Domestic Abuse In A Streetcar Named Desire

Susan Koprince talked about the issues of domestic abuse in America. In the 1940’s, when the book was written, being submissive and tolerant towards your husband is what a wife was expected to do. Issues of domestic abuse were expected to be dealt with in a household without the interference of the authorities, since it was believed to be a woman’s fault. This is perhaps why in A Street Car Named Desire Stella’s role is submissive. We see this when in reply to Blanche’s concern regarding Stanley’s behaviour Stella says “But there are things that happen between a man and woman in the dark”. Here Stella suggests that she almost can justify Stanley’s actions towards her. To agree with Helen Deutsch’s interpretation of women being masochists, Stella may be ‘thrilled’ by Stanley’s behaviour like she was on her wedding night where Stanley smashed the lights with his slipper.
Though Stella seems to agree with Deutsch’s interpretation, being pregnant with Stanley’s child may be the reason as to why she is so tolerant towards him. Raising a child on her own in the 1940’s would have been really hard since the end of the great
Despite this many of the women in society began to become more emancipated and contributed to society by getting jobs and being able to provide for themselves. The war had finished 2 years prior to the book being published so if Stella had wanted to leave Stanley it would not have been impossible for her. From this, we learn that Stella’s decisions to not leave Stanley could be due to the ‘love’ that she believes they share or even the influences of other woman around her. Eunice, Stella’s Landlord also seems to suffer the same kind of abuse from her partner, though she does threaten to ‘call the police’. Since the society that Williams has created is based around the charge of men and the abuse is seen as normal (Stella - “she and Steve had a