A Streetcar Named Desire: Context: The American South

A Streetcar Named Desire: Context: The American South

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’: Context: The American South

Historical Context:

  • ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is set in the period shortly after World War II, with societal changes and instability echoed in the play’s themes of disillusionment and despair.

Geographical Setting:

  • The play takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana, representing the modern, industrialised, diverse, and raw reality of the urban American South, in stark contrast with the romanticised, genteel, and archaic past of the rural South.

Sociocultural Transformation:

  • The shift from the ‘Old South’, characterised by plantations, nobility, and traditions, to the ‘New South’, identified by industry, immigration, and commercial growth, is a central theme in the play.

Class Disparity:

  • The contrast between Blanche’s ostentatious aristocratic past and Stanley’s brutish working-class present underscores the tussle between the fading upper classes and the emerging lower classes that defined the American South during this era.

Racial Context:

  • Issues of racism and xenophobia surface indirectly through Stanley’s disdain for Blanche’s old-world gentility and bigotry towards him due to his Polish immigrant roots.

Gender Roles:

  • The play explores traditional and transitioning gender roles and dynamics in the post-war South. Stanley embodies masculine dominance and physicality, Stella submissive femininity, and Blanche a combination of traditional Southern belle expectations with a desperate need for independence and survival.

Psychological Considerations:

  • The South was still grappling with the aftermath of the Civil War and the difficult transition towards industrialisation, leading to collective societal tension and individual psychological crises, as exemplified by Blanche’s mental breakdown.

Apply these insights to comprehend the historical, geographical, sociocultural, and psychological aspects of the American South context in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, and how it influences the plot, characters, and themes.