Another significant and productive approach to A Streetcar Named Desire concentrates on issues around sexuality, as scholars offer interpretations of Stanley’s rape of Blanche. Zou Xia describes Williams’ creative intention from the point of good and evil based on Williams’ view that choices, which are more under the influence of social, cultural and educational factors than one’s subjective will, made in a certain time usually decide one’s life so that the distinction between good and evil is always blurred and no one can be good or evil all the time. (Zou, 2008:113-121) Chen Xiaodan suggests the ultimate meaning of the metaphor for Stanley’s rape of Blanche, i.e., the society needs to pay attention to human nature and people-oriented moral outlook by analyzing the theme image based on readers’ response theory. (Chen, 2015:99-100) 

Looking back at the studies, we can obviously see that there are many aspects of analysis of the theme of A Streetcar Named Desire. Nevertheless, probing into Williams’ experience as a known homosexual in an era of uproar against homosexuality, we find it not hard to dig out that his creation motive of A Streetcar Named Desire is inseparable from his personal experience of such complicated mentality as a playwright. But homosexuality is not discussed openly at that time. As 19th-century proprieties decline in the aftermath of World War I, American drama sparks controversy through its explorations of previously taboo subject matter. In 1927, after several works such as Mae West’s Sex and John Colton’s The Shanghai Gesture, which overtly exploit sexuality and mixed race relations, authorities enacted the Wales Padlock Law as a means of discouraging plays depicting or dealing with the subject of sex degeneracy or sex perversion, with the provision that the theaters where such plays are presented could be padlocked and thus prevented from generating income. As a consequence, any literary works involving homosexual themes face quite strict censorship. In order not to be found out the homosexuality in his work, Williams expresses his theme in a veiled way. And in fact, professor Li Shanghong has once noticed the homosexuality, on which his interpretation of Blanche’s tragedy is based. (Li, 2008:113-121) But few scholars at abroad or home do researches on the theme of homosexuality with social significance in modern society. Thus, this paper will first systematically illustrate Blanche’s identity as s doppelganger of homosexuality and then attempt to enrich the social significance of the right attitude towards vulnerable groups, which will help to provide a comprehensive understanding of the play as well as Tennessee Williams.文献综述

2. Blanche as an Invisible Doppelganger

Tennessee Williams is a gay man and many of his works share a common theme about homosexuality. However, Tennessee lived in an era of uproar against homosexuality. In addition, any literary works involving homosexual themes faced quite strict censorship. Therefore, the only way to express such theme is to make a gay man dead, bringing him back to life under a safe persona. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Allan is the dead gay, while Blanche is the invisible doppelganger. Doppelganger is a word derived from a German word doppelgänger and it is still used today to refer to a person that is physically or behaviorally similar to another person. Besides, there is also a literary term that can be used to explain Blanche’s identity as a doppelganger of homosexuality. According to Abrams MH, animus, which is psychic representation of sexual instinct or the manly side of the woman, is the archetype of masculine. Consequently, only by such a veiled way can Streetcar’s homosexual themes not be found.

2.1 The Manifestation of Blanche as a Doppelganger in Her Lines

It is known to us all that lines play a fundamental role in a play. And Blanche can be manifested as a doppelganger in her lines.