Women and Desire the Unwillingness of Society to Permit...

Fulfillment of desire has always been a popular theme in novels, plays and short stories because it has been undeniable and problematic in women throughout history. Novels such as The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, as well as plays like A Streetcar Named Desire and Portrait of a Madonna, by Tennessee Williams, often show what society would ensure happened to these women if they were ever to follow through and try to fulfill their desires, be them sexual desires or otherwise. According to this novels and plays, women that strive to fulfill their desires eventually come to a tragic end because the society cannot permit a woman to liberate herself from the stigma of the repressed desire without also letting go of the social status that this†¦show more content†¦Stanley, Stellas husband, is the first character that sees through Blanches act and it is his function in the play to overthrow Blanches illusion. In this conversation between Stanley and Blanche: `I dont go in for that stuff. `What--stuff? `Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a woman that didnt know is she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more that theyve got. I once went out with a doll who said to me -I am the glamorous type- I said -So what?- `And what did she say then? `She didnt say nothing. That shut her up like a clam (Williams 1992). Stanley makes it clear to Blanche that he can see through her. Her unwillingness to stand in direct light and her `fishing for compliments do not go unnoticed in his eyes and he asks Blanche directly about what happened to Belle Reve, her family home and an allusion to heaven, forcing Blanche to face her ruined past once more. Blanche, distraught, gives Stanley all the papers she has available about Belle Reeve while imputing her disgrace on the sexual desires of the generations before her: There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications--to put it plainly.... The four-letter wordShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Homer s Odyssey 1710 Words   |  7 Pagesprovide him with a method to discover the true nature of those men and women in his household. His request to his son Telemachos to â€Å"let nobody hear that Odysseus is in the palace†¦[so he and Odysseus] alone will judge the faith of the woman, and†¦the serving men, to see whether any of them is true to [them] and full of humility†(XVI. 300-306), allows Odysseus the opportunity to gauge the situation and the faithfulness of these men and women before acting. 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