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Motifs
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
In A Streetcar Named Desire, the setting is so important that it’s practically a character. Taking place in New Orleans in the mid-20th century, the unique clash between industrialized society and “Old South” culture is baked into every interaction. The physical setting in which the audience meet Blanche, Stella, and Stanley is a run-down apartment in the French Quarter of the city. The building’s architecture—which remains grand but is expensive and often impractical to keep up in a postwar economy—is a physical representation of the deteriorating grandeur of the Old South. Additionally, the Kowalski apartment’s shabby conditions are the opposite of the once-elegant plantation house of Belle Reve that Blanche constantly speaks of. She’s taken a steep descent in the world by moving in with Stella and Stanley—or at least, that’s what she wants them to think.
The play also reflects the larger cultural tensions of post-World War II America below the Mason-Dixon Line. After the war, the South’s economy shifted from being mostly based in farming to largely industrialized and urbanized. This contributed to the gradual ruin of many of the South’s wealthiest families, whose finances were rooted in agriculture and in the related pre-emancipation system of slavery. Ideas of proper behavior also began to change, with old-fashioned manners like Blanche’s gradually becoming unfashionable. There were also stirrings of movements for gender and racial equality happening in many cities all over the United States, and New Orleans was an important hub for the development of these causes.
The apartment where the play’s action itself takes place is small, cramped, and perpetually overheated in the boiling Louisiana sun. Its small size and its close, sweaty atmosphere contribute to a feeling of claustrophobia that never dissipates. Blanche can’t quite believe her sister can live in a space like this, but Stella is blithely used to it. The limited space also forces Williams’s characters into constant, uncomfortable proximity. There’s no space for them to get away from one another. Stanley's aggressive presence feels even more overpowering in this environment, while Blanche's attempts to maintain her dignity feel increasingly useless. There is literally nowhere for her to hide.
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