Streetcar Context Flashcards
(11 cards)
Socio Political Context
set in atmospheric afetrmath of civil war - great NBance still placed on ancestry & heritage - racism contin
south = alientated from rest of US - place of racism & poverty - NOs became symbol of diveristy = m immigrants - spurred by shift to industrial econ from agrarian south
Socio-Economic Context
explores time of transition & tensions between old money & modernity
B reps struggle of being stuck in past unable to move into progressive soc - tension w/ Stan caused by clashing values
= transition to American Dream - will ach thro hardwork perserverance & indu - at odds with what B believes
Williams Socio-Cultural Perspective
“I have only one major theme for my work, which is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual” - TW
Gender Roles
SC often seen as crit of limitations post-war US placed on self - focus = on female restriction
post-war emergence of heroism championed masc - embraced v’s centred around fam & home = m dom role for women
women pushed out of workplace
TW engages w/ expected GRs in S&S but subverts them in B&M
Race
NOs became pocket in southern america welcoming of diversity - contrasts B’s ideas of superiority
Literary Context
play recieved mixture of responses - some rejected bold portrayal of sexuality, morality & desire but others liked its crude realism
some crits looked at Stan as vic of B’s madness as attack against masc, class & heritage - some cheered during the rape scene
Marxist Lens
Stan = champion of the WC - defeats the old aristocratic ways by removing B the symbol of the Bour
using the Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ Stan emerges the survivor ready to pass his way of life onto his son
Wertheim - baby = rep of Kowalski future no the DuBois one
Feminist Lens
play = crit of expecs of patri soc - expressed thro the psych unravelling of the charas
TW’s twisted presentation of masc & fem can also be seen in this light - B shows masc trait = threat to Stan the esta b patri meaning she must be removed
the rape scene = when Stan asserts masc power & auth over B thro sexual violence - uses her past against her - in the fem discourse this portrays women as vics of the oppressive patri
Bodis
“As we cannot fully accept or reject Blanche when she is eliminated we don’t fully sympathise nor do we rejoice fully”
Production History
published in aftermath of WW2 = pop bc of taboo themes: class tensions, female sexuality, homosexuality & male domination - coexisted w/ soc dilemmas - the frag of soc = explored thro charas
many saw the play as exposing the moral decay of the old southern values of rigid soc hier vs the new southern values of Darwinian survival of the fittest in the AD
Theatre Producation
uses scenes X acts & = no interval - perhaps to sustain the dramatic tension
stage directions give very specific instructions - outside seeps into the appartment - distorts boundaries between private & public - societies control on indu
