Program Notes: A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams was one of the most influential playwrights from the 20^th century, known for tackling with unconventional and taboo subjects.  William’s honest and raw portrayal of his characters in his plays helped him garner praise, but also drew criticism by mostly conservative critics.  He was honored by President Jimmy Carter with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.  William’s also is known for his personal life being strongly reflected in his work; alcoholism, homosexuality, and mental instability all correlate with his life and plays.  His most famous plays include The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Night of the Iguana. A Streetcar Named Desire is one of William’s most renowned plays; it first opened in Broadway on December 3, 1947 and was first adapted to film in 1951.  Throughout the years, the play has won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.

            In A Streetcar Named Desire, the theme of social and gender class struggle can be mirrored to America’ s social, political, and gender struggle following World War II.  Although World War II had ended, it prompted the beginning of the Cold War.  The Cold War was the ideological battle between communism and capitalism, the war between the Soviet Union and the West.  The Jim Crow laws were in effect during this time period in America, which instituted racial segregation in all public facilities up until 1965.  These laws promoted violence in the white working class homeowners, who attacked any African American who tried to use their facilities or move into their neighborhoods.  Women’s roles were also affected after and during World War II.  Since more women were employed during the war and thus temporarily had more freedom, after the war ended they reverted back into their more oppressed roles of the household.  The media and the government had encouraged this form of domestic repression and patriarchy.  The gender and racial oppression eventually led to the women’s rights movement and civil rights movement, which were still active during this time lapse. 

            New Orleans was one of Tennessee Williams most favorite cities.  This may be because of its’ more nonjudgmental and fun atmosphere, and rich history and diversity.  It was kind of like Las Vegas, but without the history.  New Orleans is a great example of America’s melting pot, having been initially founded as a French outpost, then temporarily controlled by the Spanish, to being ceded back to the French.  Finally, under the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, New Orleans was bought by the United States.  The city’s population steadily increased as immigrants came to the city, including French, Americans, Creoles, Germans, Mexicans, Asians, and Africans.  New Orleanians would live in mixed neighborhoods since black servants and workers often lived close to their wealthy white employers. The city’s historical diversity bred a certain level of ease of intermingling among races, although African Americans were still kept as slaves until slavery was abolished, but they were still considered inferior.  The Jim Crow laws, however, came into effect, which excluded African American of the new neighborhoods that were being constructed in artificial land that became available in the 1920’s.  As whites moved into these suburbs, the makeup of the neighborhoods changed and segregation became more evident.

            As mentioned earlier, William’s has used recurrent controversial topics throughout his work, such as mental instability, homosexuality, and violence.  Specifically, in A Streetcar Named Desire, he addresses alcoholism, rape, violence, suicide, and homosexuality.  He portrays these topics realistically without glorifying them.   Most of the characters in the play seem to have fallen a victim of either of these in some way; they have become prey to a world that controls them and are confined to that role.  Even the aggressor in this play seems to show a vulnerable side, but it is clear that he is the one who gets to call the shots and pull the strings. William’s overall theme in this play is that casualties and dysfunction are inevitable in a world that breeds chaos, the fragile only get broken and are forced to be brought down to the oppressor’s level.  This seems to be reflective of William’s life, who struggled through his own personal demons and tragedy.