STREETCAR context Flashcards
Tennessee Williams’ life
Difficult childhood - unhappy parents, alcoholic father
Mother = southern belle - higher class and well read
Close to sister Rose - suffered mental illness and institutionalised
Williams was gay - homosexuality seen as mental illness
“I am Blanche DuBois” - Williams
Socio=political context
aftermath of civil war - north and south +_ abolition of slavery
Racism throughout south prevalent
South isolated from rest of America
New Orleans - melting pot of diversity
Upper class vs New America
Socio-economic context
transition from old money to modernity
Blanche and Stella - build off slavery
Blanche stuck in past - tension with stanley over clashing values - working-class immigrant vs self-important rich lady
American Dream and Stanley - individualism
Gender ROles
Critiques limitations on women - However championing masculinity - embracing family values and domesticity
% of working women from 27-37% during ww2 - pushed back after ww2 ended.
societal gender norms negatively impact all characters.
Race
America not free of racial prejudice and discrimination.
Williams uses,, not great language by todays standards - portrays some diversity however doesn’t address glaring racism (other than Blanche vs Stanley)
Immigration from across Europe - “land of the free”
Religion and Mortality
America founded on Puritan and Christian principles -
seeped into culture
-Biblical principles “wife must submit to husband” and all that
-old-fashioned values are a good thing?
HOWEVER - blanche struggling with society moral standards
Blanche ostracised and defiled for sexual liberation whilst stanley gets away with abuse and rape
Literary and critical context
Variety of responses in broadway
Robert J. Leeney - Williams is an “Ultra-realist”
Some audiences saw Stanley as a victim?? - rape scene justified. some audiences cheered??
Marxist - Stanley reigning champion of classes
‘the gaudy seed bearer’ - survival of the fittest
Feminist - critique of patriarchal society - expectations on women.
Stanley asserts masculine power over Blanche through sexual violence
Past unacceptable due to being a woman
