Context Flashcards
(41 cards)
What sort of place was New Orleans in 1940s America?
A Deep South city with a cosmopolitan background due to heavy immigration from the 1880s to the 1920s. It is a blend of old and new cultures, a crossroad of past and present.
How is New Orleans described in Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’?
The sidewalks have “entertainment by pickaninnies” and there are “ante-bellum homes”.
What was Williams’ father like?
His father was an alcoholic and often neglectful or abusive.
What was Williams’ mother like?
Williams’ mother was a ‘Southern Belle’ type of woman who could become prone to neurotic and hysterical behaviour.
Who was the closest family member in Williams’ life?
His sister Rose, who is believed to have inspired many of his female characters.
What traumatic event happened to Williams regarding his sister Rose?
When Williams was young, Rose underwent a lobotomy and was then institutionalized.
What did Williams suffer from later in life?
Depression and alcoholism.
What is plastic theatre?
A form of theatrical Expressionism, mostly unique to ‘Streetcar’, that uses motifs (props/sounds/etc) to parallel a character’s mindset.
Give three examples of plastic theatre in ‘Streetcar’.
- The Varsouviana Polka and Blanche’s trauma and fragile mental state.
- Light as a representation of truth, shown through the paper lantern on the bulb and Blanche’s use of candles with Mitch.
- The lurid shadows in Scene 10 and 11 which represent Blanche’s terror.
What is a tragic protagonist?
A protagonist with a noble goal, whose fatal flaw hinders them from achieving their goal and ultimately causes their downfall.
What is a Southern Belle?
A stock character and stereotype from the Deep South, who embodied ‘Southern hospitality’, and sought out gentlemen husbands to marry into respectable families and further their own social status.
How is Amanda in The Glass Menagerie reminiscent of Blanche?
- She has had an antebellum upbringing and ‘gentleman callers’.
- She is a ‘faded’ Southern Belle who has ‘fallen’ from her upbringing both socially, economically, and aesthetically.
- Her value system is at odds with her children, the ‘new generation’, like Stanley and Blanche are.
How is Blanche’s situation reminiscent of Maggie’s in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof?
- She is married to a man who is suspected to be a homosexual and does not sleep with her, much like Blanche’s first husband.
What dramatic medium does Williams give to Blanche and most of his other female characters? What is the intention/effect of this?
Several monologues, which means there is more vividness to Blanche’s history and her character to allow the audience to sympathise with her.
What themes are similar between Williams and his contemporary Arthur Miller’s work “A View From The Bridge”?
- Domestic setting
- Claustrophobic and cramped setting
- Patriarchal figures (Eddie and Stanley)
- Homosexuals and marrying women
Who was Erwin Piscator and how did he influence Williams?
An early 20th century German political theatre dramatist who worked alongside Brecht. He was a teacher of Williams in New York.
What impression did the Red Scare give the American public on Polish people?
Poland had become a Communist State in the post-war era, and Communism was seen as an Eastern European import. Thus, Polish people coming to America were suspected of communist sympathies and generated fear.
What was Polish migration like prior to the Second World War?
Many immigrants were working class and entered industrial jobs, and were treated with suspicion by Americans due to the American nativism.
What is Elysian Fields?
A place in Greek Mythology for heroic souls to settle once they die.
What is Der Rosenkavalier?
- A 1911 Opera part of opera repertoire, performed often throughout the 1930s/1940s.
- Depicts a bourgeoisie couple, of an older woman insecure with her age and younger man.
- Eventually the younger man meets a younger female, and the older woman must release him to fall in love with her.
What is the Dame aux Camelias?
- 1848 French novel adapted into a 1936 film featuring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor.
- The eponymous dame lives a lower class, courtesan lifestyle, and seeks out a lover to free her from it.
- She seeks love in Armand, a richer man who saves her.
- Armand’s father breaks up their relationship to protect the family’s reputation, and ultimately the Dame dies alone.
What is unusual about Williams’ stage directions?
They are incredibly detailed, specific, and difficult if not impossible to recreate on stage.
What were common mental health treatments in institutions in 1940s America?
- Electroshock therapy
- Injections of chemicals
- Lobotomies
In which other contemporary dramas is alcohol used as a motif for truth?
- ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’, where Brick’s best friend confesses to him that he is in love with him drunkenly over the phone (revealed in dialogue), and when Brick tells Big Daddy he is dying.
- ‘Death of a Salesman’, where Biff tells his father Willy that he was never a successful salesman, only a store clerk.
