A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is about a woman named Blanche, who is fading, fragile and desperate woman. Completely destitute, Blanche travels to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and her sister’s husband, Stanley. Although she is very unhappy there, Blanche stays with her family despite the unusual and abusive relationship between Stella and Stanley. When Stanley discovers Blanche’s secret of having lost the family estate and then later providing many men with sexual favors, he attempts to send her back to where she came from. Stella goes into labor soon after, forcing other issues aside. When Stanley comes back from the hospital, but before Stella has the baby, he and a very drunk Blanche are left alone at the …show more content…
This is event that finally breaks Blanche’s fragile psyche. Stella does not believe Blanche’s story and proceeds to have her taken to an asylum. This is where the story ends. So, how does this relate to Lakoff’s text “Talking like a Lady”? Lakoff’s text describes her perceived differences of how males and females communicate. This is very important for the communication in the story A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche, ever needing to charm the men in her life, communicates at a very feminine level, using words that are usually confined to women’s speech and linguistic patterns. She uses ‘weak’ expletives, if any at all, which would be customary for the feminine speech. For example, Blanche says, “Don't you just love these long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour--but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands--and who knows what to do with it?” (Williams) on page 97 and 98. There are a few different examples of feminine language here. The beginning of the phrase ‘don’t you just love…’ would be an …show more content…
Lakoff states in her text that, “…men’s language is increasingly being used by women, but women’s language is not being adopted by men…” (44). I guess I didn’t really understand exactly what this meant or why it was important until I read A Streetcar Named Desire. In the face of her attacker, Stanley, prior to the rape, Blanche attempts at speaking in a more masculine way in hopes of dissuading Stanley from hurting her. She says, “So I could twist the broken end in your face!” (Williams 162) when breaking a bottle in defense against Stanley. The attempt to use harsher words to imply having strength in what Lakoff would refer to as ‘the real world.’ In “Talking like a Lady” Lakoff also expresses the concern, “... the behavior a woman learns as “correct” prevents her from being taken seriously as an individual, and further is considered “correct” and necessary for a woman precisely because society does not consider her seriously as an adult” (45). I didn’t really comprehend to what degree this was accurate, but it is reflected even in Blanche’s ending. When Blanche tries to convince Stella of Stanley’s crime, Stella later reflects, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (165). This implies that Stella doesn’t believe Blanche’s accusation, perhaps due to her femininity or her soiled past as an implied prostitute, making her an