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Summary Useful Context for A Streetcar Named Desire
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academic, historical and biographical context for a streetcar named desire
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How is social class presented in A Streetcar Named DesireSocial class and the character’s background is what ultimately creates the conflict between them and
disallows them from seeing eye to eye. The stock characters of Blanche and Stanley represent the
Deep South and America in the Reconstruction Era respectively making this play more about cultural
differences and less about individual conflict between the characters. Due to the fact these problems
are unavoidable, Williams suggests that this tragedy is a representation of the ill-fated conflict
between romanticism and realism that presents itself in everyday life.
Stanley is the allegorical representation of New America who emerged victorious after the Civil War.
His costume of ‘denim work clothes’ delineates to the audience that Stanley is from a lower,
working-class background which allows them to think of him as the stock American character who is
striving for ‘The American Dream’. His home city, New Orleans, is described by Williams as a
‘cosmopolitan city’ which, through the connotations to a mixture of culture, suggests to the reader
that the setting of this play is accepting and a futuristic-thinking society. The audience know New
Orleans is a diverse city whose know as a ‘mixing pot’ of culture. Williams insinuates that the victory
of New Orleans in the Civil War is what allows for its’ successful fate as Stanley and Stella’s ‘baby’ is
the symbol for the future indicating that they will survive in the future. The audience is made aware
that the characters who derive from this victorious setting also reap the benefits of the victory as
Stanley wins the ‘game of life’ due to his background. This unsettles the audience through the
suggestion that the characters’ life is planned and preordained due to their social class rather than
the decision they make as a person. The expressionist feature of plastic theatre is utilised by
Williams to further accentuate the positive atmosphere of New Orleans as ‘the blue piano’ is jazz
music that connotes to individuality and freedom which is exactly what the city offers. Williams
allows the reader to assimilate that New Orleans and the character of Stanley’s victory in life mirror
the New America’s success in the Civil War to portray them as the future.
Williams explores the downfall of the Deep South through the character of Blanche, who acts as a
representation of the dying aristocracy; her eventual mental breakdown is the final realisation that
the Deep South no longer exists. She is stated to have ‘old-fashioned ideals’ which, through the
semantic field of the past, indicates to the audience that Blanche is unable to move on with her life
and would rather reminisce about the happiness of her past than accept the reality of the present.
Williams presents Blanche, externally, as a Southern Belle which is a stock character created in the
period before the civil war which depicted a young, pure woman who was part of the upper socio-
economic class of the Deep South. To do this, she is ‘daintily dressed in a white suit’ which, through
the pairing of the delicate alliteration and the colour symbolising pureness and innocence, Williams
has alerted the reader that Blanche is fixated on fulfilling a character of the past. Her inability to
move on from the Deep South is what can be seen as Blanche’s hamartia and what causes her
eventual downfall because she lives, in her head, in ‘Belle Reve’ which translates to pretty dream.
The connotations to fantasy insinuate to the audience that Blanche is not able or trying to avoid
reality worsening her mental state and ultimately causing the ‘Varsouviana to filter into weird
distortion’ representing her breakdown. By being trapped in the past with no ability to move on
essentially leaves Blanche behind; Williams utilises the character of Blanche to represent the dying
aristocracy and the fall of the Deep South.
The conflict between the New and Old America is displayed primarily between the clash of the 2
protagonists. Williams describes Stanley and Blanche’s background to be ‘incompatible’ which,
through the definitive adjective, prognosticates disaster by suggesting, due to fate, there is no way
of both characters’ achieving a happy conclusion, emphasising the tragedy. This conflict can be seen
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