1. A Streetcar Named Desire
Settings

2. Setting: Place USA Southern states Louisiana New Orleans
French Quarter
Elysian Fields
Kowalski’s apartment
Bedroom
Bathroom
Kitchen/living area
By reference: Laurel, Mississippi

3. Setting: Time Era: Mid-20th century Post WW2 1947
Seasons: May to autumn ( a few weeks after some time on September)
Time of day – different scenes
Also - weather

4. Literary Context (structure): Aristotle's 3 Unities
unity of action: one main plot, centring on a main character, that moves on rapidly and smoothly through the play. Makes it more realistic and convincing
unity of time: the action takes place over a short period in the real time of the play. Williams doesn’t strictly adhere to this but it is a relatively short time span of a few months. Makes it more realistic
unity of place: the play should take place in a single location. Makes it more realistic and focuses the audience’s attention on the themes and issues.

5. Context
Literary = Aristotle's Unity of place is observed. The entire action of the play takes place in the, or just outside, the Kowalski's apartment. Gives the play a tense, claustrophic feel. Makes it more realistic and focuses the audience’s attention on the themes and issues.
Historical/social =Post-war New Orleans. Culturally diverse/more relaxed, etc…, represents societal change which Williams seems to approve of (his warm, almost affectionate descriptions – need for change (homosexuality), even though he laments the decline of the gentility of Laurel and the old world ?

6. Exam Question
Explore the ways in which Williams uses setting in A Streetcar Named Desire. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.
(25 marks)
Spend just under one hour on this.

7. Assessment Objectives 1,2 and 3
Include:
Clear, controlled, evaluative argument
Use relevant, fluently embedded, sustained quotations
Use terminology, and evaluate the effect of concepts and literary features
Clear, careful, sophisticated expression
Logical, controlled, cohesive and sophisticated structure
Show how meanings are created by understanding, analysing and evaluating the writer’s craft
Explore, analyse, evaluate and appreciate the significance of contextual factors, making links between the play and its context

8. Indicative Content
Blanche’s first appearance in Elysian Fields and its impact on the audience
Dramatic impact of the claustrophobic two-bedroomed flat setting and how Williams uses it to develop his themes
Period setting; America after WW2 and the play’s focus on the working class
Presentation of Laurel and Belle Reve in contrast to the diversity of the French Quarter of New Orleans
Symbolism related to setting, for example. Significance of the play’s tile
Effects of staging details and use of music to establish mood and develop character
Setting of 1940’s America; allows the play to reflect on societal shifts and changes of the time

9. Further ideas:
Elysian Fields - symbolism – death place of Greek heroes = establishes play as a tragedy
Seasons - from May (late spring – time of hope/renewal/rebirth – Blanche’s arrival) to September (autumn – time of faded beauty/decay/beginning of the end…)
The set – symbolism

10. Activity: Verbal Essay
In pairs, take one bullet point
Research the text, find quotations
Write a paragraph which would form part of this essay. Make sure you consider:
What Williams’s intentions seem to be
The methods Williams uses to convey these ideas
Relevant contextual factors

11. Blanche’s first appearance in Elysian Fields and its impact on the audience
Williams’s intentions
His methods
Relevant context

12. Intentions:
Williams’s intentions seems to be to convey a realistic sense of era and place in order to establish the realism (social themes) of the play. When Blanche appears in this setting, she is immediately out of place suggesting a conflict between her as an individual with the society in which she finds herself.

13. Methods: Stage directions Sound effects Dialogue
Characterisation/symbolism

14. Context Attitudes towards class Attitudes towards race
The cultural divide between New Orleans and Laurel
Expectations of gender: the Southern Belle

15. Quotations about setting:
Very detailed opening stage directions to create a naturalistic style establishing a lively, noisy, relaxed, culturally diverse community which W seems to portray in a romantic, poetic manner, suggesting he celebrates this way of life (to some extent…):
“New Orleans” and Elysian Fields” are specifically named
E F = “poor” but with a “raffish charm” and “rickety houses” and an “atmosphere of decay” = W’s attitude -
“first dark of an evening in early May” = symbolism (spring/hope/new start)
“turquoise” “lyricism” and “warm breath” = poetically romantic language creates similar atmosphere (Williams’s attitude)
“bananas” and “coffee” = exotic, progressive
“music of Negro entertainers”, “brown fingers”, “women, one white, one coloured” , “cosmopolitan city”, “warm and easy intermingling of races” = culturally diverse
“music of Negro entertainers”, “tinny music” “Blue Piano expresses the spirit of life” , = sound effects = vivacious and lively and establishes music as a motif
“the voices of people on the street”, the vendor’s dialogue: “”Red hot! Red hots!”

16. Quotations about Blanche in this setting:
Blanche’s costume, demeanour, dialogue immediately establish her as out of place, an outsider, suggesting a conflict between her as an individual and the society in which she lives, perhaps foreshadowing the tragedy to come
Her costume/clothes ….

17. Williams
Lived in New Orleans form 1938, a bohemian place where all manner of behaviour was tolerated if not encouraged
The South stood for strong cultural values
Mid-20th century were fascinated and charmed by the South ( a place of the landed elite, wealth, studied gentility as opposed to the greed and crassness of the North

18. Paragraph
A very clear and detailed sense of place: a small, working class apartment; Elysian Fields; French Quarter; New Orleans; late 1940s
Season is May - hope
Romantic; charming; vivacious; culturally diverse; care-free; poor; relaxed but with a sense of decay (from the “old world”)

19. Methods
Stage direction
Symbolism “May”