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Eugenics Discourse and the Control of Venereal Disease in A Streetcar Named Desire

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2018, 31(3), pp.73-111
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Eunjoo Chang 1

1서울시립대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

During the twentieth century, America experienced a lot of dynamic social debates and economic changes influenced not only by World War I and II but also by the Great Depression. This paper discusses one such debate-eugenics discourse as it relates especially to veneral disease-by examining the collective social violences experienced by ordinary and innocent Americans. It approaches this debate by examining two characters whose experiences reflect those dynamic debates and changes: Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois in the 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Strictly speaking, eugenics is a scientific endeavor to improve a human population through controlled breeding that seeks to increase the occurrence of certain heritable characteristics. However, many of the social practices and laws of the early twentieth century were intended to ensure the security of American citizens and the prosperity of the state. Thus since state and federal government intervened in and regulated people’s lives with the ostensible goal of improving society, it can be argued that certain social controls, such as laws criminalizing miscegenation and prostitution, are unscientific forms of eugenics. According to the eugenic theory, the fit and the unfit should be discriminated, with the unfit destined to be separated from the community, not allowed to procreate, and eliminated to keep society clean and healthy. In the view of early eugenic theory, Stanley, a rough, working-class descendant of Polish immigrants would have been recognized as ‘unfit’ and Blanche, a white woman from a wealthy family now humbled by economic downfall, would have been seen as ‘fit. ’ However, ‘unfit’ and ‘fit’ have been redefined continually along with changes by the social and political environment. Even after eugenic theory declined in popularity, a social control system similar in function to eugenics continued to portray prostitutes and promiscuous women as threats to the state during and after World War II. Such women were blamed as the main carriers of venereal disease, which threatened the whole society. In economic boom after World War II, in which society treated as ‘unfit’ those individuals who were poor, unemployed, and unable or unwilling to work, Stanley would now been as ‘fit’ because he could contribute to society through hard work thanks to his healthy, masculine body and productive abilities. In contrast, Blanche, who had experiences of prostitution and as an incapable single woman with a distracted mind, was no longer employed or employable. Therefore she was doomed ‘unfit’ and was destined to be eliminated from society. In the last scene of the play, most people including her sister, Stella, see Blanche’s breakdown as an evidence of her being mentally unfit, and Blanche is taken away by authorities to a mental asylum, who represent a social control system. Ultimately, this paper will reveal the nature of ‘desire’ hidden in a social control system reflecting the society through A Streetcar Named Desire.

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