context Streetcar Flashcards
what was William’s family like?
his fathers drinking increased, the family moved sixteen times in ten years, and the young Williams, always shy and fragile, was ostracized and taunted at school
what happened to William’s sister?
While he was in Iowa, Rose, who had begun suffering from mental illness later in life, underwent a prefrontal lobotomy (an intensive brain surgery). The event greatly upset Williams, and it left his sister institutionalized for the rest of her life.
what themes of his plays were present in his work?
Alcoholism, depression, thwarted desire, loneliness, and insanity were all part of Williams’s world. His experience as a known homosexual in an era unfriendly to homosexuality also informed his work.
who was the epigraph written by?
The epigraph to A Streetcar Named Desire is taken from a Hart Crane poem titled “The Broken Tower.” Crane, like himself, had a bitter relationship with his parents and suffered from bouts of violent alcoholism. Most important, Williams identified with Crane as a homosexual writer trying to find a means of self-expression in a heterosexual world. Unlike Williams, Crane succumbed to his demons, drowning himself in 1932 at the age of thirty-three.
what were the methods of controlling menatl illlness?
Although hydrotherapy, metrazol convulsion, and insulin shock therapy were popular in the 1930s, these methods gave way to psychotherapy in the 1940s. By the 1950s, doctors favored artificial fever therapy and electroshock therapy.
who was Nietzsche and how does this relate to streetcar?
came up with the concept of a perfect man being
- independently minded
- strategically selfish
- not humble
- ‘wicked’ around sex
all this resembles stanley kowlski and his views of himself as a God-like being
what happened in the south after the civil war?
it was a period classed as “The Reconstruction”
- loss of controlled labour force
- south became completely impoverished
- equality became a problem for white supremacists
what is featured in the genre southern gothic?
- isolation and marginalization.
- violence and crime.
- the grotesque.
- decay.
- oppression and discrimination.
how was williams influenced by ibsen and strindberg?
he read them in university, wrote plays centered on a single character which ensued the unity of action
in what ways does steetcar conform to the unities?
- action (centred around blanche and stanley)
- place (all in new orleans)
- not time (should be in 1 day, over course of 5 acts)
how does existentialism impact the play?
it means “emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.”
Stanley believes in his own luck
what is the melting pot of the usa?
the merging together into one culture through immigration - ie stanley seeing himself as te ideal american man but hes polish
it was connected to utopian visions of the emergence of an American “new man”. (links to Nietzsche)
when was streetcar written?
1947
