A Streetcar Named Desire Context Flashcards
(39 cards)
How did Williams present social realism?
He presented, “a more penetrating and vivid expressions of things as they are,”
How is the play defined under a Greek tragedy?
The protagonist is overcome by social and psychological issues due to moral weakness and unforeseeable circumstances
What are the Greek tragedy conventions?
- stichomythia (rapid dialogue of alternate lines to create tension)
- dramatic irony
- catharsis (language that inspires emotions of pity and fear)
- anagnorisis (the scene of recognition where the protagonist realises the truth and accept the consequences of their actions)
- hubris (excessive pride that can lead to the protagonist’s downfall)
- hamartia
- pathos
- a clear resolution that creates certain shock with heightened cathartic impact
- three unities (time, place and action)
- peripeteia (the tragic reversal of tension)
- Sophocles ( the idea that people must accept responsibility for their actions and following consequences)
- exodus (the formal action of the play)
- 6 main aspects of plot, characters, plot, thought, diction, spectacle (tragedy should be shown through the plot rather than scenic effects) and music
- Freytag’s pyramid
What are the modern/domestic tragedy conventions?
- slow revelation of information to the audience often focusing on a particular issue and how it affects the protagonists psychologically
- anti-hero protagonist
- social focus so the audience can question systems and principals
- ambiguous ending with moral questions unanswered
- flashbacks to provide context to the protagonist
- supernatural elements are metaphorical
- internal monologues that contribute to diverse storytelling techniques
- restricted/liminal setting
- a patriarchal figure who upholds the structure of the family and society as a whole as a symbol of power and order
How did Southern states become wealthy?
They were built upon the slave trade so the abolishment of slavery after the civil war led to socioeconomic decline manifested within the quality of the buildings. However, the increases in industrialisation in 1939-47 saw the rise of the lower class as industrial workers doubled which benefitted from unionisation to gain higher wages.
When was the play first published and performed?
1947 and in the December 3rd performace, the play ended with a 30 minute applause
How is the reference to Elysian fields ironic?
In Greek mythology, it was a resting place for heroes therefore Blanche’s desire could be a vehicle that transports her to heaven or madness
How is New Orleans a melting point?
It received and influx of European and African immigrants with juxtaposing ideas of acceptance within classist and racist views
What does Jazz music represent?
Hope in the New world but it is unrecognized by Blanche as she still lives in the fantasy of the old south manifesting her discomfort in the run-down Elysian fields
What were Williams’ experiences in New Orleans?
He lived there form 1938-9 and he went to the athletics club referenced in the novel and he was inspired by seeing two streetcars called desire and cemetery in a place he felt at home in. The novel is set in the French quarters known as the Vieux carre. He called his home the, “poetic evocation of all the cheap rooming houses in the world,” and that it was economically and culturally similar to Latin America through its role as a gateway through trade
What does the Nightclub represent?
Temptations of Blanche’s desires
What did Williams claim?
“I am Blanche DuBois,” due to shared hysteria and tendency to lie especially about their age
What was Williams’ personal life like?
- His father was an alcoholic salesman who was neglectful parent and abusive towards his southern Belle mother
- As a child, he was ostracised and bullied at school causing him to connect to his sister Rose who suffered a mental breakdown leading to a lobotomy because of her sexual fantasies seen as insanity
- This led him to suffer from depression throughout his life and lived in fear that he would go insane over his sister’s condition
- Williams was gay and lived at a time where it was seen as a mental illness, reflected within his work
- He lived in to homes by the age of 16 and chose hostels and travel over stable homes as he lives, “like a gypsy,” drawing parallels to Blanche’s restlessness
What is a Southern Belle?
They originated in the anti-bellum period of the American south as daughters of elite plantation owners with the expectations of Chasity, hospitality and passive submission
What is the American dream?
It rose from immigrants who believed that through individual hard work, any thing is possible allowing Marxist readers to view Stanley as a champion of the working class
How did Williams view writing?
To escape reality by focusing on the human condition and universal experiences on the fringes of acceptable behavior as defined by, “the destructive powers of society on the sensitive, non-conformist individual,”
How does the play critique limitations placed on women?
Women like Stella were merely pushed back domestic roles after the end of the war compared to 37% of the workforce previously being women reinforcing the biblical principal that a, “wife must submit to her husband.” In addition, the conventional notions of morality through sexual double standards as Blanche is ostracised whilst Stanley gets away with rape. Feminist readers critique this because it leads to a psychological decline
What did contemporary critic Leeney call Williams?
An, “ultra realist,” who was blunt in his ideas and did not overlook basic human needs
How was Williams pre-occupied with physical ugliness and the inevitability of death?
He believed we are all savages at heart
What did McConachie (2005) say?
Kowalski is an empty shell, held together by kinesthetic body language learned in the military or in the consumption of goods and this presence needs constant sensations to starve off depression
How does the New South embody the origins of species?
It calls for survival of the fittest with a fin de siècle trend of pessimism, religious skepticism and adaptation
What does the play not have acts?
To show the rapidness of Blanche’s mental decline and to mirror life as a continuous journey rather than acts
How did Williams identify with the fragility and vulnerability of women?
I draw every character out of my multiple split personality. My heroines always express the climate of my interior world at the time which those characters were created
What did Williams write in his notes of a glass menagerie in 1944?
A concept of a new plastic theatre which must take the place of an exhausted theatre of realistic conventions,”
