Comparative Essay: Setting in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'Hedda Gabler'

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Aaron Snibson

Setting can often reflect the underlying ideas in a play. In the light of this statement, consider the importance and use of setting in ‘Hedda Gabler’ and ‘A Streetcar named Desire’

Setting, with all its different uses, is essential in revealing the imprisonment of protagonists and the values of a society in ‘Hedda Gabler’ by Henrik Ibsen and ‘A Streetcar named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams. Both playwrights employ the use of setting in their plays to help reveal underlying ideas, giving the audience an insight to their respective society and the playwright’s purpose of showing how societies are responsible for imprisoning their own people. Williams displays the fortes and the flaws in 1940s New Orleans with his selection of setting. The setting in ‘A Streetcar named Desire’ reveals New Orleans’ carefree and come-and-go attitude. However, the setting also surfaces the city’s lack of compassion. Ibsen uses the setting to display the entrapment enforced on the protagonist. The constant images of imprisonment such as the window are a constant but subtle reminder to the audience that Hedda Gabler is imprisoned by her 19th Norwegian, sexist and propriety orientated society; to which she can have no input to decide her future. The setting used by both playwrights is essential in revealing the imprisonment of their protagonists, the values of a society in their respective plays as the set reveals the context of the play.

Tennessee Williams uses his set in A Streetcar Named Desire to show the incongruity of Blanche in 1940s New Orleans, ultimately displaying how she does not belong there. The scene preceding Blanche’s entrance includes Stanley in his ‘blue denim work clothes’ carrying a ‘red stained meat package’ from the butcher. This reflects the appearance of the setting; a poor area of New Orleans, ‘weathered grey’ buildings with ‘faded white stairs’ complemented by a ‘brown river’ flowing nearby. The entrance of Blanche is inconsistent with this set as she is dressed in a ‘white suit with a fluffy bodice’, a ‘pearl necklace’ and carrying a ‘valise’. She is literally incongruous with the setting’. Even her name; Blanche; which suggests purity and cleanliness, doesn’t match the setting. The audience has an instant response in this first scene; Blanche is obviously not appropriate to New Orleans in the 1940s as she is instantly contrasting with everything that is going on around her. Blanche’s first reactions give testament to he audience’s impressions as he is shocked by the house that her sister, Stella, lives in and has to ‘wearily refers to the slip of paper’ to make sure she’s at the right house. This shows that she is not used to this kind of setting at all. As soon as she steps onto the set, Blanche is imprisoned by it. The ‘New America’ presented by the set is a jail for Blanche as she has no idea how things work and how to interact with women and particularly men. It seems that it is a constant barrier for her and she has nowhere to take refuge but her own mind where she speaks ‘faintly to herself’. It is recipe for tragedy. Williams has used his set in scene one to introduce the incarceration that Blanche experiences from the care-free and the come-and-go attitudes in New Orleans which continue until the end of the play.

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However, Ibsen presents the entrapment of the protagonist; Hedda, in a different way; the proprietary orientated society and setting that she lives in. Hedda Gabler is set in a 19th Norwegian society that is proprietary orientated, in that it values money, social status and is very traditional. Most of all, women are subjugated. This setting is essential in revealing the Hedda’s captivity in her society as it puts what she says and interacts with in context, allowing the audience to understand the gravity of her tragic situation. As Hedda and John Brack are talking, Hedda becomes very bitter about her ...

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