How Has Eunice Been Presented in a Streetcar Named Desire?

290 Words2 Pages
How has the Eunice been presented in A Streetcar Named Desire? As A Streetcar Named Desire is predominately a study of couples and the time, Williams uses Eunice and Steve’s marriage to give a separate backdrop to the neighbourhood; it gives the audience a broader insight into understanding the conflict shown between couples. Williams uses Eunice’s marriage to compare with the Kowalski’s. In Scene 5, Stella and Blanche’s conversation is interrupted by the sound of Eunice and Steve arguing, and Steve subsequently beating Eunice, which would shock the audience, however Stella responds to the violence by saying that alcohol is a “more practical” cure for Eunice’s woes, further shocking the audience with the nonchalant attitude toward domestic violence, which is a constant occurrence in the play. As Eunice is used to present a wider background for the play, she also presents the society at the time, and sometimes voices the audience’s opinions, for example, after Stanley beats Stella, Eunice’s speech is punctuated with many ‘!’, showing hers and, furthermore the audiences, shock at the violence. Compared to the violence between Stanley and Stella in Scene 3, Williams portrays Eunice’s ordeal to be less dramatic and more normal, showing that as the play has progressed that domestic violence was a regular occurrence in the 1940’s. Furthermore, Williams has used Eunice to also enforce the submission of women during the set time period, using the alcohol Eunice drinks after the beating by Steve to portray this; alcohol in A Streetcar symbolises a means of escape from reality, mainly used by the protagonist, Blanche DuBois. By presenting Eunice to be drinking alcohol conveys the idea that she can’t cope with her relationship with Steve, and uses alcohol to escape it, much like
Open Document