context streetcar

• What is Elysian Fields?

  the name for the land of the dead in Greek mythology
• When was Streetcar first performed?

  1947
• When was Streetcar set?

  The late 1940s.
• What was the American Dream

  The ideology that any person can succeed and achieve prosperity through hard work.
• When did the Civil War end?

  1865
• Who won the Civil War?

  The Northern states of the us
• What was the main issue that the Civil War was based on?

  the abolishment of slavery. The Northern States wanted slavery to be abolished, but the Southern States were reliant on slavery-it was what their plantations were based on
• What was the Antebellum South?

  The 'Old South'; refers to the South before the Civil War, which thrived off slavery
• What was Tennessee William's birth name? Why was it changed?

  Thomas Lanier Williams III. He was named Tennessee by his friends in college, after his home state
• When did Tennessee suffer a nervous breakdown?

  Aged 24. He left his job and returned to college.
• When did Tennessee Williams live in New Orleans,a nd where?

  The french Quarter, 1939
• How did tennessee have a difficult childhood?

  His parents were in an unhappy marriage. His father, Cornelius Coffin Williams, was an alcoholic and his mother, Edwina Williams, resented his drunken ways. He was a domineering salesman, while Edwina was born to a higher class, well-read Episcopal minister and educated music teacher-she hated her husband's drunkeness, his extra marital affairs and general lifestyle, as she believed it reflected on her and and she had a certain social status to maintain. Cornelius was also negligent of his parental duties.
• Tennessee's relationship with his sister.

  As a child Tennessee was bedridden for 2 years, and left vulnerable and reserved after being bullied in school. He was very close with his sister Rose, who later suffered from mental illness and was institutionalised.
• Tennessee's sexuality?


  he was gay at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness.
• How did Tennessee identify with Blanche?

  They had a shared hysteria, and also a tendency to lie; both him and Blanche had a propensity to mislead others concerning their age
• The image of 'The South'

  The South was a place alienated from the rest of America, brimming with slavery and poverty. Despite losing the civil war, the image of 'the South' remained in most of the Southern states' minds. While slavery may have been abolished, great importance was placed on ancestry and heritage, meaning the racism that had existed all along continued after the civil war. Segregation also still prevailed, perpetuating cheap labour based on race.
• How was New Orleans different from the rest of the South?

  It emerged after the Great Depression as the champion of diversity and acceptance in the southern states. It had an influx of immigrants from Africa and Europe, making it a melting pot of culture, and this influx of immigrants was caused by its shift to an industrial economy. It set up multiple factories to replace the old agrarian community, and in tandem with this the working class emerged.
• What does the play explore in regards to its socio-economic context?

  The play explores a transition in time and the shift from old money to modernity and diversity. The changing context of the South was part of a wider shift towards modernity in the 20th century. Slavery had been abolished in 1865, and 20th century was centred around the idea of the American Dream, which welcomed generations of immigrants like Stanley, who felt intrinsically all-American.
• What does Blanche represent in the socio-economic context of the play?

  Blanche and Stella's fortune would have likely been built on slavery. Blanche is stuck in the past, representing the struggle of being unable to move on in a progressing society. She and Stanley clash because of their difference in values, and the insults she throws at him imply a brutishness and vulgarity related to his status as a working class immigrant.
• What does Stanley represent in regards to the socio-economic context/ American Dream?

  He represents the American Dream and the thrust of the working class who believed that they could achieve anything they desire through hard work, perseverance and individualism.
• How is the American Dream at odds with Blanche?

  This promise is fundamentally at odds with everything that allows Blanche to live her Southern Belle fantasy.
• What fuelled the American Dream?

  This individualistic, All-American ideology was heavily propelled by the WW2. America felt a sense of heroism during the time of the play, a heroism enabled by their overcoming of the Great Depression and defeat of the Nazis. A national spotlight was cast on working class men like Stanley, who had survived the war, re-joined the peacetime workforce and were now seen as bearers of the American hard-working spirit
• What is the one major theme of Streetcar?

  The destructive impact of society on the sensitive, non-conformist individual- Tennessee Williams
• What is the general socio-cultural context of gender roles in Streetcar?

  Streetcar is often considered a play that critiques the limitations post-war American society imposed on itself. Tennessee has an explicit focus on the restrictions placed on women, but also the gender stereotyping men suffer is also implicit addressed.
• What did the post-war sense of American heroism entail for gender roles?

  The emergence of a post-war sense of American heroism had implications for the championing of masculinity, as the nation decided to embrace values centred around the family and home, theorising these men and placing women in more domestic roles alongside them.
• How had gender roles been 'shaken up' by the time of Streetcar?

  During the war, the amount of women in the national workforce had rose from 27% to 37%. However after the war, women were pushed back into traditional domestic roles as a result of the championing of masculinity, and the emphasis on the family and home. So William's New Orleans was a place where gender roles had been shaken up, and conservative southern ideals of old money had been replaced in favour of the new working class ethic.
• What does Williams do regarding gender roles in his play?

  He establishes conventional gender stereotypes while also twisting the notions of feminine and masculine energy using characters. For example Stella and Stanley for the most part represent the accepted societal gender roles while Blanche showcases masculinity with her sexuality and arrogance, and Mitch and Allan Grey showcase a sensitivity which would have been seen as a feminine trait. Throughout the play, Tennessee Williams portrays how societal gender have a negative impact on all the main characters leading to either their death, mental or moral destruction.
• How was William's New Orleans distinguished from the rest of 1940's America, and how did this make Blanche a stranger?

  1940's America was not free from racial discrimination and prejudice, particularly the South. This social context is important as William's New Orleans becomes a pocket distinguished from the rest, with its diversity and warm and welcoming attitude towards the new American Dream of equality- a Dream open to all classes and race. SO Blanche is a stranger in New Orleans, as she arrives there bringing with her her traditional notions of superiority.
• How does Williams attempt to create the feeling of diversity and Otherness in the play's setting?

  While the main characters are all white, 'Negro woman', 'Mexican women', slang, language, dialect and jazz music are all used to attempt to create the feeling of diversity and Otherness.
• How far is the play a commentary on racism?

  Only to a limited extent. Williams does not address the glaring racism against African-Americans at the time; he does look at racism, but racism faced by recent European immigrants rather than longer established ones. At the time racism pertaining to skin colour was predominant (Stanley faces prejudice more because of his social class than his race), so while it does show the racist prejudice against 'new immigrants' like Stanley, it is more successful as a commentary on social class than race-particularly in an era when segregation was prevalent but being contested.
• How does Williams look at the racism faced by 'new immigrants' ?

  He portrays the racism many first and second generation European immigrants faced through the Kowalski-DuBois conflict. Blanche refers to him as a 'Police' in scene eight, then a 'swine' in scene 10, along with statements such as 'why you healthy Polack, without a nerve in your body!' in scene 8 which reveal her xenophobia. In the late 19th century and early 20th century America, 'new immigrants' from countries such as Italy, Ireland, Greece and Poland occupied a racial middle ground, and were considered 'not quite white
• The general socio-cultural context of religion and morality in the play

  America was founded on Puritan and other Christian principles. These principles seeped into culture and beliefs. While the play does not explicitly address religion, the prejudice against homosexuality and ideas about sexual immorality stem from the Christian principles that America was built on . The idea that a 'wife must submit to her husband' is a biblical principle that was advocated for in 20th century America, particularly by the southern states. American post-depression and post-war tried desperately to revert 'old-fashioned' values drawn from Christian principles
• How does Williams address the issue of morality as understood by American society?

  While he does not explicitly address religion, Williams does address the issue of morality as understood by American society. Blanche is seen to be struggling with the moral standards imposed on her by society. She attempts to pacify herself despite her awareness of her own deceit, convincing herself that she never 'lied in (her) heart' in scene 9, and that she was never 'deliberately cruel' in scene 10. The play can be seen as critique of conventional notions of morality, as sexual standards are double standards- through her multiple partners, Blanche is labelled and ocstrasized, left feeling defile (as seen by her excessive bathing, while Stanley gets away with domestic abuse and rape
• How might the play be viewed when looked at through a feminist lens?

  As a critique of the expectations of patriarchal society. This is expressed through the psychological unravelling of characters, or through the use of Blanche who tends to show masculine energy which in turn becomes a threat to Stanley, the established 'alpha male' or Patriarch. The rape of Blanche becomes a scene where Stanley asserts his masculine power/ authority over Blanche through sexual violence. her uses her past decisions against her, which are unacceptable because she is a woman. This entire event portrays women as victims of the oppressive patriarchy. The patriarchy and its norms recurrently chipped at Blanche's sanity, as she felt she needed to find a husband as the only way to be accepted in society.
• How does the 'New South' seem to coincide with the Darwinian idea of survival-of-the-fittest?

  It is highlighted by how Stanley emerges as survivor at the end of the play, ready to pass his way of life down to his new child, having eliminated the remnants of the 'Old South' that were respected by Blanche. It is a Kowalski future for the baby, not a Dubois one, highlighting the transition period the play was set in as it marks the shift from the 'Old' to 'New' South.The American Dream itself could be seen as a survival of the fittest struggle too.
• How is the structure of William's play unconventional?

  He uses 11 scenes rather than acts to unfold the story, and he does not indicate any break for an interval either.
• Why might William's have chosen his unconventional play structure?

  Perhaps because he felt his particular talent was for writing short, one-act plays, and that he could not sustain dramatic tensions for three acts of conventional length- a tension that is enhanced by a lack of interval.
• What is expressionism?


  Expressionism can be understood as the representation of reality in an abstract form. Williams used a mixed approach of expressionism in the portrayal reality.