streetcar context - key stats

historical:

• By 1950: USA held 50% of worlds wealth.

• After ww2: 25% of rural south lived in poverty.

• lobotomies were becoming more popular - 1947: 2,000. 1949: 18,000.

• Franco-Prussian War (1870) triggered mass migration to USA; by 1920 over 2 million Polish-americans in USA.

• 1803 - ‘Louisiana Purchase’ (New Orelans sold to USA by France).

• Civil war (1861-65): south lost 2/3 of its wealth from 1860-70.

• New Orleans population: 15% increase between 1940-1950.

• Women in U.S workforce: 27% to 37% during the war

• Antebellum: pre civil war; Blanche refined manners and french phrases parody a dead aristocracy.

social:

• Homosexuality was listed as mental disorder until 1973; Williams admitted to homosexual in his 1975 ‘memoirs’.

• Divorce was rare and required proof for a reason.

biographical:

• Rose lobotomised in 1943 after diagnosed schizophrenia.

• B is like W as he lied about his age, felt like outsider, used alcohol as escapism: “I am Blanche Dubois”.

• Stanley vs Blanche = Cornelius vs Edwina + Tennessee

• At 5, had diphtheria and paralysed for 2 years; he invented imaginary worlds as escapism like Blanche.

• Had breakdown and quit shoe factory, and fled to New Orleans to reinvent himself; like Blanche who flees there after mental collapse.

• “one maor theme for my work is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual”.

literary:

Aristotle tragedy rules:

1. Plot (Mythos)

   • Unity of action: One central plot, no subplots.

   • Reversal (Peripeteia): A sudden change in fortune (e.g., Blanche’s hope with Mitch → rape).

   • Recognition (Anagnorisis): Protagonist realizes their error (Blanche’s “kindness of strangers”).

   • Catharsis: Audience purges pity/fear through the hero’s downfall.

2. Character (Ethos)

   • Noble stature: High-born protagonist (Blanche = fading Southern aristocracy).

   • Hamartia: Tragic flaw (Blanche’s delusion/deceit; Stanley’s brutishness).

   • Consistency: Characters act believably (Stella’s conflicted loyalty).

3. Thought (Dianoia)

   • Themes should explore universal truths (e.g., illusion vs. reality, desire vs. death).

4. Diction (Lexis)

   • Elevated language (Blanche’s poetic speeches vs. Stanley’s vulgarity).

5. Melody (Melos)

   • Chorus/music heightens emotion (ASND’s Varsouviana polka as psychological motif).

6. Spectacle (Opsis)

   • Visual impact should serve plot (e.g., Stanley’s rape of Blanche offstage, per Greek tradition).

plastic theatre:

5 techniques:

1. Varsouviana Polka - Williams turns music into a psychological ghost—the polka doesn’t just play for Blanche; it possesses her, proving that the past isn’t just remembered, it’s relived.

2. Paper Lantern - The lantern isn’t just a prop—it’s Blanche’s last veil of fantasy. When Mitch tears it off, he doesn’t just expose a light bulb; he exposes the raw wiring of her delusions.

3. ‘Sinister Glow’ (Rape scene) - Williams replaces physical spectacle with lurid light, forcing the audience to confront rape’s aftermath not on the body, but in the mind—where Blanche’s tragedy truly unfolds.

4. Bathing - "Blanche's compulsive bathing rituals parody religious purification—her scalding baths scald only flesh, not memory”

5. Blue Piano - "The blue piano's primal chords are the Id of the play - a Greek chorus of desire heralding Blanche's inevitable destruction."

sentences:

• "ASCND” reworks all six Aristotelian tragic elements—elevating nobility of spirit over birth, psychological determinism over cosmic fate, and plastic theatre’s spectacles (melody, diction, thought) over divine machinery—as Blanche’s flawed poetic delusions clash with Stanley’s brutal realism, culminating in a cathartic downfall that exposes desire’s cruel social Darwinism."