Historical Context: how can we define the 1940s and how has this infuenced Williams' writing?

• Published in 1946, A Streetcar Named Desire reflects the cultural tensions that pervaded the nation after the horrors of World War 2.

• When the play came out, the country had just emerged from the war after battling through the Great Depression of the 1930s, and suddenly the national spotlight focused on the middle and lower classes as the true bearers of the heroic American spirit

Influence:

• Stanley has come back from war as a decorated solider, and after proving his masculinity on the battlefield, he is ready to assert his manhood within the home. Consequently, the theme of pure, almost savage masculinity that is so ripe in A Streetcar Named Desire is one that filled America after the war - an air of bravado and victory following its defeat of the Nazi threat.

• The upper classes were scorned by the impoverished masses, who saw the wealthy elite as indifferent to and even contemptuous of their daily financial struggles.

• Many American writers during and after the 1930’s chose to focus on the brave individual stories of those who were members of the lower and middle classes, believing that their strong work ethic and their ambitions characertized them as true Americans.

Influence:

• The men in this play represent the everyday American that society championed after the Depression: hard-working men who were proud of themselves because of the work that they had accomplished with their own hands - they weren’t trust-fund babies who had been fed with silver spoons. Being a member of the working class was ‘cool’ because of these blue-collar workers were the antithesis of the indifferent and uncaring aristocrats who just didn’t seem to care about anyone else but themselves.

• The play takes place in an area of New Orleans named Elysian Fields, which refers to the place that ancient Greeks believed served as a home for the dead. After victorious soldiers died in battle, they went to Elysian Fields for eternity, to celebrate their lives, their courage and their accomplishments.

Influence:

• Stanley Kowalski and his friends have returned to Elyisan Fields after the war, coming back to the States as succesful and hopeful soldiers ready to make a name for themselves on their home soil.

• A Streetcar Named Desire champions a certain nostalgia for the old Southern charm that had been replaced during the 1940s by an air of industry and efficiency that had taken over the country after the Great Depression.

• Consequently, you could say that America experienced a second industrial Revolution after World War II.

• This revolution effectively killed the mystical charm of the Old South, where aristocracy and chivalry reigned.

• Women in the South seemed to possess an intangible charm that could enchant any man, and men prided themselves on their manners and a mysterious code of conduct that valued honour rather than industriousness.

Influence:

The ongoing power struggle between Blanche and Stanley thus reflects the battle between old Southern values and new industrial efficiency.

• Following World War II, the United States began an economic boom that brought unparalleled prosperity to a majority of its citizens and raised American exectations, breeding a belief that most economic and social problems could be solved.

Among the crucial themes of this period were the struggle for equality among women and minorities, and the backlash that these struggles evoked.