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Setting in A Streetcar Named Desire
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A full, in-depth A* essay plan exploring the theme of setting in Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire", for the Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature.
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settingIntroduction
o Directors argue that no writer has paid attention to location as much as Williams has
o Respect for Old South which fuelled book (hence B is beautiful, classy, elegant and
Stanley is brutal). Williams said “I write out of regret for that” (“that” being the fall of
the Old South)
Elysian Fields
o Elysian Fields – “Elysium” means paradise for heroes in Greek mythology, idyllic,
beautiful but upon arrival “they mustn’t have - understood what – number I wanted”,
conflict between expectation and reality
o Place before heaven: Williams suggests this is Blanche’s final resting place,
foreshadows ending
Belle Reve
o Belle Reve = French, reinforcing educated upper class nature
o Belle Reve = fantasy, New Orleans = reality, hence she is so appalled by it
o Belle = feminine, Reve = masculine, don't agree, showing falsity and illusion
o “Beautiful dream” – anchors her façade to a dream shows inevitability of mental
collapse + “Beautiful dream”, just as America was founded on beautiful dreams and
closely linked to the idea of the American Dream: OS is only a distant dream that can
not be returned to
o Compares setting of Old South Belle Reve and NS New Orleans through Poe: “white
woods” implies a physical connection to her plantation at Belle Reve and “white
trunks of decayed trees” in Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher – inability to
grow and progress is gnawing away at both Ushers and Blanche = why the old south
is decaying – there is no way for the OS to reform, they need to be removed
New Orleans
o “Which way - do I - go now Stella”, when Blanche comes into contact with black
vendor in streets, becomes flustered as hasn't been exposed to such things before:
first time we see Blanche something other than composed and coherent, implying
she's not open to a lifestyle unlike childhood in Belle Reve – doesn’t fit in in New
Orleans, foreshadows eventual downfall
o Old and New South and the conflict between them (Blanche represents Old and
Stanley represents New)
o Everyone is an outsider (Stella still has bit of OS, Blanche is OS in the NS, Mitch is
feminine, black vendor is looked down upon, Stanley still threatened by parts of OS
present) – New Orleans itself is the outsider of America geographically, (“New Orleans
isn’t like other cities”)
o “Relatively warm” to minorities – more accepting than other southern states but
hasn’t reached social equality yet – hence all whites are named and black vendor and
negro woman are not
o Physically hot, leaving impact on air of the play (heated, fast paced, sweaty,
removing clothes, Claustrophobic setting of Kowalski apartment in sweaty summer
heat of New Orleans racks up tension and fast pace
o Flat is near L and N tracks – physical link to New South and industrialisation (original
plot was Blanche would die by throwing herself under the streetcar showing how New
South has directly removed the Old South and a future of industrialisation has
emerged)
Conflict between the opposing settings of New and Old South
o W wrote out of regret for the fall of the old south
o Presentation of Blanche as beautiful, elegant southern belle yet flawed and deluded
reflects oxymoronic elegance of Old South paired with its economy’s abhorrent
dependence on slavery
o Due to depression and forcing the people to face the harsh reality of new, industrial
America, many felt great nostalgia for Old South and its beauty and elegance
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