If there was ever a playwright to display women as helpless, male-dependent fools, Tennessee Williams was that man. His plays A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof involve women who are weak and progressively fall apart because of the men in their lives, or lack thereof for that matter.
Blanche, the main character of A Streetcar Named Desire, and Maggie, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, display Williams" view of women's dependence on men. Blanche bases her every action on the opposite sex, which leads to several skanky relations. She stays out of the light so as not to allow anyone to see her aging, for fear she"ll no longer be attractive to men. Blanche is so obsessed with the male gender that she flirts with and tries to seduce everyone she comes in contact with, even her sister's husband. While Maggie does not throw herself at every man she sees, she does have a dependence on her husband Brick. Brick refuses to have sex with Maggie due to his hidden homosexuality, which devastates her. Not only is Maggie crazy about Brick, but she also desperately wants a child with him. His indifference towards her throughout the play slowly tears her apart.
Blanche and Maggie are essentially presented as very lonely, confused women. Maggie's loneliness lies in Brick's lack of desire and concern for her, while Blanche's loneliness may be caused partly by the death of her young husband many years ago. Maggie responds to being alone by becoming hard and nervous, not too mention exceedingly bitter and jealous. Blanche reacts similarly in that she takes her self-hate out on her sister, by bad-mouthing her husband and the life she's made for herself. Blanche takes her loneliness to the extreme when she speaks of Shep Huntleigh, an admirer of hers, whom we find out later to be fictional.
Blanche's and Maggie's similarities confirm Williams" love of masculinity. He presents these two characters as fragile, stupid women living their lives based on what others think and feel.
