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Summary A Streetcar Named Desire: Context
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The personal, historical and literary context of 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'
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ContextTennessee Williams:
He recognised as one of the greatest American playwrights, gaining much notoriety with A
Streetcar Named Desire following its production in 1947.
Williams’s mother Edwina was a beautiful belle born to a respectable Southern family, and
like Blanche suffered from psychological problems and mental stress. She depended on her
parents for financial support, and following the family’s move to St. Louis she lost the
privileges and social status she had enjoyed in her hometown.
Parallels can be drawn between Stanley and Cornelius Williams, the playwright’s father who
was an angry, argumentative drinker and gambler.
His sister Rose became mentally unstable, suffering from a form of schizophrenia as she
grew older and eventually her mother authorised a lobotomy which left her institutionalized.
Williams too had psychological problems, suffering a mental breakdown in his twenties and
he regretted the fact that he was not there to save his sister.
Williams suffered from depression which was exacerbated by his excessive drug taking and
alcoholism.
He loved the south as he had fond memories of his maternal grandparents.
The setting for Streetcar and its busy, lively atmosphere, is drawn from Williams’s own
experiences when he moved to New Orleans in 1938. The French Quarter had a reputation for
its decadence and easy morality.
He was possibly gay, and thus New Orleans would have been a better place to live for him. It
was the first time he could express his sexual identity.
Context about him writing:
The play was published in 1947. This is in the age of modern American theatre, which
favoured expressionist theatre. The protagonist is no longer an idealist. He was an alienated
tragic hero who was an everyman trying to survive. There’s the idea that intimate
relationships are paramount amongst life’s pursuits.
He doesn’t often mention overtly obvious references to ground the time that his plays are
happening in. This commission of overt historical references emphasise the claustrophobic
atmosphere of the plays seemingly taking place in their own world and time.
It can be read as a modern tragedy. Like other modern tragedians, Williams focuses on
domestic conflict, finding interest in the minor dramas of common people. The plot centres
on Blanche’s fall in social status as she is confronted with her past and the fatal flaws of her
character which lead to her ruin.
The influence of Ibsen (one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Henrik Ibsen is often
referred to as “the father of realism” and the second most influential playwright of all times –
after Shakespeare) and his use of social realism is apparent in Williams’s writing with the
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