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G11 AL2 Context of Streetcar, The Code of Honor and Violence in the South …

- - - - Immigrants: People from other countries (Poland, Italy, Ireland) seeking for a new start
      - Rural Migrants: Farmers and poor workers from the country side looking for jobs and opportunities
  - - - He is a working man, cares about money and power he owns
      - 2 completely different words, difference in social class, Old South "Blanche" is losing against the New South "Stanley"
    - - Cares about family name and manners, stuck in the past
      - Stanley and Blanche has a conflict
      - Alcoholic
      - Lost her husband, house, etc.
- - - - women are categorized as either virgins/wives/mothers (pure, asexual, domestic)
      - women are objectified
      - women's sexual history was a primary measure of her value
    - - heavily stigmatized and illegal, it was seen as a moral failing and public health crisis
      - women associated with prostitution is cosidered the lowest form of society
    - - It was illegal in 1940s America, and classified as mental issue
      - it is pathologized homosexual desire and justified treatments like conversion therapy
      - considered as deep shame and bought grace upon entire families
  - - - she said cruel words to him “I saw! I know! You disgust me!”
      - People at that time couldn’t understand and accept homosexuality, therefore her husband can't afford people's justice at that time, so he choose to suicide
    - - the script provides no conclusion that Blanche was a professional prostitute, however she did have sexual relations with strangers especially in the Flamingo hotel, in exhcange with some form of compensation
      - (which strongly implies that her behaviour was no different as prostitution
      - The motivation of her activity is not money, she was seeking to escape from loneliness and she want to keep the stable relationship with Mitch.
      - She wanna escape from trauma and guilt from her husband's suicide
    - - Blanche is very sorry and feel regret of her action to her first husband, which has cause her mental state become fragile and vulnerable.
      - The only way she think she can live better is to escape from reality by drinking alcohols and sexual desire
- - - - PTSD, Shell Shock, Combat Fatigue
      - Obsession with authority
        
        Stanley's abusive behavior
      - Excessively violent
    - - Wounds left or disability
      - Addictions built up in war
        
        Stanley being such alcoholic
    - - Discrimination from the surroundings
        
        The lack of self-esteem seen on Stanley
      - Getting too used to cruelty and rogueness
        
        Stanley at last commiting rape
      - Becoming indifferent for violent crimes and rapes
      - Taking life too unvaluable
- - - - Society viewed these reactions as signs of weakness or cowardice rather than legitimate psychological responses to trauma. As a result, treatment options were limited
      - Early treatments: Rest and isolation
        
        Talk Therapy
        
        Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
        
        Medication
  - - - women’s physical and psychological ailments have been labeled hysterical, and women blamed for their symptoms.
        
        women labeled hysterical had been locked away at the hospital
        
        Leaving adversity and trauma earlier in their lives, including poverty and intimate violence
        
        problems such as fugue states, paralysis, amnesia, sexualized behaviors, and fainting.
      - Treatment: rest cure
        
        Patients were confined to bed for several weeks-months
      - Treatment: lobotomy
        
        disrupts the connections between the frontal cortex and the rest of the brain, particularly the thalamus.
        
        make the patient calm and docile
- - - - Sexual openness
        
        Created from the interaction between Blanche and Stanley which reflects a world of desire and male dominance
      - Foundation and development of Jazz
        
        Jazz, Jazz clubs and blue piano: appears at the point of Blanche’s emotional breakdown.
        
        Reflects the inner conflict of Blanche and emphasizes the plot twist
      - French quarter residents: Creole and French descent, African American, artists, writers, descendants of Irish and Italian immigrants
        
        White residents and the negro women in the play
      - Bohemian Atmosphere
        
        Constant noise and heat of the city
- - - - Mesogynistic, abusive
- - - - Blanche: On the other hand, represents different expectations on women which were from the Southern culture
        
        Southern expectations on women:
        
        Rely on marriage to rich or powerful men to stay safe and respected
        
        Keep up the family’s good reputation
        
        Not work
        
        Be polite, delicate, and beautiful
        
        In the play, Blanche is very vulnerable and dependent on men
      - Stella: Represents the women that accepted(were forced to accept) society's expectations and disipline
        
        Stella played the role of housewife, in which she sacrifices her self-esteem and tolerates her husband's violence in order to keep the family together

Post-World War II America and the Return of Soldiers