Streetcar named desireš - context Flashcards
Williamās own life
(4)
- Williams suffered from depression and resorted to drugs and alcohol
- Williams had a lifelong fear of death, especially death from cancer, this is reflected in Belle Reve
- 1931, Williams had a nervous breakdown and in 1937 his sister Rose was sent to a mental institution and like Blanche was lobotomised.
- Williams was a practicing homosexual at the time it was illegal
New Orleans
(4)
- a cultural melting pot
- a streetcar went to dearie and another to cemeteries, there is also an avenue called Elysian Fields were the resting souls of heroes went in Greek Mythology
- Jazz, bars, gambling
- city in Louisiana. whose legal system was influenced by the napoleonic code.
South
(3)
- DuBois family built on slavery - plantations like Belle Reve.
- Decline of the wealthy southern families has been romanticised in literature and cinema
- After the southern confederate states lost the civil war (1861-5) the south became poor and families declined
Literary and theatrical background
(3)
- Williams can be seen as part of the Southern Gothic movement, characterised by rich, grotesque imagination and an awareness of being part of a decaying culture
- Chekhovās play - The Cherry Orchard, based on declining familyās like the DuBois
- Strindbergs, Miss Julie - may have influenced Williamās in pairing class conflict and sexual tension between Blanche and Stanley
American Values
(3)
- USA prided itself on opening arms to immigrants, including Poland however Blanche still calls Stanley a Polack
- Stanley fells he is all America and that this is the greatest nation on the earth
- Stanley is an example of a go getting, competitive working class immigrant
Finish the quote:
Arthur Miller said, āStreetcar is a cryā¦.
āStreetcar is a cry of pain; forgetting that is to forget the play.ā
Finish the quote:
Arthur Miller said, Streetcar had potential for āilluminatingā¦.
āIlluminating societyās fateā
Finish the quote:
Arthur Miller said āStreetcar at the hour of its birthā¦
āStreetcar at the hour of its birth echoed the fate of the outsider in American society and raised the question of justice.ā
Finish the quote:
Arthur Miller said āIn streetcar however, the real and lyrical
āIn streetcar, however, the real and lyrical were smoothly blended and emerged a unified voice
Who was Arthur Miller
a American playwright, essayist and screen writer.
What does Williams say in his interview with himself
āI donāt believe inā¦
I donāt believe in original sin. I donāt believe in guilt. I donāt believe in villains or heroes.
What does Williams say in his interview with himself
āMost writers are primarily motivated in their desperate vocationā¦
by a desire to find and to separate truth from the complex lies and evasions they live in.
Elia Kazan: A Notebook for a Streetcar Named Desire
general key notes (2)
- Directing finally consists of turning psychology into behaviour
- This is a poetic tragedy, not a realistic or a naturalistic one
Elia Kazan: Blanche (4)
- She is caught in a fatal inner contradiction
- She is a butterfly in a jungle looking for just a little momentary protection, doomed to a sudden, early violent death
- She is a heightened version an artistic intensification of all women, that is what makes the play universal
- She takes refuge in fantasy
Elia Kazan: Stella (3)
- she has an unconscious hostility toward Blanche
- she walks around as if narcotised as if sleepy, as if in a daze.
- sheās utterly blind to whatās wrong with Stanley
