Historical Context
Published in
1946, A Streetcar Named Desire reflects the cultural tensions that
pervaded the nation after the horrors of World War II, when an idealistic and
ambitious American nation attempted to prove its superiority and its power to
the global community by attempting to – and succeeding in – squashing the
threat of Nazi Germany. Millions of Americans lost their lives in an effort that
left Germany powerless in the hands of America and the other Allied forces. When
A Streetcar Named Desire came out, the country had just emerged from the
war after battling through the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and suddenly
the national spotlight focused on the middle and lower classes as the true
bearers of the heroic American spirit. Young men who had served in the war
returned to their families and were ready to settle down – with wives, with
children, and with steady jobs. The nation had suffered through a terrible war,
and it was ready to embrace the “old-fashioned” values of family and home.
Stanley has just come back from the war as a decorated soldier, and after
proving his masculinity on the battlefield, he is ready to assert his manhood
within the home. Consequently, the theme of pure, almost savage masculinity that
is so ripe in A Streetcar Named Desire is one that filled America after
the war – an air of bravado and victory following its defeat of the Nazi
threat.
This focus on
the middle and lower classes was popular throughout much of the literature of
the 1930’s and 1940’s. During the Great Depression, the entire nation
suffered from extremely high unemployment and interest rates, and millions of
Americans found themselves buried in deep debt. The upper classes were scorned
by the impoverished masses, who saw the wealthy elite as indifferent to and even
contemptuous of their daily financial struggles. Consequently, many American
writers during and after the 1930’s chose to focus on the brave individual
stories of those who were members of the lower and middle classes, believing
that their strong work ethic and their ambitions characterized them as true
Americans.
The men in
this play represent the everyday American that society championed after the
Depression: hard-working men who were proud of themselves because of the work
that they had accomplished with their own hands – they weren’t trust-fund
babies who had been fed with silver spoons. Being a member of the working class
was “cool” because these blue-collar workers were the antithesis of the
indifferent and uncaring aristocrats who just didn’t seem to care about anyone
else but themselves.
For example,
the play takes place in an area of New Orleans named Elysian Fields, which
refers to the place that ancient Greeks believed served as a home for the dead.
After victorious soldiers died in battle, they went to Elysian Fields for
eternity, to celebrate their lives, their courage, and their accomplishments. So
too have Stanley Kowalski and his friends returned to Elysian Fields after the
war, coming back to the States as successful and hopeful soldiers ready to make
a name for themselves on their home soil.
A Streetcar
Named Desire also champions a certain nostalgia for the old Southern charm
that had been replaced during the 1940’s by an air of industry and efficiency
that had taken over the country after the Great Depression. After the war, the
country experienced one of the biggest economic booms in history – with the
return of soldiers came an increase both in the production and in the
consumption of goods, and the economy soon soared after the end of the war.
Consequently, you could say that America experienced a second Industrial
Revolution after World War II. This revolution effectively killed the mystical
charm of the Old South, where aristocracy and chivalry reigned. Women in the
South seemed to possess an intangible charm that could enchant any man, and men
prided themselves on their manners and a mysterious code of conduct that valued
honor rather than industriousness. The ongoing power struggle between Blanche
and Stanley thus reflects the battle between old Southern values and new
industrial efficiency.
