Victim of Patriarchal Society

張雯婷

【Abstract】Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest American playwrights after the Second World War. During his lifetime， Williams creates many famous plays such as The Glass Menagerie， A Street Car Named Desire， and Cat on a Hot Roof and so on. His particular concern about women in the play becomes one of his main writing features.This paper explore the female character Amanda in The Glass Menagerie from the feministic point of view to reveal the cause of her tragic fate in patriarchal society.

【Key words】The Glass Menagerie；feminism； Amanda；patriarchal society；victim

【中圖分類號】H 【文獻標(biāo)識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2015）14-0019-02

According to Encyclopedia， the definition of feminism usually means that women should have the equal rights and chances in social， political and economic fields as men. While in the field of literature， feminist criticism appeared in 1960s and matured during the second wave feminism. It is a brand new and revolutionary form of literary criticism. It focuses on womens role in literature. Although feminist theory has many schools， there are three common goals. Firstly， it aim to reveal the prejudice and discrimination against women in the patriarchal society； secondly， to promote the process of discovering and reevaluating of literature by woman writers； finally， to make a thorough study of the cultural， social，psychological and sexual backgrounds in literary works and literary criticism.

The two terms”the other” and “patriarchy”are frequently used in feminist critics. The most important term “the other ”demonstrates womens status in the male-dominated society， that is， they should be obedient and submissive to men without any hesitations. Simone de Beauvoir， a great French feminist， published The Second Sex in 1949. “ He is the Subject， he is the Absolute---she is the other.”（De Beauvoir， 1968：142）

Patriarchy is another important term on feminist criticism. Patriarchy literally means”rule of fathers，”refer to social system in which males are the rulers and females are the ruled.It also stands for a social system of male authority that represses women through its political， social， and economic institutions.

According to feminist critics， it is generally accepted that the traditional society was dominated by men. In the male-dominated society， men usually are responsible for working hard and making a living for the family， while women should take care of family and learn to be a qualified housewife. In the patriarchal society， women have been forced to be submissive and obedient and by doing so they can get what they want and need.

Tennessee Williams showed sympathetic attitude and great interest to female fate in most of his works. The womens liberation movement and the rise of feminist theory in the 1960s have swept over the United States， which inevitably had impact on Williams thought and works.

In the Glass Menagerie， Williams revealed that Amanda and her daughter Laura were the victims of the patriarchal society. Why Amanda is the victim of patriarchal society？ The reasons are elaborately explained in the following.

Amanda was born in Southern well-off family and infused with traditional values. She constantly recall her old glorious days at Blue Mountain where as a traditional southern beauty she received as much as 17 gentleman callers at one time which made she extremely proud of and often mentioned this in front of her children. She lives in the past southern life even when the environment changed she still had the traditional southern values unchanged and followed the social norms. In contacting with these 17 gentlemen callers， she claimed that she understood the art of conversation， girls at that time knew how to please her gentlemen callers and attract them.

From Amandas saying， there is no difficult to find that Amanda is rooted with the value that man is dominate in womans life， she admitted that woman were inferior than man and all they need to do is to cater for man and served for their needs. As a result，she dressed beautifully， behaved well and understood the art of conversation. she think the only value for a women is to catch a good gentleman and get married with him.

Amanda is not only applying this value to herself but also pouring it to her daughter Laura. When the only gentleman paid visit to their home， Amanda made new dress for Laura， helped her arrange her hair and even wrapped two powder puffs in handkerchiefs and stuffed in Lauras bosom to make Laura look more attractive. Besides that， she make some new arrangements of their house to make it more neat and comfortable.Why Amanda bother to do these？ Because she care about what Jim think of Laura and she rendered this as the chance for Laura to catch a gentlemen caller and settle the rest of her life. By doing this， Amanda is passing the value to Laura that they were subject to men and needed the protection of men. It is the patriarchal value that caused Amandas tragic life.

Another evidence that can prove Amanda is the victim of patriarchal society is that she is ‘a(chǎn) deserted women. Amanda is cruelly abandoned by her husband and raises her children by herself. Her husband， Mr.Wingfield， abandoned his family sixteen years ago.”A telephone man who feel in love with long distances； he gave up his job with the telephone company and sipped the light fantastic out of town.....”（Williams， 1987） After his leave， he just sends a postcard to his families which puts”hello-goodbye！”and without address.

As a deserted woman， Amanda suffers a lot in both social and financial life. Her irresponsible husband deserts her and goes far away without return. However， she never complains about even one word when she talk about her husband.No regrets and complains， she still believes her husband wearing the most charming smile in the world.”There is a fifth character in the play who doesnt appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel.”（Williams，1987：5） Abandoned them years before， fathers influence was constantly felt by the other members. In fact the fifth character in The Glass Menagerie， the”absent father”represents the invisible patriarchy.

Amanda is victimized by the Southern tradition and education offered to women. She stick to the traditional values and social norms. She is taught to rely on men in her youth. Her miserable fate might be explained as an indictment of the Southern system of value she inherited. Pathetically， Amanda learned nothing from her tragic suffering and experience. She put all hope on her two children and enforces Laura to follow her footsteps which is doomed to be a failure.She doesnt realize the bondage and limitations of the traditional roles and beliefs imposed up on women in the patriarchal society.

To sum up， this paper has discussed the question that why Amanda is the victim of patriarchal society. From the analysis of her recall of glorious days at Blue Mountain， arrangement for Laura to follow her footstep and being deserted by her husband， we can conclude that Amandas miserable sufferings and tragic fate is doomed as long as she lives in the patriarchal society. And to make things even more pathetically， women in this play， including Laura， they didnt realize the bondage and limitation the patriarchal society imposed on them. Williams reveal of the tragic fate of Amanda attract our attention to study feminism and advocate to build a equal society.

Reference：

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