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Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire" & social class theories of Karl Marx
This paper presents a detailed examination of Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire. The writer of this paper holds the play up to be examined under the light of social and class theories as ascribed to by Karl Marx. There were two sources used to complete this paper.
Marxism in Art
Many times authors use their works o purposely display a social theory or message. In Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the author appears to have stumbled across a perfect example of the class distinction that Karl Marx, the famous social theorist" wanted denounced with his Marxism theories.
This play is a perfect example of the theory Marx professed for several reasons. It is based in America, which is a capitalist country, it is about the working poor and it depicts a class difference within the same family. Stanley is married to Stella and her sister Blanche comes to stay with them. Immediately we can see the perceived social and class difference between the...
Marxism believed as well that class differences were more of a mental and self-image issue than actual class distinction by class.
In this play Blanche tries to force Stanley to treat her like the debutante she believes herself to be. He in turn is angered by her airs and believes her to be nothing but a loose and washed up woman. This entire play is a perfect backdrop for the beliefs of Marx. Stanley is the typical male of that era. He is a blue-collar worker who drinks heavily and socializes with other blue collar men. Blanche is a female who believes she to be a cut above Stanley and she has a hard time understanding why Stella married out of her "class." Every conflict in this production as well as the mindset of all involved reflect the worldwide debate about classes, gender systems and people equality by virtue of their hard work.
Stanley on the other hand believes that Blanche is no better than he is and he tries to tell his wife that he knows things about her. He does this in an effort to make her stop putting Blanche…
Works Cited
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. (Penguin, 1990).
Dobb, Maurice, Marxism and the social sciences., Monthly Review, 09-01-2001, pp 38.
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