Social Issues
Literature in English: Cambridge International GCSE A Streetcar Named Desire, topic 1.2.2
Social Issues Raised in A Streetcar Named Desire
Here are some key ideas about social issues found in A Streetcar Named Desire:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Aberrations
- Aberrations are distortions in a society that cause conflict and hurt.
- Blanche’s choices cause aberrations, but social aberrations also caused her situation.
Fantasies
- In A Streetcar Named Desire, fantasies about social refinement and grandeur are undercut and destroyed.
- Blanche and Stella have these sorts of fantasies.
Test yourself on Social Issues
What derogatory term is used of Poles in A Streetcar Named Desire?
Who experiences cultural violence in A Streetcar Named Desire?
What is the term for distortions in a society that cause conflict and hurt?
Which two characters have fantasies about social refinement and grandeur?
How do characters tend to suffer in A Streetcar Named Desire?