The fishbowl where we discussed Machiavelli’s quote, “The one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived” was interesting. I took away from this fishbowl that those who deceive want to be in control, so they find deceivable people who they can have power over. This related to the character Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire in that he found a wife who was unable and reluctant to accept the truth. Stella was easily deceived and in the end she had to choose between her sisters’s story about Stanley raping her or Stanley’s version that Blanche was lying. The characters in this story all created an illusion of deceit rather than face the truth about their lives. The theme of fantasy verses reality was consistent throughout the play. The concept of people deluding themselves in order to not face reality forced me to think of how often people do that in real life.
In this fishbowl we also discussed the plundering of the sensitive feminine woman by the feral, masculine man. Stanley was a brute, and he was very disrespectful toward his wife. Stanley wants to control his household. This is shown while the men play poker when Stanley hits his wife on the thigh and hurts her. In so many ways this play is a product of its time in that the female brutality and oppression are present. Women are not treated well in the play by male characters and there tends to be a dependence on men. This play made me think about how difficult life must have been for women in this time period because women were treated like second class citizens.
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