Streetcar Named Desire Historical Background

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams Historical background Although Williams was working on the play during the Second World War, its setting in time (in the years after World War Two) is of no real importance. What is important, however, is its setting in terms of place:

America

Historical Background Pre-Civil War (1861-65), the American South was to a great extent representative of its stereotypical image – think “Gone with the Wind” – with cotton plantations, a landed elite who flaunted their inherited wealth and gentility and a slavery system based around the flourishing industries of tobacco and cotton.

The Stereotypical South

Historical Background However, slavery was regarded as evil by the Northern States, although the Southern States regarded it as essential for their tobacco and cotton industries When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860 he promised (in a bid to keep the Union from breaking up) that slavery would continue to be legal in states where it already existed

A Divided Country

Historical Background At first the Northern half of the United States wanted only to stop slavery spreading to other states, but gradually as anti-slavery feeling grew stronger, the total abolition of slavery became the declared aim of the North The Civil War occurred when the Southern States tried to separate from the Union in order to protect their “state rights” – amongst them the right to practice slavery

Historical Background The American Civil War ended with the Confederate surrender in April 1865. As the Southern States had lost the war, many Southerners looked back wistfully to the plantation life that had characterised their region pre- Civil War

Historical Background Yet as the traditional South declined, the Northern States prospered. Industry flourished and immigrants from all over the world arrived to make America their new home in a bid to achieve the American Dream

The American Dream

Historical Background In the play, the character of Blanche symbolises the crumbling grandeur of Southern plantations

Historical Background

Historical Background Stanley is the new American in the new America He is an immigrant who believes that he too can achieve the American Dream