Context - A Streetcar Named Desire - AQA English ...

1 English Literature A-levelDrama: A Streetcar Named work by PMT Education is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND : What does Context mean for your exam?Writing aboutcontextandbackground informationis the third of your five assessmentobjectives. Across the two papers, it counts for approximately24%of the marks so is not to beoverlooked. Examiners are looking for you to demonstrate an understandingof thesignificanceandinfluenceof the contexts in which literary texts are written and received , therelationshipbetween the ideasin the text and thecontextin which it was can be a variety of different factors, including:- Details about theauthor s Thehistorical contextin which they lived and wrote, and (if it is different) the historicalcontext in which the text is set.

2 InStreetcar Named Desire ,you could consider Williams portrayal of1940 s gender How the text wasreceivedwhen it was first published or contexts, for example whichgenre(s)the author uses in the text. The contexts inwhich a text is engaged with bydifferent audiencesthrough the history(for a play), for example how it would have been first staged, andvarious different performances through to the present is assessedthroughout the paper. It is important that you have a thorough knowledge ofa text s Context in order to understand it It is important to understand what Williams originalaudience would have known or been thinking about as they watched the play, as these are thepeople for whom he was writing.

3 This will give you asubtler understandingof the text, and allowyou to make sense of some of the references within TipThe most important thing to remember about Context in your exam essay is that it needs to bedirectly relevant, rather than bolted-on to the end of a paragraph or essay. You should includerelevant Context throughout to illustrate and develop your answer to the question. The examinerdoesn t want to read everything you know about Tennesse Williams father but would rather readabout how his alcoholic father can be seen in Stanley! Context : Tennesse Williams lifeWilliam s life is important to note, as many of his characters were built around hisreal-liferelationships.

4 Tennesse Williams was bornThomas Lanier Williams III, in 1919, in Mississippi. Incollege he wasnamed Tennessee by his friends, after his home state. Williams had a particularlydifficult childhood; his parents had an unhappy marriage, his father was analcoholicand hismotherresentedher husband's drunken and philandering Coffin Williams,Willams father, was a domineering,working-class salesman, who is said to have been negligentof his parental duties and often missing from his children's lives. Meanwhile,Tennessee Williams smother, Edwina Williams was aSouthern Belle, born to ahigher class and well-readEpiscopalminister and an educated music teacher.

5 Edwina detested her husband s drinking, extra-maritalaffairs, and general lifestyle, believing that they did not reflect well on her as she had a certainsocial status to a child, he wasbedriddenfor two years and grewreserved and vulnerableafter he wasostracizedandbulliedin school. However, he was very close to his sister Rose, who latersuffered from mental illness and wasinstitutionalizedfor the same. Williams was gay and lived ina time where homosexuality was seen as a mental illness, something that is reflected clearly in is evident thatnegative experiences fueledmuch of William s writing. All the above life eventsand relationships are represented through the main characters inA Streetcar Named struggled with loneliness, alcoholism and depression, and depicted them in his ContextThe play is set in the atmosphericaftermathof the Civil War.

6 The Civil War in America was foughtbetween the Northern and Southern States, and this was mainly on the issue of theabolishmentof Slavery. The Southern States were against its abolishments as their plantations were based onslavery. The war ended in 1865 at the end with theNorthern states victory. Despite the loss, theimage of The South remained in their minds. While slavery was no longer legal,greatimportancecontinued to be placed on ancestry and heritage, therefore theracismthat existed allalong continued to exist long after the Civil South wasalienatedfrom the rest of America and was known to be a place brimming withracism and poverty.

7 While slavery was illegal, segregation was prevalent and this systemperpetuated cheap labor based on race. However, amidst all this, after the Great Depression, NewOrleans emerged as thechampion of diversityand acceptance in these Southern States. With alargeinflux of immigrantsfrom Europe and Africa, New Orleans became amelting potofculture. This influx was spurred by the shift to anindustrial economy, with multiple factories beingset up to replace the old agrarian community. In tandem with this, the working class setsA Streetcar Named Desirein this Deep South '', yet we see two different sides to and the old ways of intolerancetowards difference and the Other are representedthrough the upper-class Dubois heritage, while New Orleans through Elysian Fields, showcasesthemore ContextA Streetcar Named Desireexplores a time oftransitionfor the American South, and the tensionsresulting from the shift fromold moneyintomodernityanddiversity.

8 Blanche and Stella s moneywould likely have beenbuilt on slavery, and Blanche represents the struggle of being stuck in , unable to move on with a progressing society. Her tension with Stanley is caused by theirclashing values, and many of the insults she hurls at him implying a sense ofbrutishnessandvulgarityrelated to his status as aworking-class of theSouthwas part of a wider shift towards modernity during thetwentieth century. Slavery having been abolished in the South in 1865, as a result of theCivil War,leading to thedeclineof families like the Dubois. America in the twentieth century becomescentered around the idea of theAmerican Dream, and the welcoming of generations ofimmigrants, like Stanley, who feel intrinsically all-American.

9 Stanley represents this dream, and thego-getting thrust of the working-class people who feel they can achieve whatever they desirethrough hard work, perseverance, andindividualism. This promise is fundamentally at odds witheverything that allows Blanche to live in her Southern belle fantasy. This individualistic,all-American ideology was heavily propelled by the events of the Second World War. AlthoughWilliams barely mentions the war, it is ever-present in his themes and characters. WW2 enabled asense of Americanheroismto develop, a heroism that was based on overcoming the GreatDepression and defeating the Nazis. Anational spotlightwas shone onworking-class menlikeStanley, who had survived the war, rejoined the peacetime workforce and were now seen asbearersof American ContextGender RolesA Streetcar Named Desireis often considered a play thatcritiques the limitationsthat thepost-world war American society imposed on itself.

10 While the restrictions on women are anexplicit focus of Williams , the gender stereotyping that men suffer is also addressed postwar emergence of a sense of American heroism had implications for thechampioning ofmasculinity, as the nation decided to embracevaluescentered aroundfamilyand home,heroising these men and placing women like Stella in a moredomestic rolealongside WW2, the percentage of women in the national workforce rose from 27% to 37%. After thewar ended, they werepushed back into traditional domestic roles. Williams post-war NewOrleans, therefore,is a space weretraditionalgender roles had been shaken up andconservative Southern ideals of old money and aristocratic heritage had been displaced in favourof the new working class work ethic.