Context for the Color Purple and Streetcar

Context

Authors background and life

Historical context

Literary context

How text was received when first performed/published

Performance history- how it was staged etc

Color Purple

First published in 1982

Setting

Set in early twentieth century USA and parts of Africa which are characterized by racial discrimination, western encroachment into Africa, and human rights violation, all of which set the background for the events in the plot.

Racial tensions

In the early 20th Century, there was still a great racial divide between white and black people. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 hadn't been passed.

KKK revived in early 20th Century by Protestant nativist groups, peaked in 1920s in which it had 4 million members

Seen in Sofia's jail sentence and Celie's father's lynching

Miami Race Riots

1980

Only occurred 2 years before novel written

Jim Crow Laws

Passed to enforce segregation in America

Sofia is victimised by this social policy

Lynching

Congress tried to pass an anti-lynching law in 1937 but it was killed by Southern Senators

Civil Rights Movement

1964

Walker was involved in Civil Rights Movement

Doctrine

'Separate but equal' doctrine (1896) allowed the use of segregation laws by states and local authorities

Literary context

Written after To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)- perhaps Walker's way of saying that racial injustice prevalent in both novels demonstrates that not as much change has been brought about as we may think

Walker became involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and helped revive the work of Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer from earlier in the twentieth century.

Toni Morrison- novels cover race, gender and self-identity among black populations in the US

Consideration of power dynamic between white and black people is reflected in the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks

Literary period

postmodernism in America

Walker

Born in 1944 to two sharecroppers. Walker's parents' experiences with the oppressive sharecropping system and the racism of the American South deeply influenced Walker's writing and life's work

Womanism

Black Feminism

- Coined by Alice Walker

- To give visibility to the experience of African American and other women of color

Recognises the double oppression faced by women of colour, both due to their sex and their race

Society (gender)

Patriarchal society

Misogyny

Women were expected to be subservient to male desire

Women were men's possession in marriage

Though women were being granted increasing financial autonomy under law, this agency didn't filter into their marriages, as men still controlled the power dynamic

Gender roles:

Men as providers, dominance, control over women, using violence to get their will

Women- role within domestic sphere and role of mothers

Domestic violence

Violence Against Women Act in 1994

Men were able to dominate and punish women within their marriages under law until the 1990s- asserts the power imbalance in Celie's marriage

Sewing

Integral part of the lives of African American women

'The voice of Black women are stitched within their quilts.' Floris Barnett Cash

The communal nature of making quilts had a serious impact on the kinship of African American women. As a social activity, the quilting bee was a time to pass on stories

Before the Civil War, slaves in the South who were talented at the art of patchworking could use their craft to purchase their own freedom

Philomena

Maria Lauret likens Celie's voice to Philomena's from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Like Philomena, Celie regains her selfhood through the actual sewing that provides her financial independence and through the metaphorical sewing together of letters that tell her story and create the novel.

Presidency

Reagan ran for president with an anti-feminist agenda and was elected in 1982, when Color Purple was published

Opposed the Equal Rights Amendment

Religion

Nettie- sees God spiritually rather than in the physical form that is seen in Western Christianity

Most African Americans were either Methodist or Baptist as these denominations had opposed slavery in early American history

Streetcar

First performed

1947

Can be contextualised in the era of

Post World War II America

What was happening during this era?

Societal structures were shifting

The bourgeoisie was fading away, and a new class of people was emerging, people who were self-reliant and fought for their own economic success.

Social class

Blanche- representative of this fading bourgeoisie, the old Southern plantation owning class of people

Stanley Kowlaski- new class of individuals, rising out from the war and ruthlessly seeking opportunity.

Through this distinction, Williams makes sharp commentaries about the role of change in American society at large, drawing a contrast to the stagnancy of typical Southern society at the time.

New Orleans was a cosmopolitan city, a place where a variety of cultures intersected and where Blanche could no longer live on as a symbol of white purity. Blanche immediately reacts negatively to their apartment, a living space that is the exact antithesis of the Southern decadence of her former plantation home Belle Reve.

Polish Immigrants

labourers, mostly uneducated, looked down upon

World War 2

Dominance of the countries that were able to unite together during World War II to defeat countries that were lacking in resources, national unity, and power. The United States was one such super power, and its aggressiveness during World War II pervaded the population post World War II, leading to massive economic advancements and confidence in the future success of the nation.

Stanley, who fought in the war, embodies this confidence and sense of dominance. He represents the American Dream.

New Orleans

During World War II, New Orleans served as an ingress and egress for war materials and troops.

Post World War II, the city underwent modernization and new infrastructure was built throughout it.

Modernization was generally viewed as a threat to Southern distinctiveness, however, as shown by Blanche's lamentations over her loss of Belle Reve.

Elysian Fields

Greek mythology - paradise for dead heroes

Feminism

Women's striving for freedom from their husband's control over their property rights was characteristic of first wave feminism in the United States, a movement which took place around the late 19th century.

This play is set post-World War II, at the start of the second-wave feminism movement, a movement during which women challenged male perception of them and gained more economic autonomy.

The exchange that Williams portrays between Stanley and Blanche belongs in a previous era. Through this exchange, Williams is commenting on both the outdated culture of the South, as well as out-of-place nature of Blanche's character.

While Stella is also subservient to Stanley in many respects, she no longer lives in the past like Blanche does. Though her relationship with Stanley is far from perfect, it can be argued that Stella stays with him out of desire to maintain her own economic status, and to advance in society as Stanley advanced.

Marxist views

Focus on capitalism, however there may be a Marxist subtext

A fundamental goal of Marxism was to provoke the rise of the proletariat (the working class) over the bourgeois (the upper middle class), ultimately resulting in the destruction of class distinctions. This Marxist sentiment is reflected in Stanley's rise over Blanche, a rise that leads to her symbolic demise.

Post WW2 writers

many writers at the time were concerned with the idea that, whilst great leaps forward were being made in a variety of spheres, man's capacity for evil and destruction also continued to grow. In one sense, the journey from desire to death can be linked to this theme.

American Civil War

1861-65

Following their defeat by the Northern states, the South suffered economically.

As a Southerner, Williams was affected by this.

The South's agrarian economy had been in decline since the Confederate defeat in the Civil War

South was alienated from the rest of America

Industrialisation

industrialisation continued in the cities. Whilst the plantations

continued to decay, urban growth and capitalism flourished in the cities.

Abolition of Slavery in the U.S.

1865

Homosexuality

Williams was homosexual and whilst this is clearly an aspect of his work, it is important to remember that for most his life, homosexuality remained illegal. It was, however, tolerated in some places, such as New Orleans.

Women in the South

Women in the Old South had a social and symbolic role, were expected to be passive and chaste.

2nd class citizens.

Gender roles

World War II- women fill men's roles in the workplace, more freedom and financial independence

'Streetcar' acts as a sharp critique of the way the institutions and attitudes of post-war America affected women's lives

Williams' female characters psychologically trapped in the cultural pragmatics of the Old South- Blanche and Stella's dependence on men exposes attitudes to women during the transition from old world to new + even Eunice sees her male companion as her only means to achieve happiness

Women dependent on men for both economic and psychological reasons

Blanche in a submissive and dependent role- throwing herself on the mercy of Shep Huntleigh

Southern writers

All of the Southern writers seemed to have vivid imaginations which were often bizarre and grotesque (Southern Gothic). The roots of this literature lay perhaps in the fact that the writers knew that they were part of a dying culture - where the dashing and romantic were founded on an economy based on injustice and cruelty

Father and mother

Abusive and bullying father, who was a hard-drinking travelling salesman- alcoholic, neglected parenting duties

Mother was a Southern Belle- born to a high class and well read

Rose (sister)

Sister, Rose, was diagnosed with dementia praecox (schizophrenia) when she was 18 + received a pre-frontal lobotomy before being consigned to a mental institution until her death in 1996

Margaret Bradham Thornton says that "the shadow of what happened to Rose stayed with him; she would be the model for more than fifteen characters, and Williams would give her name to many others"

Williams referred to Rose's decline into madness by saying, "We have had no deaths in our family but slowly by degrees something was happening much uglier and more terrible than death"

Traumatised with guilt at what he saw as his failure to protect Rose

Tennessee Williams decline

Frequent bouts of clinical depression

Relationship with secretary Frank Merlo when homosexuality was still considered immoral and shocking by mainstream society- Merlo died in '63 and Williams spun out of control

Williams was gay and lived in a time when homosexuality was seen as a mental illness

American Dream

the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

Various different groups of immigrants who came to the US in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries united to create a cohesive national ethos through the American Dream- "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" (Declaration of Independence)

Immigrants often escaping from poverty, oppression and conflict- America a blank slate upon which they could create their vision of a land of freedom and opportunity

Success becoming dependent on hard work and courage instead of birth or privilege

Essential theme of great tragic dramatists like Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill- questioning cultural values which the vast majority of their contemporaries held dear 'The Great Gatsby' (Fitzgerald, 1925), 'Of Mice and Men' (Steinbeck, 1937), 'Death of a Salesman' (Miller, 1949)

When was rape in marriage made illegal?

1993

Brother

His brother Dakin had him temporarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in 1969 due to his alcoholism and drug addiction

Southern Gothic intertextuality (epigraph)

Link to Edgar Allan Poe and his dark romanticism

Epigraph to 'Streetcar' is the fifth stanza of Hart Crane's poem 'The Broken Tower'

Williams admired and identified with Crane- both had difficult relationships with their parents, struggled with alcoholism and were homosexual in a time of intense social and cultural stigma attached to their sexuality

Crane committed suicide at a young age- 'Broken Tower' was his last poem/last will and testament

Poem shows love as a transitory illusion or gambler's 'desperate choice', strongly suggestive of Blanche's experiences of love in a 'broken world'

Stanley surname

Kowalski- means blacksmith- links to Polish immigrant, working-class background

All-American ideology

Stanley represents the idea of being able to achieve the American Dream through hard-work, perseverance and individualism

All-American ideology was heavily propelled by the events of the Second World War

Literary context, plastic theatre, portrayal of characters on stage

Critics for The Color Purple

Novel has been criticised for its 'one-dimensional portrayal of black men' as Walker creates 'stereotypical fictional portraits of black men as thieves, sadists and rapists'

Maria Lauret- likens Celie's voice to Philomena's from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

'The voice of Black women are stitched within their quilts.' Floris Barnett Cash

Critics have described Shug's role as a 'catalyst' of Celie's metamorphosis

Psychoanalytic critics refer to Shug as a 'nurse' and a 'mother surrogate' for Celie

Under Marxism, women were expected to contribute to society. A Marxist reading of the novel would therefore be critical of the fact that Celie is removed from school and deprived of education

A Marxist reading would find the unequal treatment and unequal power dynamics between the men and women in the novel to be objectionable

'Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender' - Walker

Out of the profound desolation of her reality, she may very well have invented herself - Morrison on Celie

Black men

Novel has been criticised for its 'one-dimensional portrayal of black men' as Walker creates 'stereotypical fictional portraits of black men as thieves, sadists and rapists'

Celie sewing

Maria Lauret- likens Celie's voice to Philomena's from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Quilting

'The voice of Black women are stitched within their quilts.' Floris Barnett Cash

Shug's role

Critics have described Shug's role as a 'catalyst' of Celie's metamorphosis

Psychoanalytic critics refer to Shug as a 'nurse' and a 'mother surrogate' for Celie

Marxism

Under Marxism, women were expected to contribute to society. A Marxist reading of the novel would therefore be critical of the fact that Celie is removed from school and deprived of education

A Marxist reading would find the unequal treatment and unequal power dynamics between the men and women in the novel to be objectionable

Walker womanism

'Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender' - Walker

Morrison Celie

'Out of the profound desolation of her reality, [Celie] may very well have invented herself'

Critics for Streetcar

'Williams has repeatedly claimed 'I am Blanche DuBois' and has identified with her, particularly in terms of a shared hysteria.' - N. Pagan 1993

'Stanley is a sensitive and passionate romantic.' -Simon Bubb

Stanley is 'driven by instinct, not by rational thought.' - Simon Bubb

Blanche 'has her own desires, that draw her to Stanley, like a moth to a light, a light she voids, even hates, yet yearns for' - Galloway

Williams

'Williams has repeatedly claimed 'I am Blanche DuBois' and has identified with her, particularly in terms of a shared hysteria.' - N. Pagan 1993

Stanley positive

'Stanley is a sensitive and passionate romantic.' -Simon Bubb

Stanley animal

Stanley is 'driven by instinct, not by rational thought.' - Simon Bubb

Blanche moth

Blanche is drawn 'to Stanley, like a moth to a light, a light she voids, even hates, yet yearns for' - Galloway

Williams on the play as a whole

'The play is about the ravishment of the tender by the savage and brutal forces of modern society'

Blanche - liar

Blanche 'lies to the world because she must lie to herself' - Kronenberger

Blanche - reality vs fantasy

Blanche 'takes desperate refuge in a magical life she has invented for herself' -Chapman

Sympathy towards Stanley

Stanley 'cannot be blamed for protecting his marriage against the force that would destroy it' - Bloom

Shep Huntleigh

'That (Shep Huntleigh) never shows up may suggest that if women place their hope and fortune on men, their oppressed and subordinate status can never be changed' - Fang

Exorcism

The 1947 performance 'left audiences feeling that a madwoman had entered an alien world and, after shaking that world, had been successfully exorcised' - Spector

Blanche's dependence on men

'Sorrowfully, when Blanche is stuck in trouble, men are always the ones to whom she resorts' - Fang

Masculinity

'Williams' play depicts a weak and unadjusted masculinity' - Costa

Stanley's role in Blanche's destruction

Stanley is an 'agent of Blanche's destruction' - Lart

Nobody wins

'The play has no clear victor, everyone loses something' - Galloway

Stanley and Blanche as victims

'Both leading roles are portrayed as victims of their gendered languages and social norms' - Samuel Tapp

Stanley + Stella's baby

'Just as the plantation served as a symbol of the past, Stanley and Stella's baby stands for the way the 'working class' ethos will be carried into the future' - Adler

Mitch imitating Stanley

'Instead of offering a positive alternative to Stanley's insensitive, bullish masculinity, Mitch has ended up imitating it' - Simon Bubb

Blanche as a social outcast

'Stanley strips her of her psychological, sexual and cultural identity.' - Onyett

Williams condemning Blanche

'Williams condemns Blanche even as a rape victim and utilities her as a symbol of justice, a promiscuous woman who essentially brought her victimisation on herself' - Lant