context Flashcards
(18 cards)
how did mississippi economically recover from thewar
lumber - destroying itself
mississippi known for beautiful nature
williams parents
Williams’s father, C.C. Williams, was a traveling salesman and a heavy drinker.
Williams’s mother, Edwina, was a Mississippi clergyman’s daughter prone to hysterical attacks.
what did the williams family moving away from the south to missouri mean for family life
Until Williams was seven, he, his parents, his older sister, Rose, and his younger brother, Dakin, lived with Edwina’s parents in Mississippi.
In 1918, the Williams family moved to St. Louis, marking the start of the family’s deterioration. C.C.’s drinking increased,
williams isolation in his real life
After being bedridden for two years as a child due to severe illness, Williams grew into a withdrawn, effeminate adolescent whose chief solace was writing
williams winning question for a essay competition at 16
“Can a good wife be a good sport?”
where and what did williams do in higher education
University of Missouri to study journalism
(but his father made him withdraw before the end of the course)
then went to st louis
then went to iowa
graduated 1938
rose (his sisters) struggle with mental health
Rose, who had begun suffering from mental illness later in life, underwent a prefrontal lobotomy (an intensive brain surgery). The event greatly upset Williams, and it left his sister institutionalized for the rest of her life
why was streetcars pessimism well recieved
new American taste for realism that emerged following the Depression and World War II.
individual characters participation on war
Stanley and Mitch served in the military, while Blanche had affairs with young soldiers based near her home.
streetcars epigraph from crane (poet)
Williams identified with Crane as a homosexual writer trying to find a means of self-expression in a heterosexual world
Unlike Williams, Crane succumbed to his demons, drowning himself in 1932 at the age of thirty-three.
With increasing desperation, Blanche “hurls” her continually denied love out into the world, only to have that love revisit her in the form of suffering.
what and when was the civil war
(April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (“the North”) and the Confederacy (“the South”)
how did slavery affect southern attitudes in the long run
fostering racial hierarchies and a culture of white supremacy
importance placed on anscestory and heritage- and the superiority tied with that
the souths relationship with the rest of america (verus new orleans)
alienated
known to be racist and impoverished
with new orleans somehow emerging as a racial and economic hub - due to shift to industry over agriculture
the South in 1947 was a region grappling with its history and struggling to reconcile its traditions with the changing values of the nation. Its relationship with the rest of America was marked by tension, disagreement, and a growing demand for change, particularly in the realm of racial equality.
where was the dubois family money from
plantation / slavery
what did the emergence of the american dream mean
growing individualism
hard work rather than heritage
deference
where is the kowalski family money from
working class + industry
Stanley’s life is built on the “American Dream” of working-class prosperity
how did ww2 effect the characters
growth of american heroism
growth of the america dream
Loss of Old Values
post war, lots of women liberation was repressed, and they had to revert back to traditional domestic roles
what was america founded on
puritan principles and beliefs
whilst the play doesnt really discuss religion explicitly, the prejudices against homosexuality, female sexuality, etc. reflect the influence the puritans have had on the american people
as well as the idea of a wife ‘submitting’ to her husband
