A streetcar named desire context cheat sheet

Streetcar Named Desire context cheat sheet

• ·     Williams was influenced by poet Hart Crane’s imagery and by his unusual attention to metaphors. The epigraph’s description in streetcar of love as only an “instant” and as a force that precipitates “each desperate choice” suggests Williams’ character Blanche DuBois. The line, “I know not whither [love’s voice is] hurled,” also suggests Blanche. With increasing desperation, Blanche “hurls” her continually denied love out into the world, only to have that love revisit her in the form of suffering.
• ·     In 1931 Williams had a nervous breakdown, and in 1937 his sister Rose was sent to a mental institution – like Blanche – and was lobotomised. She was sent there by her mother and this act is seen as treachery (betrayal of trust).
• ·     Like Blanche’s husband Allan (called ‘a degenerate’), Williams was a practising homosexual at a time when it was still illegal. It was however tolerated in some states such as New Orleans. Gay men at the time would often marry into heterosexual relationships to hide their homosexuality.
• ·     Suffering from depression, he resorted to heavy drinking (like Blanche) and drugs.
• ·     He had a lifelong fear of death, especially death from cancer – hinted at in the death of Margaret, one of…