual violence; it seems likely that some of these hyper-masculine men were also homosexuals and used their hyper-masculinity as a means of trying to keep themselves firmly in the closet. Like Blanche, Williams would have served simultaneously as an object of desire and derision for such men. In fact, there is some speculation that Williams directly-based Stanley on one of his boyfriends.

While socio-cultural gender norms of his time period almost certainly impacted how Williams approached Streetcar, it is important to consider the impact of his personal life on the play, as well. Williams's father was an abusive man who is known to have been violent to his wife and children, much like Kowalski's character. Moreover, Williams's mother was known to be a sweet and affectionate caregiver, but the presumption is that she failed to provide meaningful protection to Williams's when faced with violence by his father. One can see this family dynamic in the play in the relationship between Stella and Stanley. Stella seems to genuinely love Stanley and does not seem to fear him, despite the fact that he has been violent towards her. Her most significant flaw appears to be an overly forgiving nature, and it seems very likely that Williams drew upon his own personal experience growing up in a violent home to characterize Stella in that manner.

Williams also drew upon his family history when crafting the character of Stella. Williams had an older sister Rose who experienced significant emotional and mental problems. It seems likely that he envisioned himself as a caretaker for his sister, much as Stella serves as a caretaker to Blanche. What is interesting about the play is that Blanche is a very selfish character throughout much of it. Her presence in Stella and Stanley's home is a disruptive one, and she seems to either ignore her negative impact or simply not care that she has helped bring strife to her sister's home. This attitude is reminiscent of the impact that a family member's mental illness has on the family. Moreover, it seems likely that Williams also envisioned himself in the caretaker role because of his sister's mental illness. The eventual indifference to Blanche's pain and Stella's willingness to cast her sister as insane may hint at Williams's own problems with characterizing his sister as the problem in the family. A common trait in families with domestic violence is to label one of the members as problematic, despite the fact that behavior that would be irrational in a normal family may be a rational response in a violent family. Stella's horrific treatment of Blanche, when she knows her husband to be a violent and brutal man certainly suggests that Williams was drawing upon his own experience of having a sister with a mental illness and the feelings of guilt that may accompany such relationships.