A Streetcar Named Desire - Contexts

Williams described the main theme of his work as ?

"the destructive impact of society on the sensitive, non-conformist individual."

A Williams quotation on his work?

"I guess my work has always been a kind of psychotherapy for me."

Elia Kazan on Williams

"Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life."

Elia Kazan on Williams and Blanche

"Tennessee Williams . . . is Blanche. And Blanche is torn between a desire to preserve her tradition, which is her entity, her being, and her attraction to what is going to destroy her traditions."

Williams's own life

In 1931 Williams had a nervous breakdown, and in 1937 his sister Rose was sent to a mental institution - like Blanche - and was lobotomised.

Like Blanche's husband Allan (called 'a degenerate'), Williams was a practising homosexual at a time when it was still illegal.

Suffering from depression, he resorted to heavy drinking (like Blanche) and drugs.

He had a lifelong fear of death, especially death from cancer - hinted at in the death of Margaret, one of the many at Belle Reve

New Orleans

A city in Louisiana, a southern state in the USA, whose legal system was influenced by the Napoleonic code, cited by Stanley.

Known as something of a cultural melting pot, where in some parts, including the French Quarter (district), black and white lived alongside each other.

A 'streetcar' (tram) went to an area called Desire, another to Cemeteries; there is also an avenue called Elysian Fields, referring to where the souls of heroes and the virtuous went in Greek mythology.

Known as a free-and-easy sort of place, with a lot of music (as in this play), especially jazz, bars and gambling - including poker.

The South

The DuBois family's wealth would probably have been built on slavery, abolished in the South in 1865.

After the Southern Confederate states lost the Civil War (1861-5), the South became poor and families like the DuBois declined.

The decline of wealthy (but slave-owning) Southern families was romanticised in literature and the cinema, for example in Gone with the Wind.

Blanche's refined tastes, including her dislike of vulgarity, reflect the values of the old South.

Southern Belle

A young woman of the American Deep South's upper socio-economic class. Southern belles were expected to marry respectable young men, and become ladies of society dedicated to the family and community. The 'southern belle' archetype
is characterised by southern hospitality, a cultivation of beauty, and a flirtatious yet chaste demeanor.

Attitudes towards women

In the 40s the Roper Organization used surveys to test attitudes towards minorities and women
-Just 24% men believed women should be allowed to hold down a job
-60% believed women should, if married, be at home (conducted in 1945)

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/public-perspective/ppscan/91/91047.pdf

The feeling in the 40s that women should return home was reflected in the growing Film Noire genre which depicted dangerous women and femme fatales.

'...the dominant social imperative of post-war America with its emphasis on the importance of nuclear family life, the proper role of the sexes, (Nina Liebman)

Literary and theatrical background

Williams can be seen as part of the 'Southern Gothic' movement, characterised by a rich, even grotesque, imagination, and an awareness of being part of a decaying culture.

Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard is based on a declining family, like the DuBois family, who have to sell their property.

Strindberg's Miss Julie may have influenced Williams's pairing of class conflict and sexual tension in Stanley and Blanche.

Expressionist Theatre

Use of techniques throughout the play which are not realistic, and specifically relate to blanche i.e. the Polka, the jungle noises.

Realist Theatre

Use of techniques that link the world of the play to the real world and the real lives of the audience

Plastic Theatre

Williams combined both realist and expressionist techniques to create a term called plastic theatre - the integration of both.

'Expressionism and all other unconventional techniques in drama have only one valid aim, and that is a closer approach to the truth.' (Williams)

'these plastic things are as valid instruments of expression in the theatre as words' (Williams)

Lyricism

an artist's expression of emotion in an imaginative and beautiful way; the quality of being lyrical. E.g in scene one "you can almost feel the warm breath of the brown river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolences of bananas and coffee. A corresponding air is evoked by the music of Negro entertainers at a barroom around the corner. "

Kramer on Williams

"...his plays are very theatrical: his language is lyrical and poetic; his settings "painterly" and "sculptural"; and his dramaturgy cinematic"

Hegelian Tragedy

Defines tragedy as a dynamic contest between two opposing forces - in effect, a collision or conflict of rights. Most tragic events are those in which two esteemed values or goals are in opposition and one of them must give way.

"The original essence of tragedy consists then in the fact that within such a conflict each of
the opposed sides, if taken by itself, has justification, while on the other hand each can
establish the true and positive content of its own aim and character only by negating and
damaging the equally justified power of the other"

American values

The USA prided itself on opening its arms to immigrants from all over the world, including Poland, but Blanche still calls Stanley a 'Polack'.

Stanley feels he is all-American, and that America is 'the greatest country on earth'.

Stanley has a positive attitude towards conflict and fate, as shown by his belief that, despite poor odds, he would survive the war.

Stanley is an example of a go-getting, thrusting, competitive working-class man, prepared to crush others (like Blanche) to get what he wants.

Nietzschean Tragedy

Defines tragedy as conflict between the "Appolonian" ordered and civilised side of a character and the "Dionysian" chaotic and passionate side.

This conflict usually leads to the destruction of the character.

Stanley's war

The nation had suffered through a terrible war, and it was ready to embrace the "old-fashioned" values of family and home. Stanley has just come back from the war as a decorated soldier, and after proving his masculinity on the battlefield, he is ready to assert his manhood within the home.

Early versions of the play were called

'The Moth'
and
'The Poker Night'