The Rose Tattoo (Historical Context)

Historical Context

The Rose Tattoo was composed in the late 1940s, in the period following World War II, which U.S. intervention had hastened to an end with the first deployment of nuclear warheads in history, the dropping of two atomic bombs in Japan. The citizens of the many countries decimated by this war lived in its pall during the 1940s, while the United States' more peripheral involvement meant that U.S. citizens were less severely affected. U.S. culture flourished diversely in the 1940s, leading to the cultural phenomenon of the 1950s, when U.S. popular culture swept the world.

The 1940s in the United States are noteworthy for numerous developments. This was the beginning of U.S. suburban life, when developers began responding to a housing need that urban, inner-city spaces could not accommodate. These new homes, moreover, were furnished like homes never before, as household timesaving appliances such as washers, dryers, vacuum cleaners, and the like became widely available and affordable. Television also made its first appearance in the 1940s.

In the social and political arenas, U.S. citizens began witnessing the first upheavals of what would become the civil rights movement. For example, the first African American baseball player was admitted into the major leagues in 1947; this was Jackie Robinson who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. By the mid-1950s, African Americans were fully mobilized, with leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. organizing numerous effective demonstrations that resulted in the full desegregation of U.S. institutions by the late 1960s.

One major political development of the 1940s was the "Red Scare," which followed from the post-WWII inception of the Cold War between the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). This war was "cold" because it did not involve warfare. Rather, it was an ideological contest, a world battle of belief. The United States was committed to the spread of capitalism; the U.S.S.R. was committed to the spread of communism. The Red Scare in the United States refers to the way in which the hunt for communists within the United States reached a level of hysteria, with persons being called forth to testify about their political beliefs or those of their friends and colleagues. Many believe this development went against the grain of the United States' belief in free speech, thought, and dissent. Many persons were prevented from holding jobs or pursuing their professions owing to either their beliefs or simply suspicions about them.

At the same time, drama, film, and the arts in general were flourishing in the United States. When Williams entered the dramatic scene, he had much to live up to, as notable U.S. playwrights such as Carson McCullers, Clifford Odets, and Thornton Wilder, for example, were at the height of their creative powers. Like the work of these other dramatists, Williams's is, on the whole, highly serious, and so The Rose Tattoo stands out in Williams's body of work for its broad comedy.

The Rose Tattoo's fond treatment of its group of Sicilian American characters points to Williams's conviction that Anglo-American culture at the time was marred by racial and ethnic prejudice. Thus, the play's unsympathetic characters display a disparaging attitude toward the Sicilian immigrants that was consistent with the prejudices indicative of American reality.

At the same time, some Americans looked down on Italian immigrants or their children, others welcomed the cultural contributions of Italian Americans. There were few singers more popular than Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin at the time, for example. There was a vogue for things Italian in the 1940s and 1950s, partly owing to the success of Sinatra and others, and also due to the importation of Italian films into the United States. Italy was experiencing a golden age in cinema, and many Italian actors were courted by Hollywood to star in U.S. made, English language films. One of these actors, Anna Magnani, was cast in the film version of The Rose Tattoo.

COMPARE & CONTRAST

• 1940s: Italy, where Williams traveled more than once during the 1940s, is attempting to recover from the devastating events of World War II.
  Today: Italy is a major tourist destination now that global travel is common.
• 1940s: Televisions make their way into people's homes and new, televised dramatic forms such as the situational comedy (sit-coms) are developed.
  Today: Most U.S. citizens tune into a favorite television comedy or drama each day of the week.
• 1940s: Musical films and plays become a dominant form during the Great Depression and continue to be popular during WWII, partly in response to a need for levity and temporary escape from grim circumstances.
  Today: Musicals continue to be popular fare on Broadway. They are being performed in smaller off-Broadway productions as well, and various prime-time television shows are beginning to incorporate musical interludes.
• 1940s: Italian Americans contribute diversely to U.S. culture and often are depicted in film and drama so as to highlight a greater cultural expressiveness.
  Today: Italian-American Mafia culture continues to fascinate the U.S. public since the release of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, 1972 – 1990. Television shows like the Sopranos, airing on HBO, enjoy widespread audience appeal.
• 1940s: Racial segregation and ethnic prejudice are prominent in the United States.
  Today: Tensions are still felt among the various ethnic populations of the United States although great progress has been made. Immigration remains a heated issue.
• 1940s: Method acting encourages greater emotional expressiveness in acting, partly by schooling actors to identify with the characters they are representing. Method acting is based on the idea that actors achieve greater verisimilitude when they do not rely solely on technique, but rather attempt to imaginatively become their characters as well.
  Today: Most actors' training today is diverse, taking from and crossing various techniques and methods.