Women IN Literature

"THE MAJOR PLAYS of Tennessee Williams--who died just 25 years ago, in 1983--feature women at their core. But for all their centrality as the emotional focal point of these plays, paradoxically enough, these women are without power in the community they inhabit. It is the men who control events; the women are entirely dependent on the men and use them to achieve their goals. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the strangers on whose kindness Blanche DuBois has "always depended" are exclusively male strangers. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda and Laura Wingfield depend on Tom for their very survival. And, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, childless Maggie the Cat lacks any claim to the estate of her husband's family."

I have read both these plays and somewhat enjoyed them but reading this article makes me wonder what Tennessee Williams was saying and what was his point in doing so. I suppose people write about what they're living through though and the best writing comes from experience. (An even more interesting point in this article says that the woman in these plays are actually gay men in disguise. Even though I'm not sure where this comes from). Maybe men are criticized for how they wrote about woman in this time but it was simply their experience. This writing though may have just continued a bad trend and but there many men that have written about woman in much more derogatory ways, definitely look for that in future posts.

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