A Streetcar Named desire

1. A StreetcarNamed desire A Play by Tennessee Williams

2. Author background • Tennesee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911, in Columbus Mississippi, the son of Corenlius Coffin Williams and Edwina Dakin. • The nickhame Tennessee was not acquired until he was grown and attending college. • Williams had an elder sister, Rose, who was later committed to a mental institution, and a younger brother, Walter Dakin. • Because their father often worked away from home, Williams and his siblings were close to their mother, a Southern belle and daughter of an Episcopalian minister.

3. Author Background cont’d • In 1918 the Williams family moved to St. Louis. • In response to his unhappiness, Williams began to read books and write his own stories.

4. Author background cont’d • In the forward of Sweet Bird to Youth, he comment that writing was “an escape from a world of reality in which I felt acutely uncomfortable. It immediately became my place of retreat, my cave, my refuge.”

5. Author background cont’d • Beginning in 1929, Williams attended several colleges. • Although this period was a creative one, and one in which his personal life settled down, there were also difficult times to endure. • In response to his sister Rose’s extreme mental instability, his mother consented to having a prefontal lobotomy performed on Rose, from which the young woman emerged severely changed.

6. Historical context • New Orleans was known as “culturally diverse” and was one of the few Southern cities where blacks and whites intermingled.

7. Historical context cont’d • New Orleans was known for its rich culture (and still is), especially in the French Quarter. • Here, it was full of streetcars, bars, and lively entertainment in which jazz and blues thrived. • One of the motifs of the play is the “Blue Piano” music, which plays on Blanche’s loneliness and her need to be loved.