Historical Context Flashcards
World War Two (1939-1945)
Williams began working on the play in 1945, and it was first staged in 1947, 2 years after the war.
There is little reference to the war in the play, apart from Stella telling Blanche about Stanley’s rank/regiment/medals, Mitch telling Blanche about how he knew Stanley from the war, and Stanley’s reference to the Salerno Landings. Like all Williams’ plays, Streetcar exists in its own world and time, so perhaps the war was not widely spoke about as it was so raw.
The political tension that arose from WW2, the Cold War, can be linked to the play, as like the world, the characters in the play feel claustrophobic and at odds with each other.
American Civil War (1861-1865)
Although Williams himself and none of the characters in the play experienced the American Civil War, its impact on the play is significant.
The war mainly happened due to the irreconcilable differences between the South and the North. The North wanted to abolish slavery, impose taxes on goods imported to the South, and essentially extended the control of the government to areas of the South that were yet to be fully incorporated into the Union. As a result, the South split from the Union, forming the Confederacy. After Confederate soldiers attacked a Union fort in South Carolina, war began.
The war ended in 1865, with the Confederacy surrendering and lying in ruins. Although Abraham Lincoln saw the South as equals and wanted to reconcile the two sides and rebuild, he was assassinated by a Confederate sympathiser. Slavery was soon abolished, but the treatment of Southerners was harsh and the region was soon in economic decline, which made many Southerners resentful towards the North, and by extension, the post-Antebellum world.
Homosexuality
Homosexuality was illegal during the era in which the play was written and set in; and given the deep social Conservatism of the South, already existing prejudice would have been exacerbated.
As a result, homosexuality/advocacy for gay rights was never the predominant theme of Williams’ work, despite being homosexual himself. It IS present within plays such as Streetcar and A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but Williams never sought to defend homosexuality or advocate for it.
Williams himself was deeply ashamed of being homosexual and was equally resentful of those who accepted their sexuality. In one interview, Williams said, ‘I am not about to limit myself to writing about gay people’.
Even if he rejected his sexuality, Williams felt compelled to incorporate it into his plays; in this case, through the off-stage character of Allen. The storyline of Allen could have remained shocking if Blanche had discovered Allen having sex with another woman - however, by making Allen have an affair with a man, this increased the dramatic effect and makes his storyline more shocking.
