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Summary Edexcel A-level English Literature: Drama - A Streetcar Named Desire context notes
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AO3 context notes for A Streetcar Named Desire
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A Streetcar Named Desire (set in 1940s)(written in 1947) AO3 Context NotesHistorical:
'The omission of overt historical references is characteristic of all Williams's plays. It seems to
emphasise that the plays exist in their own world and time. The resulting claustrophobic quality
contributes to the dramatic tension they share.’
1. The Industrial South/Napoleonic Code
The America South depended on plantation agriculture and slavery in the pre-Civil War
The American Civil War (1861-65) was the war between the northern or Union states and
southern states. Although slavery had been abolished in 1865 at the end of the Civil War,
segregation was still legal
Southern plantations still relied on cheap black labour. The northern states had a more
liberal attitude to integration following the Great Depression & the 2nd World War. This
created antagonism between north and south American which can still be seen today
From the 1920s through 1940s, industrialization continued to expand in the South, and the
old Southern class structure could not withstand its effects. The composition of the labour
force changed radically: more blacks, poor whites, immigrant stock, and women began
working than ever before
The aristocratic tradition, rooted in concepts of the social man as master and homebound
woman as mother and nurturer, gave way to a new social order, particularly after women
gained the constitutional right to vote in 1920 and as divorce, employment, and education
became more readily available to them
If the Southern sense of hierarchy appeared to remain, it was no more than the aristocrats
clinging to the last vestiges of obsolete power, for by the 1940s Southern wealth and
influence already had shifted to the industrialists
Part of the Napoleonic Code= French Law that any property that belongs to the wife also
belongs to the husband.
Napoleonic Code made the authority of men over their families stronger, deprived women
of individual rights and reduced the rights of illegitimate children. It also did not allow
privileges based on birth such as nobility.
In the United States, the legal system is largely based on English Common Law, but the state
of Louisiana is unique in having a strong influence from the Napoleonic Code and Spanish
legal tradition in its civil code
2. The French Quarter
The French Quarter, located in the downtown section of New Orleans (which became a city
in 1805), is its oldest neighbourhood and is sometimes referred to as "Vieux Carre," French
for "Old Square."
Recalls French immigrants who settled in the 17th and 18th century – made of brick houses,
narrow sidewalks, fountains etc.
This area was, and still is, distinguished by fashionable nightclubs, regional food, jazz music
At the time the play was set, the French Quarter was a melting pot of races and classes
(Blacks, Creoles, Cajuns, Mexicans, and Asians) – Polish Americans like Stanley only made up
a tiny percentage
When Blanche says she can't come out on the steps because she's 'Not properly dressed,'
Mitch responds, 'That don't make no difference in the Quarter. (Scene 3, page 39) The
French Quarter had very lax social standards.
3. Streetcar
Based on a real streetcar in New Orleans that carried the word ‘Desire’ – Williams was
struck by the names and believed they had some “symbolic bearing of broad nature”
, Symbol of fate - For Williams, however, the streetcar’s destination, ‘Desire’, spoke more
than an undefined force of fate. This force clearly drives Blanche, her sexual passion and
desire overwhelms her at moments in the play, we see her clearly driven by forces more
powerful than her
4. The Civil War (1861-1865)/World War 2
'In spite of the romantic aura that surrounds it, the primary concerns of the Civil War were
basically economic. First, and best known, there was the issue of slavery. Slavery was seen
as an evil in the North, but the Southern states regarded it as essential for the tobacco and
cotton industries on which their wealth was founded.’
‘The war ended with Confederate surrender in April 1865. By then much of the South lay in
ruins and though Lincoln hoped to bind up the South's wounds, he was assassinated a few
days after the surrender.’
'After the war, the treatment of the South was very harsh, and it took a long time for it to
recover, especially when slavery was finally abolished a few years later. There is no doubt
that the Southern defeat was exploited by Northerners moving in, which added to the
bitterness of defeat.’
There is hardly any mention of the recent cataclysmic events in the play. Only brief allusions
to uniforms, comradery and one battle.
'Examining Stanley's experiences during the war and considering how these experiences
determine his post-war behaviour adds an intriguing new dimension to an interpretation of
the play. Stanley's rank as a master sergeant in the Engineers' Corps, his experiences at
Salerno, and his return to a confusing and changed civilian world are all important factors in
the play. In Streetcar, Williams seems to have consciously inverted the conventional plot
patterns found in Hollywood film of the time period. Instead of the familiar pattern in which
the confused and bitter vet finds meaning in commitment to community, we are given a plot
in which an aggressive and brutal vet finds meaning in violent assertion of his individual self
and his antisocial urges.’
Literary:
1. The American Dream
National ethos of the US, set of ideals (Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and
Equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success
An upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a
society with few barriers
The American Dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all
men are created equal" with the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
Other examples of literature mentioning The American Dream; ‘An American Tragedy’
Theodore Dreiser, ‘Song of Solomon’ Toni Morrison, ‘The Great Gatsby’ F. Scott Fitzgerald
European governments, worried that their best young people would leave for America,
distributed posters to frighten them
The American Dream has been credited with helping to build a cohesive American
experience, but has also been blamed for inflated expectations
Jay Gatsby's death mirrors the American Dream's demise, reflecting the pessimism of
modern-day Americans
Williams’s early plays also connected with the new American taste for realism that emerged
following the Depression and World War II. The characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are
trying to rebuild their lives in post-war America: Stanley and Mitch served in the military,
while Blanche had affairs with young soldiers based near her home
However, most critics agree that the quality of Williams’s work diminished as he grew older.
He suffered a long period of depression following the death of his long-time partner, Frank
Merlo, in 1963
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