Williams’ biography
-> Williams shares his southern roots with many characters in the play.
-> during the 1930s he realised that he was homosexual.
-> Some critics have argued that the character of Blanche is based on Williams’ sister, Rose
Williams, who struggled with mental health issues and became incapacitated after a
lobotomy.
Social Context
(around 1947, in the post-World War Two era)
The play is set in the atmospheric aftermath of the Civil War. The Civil War in America was
fought between the Northern and Southern States, and this was mainly on the issue of the
abolishment of Slavery. The Southern States were against its abolishments as their
plantations were based on slavery.
Setting: New Orleans
-> a city with a proud heritage and culture, though the South of America was often not seen
as progressive and forward-thinking as the west and east coasts, or the north.
-> The South was still recovering from the American Civil War and the culture was still
determined by remnants of issues associated with the slave trade.
Views on sexuality and gender
-> Traditional views collided with those adopted and chosen by a younger generation, who
felt that the South was backwards-looking, conservative and outmoded.
Religion and trends
-> Society had become more secularized (people eschewed traditional Christianity and its
moral codes), and they were becoming more materialistic.
-> Issues such as modern media, music and fashion started to influence society.
Visage of the South
-> The South could be moneyed and appear successful, but underneath this veneer was
something more fragile and darker.
Social Issues Raised in A Streetcar Named Desire
Class struggle
-> connected to sex: sexual encounters happen across class barriers.
Middle-class Stella’s union with the more working-class Stanley.
Blanche DuBois' fantasies and relationship with a student.
,Violence
-> Domestic and Cultural
Sexual frustration
-> idea that modern society is underpinned by sexual frustrations because society appears
to repress people - particularly women - as seen in Blanche DuBois.
Rejection and longing
Several characters seek out longing (eg Blanche herself, Mitch and Stanley) but often, they
do not find it or they are rejected from the process.
Fantasies
-> fantasies about social refinement and grandeur are undercut and destroyed.
Blanche and Stella have these sorts of fantasies.
Cruelty and suffering
-> characters tend to suffer psychologically.
Aberrations
-> distortions in a society that cause conflict and hurt.
Blanche’s choices cause aberrations, but social aberrations also caused her situation.
Setting for A Streetcar Named Desire
Macro settings
New Orleans French Quarter and its streets.
The town of Laurel, Mississippi.
The residence of Belle Reve.
Micro settings
Stella and Stanley’s apartment in Elysian Fields.
The street outside.
The courtyard.
The apartment above holding the Eunice and Steve Hubbel.
The title of -> comes from the Desire streetcar line which ran from 1920 to 1948, at the
the play height of streetcar use in New Orleans.
Streetcar is American-English for a tram.
Scene One
Blanche DuBois arrives at the New Orleans French Quarter to stay with her younger,
married sister, Stella, and her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche has lost her family home, Belle Reve to creditors and has to rely on Stella.
, Blanche is introduced as a protagonist of the play, while Stanley is an antagonist. Blanche
represents a relic of the extinct society, while Stanley represents new, diverse culture. This
sets up the conflict of the play.
Symbolic Elysian Fields -> paradise BUT Foreshadowing
name place for the dead Ironic, as the place is not perfect and
The term comes from Greek quiet poor
mythology and indicates ‘the
abode of the blessed after death’.
Music ‘blue piano’ a mood setter and as a
characterization.
The blue piano is usually invoked in
scenes of great passion; it "expresses
the spirit of the life" of Elysian Fields
Moment of calmness in Stella’s Symbol of change in life: from
and Blanche’s conversation about calmness to multiculturalism
the loss of Belle Reve is
interrupted by ‘The music of the
"blue piano" grows louder.’
Multicultural Mexican food: ‘Red Hots!’
ism Negro and white women
Stanley
Hunter ‘a red-stained package from a Presented as hunter, gatherer
butcher's’ breadwinner
STANLEY: Catch! Typical masculine image and role in
STELLA: What? society
STANLEY: Meat!
Animalistic ‘A different species.’
images ‘Animal joy’
‘pride of a richly feathered male
bird among hens’
Sexuality ‘the center of his life has been Sexually active and proud of this
pleasure with women’
‘the gaudy seed-bearer’
‘sexual classifications,’
Manipulative ‘determining the way he smiles at
them’
STANLEY: My clothes 're stickin' to Does now wait for an answer
me. Do you mind if I make myself Sexual image and connotations
comfortable?
[He starts to remove his shirt.]
Blanche
White colour Described wearing ‘white’ Sense of glamour, richness, innocence
+ her name is translated as white
from French
Delicacy ‘a moth’ Connotes fragility,
Night creature
