Through a focus on genre, both Elia Kazan's film on Tennessee Williams' original work, A Streetcar Named Wish (Warner Bros, 1951) Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale (Vintage, 1986) effectively manages to reflect the concerns of both time and place. Despite different contextual influences, both of these texts manage to aptly explore similar issues related to gender, revealing the universality of gender concerns. A Streetcar Named Desire reflects that adherence to a patriarchal hierarchy results in female passivity and male dominance and when patriarchal paradigms are imposed on society, the marginalization of women will result. Similarly, The Handmaid's Tale demonstrates how obedience to gender norms and expectations results in the oppression of women and how gender roles ostracize individuals and, despite the subversion of patriarchy, women continue to suffer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Tennessee Williams' seminal film, A Streetcar Named Desire, reflects the concerns of the time and place, where respect for a patriarchal hierarchy results in female passivity and male dominance being demonstrated. Williams draws parallels to her early 20th century American era, reflecting the treatment of women as inferior to that of men in the post-war industrial period. Traditional values ​​were embraced as men attempted to reassert their masculinity at home after returning from war; that Williams saw in his father. This notion is exemplified in the scene where Blanche is introduced to Stanley. When Stanley enters the house, he throws a package of meat at Stella and yells "Catch!". Stanley exercises his masculine power through the imperative, establishing his aggressive and virile nature. The flesh is the physical manifestation of Stanley's sexual dominance over Stella, which results in Stella's sexual compliance and infatuation with Stanley. The film continues to make clear Stanley's overtly aggressive and sexual behavior, exemplified by his costumes. Stanley undresses in front of Blanche and wears a t-shirt as an outer garment, so the character is portrayed as intimidating by imposing his physicality. This contrasts with Blanche's costume, who ironically wears white, a symbol of immaculateness, to hide her impurity. The costumes therefore accentuate the obvious differences between the sexes, of which Williams gives rise to this imbalance of power. Thus, respecting patriarchal ideals, Stanley's dominance and Blanche and Stella's inferiority are represented, thus reflecting the concerns of time and place. Similarly, Margaret Atwood's seminal novel, The Handmaid's Tale, expresses how gender as a concern transcends time and place through its representation. how obedience to gender norms and expectations oppresses women and diminishes their identity. Atwood's examination of the patriarchy of Gilead reflects the concerns of society, with the moral majority's condemnation of women's sexual expression under the Reagan presidency. Oppression of women has also been found in countries such as Iran, due to religious fundamentalism and the growing fanaticism of Iran's fundamentalist theocracy. Atwood reflects this critical idea of ​​women's oppression in the scene where Offred serves as an escort to the Commander in "The Jezebels". The scene is established through repetition used to describe the absurdity of the costumes of“The Jezebels”, “Too red, too wet… too clownish”. Through the abnormality of Jezebel customs in a patriarchal society, emphasized through the repetition of “too much,” the manipulation of “The Jezebels” is shown. This reveals that male desires are imposed on women, in order to appease males, thus diminishing the female's identity. This mirrors Stella's compliance with Stanley's sexual requests. Additionally, the Commander brings Offred to "The Jezebels" to experience freedom from the regimes of an oppressive society. However, it is ironic that the place where the Commander takes Offred explicitly shows the oppression and degradation of women. Similarly, Stanley's sexual and physical power shows Blanche's oppression, expressed through Offred's oppression and “The Jezebels”. This is manifested through the rhetorical question that Offred uses to comment on women's emotional detachment. “Is there joy in this? There could be, but did they choose it?”. Offred is aware that the superficial contrast with the sadness of the Gilead she knows could only be an appearance, not reality. Thus, the rhetorical question implies that women have limited power and have resorted to complete submission in accordance with male superiority. Therefore, the universality of gender concerns is demonstrated through the oppression of Offred and the Jezebels and the failure to recognize their individual identities. Furthermore, through Tennessee Williams' reference to the gender concerns of his historical time, one can see how, in A Streetcar Named Desire, when patriarchal paradigms are imposed on society, the marginalization of women will result. Through this, Williams alludes to his own ostracism and internal struggles, as he was known for struggling with his sexuality, and failure to conform to the "All American" ethos propagated by returning soldiers from the war. Williams shows this through the scene where Mitch confronts Blanche about her deceitful past. Chiaroscuro lighting is used as a motif throughout the play, and Blanche's reluctance to appear under bright light shows her inability to grasp reality, foreshadowing her death in madness. When Mitch forces Blanche to stand in the direct light, the literal and metaphorical truth of Blanche and her past is exposed, revealing her sexual maturity and disillusionment with reality. Mitch symbolically breaks the lantern, demonstrating his aggression to physically and metaphorically expose Blanche and destroy her facade which she uses as a mechanism to avoid ostracism and with the aim of seeking validation in a male-dominated society. The use of a close-up reveals Blanche in direct light, revealing her true identity and exposing her struggle in a patriarchal society that leads to a desire to hide her past for fear of marginalization. This is juxtaposed with a high angle shot of Mitch looking at Blanche cowering, desperately trying to hide from him, revealing his mental instability and fear of the truth, which inevitably leads to his marginalization. Therefore, the gender concerns of the 1940s are represented through Blanche's marginalization due to her inability to conform to patriarchal values. Similarly, Atwood expresses gender concerns as a universal concept, demonstrating in The Handmaid's Tale how gender roles ostracize individuals and despite the subversion of patriarchy, women continue to suffer. These efforts to subvert gender stereotypes and inequalities in The Handmaids Tale are a manifestation of the rise of feminism in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and its imminent threat from the forces..