Context- 'A Streetcar named Desire'

Biographical context
1. Family background: parents, sister and family relationship
  1. Name symbolic of his neutral position-- Western Tennessee+ pro- Confederacy, whilst Eastern + pro-Union
    1. Last state to join Confederation
  2. Mother, Edwina, prone to hysterical attacks
    1. Was a Southern Belle, found it difficult to adjust when family moved from Mississippi to st. Louis
    2. Blanche?
  3. Father- Cornelius
    1. Heavy alcoholic , abusive father,
      1. Stanley?
      2. Sister, Rose
        Suffered from mental illness
        Underwent lobotomy
        Leaving her institutionalised
2. His sexuality and surrounding feelings
  1. 'i don't understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in."
    1. Endured injustice due to his sexuality
      1. Suffered from long period depression after the death of his long time partner, Frank Merlo in 1963
3. Mental health and his obsession with death
  1. Consumed by death, mental instability and illness in his life
    1. Suffered depression after death of partner Frank Merlo in 1963
4. Themes and issues within his play
  1. Old South vs New America ( Civil War)
  2. Homosexuality
  3. Masculinity
  4. Mistreatment of women
    1. Rape
      1. Common act , (at this time) which illustrates masculine control over females
Literary Context
1. Realism
  1. Creates realism through realistic, conversational dialouge
    1. Juxtaposes with expressionistic stage directions
      1. Structural implications= Symbolic of Old South vs New America
2. Expressionism
  1. Movement in 20th Century
    1. Fully demonstrates suffering of the protagonist
      1. Split into stationendramen-- Structural implication
        Likening to the stations of the cross- Usually a tragic hero
  2. Use of descriptions and allusions too
3. Southern Gothic
  1. Gothic literature set in Southern merica
    1. Grotesque and romantic
      1. Embodies romantic and grandure aspects of the Old South
4. The genre of tragedy
  1. A work of literature in which the main character is brought to ruin, as a consequence of their tragic flaw
5. Written in 1947
SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
1. The American Civil War
  1. Occurred between 1860 and 1865
  2. Why did it happen?
    1. Northern states and Southern states did not agree on the same laws
      1. South
        Relied on slavery for tobacco and cotton industries on which their wealth was founded
        11 Southern States join to become a confederation
      2. North
        Slavery= EVIL
  3. Ultimate result
    1. 1860 war began
    2. By April 1865, the Confederacy surrendered, but by this stage most of the Old South lay in ruins
      1. Lincoln hoped to "bind up the South's wounds"
        Was assassinated a few days after the surrender by actor John Wilkes Booth, who had a huge hatred for the union
2. Post World War II in America
  1. Known as post war economic boom
    1. Housing boom
      1. Rise in car and electronic sales
3. Immigration and America as a "melting pot"
  1. More immigrants arriving due to the promotion of the American Dream --- 1940s society blending from heterogeneous to homogeneous
    1. Many immigrants fought in war- Patriotic for America
4. Attitudes to homosexuality
  1. War promoted exclusivity-- Comradery meant no one was discriminated against, gays join army
  2. However, not legal
    1. Many homosexual people were assassinated by Nazis at this time
5. Women's roles in society in 1940s
  1. Young women as a group were generally better educated
    1. Needed to fill up university spaces to keep them open
  2. Encouraged to be much more productive within society
    1. Embodied the role of men during wartime, forced into factory work, etc,
      1. Gained a louder voice

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Context- 'A Streetcar named Desire'

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