Tennessee Williams draws heavily from his own life and times in his work, creating a rich historical and cultural background to the action. Exploring the setting and cultural references that Williams incorporated into A Streetcar Named Desire can give the play a whole new sense of context, depth, and realism.
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Bourbon Street in New Orleans, 1946 |
NEW ORLEANS
The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, was, in many ways, Tennessee Williams's
principle literary muse. He lived there off and on for a good deal of his
life; New Orleans was his "favorite city of America . . . of all the world,
actually." In a 1970 interview with Don Lee Keith, Williams said that "In
New Orleans, I found the kind of freedom I had always needed. And the
shock of it against the puritanism of my nature has always given me a subject, a
theme, which I've probably never ceased exploiting."
New Orleans, nicknamed "The City That Care Forgot" and "The
Big Easy," has a well-earned reputation for excess. It is known for more
than the annual debauchery of Mardi Gras, though: New Orleans is also
famous for its European architecture, jazz music, Cajun and Creole food, and
literary history (many other writers besides Williams have been drawn to the
city, including Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, and Anne Rice).
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Map of the
French Quarter |
The French Quarter
Also known as the Vieux Carr้ ("Old Square"), the French Quarter is the most famous section of New Orleans. Tennessee Williams lived in several different places in the Quarter; when he was writing Streetcar, he was at 632 St. Peter Street, which is very near Royal Street (the main drag of the Quarter).
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632 St. Peter's St. |
Although it is called the French Quarter, the architecture in this area of New Orleans is primarily Spanish. The 6 by 13 block grid (which still makes up the Quarter today) was established as a French military outpost in 1718, but massive fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed nearly all of the original buildings.
The French Quarter contains landmarks such as Bourbon Street (the infamous center of Mardi Gras revelry), the French Market, Saint Louis Cathedral, as well as many jazz clubs and restaurants. One of the most famous restaurants is Galatoire's (see picture at right), which was frequented by Tennessee Williams; Stella mentions taking Blanche there for supper in Scene Two of Streetcar. Galatoire's has been in operation since 1905, and they pride themselves on the fact that their upscale French Creole menu has remained virtually unchanged in all that time.
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Galatoire's Restaurant |
Elysian Fields, where Stanley and Stella live in Streetcar, is actually a few blocks away from the Quarter, in the Faubourg Marigny, a bohemian (and particularly gay-friendly) neighborhood beginning at Esplanade Avenue that was originally established as the first Creole suburb in New Orleans. Williams chose the location, however, primarily because of the ironic mythological associations of its name: the tiny, dingy Kowalski apartment seems the antithesis of the Greek paradise of heroes.
Streetcars
The famous New Orleans streetcar line immortalized in Tennessee Williams's play is the oldest continuously operating street railway line in the United States. It began service in 1835, with cars pulled by mules. Steam power began around 1860, and the streetcars were electric by the 1890s. By 1922, the streetcar line covered 225 miles in New Orleans. The streetcars themselves were designed by Percy Thomas, and they have largely remained the same over the years, featuring wooden seats, brass handgrips, and a characteristic side-to-side swaying motion.
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A Streetcar Named Desire |
The Desire line was established in 1920. Its route ran from Canal and Bourbon, down Bourbon, Pauger, Dauphine, Desire, Tonti, France, and Royal to Canal, servicing the bar and nightclub section of the French Quarter, the Royal Street shopping district, and the residential areas of Bywater and Faubourg Marigny (the neighborhood that contains Elysian Fields).
In the 1930s, miles of streetcar track were covered to make room for buses. The Desire line was discontinued in 1948, to be replaced by a bus line also named Desire. By 1964, only the St. Charles line remained in operation; it still runs to this day, and is popular both with tourists and commuting locals. Since that time, the lines have been slowly rebuilt as city officials realized the efficiency and ecological benefits of streetcars. The popularity of Williams's play has also been a contributing factor, and there have recently been plans to rebuild the Desire line as well.
In Tennessee Williams's day, the sound of the streetcars' bells clanging was a part of daily life and the overall ambience of New Orleans. Williams himself could hear the Desire and Cemeteries streetcars passing near his apartment while he was writing A Streetcar Named Desire, and he seem to draw poetic inspiration from them: "Their indiscouragable progress up and down Royal Street struck me as having some symbolic bearing of a broad nature on the life in the Vieux Carr้."
OTHER LOCATIONS
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1940s Advertisement for Pontchartrain Beach |
Pontchartrain Beach
Pontchartrain Beach, the amusement park that Blanche and Mitch visit on their date before Scene Two of the second act is near Lake Pontchartrain, on the northern edge of the city of New Orleans. The park opened in 1928 in its original location, where Lake Vista is today. In 1939, it was moved to Milneburg, on Elysian Fields Avenue.
In the 1940s, Pontchartrain Beach was a popular location for family entertainment, as well as a venue for many great jazz and blues musicians, including Louis Armstrong. It remained in operation until 1983, and is now the location of the UNO Technology Park.
Moon Lake Casino
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Moon Lake Casino |
Moon Lake Casino, the site of Blanche's young husband Allan Grey's suicide, is
located in Dundee, Mississippi. The building is now Uncle Henry's Place, a
bed & breakfast and gourmet Louisiana Creole restaurant, but in the 1930s and
1940s it was a hot night spot and casino frequented by young people who lived in
the area, including Tennessee Williams himself.
Belle Reve
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The Bellerive Country Club |
Williams named the DuBois
plantation home after a country club in St. Louis, Missouri, called Bellerive,
which he visited with his father when he was younger. The country club,
which is still in operation today, matches the description of Belle Reve
contained in Streetcar: "a great big place with white columns."
CULTURAL REFERENCES
The Napoleonic Code
"It looks to me
like you have been swindled, baby, and when you're swindled under the
Napoleonic
code, I'm swindled too. And I don't like to be swindled."
~ Stanley (Act One, Scene Two)
Louisiana's Napoleonic Code originated with the French civil law code established during Napoleon's reign in 1804. This, in turn, was based on Roman law, specifically Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, which divided civil law into personal status, property, and acquisition of property. The civil law code is perhaps the most influential and lasting legacy of Napoleon; most countries in modern day Europe have civil law systems based on the Napoleonic code. Because it was originally a French colony, Louisiana adopted the code as well. This makes it distinct from the other 49 states in the U.S., which all have civil law systems based on English common law.
According to the Napoleonic code, the property possessed by both the husband and wife becomes "community" at the time of their marriage. In the case of Belle Reve, however, Stanley is partially mistaken about the code's jurisdiction. Community legally consists of "all the moveable property which the married parties possessed at the day of the celebration of their marriage, together with all moveable property which falls to them during the marriage" and "all the immoveables which are acquired during marriage." On the other hand, immoveable property which one person has "legal possession thereof at a period anterior to the marriage" or which falls "to such party since by title of succession or donation" is not considered community. Belle Reve, because it is a building attached to a certain amount of land, would qualify as immoveable property. Also, it has fallen to Blanche and Stella through succession from their parents. Therefore, Belle Reve would not be considered a part of the Kowalskis' community property, and Stanley would have no legal claim to it.
The Engineers' Corps
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| Corps of Engineers Button |
Stanley was a decorated Master Sergeant in the Engineers' Corps when Stella met him. The Engineers' Corps is a division of the United States army which has three main tasks in combat: mobility (assisting the movement of the army by building bridges and roads, disarming landmines, etc.), countermobility (creating obstacles to prevent the mobility of enemy forces; this can include destroying bridges, blocking roads, and digging trenches), and survivability (constructing advantageous locations for fighting, such as bunkers and fortresses). The soldiers of the Corps of Engineers do not generally engage in combat, though they are acting under combat conditions.
Master Sergeant is a middling rank in the army. The hierarchy of noncommissioned ranks goes, starting from the bottom: Private, Private Enlisted Grade, Private First Class, Specialist, Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, Master Sergeant, First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, Command Sergeant Major.
Since Stanley was a member of the Corps sometime in the early to mid-1940s, he would have been involved somehow in World War II. The 241st battalion, in which Stanley and Mitch served together, was stationed in the Philippines near the end of the war. Also, in the final scene of the play, Stanley mentions that he was present at Salerno, which was a particularly critical 1943 battle that allowed the Allies to gain a foothold in Italy.
Jax Beer
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Jax Beer Bottles |
"I told you
and phoned you that we was playin' Jack's Beer . . ."
~ Steve (Act One, Scene One)
Jax (or "Jack's") brand beer was a local favorite in New Orleans when Williams wrote Streetcar. The corporation was formed by six New Orleanians in 1890, and a large brewery was built in the city. The brand is thought to have been named after President Andrew Jackson, since the brewery was located right across from Jackson Square in the French Quarter, and the Jax logo was a picture of Jackson riding a horse. The Jax brewery closed in 1974, and the building is now a popular French Quarter shopping center. While the company was in operation, Jax sponsored a bowling team based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was part of the Southern Bowling Congress and sometimes played tournament games in New Orleans, so that is most likely what Steve refers to in the play.
Edgar Allan Poe
"Only Poe!
Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe -- could do it justice!"
~ Blanche (Act One, Scene One)
Blanche evokes darkly Romantic imagery by associating famous Gothic author Edgar Allan Poe with the run-down Kowalski apartment. The "ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir" which she mentions comes from Poe's 1847 poem "Ulalume."
"The skies
they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere --
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir --
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir . . . "
Vincent Van Gogh
"There is a
picture of Van Gogh's of a billiard-parlor at night. The kitchen now
suggests that
sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colors of childhood's spectrum."
~ Williams's stage directions at the start of Act One, Scene Three
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Van Gogh's "The Night Cafe" |
The painting in question is the 1888 oil on canvas "The Night Cafe," by Dutch Expressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. Many scene and lighting designers have used Van Gogh's imagery as a literal inspiration when creating designs for Streetcar.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Why, that's my
favorite sonnet by Mrs. Browning!"
~ Blanche (Act One, Scene Three)
The inscription on Mitch's cigarette case comes from Sonnet #43 of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, published in 1850. The poem, written to Barrett Browning's husband (fellow poet Robert Browning), is probably her most famous work.
"How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death."
La Dame
aux Camellias
"Je suis la Dame
aux Camellias! Vous ๊tes - Armand!"
~ Blanche (Act Two, Scene Two)
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"La Dame
Aux Camellias" |
Blanche's flirtatious comment to Mitch refers to the play Camille (or, The Lady of the Camellias) by Alexandre Dumas the younger. It tells the story of Parisian courtesan Marguerite Gautier, who falls in love with an idealistic young man named Armand Duval. Fearing for his son's future and reputation, Armand's father persuades Marguerite to give him up for his own good. Heartbroken, Armand denounces her as a whore and leaves her, while Marguerite takes up with a wealthy man who can better support her lifestyle. The play ends in tragedy when Marguerite, who has consumption, dies just as Armand has returned to reconcile with her. Baz Luhrmann's film Moulin Rouge! is based on this same story.
The reference is significant because of the parallels that can be drawn between Blanche and the "Lady of the Camellias." Both are frail and tragic heroines, tainted by past sexual indiscretions but trying to find true love and a new chance in life with an innocent and good-natured man. And, significantly, both Marguerite and Blanche dramatically fail in this effort.
Huey Long
"Remember
what Huey Long said: -- 'Every man is a king!'"
~ Stanley (Act Three, Scene Two)
Huey Long was the governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932. He was also elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930 but didn't take his seat until 1932 because he had no intention of giving up his gubernatorial duties. He was nicknamed "Kingfish" because, as he said himself, "I'm a small fish here in Washington. But I'm the Kingfish to the folks down in the Louisiana."
Long was a radical populist, championing the cause of the "little man" and fighting against big business. During his term as senator, he developed and proposed a program called "Share Our Wealth," which would have required the rich and privileged to give up portions of their income in order to aid the disadvantaged.
Long was a charismatic and controversial figure. His radical ideas were
divisive, causing some people to consider him a hero while others branded him a
dictator. There is no doubt that he was highly ambitious and
self-confident, as well as very intelligent. Mostly self-taught, he got a
law degree after just one year of study at Tulane University. Long planned
to run for President in 1936, and to that end wrote and released a book called
My First Days in the White House, which outlined what he would do when
(not if) he became President. He never got the chance, however, as he was
assassinated in 1935 by Dr. Carl A. Weiss, a physician who was the son-in-law of
one of Long's political enemies. He was forty-one years old when he died.
In Streetcar, Stanley references Huey Long's famous political slogan, "Every Man a King." Long recorded a song based on it which he planned to use in his campaign.
"Why weep or
slumber, America?
Land of brave and true
With castles and clothing and food for all
All belongs to you
Ev'ry man a King, ev'ry man a King
For you can be a millionaire
But there's something belonging to others
There's enough for all people to share
When it's sunny June and December, too
Or in the Winter time or Spring
There'll be peace without end
Ev'ry neighbor a friend
With ev'ry man a King."
