Streetcar Context

What are the four main setting contexts for ASND?

The \`American South, New Orleans, Elysian Fields, and the apartment.

Setting context- American South

Decline of planter class, new industrial age, diversifying. Decline of aristocratic families. Broken, old, somewhat decaying. Antebellum.

Setting context- New Orleans

Vibrant/ industrial/colourful/accepting/diverse. Williams lived in the French quarter (homage to that).

Setting context- Elysian Fields

Resting place for Greek heroes, purgatory for Blanche. Stanley and Stella’s home.

Setting context- The apartment

Little privacy/room. Blanche is intruding on a small space.

Production context- How do stage productions differ in their portrayal of Blanche?

Dressed/presented differently- either as frumpy and old or delicate and fashionable.

What is the context behind Stanley?

Representing the new industrial age and change, highlights Blanche’s downfall and inability to accept change. Williams’ father was abusive and bullying.

Genre context- Liebstod tradition

Love death- explicitly linking desire and death.

Author context- Tennessee Williams : ‘the world i live in’ Interview.

* follows in the developing tension, anger and violence of the world.
* His work is a kind of psychotherapy for himself
* he can continue his tortured work as long as the world is in a tortured condition

Historical context- What were the three original titles for A Streetcar Named Desire?

‘The Moth’ and ‘Blanche’s Chain in the Moon’, and then ‘The Poker Night’

Historical context- What event was omitted from the play?

WW2 (even though it is written in a post war America). Idea that characters exist in their own time and world.

Historical context- How did the civil war contribute to ASND?

Significant context, romantic aura yet dire economical concern. Slavery: seen as essential in the South and evil in the North.

Historical context- How did homosexuality contribute to the novel?

Not a major theme, illegal for most of William’s’ life. Conflict between morality and homosexuality.

Literary context- effects of civil war

Southern literature turned to nostalgia over patriotism. Romanticising of a lost cause/a lost way of life. (Seen in Gone with the wind).

Literary context- Southern Gothic

Rich imagination,