摘 要

田纳西·威廉斯是美国有史以来最著名的戏剧家之一，在美国戏剧界享有崇高的地位。他创作了许多剧本，这些作品都与他的人生经历和时代背景有关，经常以美国南方为背景。《欲望号街车》是田纳西·威廉斯的代表作之一。1948年，威廉斯凭借这部戏剧获得了普利策奖。该剧讲述了美国南部美丽的女主人公布兰奇因不适当的行为被解除教师职务后，来到新奥尔良投靠妹妹，但又与妹夫斯坦利粗暴的生活方式格格不入，继而遭妹夫强奸，最后被送进疯人院的悲剧故事。本文从性格缺陷、家庭桎梏和社会环境三个不同的方面分析布兰奇悲剧的具体成因，指出人的命运是环境和性格共同作用的必然结果，从而让人们更深地体会到男权社会对女性的压抑和束缚以及北方工业文明对南方文明的摧残。

关键词：《欲望号街车》；悲剧；性格缺陷；家庭桎梏；社会环境

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration........................................................................................................... 2

2.1 The defects in Blanche’s character..............................................................2

2.1.1 Blanche’s levity.....................................................................................................2

2.1.2 Blanche’s blind superiority....................................................................................3

2.1.3 Blanche’s illusion……………………………......................................................4

2.1.4 Blanche’s hypocrisy……......................................................................................5

• 1. The bondage of family………..............................................................................6

2.2.1 Allan’s betrayal....………………………..............................................................6

2.2.2 Stanley’s brutality...…………...............................................................................7

2.2.3 Stella’s submission…………………………........................................................9

2.3 The influences of social environment…………………………………………..11

2.3.1 The oppression of patriarchal society………………………………………….11

2.3.2 The conflicts between Old North and New South……………...........................12

Conclusion....................................................................................................................13

Works Cited .................15

Bibliography ...16

An Analysis of Blanche’s Tragedy in A Streetcar Named Desire

1. Introduction

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is a famous dramatist in America. Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Williams suffered from a hard childhood. His father was a shoe salesman and he often taunted Williams. Such a relationship made Williams’s self-esteem insulted. His mother was a descendant of an American upper-class family in American South, and her chatter often made Williams feel oppressive. But Williams has a good sister—Rose, who let Williams feel love, compassion and care. But at the age of twenty, Rose suffered from schizophrenia. Their mother took her to surgery but Rose never recovered after surgery. It was a great blow to Williams, and he didn’t return home any more. Williams’s tragic childhood brought him trauma, and provided him with a lot of materials for his later creation.

Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest dramatists in the United States in the twentieth century, and also one of the world's most important dramatists in the world. In 1935, his first play Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay! got a great success. In 1944, he was on the road to creating plays professionally. The Glass Menagerie made him rich and famous, and it was an important turning point in his literary career. From late 1940s to 1960s, Williams entered the golden age of drama creations, and he published such renowned plays as A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and so on. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948 with A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1955, he won Pulitzer Prize again with another drama—Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And then, Williams received Art Prize of New York’s Kennedy Art Center in 1979 and won Gold Award of American Literature Research Institute in 1996.

A Streetcar Named Desire is undoubtedly Williams’s representative work. It tells a story of the heroine Blanche, who went to New Orleans to seek refuge with her sister after she was dismissed due to inappropriate behaviors as a teacher. Her sister's husband, Stanley, was rude and addicted to alcohol and liked gambling. Because of old-fashioned southern education, Blanche thought Stanley was a very rude man. Stanley considered Blanche a threat to his master position in the house, so he hated her and often abused her verbally. Blanche fell in love with Mitch who was Stanley’s colleague, but Stanley found she was not so pure and exposed the secret to Mitch. Mitch felt cheated and abandoned Blanche. Eventually, Blanche was raped by Stanley who was drunk. She was mad and sent to the asylum.