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Some Historical Context to Better Appreciate A Streetcar Named Desire
- Tim Prasil
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
I've had the honor to serve as dramaturg for the upcoming Town & Gown production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. My dive into dramaturgy—at least, as I've defined the term—has brought to the surface some historical insights into the play. I've discovered things that would have been common knowledge in 1947, when the play debuted. However, these same issues have faded from the collective memory over the decades.
Here, I discuss two such matters: the psychological burdens carried by recently returned World War Two veterans, represented by two of Williams' characters; and the general awareness in the late-1940s of the inner-workings of mental institutions, an issue faced very directly by one of the play's characters and indirectly by several others.
Does Stanley's Behavior Stem from His War Experience?
BLANCHE: [W]hat's he like?
STELLA: Oh, you can't describe someone you're in love with. Here's a picture of him.
BLANCHE: An officer?
STELLA: A Master Sergeant in the Engineers' Corp. Those are decorations!
In the very first scene of Streetcar, Blanche learns that her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, was a decorated officer. We learn later than he met his poker buddy, Harold "Mitch" Mitchell, while serving. Given their ages, it's easy to assume both were soldiers in World War II, which had ended about two years before the play first opened. Here and there, Williams reminds the audience especially of Stanley's status as a recently returned veteran. That 1947 audience very likely sensed a connection between the character's explosive behavior and lingering affects, of not damage, stemming from his war experience.
To be sure, what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was becoming more widely recognized following WWII. An excellent article on the play quotes historian Charles McCaffrey as saying: “Near the end of the war and through the early postwar period almost every print article that discussed veterans included a side story of at least one combat veteran with mental health issues.” What had been called "shell shock" during WWI became publicized with the name "battle neurosis" after the next war.
While this insight into Stanley might not make him any more sympathetic exactly, it can help an audience member to understand why he does what he does. Paxton Kliewer agrees. He'll be playing Stanley in the Town & Gown production, and I asked him if his interpretation of the character has been shaped by the struggles affecting some WWII soldiers. He told me that, "while never excusing Stanley’s brutal acts," he has tried "to see that they were not born in a vacuum. Stanley and no one for that matter is 'just like that'." To convey complex inner turmoil, Paxton and the show's creative team "have tried to add a sense of confusion and fear within Stanley in some of his more explosive moments."
"For such a famous character in the American canon," Paxton added, "I've found in my work with Stanley how odd it is how little his military service is mentioned when discussing his character. Of course, we’ve learned almost everything that we know about the invisible scars that war leaves behind and PTSD since this play was first performed. Just another way Mr. Williams was light years ahead."
What Was Generally Known about Mental Institutions?
I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but those who know Streetcar from the stage or screen—or perhaps from having read the script at school—already know how this relates to the story. Prior to rehearsals, Town & Gown director Sydney Wehmeyer made the interesting choice of engaging the cast in discussions of the play's weighty material. At one point, Elisha LightAngel, who plays Stella and Stanley's neighbor Eunice, asked a very interesting question: How much would the characters have known about the (mis)treatment of patients in mental institutions?
Assuming those characters were like Americans in general, they were becoming much more aware of the poor conditions there. In fact, the war is again relevant. In an article about this topic, Meg Reinstra says that "the Second World War was a seminal point in raising public awareness of the plight of the mentally ill, which led to a reform in their treatment. While the development of [antipsychotic and antidepressant] drugs aided the deinstitutionalization movement invaluably, the war served as the crucial catalyst." She goes on to mention Albert Maisel's article “Bedlam 1946: Most U.S. Mental Hospitals Are a Shame and a Disgrace,” published that year in the widely read Life magazine. Reinstra also cites Albert Deutsch's 1948 book The Shame of the States, which she says was "a very popular book in which he described several state hospitals across the country, presenting photographs and describing the dilapidated conditions of each one." These are just two of the ways the public was learning about why mental institutions were overdue for serious reform or outright abolishment.
If the characters in Streetcar themselves didn't know about the "shame" of mental hospitals when making a very tough decision regarding one, many members of the original audiences almost certainly would have. It's easy to assume Tennessee Williams, the playwright, knew exactly where he was sending one of his characters. His beloved sister was institutionalized and given a lobotomy, the severity of which haunted Williams for many years, and the issue surfaces in many of his plays.
All this talk of historical context certainly doesn't mean A Streetcar Named Desire lacks relevance to audiences in 2026. In one of those pre-rehearsal discussions, the Town & Gown cast discussed a variety of ways that the play reflects issues with which we still grapple today. In fact, I would argue that our grasp of mental health challenges has only grown, allowing us to peer into the play in ways the 1947 audience could not.
A Streetcar Named Desire will be performed at the Town & Gown at 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, on April 16-18 and 23-25. The 2:30 Sunday matinee is on April 19 and 26. Tickets are available online or, if not sold out, at the door, and there's more information here.
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