Essay Comparing The Crucible And A Streetcar Named Desire

In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, both American playwrights utilize stage directions as well as their character’s interactions within the narrative to provide a setting. The social environment, transitions between act or scene location and atmosphere from the settings staging directions reveal the different lifestyles in New England and the post-WWII New and Old South of America.

Both plays involve characters originating outside of the main setting and social environment of Miller’s Salem, Massachusetts and William’s New Orleans, Louisiana, introducing the conflict of superiority and authority. As a result of Betty Parris’ predicament hinting towards signs of witchery, Reverend Parris sends for Rev. Hale of Beverly. As witch-hunts were occurring across Massachusetts in 1692, Rev. Hale’s reputation as an expert on witchery manifested from what Salem citizens heard, of him being a “sensible” (Miller 35) and “learned man” (Miller 37). In contrast to the spread of accusations in the village,
In The Crucible, Miller situates each of the four acts in its own setting, from Rev. Parris’ house within the Salem Village, John Proctor’s house on his farm, the Salem meeting house serving as the court anteroom and a Salem jail cell. Miller thus unifies each act with a different aspect of Salem life through the time period, location and action. In comparison, A Streetcar Named Desire is set around the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom of Stella and Stanley’s apartment, as well as the upstairs adjoining apartment and Elysian Fields street. Through the use of one unified setting, Williams centers the play around the worlds of the Dubois and the Kowalski’s. This method reveals Blanche’s deterioration spanning May to September while living in the Kowalski's’