Context

Question 1

What was Williams’ childhood like ?

Answer 1

• Parents had unhappy marriage
• Father alcoholic
• Mother resented drunken ways
• Father was working class salesman
• Mother was a Southern Belle born to higher class & well read = father didn’t reflect well on social status she had to maintain

Question 2

How was Williams treated as a child ?

Answer 2

• Bedridden for 2 years
• Grew reserved & vulnerable after being bullied at school
• Grew close to sister who was institutionalised for MH
• Gay = homosexuality at time was illness (Stanley = repressed sexual desires)

Question 3

When is play set ?

Answer 3

Atmospheric aftermath of Civil War ending in 1965 with Northern states’ victory

Question 4

Civil War ?

Answer 4

• Fought between Northern & Southern states
• On issue of abolishment of salvery
• Racism continued long after
• South alienated from rest of America

Question 5

How did New Orleans become champion of diversity ?

Answer 5

• Accepted Southern states
• Became melting pot of culture with large influx of immigrants from Europe & Africa
• Spurred shift to industrial economy

Question 6

Where does Williams set play ?

Answer 6

• Deep South
• See Mississippi & old ways of intolerance towards difference
• Other represented through Dubois heritage
• New Orleans through Elysian Fields, showcases liberal South

Question 7

Socio-economic status in the play ?

Answer 7

• Shift from old money into modernity & diversity
• Blanche = stuck in past
• America in 20th century = centred around American Dream
• American Dream through Stanley
• WW2 enabled American heroism

Question 8

Gender roles

Answer 8

• Critiques limitations that post WW society imposed on itself
• Championing of masculinity & values around family & home
• Woman = domestic roles
• During WW2, women in national workforce rose from 27% to 37%
• Pushed back to domestic roles after WW2

Question 10

Gender roles in play

Answer 10

• Stella & Stanley portray accepted gender roles
• Blanche showcases masculine energy in sexuality & arrogance
• Mitch & Allan Grey portray feminine energy & emotions
• Societal gender norms negatively impact all main characters towards death or moral or mental destruction

Question 11

Race

Answer 11

• 1940s America not free of racial prejudice & discrimination
• New Orleans becomes pocket distinguished from rest in warmth & welcoming attitude towards New American Dream of equality

Question 12

Race in play

Answer 12

• Blanche arrives with traditional notions of superiority
• Kowalski - Dubois conflict reflects racism from European immigrants
• ‘polack’, ‘swine’, ‘healthy Polack, without a nerve in your body’
• Prejudice based on class rather than race, particularly in post Harlem Renaissance era where segregation still prevalent but being contested

Question 13

Religion & morality

Answer 13

• Founded on Puritan & Christian principles
• Not explicit in play, prejudice against homosexuality prevalent
• Biblical principle that wife must submit to husband
• Blanche struggles with moral standards on society
• Double standards around sexuality
• Blanche labelled = feeling ostracised while Stanley escapes with abuse & rape

Question 14

Rape scene

Answer 14

• Through feminist lens = asserting masculine power & authority by using past decisions against her
• Women seen as victims of oppressive patriarchy
• Justified through Blanche’s nature = flirty & exhibitionism
• Marxist lens = reigning champion of working classes & defeating old aristocratic ways

Question 15

Sexuality

Answer 15

• Blanche’s past seen as unacceptable due to being woman

Question 16

Patriarchy

Answer 16

• Chips away at Blanche’s sanity
• Felt need to find husband to be accepted by society

Question 17

Class

Answer 17

• Bourgeois threat to Stanley’s life
• Considers baby as representation of Kowalski future & not Dubois = patriarch

Question 18

Production history

Answer 18

• Became popular because of taboo themes of class tensions, female sexuality, homosexuality & male domination which coexisted with social dilemmas at the time
• Williams explores social tensions & psychological subdivisions of class structures & gender roles through class of characters
• Viewed as exposing moral decay of Old Southern view with New Southern views
• Stanley symbolised world of masculinity & fierce individualism

Question 19

When was the first Broadway staged of Streetcar & what happened ?

Answer 19

• December 3rd 1947
• Ended with short & surprised silence before thunder of applause for 30m

Question 20

What happened surrounding the movie ?

Answer 20

• Controversy over rape scene
• Williams stood ground to refuse to remove it

Question 21

Theatre production

Answer 21

• No interval
• Couldn’t sustain dramatic tension for 3 acts of conventional length
• Language & dialogue important in depicting differences in class upbringing
• Used mixed approach of expressionism in portrayal of reality in abstract form
• Uses stage directions = rape, open to interpretation
• Uses props as symbols = alcohol, bath
• Polka reflects Blanche’s guilt induced mental deterioration = plays role in characterisation & transports audience seamlessly into delusions & back to reality

Question 22

Film

Answer 22

• Remained the same
• Hollywood Production Code & National Legion of Decency played key role in censorship, cutting out segments they deemed inappropriate for viewing
• 2 versions of film = 1951 saw maximum censorship while 1993 saw more original script & filming

Question 23

What topics were controversial to keep in film ?

Answer 23

• Conversations about homosexuality
• Blanche’s drunkness or flirtations
• Verbal abuse towards Stanley
• Stella & Stanley’s intimate conversations
• ‘intimacies with strangers’ = changed to ‘meetings’
• damned’ = changed to ‘punished’