A Streetcar Named Desire Feminist Analysis

In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the female protagonists of the play, Beatrice and Hero, and Blanche and Stella, are submitted to battles against misogyny. Unlike the stereotypically submissive Elizabethan woman, Beatrice is ready to be ‘a man’ (Act 4.1.315) for the sake of her wronged cousin Hero and duel against ‘Count Comfit’ (Act 4.1.314). Blanche, while fighting against Stanley as ‘he advances’ (Scene Three, page 41) towards, and hurt, Stella, became relatable to a modern day audience when fighting against Domestic Violence. These women challenge the status quo of their eras, whether it is effective or not.
Through personality, Beatrice is seen as a woman with a colourful palette, as shown in her reference to Benedick as ‘Signor Mountanto’ (Act 1.1.28). The Latin derivative, mispronounced deliberately as ‘Mountanto’ (Signor Mountanto, N.D. Available from https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/study-guides/much-ado-about-nothing/keywords-and-questions/signior-mountanto¬ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2015]), served as a ‘bawdy’ (ibid) euphemistic pun. The pun

In her first appearance at the Elysian Fields, she displays disgust clearly about the location. Her statement of ‘only Mr Edgar Allan Poe’ (Scene One, Page Eight) being able to ‘do (Elysian Fields) justice!’ (ibid) makes inferences to Blanche being well educated, and as a teacher of English. The incomplete exclamatory sentences also imply that Blanche’s colourful palette is an overwhelming aspect of her discourse. The developed vocabulary is distinct in seeing the role of women post war in America. Blanche would have been one of the many that ‘took on many new roles’ (mibba.com, 2012, The 1940s: An Extreme Society, [online] Available at:http://www.mibba.com/Articles/History/5102/The-1940s-An-Extreme-Society/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 15]) such as