Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire: Men's Dominance over Women

One of the key underlining themes of a Streetcar Named Desire is the theme of Men's Dominance over Women. In the play both key female roles of Stella and Blanche present themselves as very dependent on men therefore calling for their dominance in the play. Stella's husband is a very dominant male that presents himself as animalistic and powerful within the play. He has much control over his wife and often has absurd outrages within the play a number of times. His dominance of Stella is spread to the extent that Stella chooses Stanley's love over her own sister's after Blanche's inevitable fate has been decided. In Stella's eyes Stanley will provide a brighter future for her and their baby. Stanley's outreach to keep his dominance present can be seen in scene 8 of the play, Blanche's birthday. Stanley is fed up with the influence Blanche has on his wife. This influence causes him to be insecure because he feels that his dominance is slowly withering away by the presence of Blanche in his household. This influence is made evident throughout the entire play as Blanche emits words such as "pig", "animalistic", and "Polack" to describe Stanley. Moreover, Blanche knows that Stanley is not the ideal husband for her sister and she tries to get her point across by using such diction and influences towards Stanley. Stanley takes note of this and eventually becomes extremely fed up with Blanche's presence. In scene 7 Stanley reviles all of Blanche's events of the past in Laurel both to Mitch and Stella thus crushing her dreams of being together with Mitch as he will then fall out of love with her.  In scene 8 Stanley surprises Blanche with a birthday gift, bus tickets back to Laurel in which he shows his ultimate gesture in trying to get Blanche to leave his household. He does all this to show his dominance over the house he lives under and to win Stella and to draw Stella away from Blanche. There are other key events in the play that call for the dominance of males such as in the first scene of the play when Stanley throws a hunk of meat at Stella, he presents himself as 'caveman like' as if they were in a neanderthal era and Stanley was bringing back food from a hunt. Moreover, an association to a historical document also portrays Stanley's dominance such as the fact the he makes a reference towards the Napoleonic Code which ensure that he has full control over his wife's affairs especially in the presence of a baby. He uses this as an excuse to gain all Blanche's papers on Belle Reve as the Napoleonic Code was a document that stated a man has full control over his wife and children.  On the positive side Stanley's brute force and masculinity call for a sexual appeal that appeals to Stella. This adds to the fact that she favors Stanley and how "common" he is. On the other hand Blanche is completely terrified by Stanley.