context: streetcar named desire Flashcards
the napoleonic code:
in 1805 the napoleonic code was introduced which dictated that men would have control over all their wives financial affairs. Louisiana put into place an inheritance law based on the napoleonic code in 1825, which still exists to this day as under their civil war, any property belonging to a single spouse becomes their joint property once married
New Orleans hardship:
during the Great Depression, at times the unemployment rate in New Orleans was over 30%
New Orleans industry:
during the war New Orleans boomed with industry. it attracted immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America and also some parts of Europe. who had never been able to get full paying jobs before. it helped strip away the power of the Deep South plantations with the new money coming in from industrialisation and manufacturing.
theatre at the time of the release of streetcar:
in the 1930s social realism was the most popular branch of theatre. however Williams and other play writes such as Arthur miller included elements of expressionism in their work such as bold symbolic colours and the transition of jazz music to incoherent sounds to represent blanches mental disintegration
slavery:
the southern confederate states such as Alabama and Mississippi, fought in the American civil war from 1861-65 to defend their right to keep slaves, however they lost this battle to the northern union states hence why there are people of all colours living in Elysian Fields
jazz music in the play:
jazz music was born of music traditions associated with slavery, with west African rhythms, work songs and American folk music. the blues, a more melancholy version of jazz, may have originated from African American funerals
Elysian Fields:
Williams uses proleptic irony (foreshadowing) by making Stanleys street name Elysian Fields. contextually this is known to be a place in mythology where immortal heroes were sent. shows the stark make dominance and his defeat of blanche and over Stella psychologically
Aristotelian tragedy:
tragedy is created by the deliberate actions of a person. the similarities in features between typical aristolian tragedy and streetcar are: a tragic protagonist of an elevated social status and her hermatia (tragic flaw) is believing her treatment should not be defined by her status as a woman. blanche exudes masculine energy with her dominant sexual nature
plastic theatre:
a non realistic style that exploited expressionistic devices to symbolically represent the psyche of the protagonist sound, light and language becomes figurative
