Abstract A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie are Tennessee Williams’ classic dramas. The Glass Menagerie focuses on the mental suffering of those nobodies in Great Depression. A Streetcar Named Desire mainly describes the experience of a desperate “South belle” Blanche and how she ends up in mental house after struggle. Since its publication, the two dramas have aroused great concern in the critics. Many study the pathetic lives of the two heroines and try to present the sources of their tragedies from different perspectives including feminism, the patriarchal social system, and the southern culture and so on. Author of this present thesis believes that in addition to the external social and environmental factors, the anxiety resulted from the unbalanced personality and the useless defense mechanisms employed to deal with the anxiety is also one of the important reasons for their suffering and tragic lives. Therefore, this thesis is trying to use Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychological defense mechanism to analyze the mental state of the two protagonists so as to shed some new light on the root of their tragedy.47470
Key Words：Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Freud, defense mechanism, tragic life
摘要《欲望号街车》和《玻璃动物园》均是田纳西威廉姆斯的经典作品。《玻璃动物园》聚焦美国经济大萧条时期那些小人物所遭受的精神痛苦。而《欲望号街车》则主要描述了所谓落魄的“南方美女”布兰奇在经历过痛苦挣扎最终被送进精神病院的悲剧人生。自出版以来，两部作品受到了评论界的极大关注。许多人将两位主人公的悲剧人生作为研究的重点并试图从女性主义，男权社会制度，南方文化等多个方面解读她们的悲剧。本文作者认为，除去社会和外界因素，这两位主人公不健全的人格所导致的焦虑以及面对焦虑所采取的无效的防卫机制是造成她们悲剧的重要因素。因此，本文试图用弗洛伊德的心理防御机制来分析主角的心理状态以探究两部作品女主人公悲剧命运的根源。
毕业论文关键词：田纳西.威廉姆斯，玻璃动物园，欲望号街车，弗洛伊德，心理防御机制，悲剧的人生
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction of the Author and His Two Dramas 1
1.2 A Brief Review of the Two Dramas 3
2 Introduction of Freud’s Theory of Defense Mechanism 5
2.1 The Origin of Defense Mechanisms 5
2.2 The Types of Defense Mechanisms 6
3 Analysis of Laura and Blanche’s Mental Situation 8
3.1 An Analysis of Laura’s Mental Situation and Her Defense Mechanisms 8
3.2 An Analysis of Blanche’s Mental Situation and Her Defense Mechanisms 10
3.3 A Contrast Analysis Between Laura and Tom as well as Blanche and Stella 12
4 Conclusion 14
Bibliography 15
1 Introduction
Tennessee Williams (March26, 1911-Febuary25, 1983), one of the most outstanding realistic playwrights in the United States, is the only figure who can be compared to the “Father of American Drama” Eugene O’Neill. As an excellent dramatist, Williams also has a glorious long list of different awards: he got two Pulitzer Prizes, four New York Critics Circle Awards and Donaldson Award. Most of his awards are won by publishing The Glass Menagerie (1945) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). In his lifetime, Williams created a great many of vivid characters in different dramas, among which The Glass Menagerie (1945) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) are most celebrated. They also won Williams two New York Critics Circle Awards, a Pulitzer Prizes and a Donaldson Award. While bringing Williams the reputation as a successful playwright, the two works also draw extensive attention from the critics. Therefore, this paper is also to give a close read of the two dramas, and the two protagonists in particular from the perspective of Freudian psychological study so as to probe a new source of their tragic life. 1.1 Introduction of the Author and His Two Dramas 对《玻璃动物园》和《欲望号街车》的弗洛伊德式解读:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_49584.html