Essay- Is New Orleans Hostile in “A Streetcar Named Desire”?
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Unit AS 1 - The Study of Drama
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CCEA
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Streetcar Named Desire
“In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the setting of New Orleans is a hostile place for women”- to what extent do you agree with this statement?
This is an A-Level English Literature essay which received full marks (50 out of 50) on “A Streetcar Named Desire”. There i...
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“In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the setting of New
Orleans is a hostile place for women”- to what extent do you agree with this
statement?
Williams portrays New Orleans as a fundamentally hostile place for
women, particularly through the domestic violence evident with Stella and
Stanley, as well as with Eunice and Steve. This contrasts the apparent
progress demonstrated by the “easy intermingling” of races, suggesting to the
audience that the seemingly modern city of New Orleans (and, by extension,
the entirety of 1940s America) is still severely stunted in its cultural and
societal development. From the opening scene, the setting is intrinsically
linked with Blanche’s destruction, with her arrival at “Elysian Fields” after “a
streetcar named Desire, and then… one called Cemeteries”. Williams alludes
to the Greek afterlife to rotary New Orleans as a place of destruction and the
setting of Blanche’s metaphorical death. The streetcars symbolise the
progression of Blache’s desire to her demise, representing the strict moral
code that women were expected to adhere to in relation to sex, and the
consequences of failing to do so. Contrastingly, the men frequently act upon
their desires without punishment, highlighting a gender based injustice
recognised by contemporary and modern audiences.
New Orleans is turned into a hostile environment by the men who live
there, seen by Williams’ harsh critique of men like Stanley who “sizes women
up at a glance with sexual classifications”. The stage direction establishes
how Stanley views women as toys for pleasure, causing Blanche to draw
“involuntarily” backwards.This attitude reflects the general idea surrounding
women throughout the majority of the twentieth century, where they were
reduced to sexual objects. This creates a threatening atmosphere within
Elysian Fields, causing the audience to view all of New Orleans as a hostile
environment for women. Stanley’s hostile attitude towards women is most
obvious at the poker night, where “A picture of Van Gogh’s of a billiard parlour
at night… the raw colours of a childhood’s spectrum” is seen. Van Gogh
described this painting as a representation of the worst parts of humanity,
creating a foreboding tone around the men. The stage direction emphasises
the strength of the men by likening them to the bold colours. This metaphor
underlines the men’s power in the scene, demonstrating that such dominance
isn’t limited to Stanley. Kazan stated that there was a Stanley “in every bar in
America” and it is essential for Williams to display that the hostility felt by the
, women throughout the play isn’t merely the result of a villainous archetype,
but of a toxic environment.
Stanley “stalks fiercely… to the small white radio and… tosses the
instrument out of the window”. The white radio is a symbol of femininity in
Elysian Fields, with the music symbolising the art and culture of the old South.
This gentility juxtaposes the aggressive character of Stanley, portrayed as
animalistic by the dynamic verb “stalked”. Stanley’s destruction of the radio
symbolises an attack against the traditional symptoms of womanhood- mainly
sophistication and a genteel nature. This establishes a male-dominated scene
early in the play. However, Stanley’s violence isn’t limited to the radio. That
scene, after he pursues Stella “She backs out of sight… There is the sound of
a blow”. Williams employs staging to ensure that any violence occurs
off-stage, enabling the audience to imagine events based on their own
experience or knowledge of domestic violence. Particularly for the original
audience, such violence would have been commonplace, allowing the
audience to recognise the hostile world that Stella must endure. Despite this,
many would have no strong moral objections at this stage, and it is likely that
Stella receives more sympathy from a modern audience. Stella’s plight
represents the typical marriage of the time in 1940s America, allowing
Williams to expose the flaws of male-dominated society as a whole,
particularly as her experience would have resonated with may female
members of the original audience.
Notably, the rest of the men only respond to this violence “feebly”, with
the simplistic stage direction highlighting the fact that Stanley’s level of
violence towards women was generally accepted. This is vital in underlining
for the audience that the women in the play experience hardship and hostility
as a result of a wider misogynistic view across America, rather than the
actions of one man. Williams portrays the men in this manner to demonstrate
the unobstructed privilege of white heterosexual men in America, so as to
provoke sympathy for those that this privilege attacks, including himself as a
homosexual man in mid-century Louisiana, as well as his sister (who was a
woman branded as hysterical and institutionalised).
However, the domestic violence in the play isn’t exclusive to Stella and
Stanley- Williams shows it to be a problem for women across New Orleans. It
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