Carlos Rodriguez

Author Context
Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on the 26th of
March, 1911. He was born to Cornelius Coffin Williams and Edwina
(Dakin) Williams as Thomas Lanier Williams III, but in later life changed
his name to Tennessee, in reference to his fathers ancestry. His early
life was dysfunctional, as his father was an alcoholic who worked in the
shoe sales industry - he was often violent and resented his sons
weakness, due to a case of diphtheria which debilitated him in his early
childhood. From a young age, Tennessee saw that his mother was
clearly stuck in an unhappy marriage. His mother originated from the
South, and was what could be called a Southern Belle, that is a
woman who originated from the upper social class of Americas Deep
South.
Williams studied journalism at the University of Missouri. However, he
became bored and often found himself busy with poetry, short essays
and stories. His father pulled him out of school at twenty-one for him to
work at the International Shoe Company factory, where he worked. By
the time he was twenty-four he was overworked and unhappy with the
direction of his writing, which led to him having a mental breakdown. It
was during this time that he met the co-worker who was later to
become Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. It is argued that
it was his abusive father and his negative experiences with men in his
early life along with the overbearing attention of his mother were
what led to him identifying with his female characters, which are often
vulnerable and troubled. His deep love for his sister who was
institutionalised due to a failed lobotomy is also viewed as a factor.
Williams was openly homosexual, and was involved in the gay
community of the time. He held several relationships with men, of
which his relationship with Frank Merlo was the most important in his
life. Merlo died in 1963 due to lung cancer. After this, Williams drug
addiction and mental instability worsened two problems which had
led to the breakdown of his relationship with Merlo before his death. He
never recovered to his previous level of mental clarity, and remained
addicted to prescription drugs.

Dramatic/Theatrical Context
Streetcar is one of the earliest example of what became known as
plastic theatre. This type of theatre uses props, music lighting, stage
design etc to convey parallels with the characters thoughts,

Carlos Rodriguez

memories and emotions. In Streetcar, the music and lighting often

reflect Blanches memories and feelings. Furthermore, the play falls
into the category of expressionist theatre, which aims to convey a
world that is distorted by the playwright, in order to convey inner
psychological messages and to express the feelings of the characters
ironically to the audience.
Imagery and symbolism play a crucial role in the play. The polka music
refers to Blanches husbands suicide; the blues piano reflects the
spirit of life etc and shadow is often used as the antithesis to light,
which symbolises truth. Blanche actively avoids the light, which
transmits a crucial message to the audience.
Williams also references and explores the savage aspect of the human
condition. Each of his characters is shown to commit terrible acts, and
Williams wishes to transmit the point that all humans have a bit of the
primeval and animalistic in them, no matter how civilised. The most
obvious example of a savage in the play is Stanley Kowalski, who is
domineering, abusive and is the villain of the play.
Streetcar also follows the model of Aristotelian tragedy, which is the
model of tragedy provided by Aristotle himself: "an imitation of an
action that is serious, complete and of certain length....decorated with
artistic embellishments like plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle
and song." Furthermore, he believed that the tragedy was to have
unity of place and time. Williams model follows Aristotles there is
unity of place, time and there is one main plot, i.e.: the serious and
complete action of Blanches transformation. The great pain and
suffering experienced in the play is also important when thinking about
any Aristotelian ties, as catharsis, or the purging of emotions via
emotive and provocative art, is a key principle of the ancient Greek
tragedy. The suffering and turmoil in the play embodies the Greek
element of catharsis, and therefore links any tragic element strongly
with the ancient Aristotelian model.

Cultural/Social Context
Williams was obsessed with Americas Deep South he viewed its
decay from previous excellence and glory as something romantic and
wrote:
I write out of love for the South once a way of life that I am just
able to remember not a society based on money I write about the
South because I think the war between romanticism and the hostility to
it is very sharp there.

Carlos Rodriguez

Despite of this, Williams does not include politics in his writing and
instead focuses on the mundane and banal which affects all of us.
However, Williams explores culture in depth and most of the problems
which occur between the characters of the play are down to cultural
misunderstandings. Culture often acts as a wall which separates
characters in Williams writing, especially Blanche and Stanley. Often
money is also an issue Stanley has a totally different view of money
than that of Blanche, due to class differences. Blanche lets money slip
from her hands due to her higher lifestyle and background, whereas
Stanley sees money as happiness and as that which can set him apart
from everybody else.