1.2.2

Social Issues

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Social Issues Raised in A Streetcar Named Desire

Here are some key ideas about social issues found in A Streetcar Named Desire:

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Sexual frustration

  • The play suggests that modern society is underpinned by sexual frustrations of all kinds and types because society appears to repress people - particularly women - as seen in Blanche DuBois.
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Class struggle

  • In this play, class struggle is connected to sex. Sexual encounters happen across class barriers. For example:
    • Middle-class Stella’s union with the more working-class Stanley.
    • Blanche DuBois' fantasies and relationship with a student.
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Violence

  • Violence is usually seen within the domestic setting in A Streetcar Named Desire.
  • Cultural violence is also present, forced upon the mixed-race characters and the "Polacks" as migrants.
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Rejection and longing

  • Several characters seek out longing (eg Blanche herself, Mitch and Stanley) but often, they do not find it or they are rejected from the process.

Social Issues Raised in A Streetcar Named Desire

Here are some key ideas about social issues found in A Streetcar Named Desire:

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Cruelty and suffering

  • The suffering and cruelty in tragedies like A Streetcar Named Desire is not usually physical or very horrific. Characters tend to suffer psychologically.
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Aberrations

  • Aberrations are distortions in a society that cause conflict and hurt.
  • Blanche’s choices cause aberrations, but social aberrations also caused her situation.
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Fantasies

  • In A Streetcar Named Desire, fantasies about social refinement and grandeur are undercut and destroyed.
  • Blanche and Stella have these sorts of fantasies.

Jump to other topics

1Context & Overview

2Scene Summaries

3Character Profiles

4Key Ideas

5Writing Techniques

6Critical Debates

7Ideas About Tragedy

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