Streetcar AO3 Context

what does the omission of overt historical references in williams’ plays do?

emphasises that the topics of the play are universal and permeating → resulting claustraphobic quality that contributes to the dramatic tension

creates a vacuum of events for the play to be perceived as unfortunate facts of life

what years did the american civil war take place?

1861-1865

how was slavery viewed differently between the north and south around the time of the civil war?

north → slavery seen as evil

south → regarded slavery as essential for the tobacco and cotton industries on which their wealth was founded

what are some of the characteristics of expressionist theatre?

• rejection of realism in favour of dreamlike states

• non-linear, disjointed structures

• utilisation of imagery and symbolism in place of naturalism

• focus on abstract concepts

how does expressionism work in theatre (particularly streetcar)?

emphasis on uncovering intense emotions and the failure of societal systems that have been overlooked

what does expressionist theatre commonly critique?

expressionist theatre critiqued the government, big business, the military, family structures, and sexism

what is plastic theatre?

utilises props, sound, stage direction, and costume to present poetic truths through symbolism

not intended to be realistic, but symbolic

what had williams claimed about his own personal association with the character of blanche?

repeatedly claimed “i am blanche dubois” + identified w/ her particularly in terms of shared hysteria

what was the socio-political context behind new orleans being a “melting pot of culture”?

• segregation + systems that perpetuated cheap labour based on race still existed in south despite slavery being abolished

• after the great depression = large influx of immigrants from europe and africa

• end of the jim crow era (1930s)

with the play being set in the deep south, how are both sides of the socio-political climate post-civil war symbolised in the play?

• upper-class dubois heritage → representative of mississippi and the old ways of intolerance towards difference and the ‘other’

• elysian fields → representative of new orleans/new, more liberal south

what are the values of the ‘american dream’?

vigour of working class people will be rewarded with anything they desire, merely through hard work, perseverance, and individualism

what did williams claim was the major theme of ‘streetcar’?

“i have only one major theme for my work, which is the destructive power of society on the sensitive, non-conformist individual”

how did postwar emergence of a sense of american heroism have implications for gender roles?

• championing of masculinity

• placing women in a domestic, submissive role w/ the intonation that they should provide for their husbands who have fought for the country

industrialisation in the south

• numbers of women in the workforce during WWII rose from 27% to 37%

• from 1920-40s, industrialisation continued to expand in the south, and the old southern class structure couldn’t withstand its effects

• in 1945, 5 mil women in work force in south, and industrial workers skyrocketed + galvanised by unionisation + legislation (protects them as workers)

how did the numbers of women in the national workforce change post-WWII?

some women pushed back into domestic roles to accommodate the influx of men returning being able to slot back comfortably into society

traditional gender roles shaken up + sense of the new woman

why is the symbol of the locomotive/streetcar important?

represents modernity - the fast and intrusive changes that the old south underwent after the civil war

symbolises the dominance and inevitability of stanley’s victory over blanche

‘desire’ line served streets in the affluent nightclub section of the french quarter of new orleans

what was williams' realistic and ‘vulgar’ style of writing in the play inspired by?

people had seen the brutal reality of war and weren’t left with much hopeful imagination

people had just come back from the brutalities of war desensitised so felt no need for blatant romanticisation

when was streetcar first performed?

1947

what is an aristotelian tragedy?

traditional greek tragedy

said by aristotle to have a change in circumstance for the central character

central character should have a hamartia which exacerbates their downfall

what is a hegelian tragedy?

expressing a tragedy as a battle of two opposing moral claims (ideas), typically mutually exclusive

what is a nietzschean tragedy?

• expresses tragedy as an internal conflict between the apollonian and dionysian side of a character

• elements of a nietzschean tragedy with the apollonian forces of blanche and the dionysian forces of stanley in conflict

define hegemonic masculinity.

practises that authorise and encourage male domination = justifies the subordination of women and non-hegemonic males

what is the modern/postmodern (late 20th century) era marked by?

• psychological/spiritual displacement → lack of religion

• loss of connections

• loneliness

• retrogression into sexual hedonism

what would have been some causes for anxiety/social tensions post-WWII?

• inequalities in race/gender

• competitiveness in society → judgement and establishment of winners and losers

• shift away from religious ideals to the worship of money (post-WWII prosperity)

• exploitation of the natural world

what is the significance of marlon brando in the 1951 film adaptation wearing a white shirt?

• before his role, the t-shirt was mostly hidden under clothes - after his role, it became a staple of mens clothing - the plain t-shirt

• audience reaction to streetcar (particularly stanley’s violence) being embracing his masculinity and not challenging it

define diegetic.

(of sound in a film, television programme, etc.) occurring within the context of the story and able to be heard by the characters.

what is peripeteia?

an absence of justice in a play

describe the southern belle.

• southern women were expected to be model of virtue, garden of youth and a ‘restraint on man’s natural vice and immorality’

• considered inferior of her own race, whilst being virginal and morally superior to the male

• expected to marry respectable young men, become ladies of society and be dedicated to the family and community

• taught to look at others for protection - “i have always relied on the kindness of strangers”

• educated (especially in Mississipi, where the south’s first public college for women was established in 1884)

significance of the epigraph

• taken from a Hart Crane poem titled ‘the broken tower’

• Williams was influenced by Crane’s imagery and by his unusual attention to metaphor

• epigraph’s description of love as only an ‘instant’ and as a force that precipitates ‘each desperate choice’ brings to mind Williams’ character Blanche

• with increasing desperation, blanche ‘hurls’ her continually denied love out into the world, only to have that love revisit her in the form of suffering

significance of the inscription on mitch’s cigarette case

• reads “and if god chose, I shall love thee better after death”

• quotes sonnet 43 from elizabeth barret-browning, wife of robert browning

• robert browning wrote ‘porphyria’s lover’ and other poetry concerned with immortalising women

• contrasts to the romantic topic and format of elizabeth’s sonnet

• dichotomy between men’s poetry and female’s poetry

significance of blanche using the words ‘lunacy’ and ‘hysteria’

• interestingly gendered term to refer to madness, typically a feminine thing

• Blanche tends to be the one that uses the words ‘lunacy’, but to describe men, and is more careful about how she refers to women

• inversion of gender roles, perticularly perpetuated by Blanche - exacerbates her positioning throughout the play as the ‘other’

context behind the phrase “you two sitting there like a pair of queens”

• Jewish folklore – when Adam was first put in Eden, Lilith was there also made from the earth

• Lilith was defiant to Adam and God damned her and created a submissive woman (Eve) instead

• indicates stella and blanche are eve and lilith respectively

religious imagery in “someone’s sister behind the curtains to hear us”

• curtains/veils in traditional Jewish temples/synagogues referred to as the dwelling place of God/his essence which would have a veil around it

• Once a year the holiest man would go in w/ rope tied around him, so he didn't die when experiencing God’s greatness

• When Jesus died, the veil tore and that's where the holy spirit came from 

• stanley saying this indicates that on either side of the curtains is a Godly figure - perhaps Blanche being the ‘all-hearing’ imposter in their decidedly sinful living → stanley as a metaphor for capitalist greed

varsouviana music

• originated from poland

• non-diegetic device

• exacerbates dramatic tension as stanley imposes on blanche’s psyche, distorting her sanity

• tangibly imposing in the physical world + mentally imposing and invasive through the music

social realism

• bridging idea into the post-modern era

• the depiction of society as it actually is

• draws special attention to the w.c. and poor

• depicts the human condition and the worst sides of people

• doesn’t feel the need to have a hero/ moral, even if that is an uncomfortable truth

• recognisable milieus whose characters are cultural archetypes

• dramas covers how characters co-exist and dramatizes a clash between them

• one character rises and another one falls, symbolising a shift in society

the american dream

• the american dream → idea that every citizen of the USA should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination and initiative in a capitalist society with few barriers

• individualistic all-american ideology was shone on working class men like stanley who had survived, re-joined the peacetime workforce and were now seen as bearers of american hard-working spirit

• some argue that the american dream originates from the united states declaration of independence, which states that “all men are created equal” (with the notable exclusion of women, who were expected to quit the jobs they took up in ww2 to let men pursue the american dream), with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

• note the denotation of the word ‘dream’ meaning something intangible in waking life → the pillars of life in new orleans post-WWII were built upon something that can never actually be attained = perpetuates a cycle of abuse in a never-ending search for satisfaction in an inherently unsatisfactory world

significance of the line “this game is a seven card stud”

• devalues the old south version of the poker game ‘five-card stud’, symbolising how blanche’s hamartia was her failure to let go of her psychological ties to the old south - she was destined to lose as she didn’t know the rules of the “game”

• signifying the cyclical and unchanging nature of the characters' lives and relationships → the seven-card stud, a type of poker game, is used as a metaphor for the play's narrative, where the characters are locked in a game of manipulation, deception, and power struggles, with the outcome largely predetermined

• working title for streetcar was ‘the poker night’, exacerbating the cyclical nature of encapsulating the entire play - devoid of time markers - as one long game, ultimately inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and demoting the events to something predestined to be repeated

marxist perspective of ‘desire’

• Desire is the method in which the emerging working-class, relishing in their post-war success, can destroy the inhibited Southern Aristocracy of the Antebellum America

• The rape scene illustrates how Stanley pulls Blanche into the modern, capitalist progress of America that is unyielding

• The raping of Blanche by Stanley is emblematic of the necessary destruction of the Southern aristocrats and any class superiority or chasteness by the emerging working-class

• Stanley’s economic power and sexual potency as a labourer used to maintain his position at the top of the capitalist hierarchy

where does the phrase ‘casting pearls before swine’ originate?

Matthew 7:6 → ‘do not cast your pearls before pig lest they trample on them and turn to attack you’

much like the wider gendered dynamics of the time