4.1 Stanley’s hate against Blanche.9

  4.2 Stanley’s revenge on Blanche10

  4.3 Blanche being a failure..10

5. Williams’s techniques used to reinforce the theme..12

  5.1 The setting..12

  5.2 Music and sound....12

  5.3 Light and color...13 

6. Conclusion...15

References16

1. Introduction

 Tennessee Williams is a famous American playwright in the twentieth century, who is regarded as “the father of American drama”. His works are full of ingenuity and vitality and always leave audiences a deep impression because of the moving plots. Among his plays, A Streetcar Named Desire is his masterpiece, which helps him win the Pulitzer Prize, the Donaldson Award and the New York Drama Critics. Williams creates A Streetcar Named Desire by resorting to his own experiences in the south. Therefore this play contains Williams’ great attention and emotion to the fate of the southern middle-class. 

 A Streetcar Named Desire mainly talks about the tragic fate of a southern woman Blanche Dubois. The story begins with Blanche’s arrival in Elysian Fields. She comes here to find her sister Stella because she is driven out of her hometown due to sexual misconduct. Then she lives with her sister Stella and Stella’s husband, Stanley. Here, she falls in love with Stanley’s colleague, Mitch and they are to be married soon. However, Blanche’s secrets are discovered by Stanley and then Stanley tells Mitch her promiscuity, which ruins their relationship and gives Blanche a big shock. What’s worse, Stanley’s rape leads Blanche’s mentally breakdown and finally she is taken to the asylum.  

A Streetcar Named Desire shows the conflict between different region and culture. And it reveals the dilemmas of southern women during the transitional period of the American society. 

1.1 Background

In the 1940s, the antigay movement was rising to an unprecedented height in USA. Meanwhile, with the continuous growth of industry, the contradictions between the modern industrial civilization in north and the traditional plantation civilization in South had become increasingly obvious. In that situation, modern people felt exhausted and confused, even fell into spiritual dilemma. In addition, the feminist movement began to grow up. More and More woman realized the importance of equality and rights. They campaigned for women's rights, including the right to vote, to work, to receive education and to have equal rights within marriage. Also, feminists advocated protecting women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and violence.

Influenced by feminism trend, Tennessee Williams wrote his masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire, which focuses on heroine Blanche Dubois’s tragic fate.

1.2 Purpose and significance

The purpose of the study is to better understand the thought connotations of A Streetcar Named Desire. The experiences of Southern women represented by Blanche deeply reflected the spiritual loss of modern American. Therefore, this thesis will analyze the conflict between reality and illusion from the viewpoint of psychoanalytic feminism, which can help arouse people’s awareness of caring for females. Also, love, understanding and tolerance between people are needed.

2. Literature review

When first performed in December, 3, 1947 in America, A Streetcar Named Desire had made great success, even became well- known across the country, which brings a huge shock to the audiences. The big achievement also made it get noticed by some scholars. It was first studied by Easter Jack, an American scholar. In his book The Broken World of Tennessee Williams（1965）, he said that A Streetcar Named Desire is the representative work of modern western drama, which first applies the poetic style to the drama and brings a new trend of plastic theatre.