Sexual Desire in A Streetcar Named Desire

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  • Created by: itstxri
  • Created on: 03-11-17 16:34
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  • Sexual Desire in A Streetcar Named Desire
    • Blanche
      • Her interaction with men always begin with flirtation.
      • Relies on her perception of herself as an object of male sexual desire.
      • She was able to 'smooth' things over with Stanley when they began to flit - Blanche beginning to flirt with him.
      • She nearly attacks the young man with her aggressive sexuality, flirting heavily with him and kissing him.
      • She dresses provocatively in red satin, silks, costume jewelry etc. She calls attention to her body and her femininity through her carefully cultivated appearance.
        • p. 20 - "Blanche comes out of the bathroom in a red satin robe."
      • Blanche is horrified that Stanley beats Stella - Stella explains that there are things men and women do in the dark that make everything else seem unimportant.
      • Blanche's sexuality is motivated by the fact that her first husband was homosexual.
    • Steve and Eunice
      • Steve beats Eunice.
    • Stanley
      • Is drawn to Stella's traditional, domestic, feminine sexuality.
      • Even though he is violent towards Stella, their sexual dynamic keeps them together.
      • He radiates a raw, violent, brute, animal magnetism - his sexuality asserts itself violently over Stella and Blanche.
      • p. 13 - "Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes, since his earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens."
        • p. 13 - "He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classification, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them."
    • Stella
      • Her desire for Stanley pulls her away from Belle Reve.
      • She is drawn to Stanley's brute, animalistic sexuality.
      • Despite Stanley hitting her, she continues to submit to his force.
      • While Stella is away giving birth, Stanley rapes Blanche.
  • What does sexual desire have in relation to A Streetcar Named Desire?
    • Ses is essentially a destructive fore in the play - this destruction takes on many forms including literal death, physical violence, mental degradation, the corruption of a good reputation, and finance ruin.

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