Williams Vs Albee

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Literature II

Williams/Albee - Stanley/George Comparison

        The two main characters in both “Streetcar” & “Virginia Woolf” give an amazing portrayal of males trying to remain dominant in an environment where a female character is trying to “rule the roost”. Their upbringings are entirely different in both character and education, however their overall goals throughout both plays is the same; to assert their authority in their own domain.

        Stanley Kowalski has to deal with the aging spinster in the form of Blanche DuBois, who challenges him in many ways. She pushes his buttons in such a way that cause him to lash out, in the end with dramatic consequences. When she witnesses, or rather overhears, Stanley striking Stella she reacts as any woman does, however she does not until later realise that Stanley’s love for Stella knows no boundaries, she views his actions as barbaric and cannot comprehend how Stella could take him back into her arms lovingly with no qualms or major reactions to him striking her, especially whilst pregnant. Stanley has been raised to be a man’s man, to fight for your rights and to be the man of the house at all times, his attitude towards women could be called brutish by some but he has been conditioned to have this attitude by his childhood. His love for his wife is unconditional even though he sometimes treats her with a little less respect than she deserves. His view is that women were put on this planet to serve the needs of men, to cook, clean and provide a womb for a man’s child. His love is only matched by his anger when pushed to a limit where he will explode, he sees no issue with occasionally striking his wife in order to “put her in her place” and even though by today’s standards that would be considered domestic abuse, during the time period and environment in which this play is set it was somewhat overlooked by the law; a man made the laws in his own home. His education could not be considered to be learned, by his own admission when he first meets Blanche he tells her:

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   “I never was a very good English student”

He has learnt life skills and essential points of knowledge from growing up hard and fast, however throughout the play he does express opinions in a way that would portray him to be more educated than he lets on by using certain terms that would not be heard by the friends he associates with who have been raised in the same way as him; this could be down to Tennessee Williams’ education which has bled through his writing and given Stanley an air of education that was not intended or a ...

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