Power Relations: Streetcar And Master Harold

Your University of Affiliation Power Relations Your Name Your Subject and Section Professor’s Name April 17, 2018 Power relations in works of art have always been present in all shapes and sizes. From the accounts of Greek mythology and until the recent novels and movies today, studying power relationships between the characters as well as the dynamics between the specific elements could give the audience an idea about the time, place, and motivation, etc. about the piece. In this study, I would be studying about two notable plays of the 1950s, namely Master Harold and the Boys and A Streetcar Named Desire. While both of them are award-winning, what piqued my interest was the profound reflections that one could glean from it, especially in the topics of Power relations. Thus, in this article, an analysis of the elements of these works would be done. All in all, I believe that by analyzing these elements and identifying the kind of power struggle that exists between the characters themselves, one could locate them in the context of the time when they were produced. In both of the plays, it is noticeable that the basic plot is characterized by a “man vs. man” for A Streetcar Named Desire and “man vs. society” for Master Harold and the Boys. The reason for this difference is that while the first one focuses on the conflict between Blanche and Stanley, the latter emphasizes Sam’s battles against the system to prevent his friend and master (Harold) from becoming subsumed by it. However, this is not the only difference in both of the plays. One of the most notable differences between both of the pieces was the use of the third-person narrator in Master Harold and the Boys and a First Person point of view in the other. In line with this, it could easily be argued that the use of an “omniscient being” was essential to show the power relations between Hally and Sam without being offensive to the audiences. It is well-known that this play was created during the 1950s during the time of the apartheid CITATION Fug09 \l 1033 (Fugard). Because of this current power struggles between the different races was very much prevalent. This use of a separate but thoroughly knowledgeable entity is important particularly because it gives the objectivity that the play needed (Wiehardt). This is not the case for the portrayal of the relationship between Blanche, Stanley, and Stella, which is shown in a different place – the Broadway. Anot...