Context Flashcards
The American Dream
, the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.
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. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, he promised the Southern states that slavery would continue to be legal in the states where it already existed. At first the Northern half of the United States wanted only to stop slavery spreading to other states but gradually, as the anti-slavery feeling grew stronger, total abolition of slavery became the declared aim of the North.
How did the civil war end
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, shot by an actor, John Wilkes Booth – a man with a deep hatred of the Union.
Setting
Even though New Orleans was geographically a ‘Deep South’ city, the way of life was enormously different. The population of New Orleans during the 1940s was very diverse as a large portion of people were immigrants from Europe or Africa. very accepting and open environment, where races mixed freely. The home of jazz music and very relaxed in terms of anything to do with etiquette or family history, New Orleans managed to keep its own way of life separate from the Racism and Discrimination raging in neighbouring cities and states throughout the South.
south
The ‘Deep South’ refers to Southern states of America which depended on Plantation agriculture and slave labour in the era before the American Civil War. Following the Civil War, when Slavery was no longer legal, it remained a place of Racism. They were reluctant to give up their old-fashioned ways, and resisted change.
Mississippi, Blanche home , is a classic example of a ‘Deep South’ state, where to have different coloured skin or be different in any way was to be shunned from society.
what does the play represent
the play represents the decline of the aristocratic families traditionally associated with the South. These once-influential families had lost their historical importance when the South’s agricultural base was unable to compete with the new industrialization.
Female status
Williams uses Blanche’s and Stella’s dependence on men to expose and critique the treatment of women during the transition from the old to the new South. Both Blanche and Stella see male companions as their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for both their sustenance and their self-image.
Women in 1940s
- Step up at take mans role (after war)
- Women in the workplace increased
Society is evolving but women continue to be oppressed.
what did Tennessee Williams argue about the south
Writing of the play’s setting, Williams noted that “I write out of love of the South . . . (which) once had a way of life that I am just old enough to remember—a culture that had grace, elegance, an inbred culture, not a society based on money.” Through the destruction of Blanche and her struggles with the contradictory demands of society, Williams expressed a lament for the destruction of the old South, making clear his understanding that such change was inevitable.
Napoleonic Code
When Stanley feels he is being swindled by Blanche’s loss of Belle Reve, he appeals to the Napoleonic Code, a set of laws devised by the French and implemented when they ruled the region known now as Louisiana. The state of Louisiana continued to operate under some of the precepts of the Napoleonic Code, such as the Code’s emphasis on inheritance law: any property belonging to a spouse prior to marriage becomes the property of both spouses once they are married. Stanley, therefore, is legally correct to claim that, by depriving Stella of her share of the family inheritance, Blanche has also deprived him.
street car
like a tram, runs through new Orleans Louisiana. Desire is the name of a street car line through the city
Greek Tradegey
Aristotle did the first study in Greek Tragedy
it is important that the action takes place in a short time helps flow a play and shows how quickly thinks can happen.
Aristotle
His poetics was the first example of literacy eg Hamartia which means the characters ‘fatal flaw’ that may lead to their down fall such as blanche and drinking
contextual term: Antebellum
occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American civil war
contextual term: post bellum
occurring or existing after a war, in particular the American civil war
contextual term: Southern Gothic
genre of southern writing
contextual term: old south
the southern states of the us before the civil war (1861-65)
contextual term: new america
after slavery and post world war
contextual term: plastic theatre
the use of props, stage directions and noises to show a parallel with the characters state of mind on stage
contextual term: Southern belle
representing a young woman of the american souths upper socio economic class
contextual term: southern gentleman
man who was well dressed and well spoken
contextual term: Migrant
a person who moves from one place to another, especially in order to find work or a better life
contextual term: plantation
an estate on which crops such as coffee and tobacco are grown
Williams dad
loud, outgoing , hardworking, boisterous man Tennessee was a rather delicate child who was plagued with several serious illness
His families move (williams)
father accepted a position in a shoe factory in st Louis and moved the family from the expensive home in the south to an ugly tenement building in st Louis. Here he was often bullied for his southern accent and never gained acceptance
williams older sister
in st louis is where Rose was unable to jump from childhood to adulthood. Eventually she had to be placed in an institution and was lobotomised. Link to blanche unable to jump from aristocracy to independence and lower class
williams and his sexuality
after many failed attempts with women he accepted that he was gay. he has an affair with Kip Kiernan but later Kiernan left him for another women which left him distraught and after Kiernan died 4 years later this was another blow link to blanches deceased husband
how was the 1960s for williams
very difficult time, his work received poor reviews and the play wright turned to alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism. In 1969 his brother hospitalized him
what occured on february 25th
1983, he never fully escaped his demons, surrounded by bottles and pills Williams died in a hotel room
cold war
The Cold War is a title given to the period of tension between the two superpowers, the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR). The conflict grew initially from ideological differences due to the fact that the Soviet Union was a communist country whose government and economic system was at odds with that of capitalist democratic America.
Despite their differences, the USA and USSR were able to join together in an uneasy wartime alliance against Nazi Germany during World War Two. However, once the war was won, this wartime alliance began to fall apart and the ideological differences between the two developed into outright hostility.
