From Women to Women: The Portrayal of Violence against Women In A Streetcar Named Desire and Flyin' West

Abstract

[ES] En este ensayo trato de analizar los personajes de dos obras de teatro norteamericano: A Streetcar Named Desire de Tennessee Williams y Flyin’ West de Pearl Cleage; teniendo en cuenta la actitud que muestran respecto a la violencia de género a la que están expuestos. Ambas obras reflejan la mentalidad de la época en la que son publicadas, en 1947 y 1995; la primera más aferrada a la sociedad patriarcal, y la segunda más liberal respecto a los problemas y a la imagen de la mujer. Coincidiendo con dos movimientos feministas distintos, estas dos obras reflejan dos reacciones a la violencia de género completamente diferentes: la primera muestra la sumisión de la mujer respecto al hombre y la segunda muestra la valentía de la mujer para enfrentar una situación de violencia y lograr ser liberada de su opresor. Con estos dos finales los autores pretender concienciar a todas las mujeres de la importancia que tiene rechazar una actitud machista para poder ser libre e independiente.

[EN] This essay deals with the analysis of characters in two North American plays, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West, and attempts to analyze their response towards the gender violence they are subjected to. Both plays reflect the mentality of the times they were published in, 1947 and 1995 respectively. The first one is significant for its portrayal of patriarchy while the second one is more orientated towards demonstrating struggles based on gender and race and the importance of solidarity among women as a force field against patriarchy. Coinciding with two different waves of feminism both plays illustrate two reactions against violence which differ strongly form each other; the former deals with the helplessness of the woman’s situations in marriage and her ultimate submission to her male victimizer while the latter shows the collective courage of women and their active engagement in order to free a woman from her abusive husband. With these two different kinds of approach towards gender violence, the authors of both plays try to make the readers conscious about the importance of gender equality in order for women to break out of the patriarchal chains and be free thinking and independent individuals.