The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, manipulates ideas about the roles of men and women in society as well as the unsustained sexual desire between the two. Back in the 1950s, marriage was between a man and a woman and vows were rarely broken. Gender roles were mostly set in stone. The women cooked dinner, watched the children, and cleaned the house. Men in the 1950s went to work and worked all day to put food on the table. Men were truly the heads of the household and controlled most of the “say it”. Throughout the 1950s, gender roles stopped and moved in an alternative direction. With the rapid rise of World War II, gender roles during the 1950s changed dramatically due to men being drafted into war in large numbers and shipped out by sea, leaving women in charge. Many experts began to believe that "instead of hardening men, the war had made them passive, fearful, and effeminate." (Miriam, 58 years old) Women began to take over from men in order to rebuild the country as it already was. The play confirms this idea of ​​gender roles, as it is emphasized throughout the play to give a true 1950s atmosphere. While Stanley gets to work, Stella tends the fort as a governess. Stanley even gets his hands on Stella without consequence. Unsustained sexual desire is rampant, Stanley rapes Stella's sister in the room. Both men and women are responsible for the previously known decline in morals. Ultimately, Tennessee Williams created a threshold learning opportunity about a 1950s marriage. But could contemporary society be brought about by the great shifts in gender roles of the 1950s? The roles and actions of men and women are surely to blame for the changing times....... middle of paper ...... and how things may have changed life, as we know it. Works CitedCuordileone, KA Manhood and American Political Culture during the Cold War. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.Martschukat, Jurgen. “Men in gray flannel suits.” Troubling Masculinities in 1950s America 32 (2011): 1. Gender Watch. Internet. April 30, 2014. .May, Elaine Tyler. Heading Home: American Families in the Cold War Era. 20th ed. New York: Basic Bks, 1988. Print.Price, Jane Ashurst and Pamela Hall Zaida. Understanding women in distress. Florence KY: Routledge, 1989. Print.Reumann, Miriam G. American Sexual Character: Sex, Gender, and National Identity in the Kinsey Reports. Ewing, NJ: U of California P, 2005. Print. Williams, Tennessee. A tram named Désir. Sewanee Tennessee: U of The South, 1947. Print.