The Clash of Genders in A Streetcar Named Desire
The Clash of Genders in A Streetcar Named Desire

Summary/Abstract: The world of Tennessee Williams includes a widerange of complex and diverse characters, pointing to thecomplexity of human nature: Tom, Amanda and Laura in“The Glass Menagerie”, Maggie and Brick in “Cat on a HotTin Roof”, Maxine and Shannon in “The Night of theIguana”, Chance and Alexandra in “Sweet Bird of Youth”,Val Xavier in “Battle of Angels” and “Orpheus Descending”,Alma in “Summer and Smoke”. The dramatic world of theElysian Fields, the place where the action of the play “AStreetcar Named Desire” is located, is populated by an equalnumber of female and male characters. The female figurespresent in the play are Blanche du Bois, her sister Stella,Eunice (Stella‟s friend and neighbour), the matron, an AfroAmericanwoman, a Hispanic woman selling flowers. Thegallery of male characters includes Stanley (Stella‟s husband),Steve, Mitch and Pablo (Stanley‟s friends and pokercompanions), the doctor and a young man. There is a verygood balance as far as the importance attached to masculineand feminine characters is concerned: there are twoprotagonists, Blanche and Stanley, followed by Stella andMitch, the characters that come after them in order ofimportance. The play witnesses the clash between femininityand masculinity apparent in the relationship of the mostimportant characters: Blanche and Stanley, Stella and Stanley,Blanche and Mitch. The article will analyze the relationshipsbetween these characters as representatives of femininity andmasculinity and the changes that may be perceived in theirrelationships in the unfolding of the action.

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