Abstract

Tennessee Williams is a famous and successful American playwright. Among his works, it can be said that A Streetcar Named Desire is his greatest success. Social and cultural characteristics in the period of the civil society and cultural tradition in the United States can be observed in this work.

The thesis tries to use this literary aesthetic dimension of expression and practical theory to interpret the desire of the main characters in the play and the author’s writing desire and motivation. The desire of characters express the mapping relationship among the desires in author’s life. The creation of the play’s desire is that he is eager for social tolerance towards his sexual orientation,  and this kind of desire is doomed to fail in that social background. So, the thematic metaphor of A Streetcar Named Desire can be generalized as the tragedy of desire, is the embodiment of the contradiction between the literary creation of the social reason and the individual.

Keywords: Tennessee Williams; A Streetcar Named Desired; marginal characters; desire; tragedy 

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

3. The Theme of A Streetcar Named Desired-3

3.1 Desire-3

3.2 Tragedy-4

3.3 From desire to tragedy-4

4.The embodiment of the theme in the characters-5

4.1 Blanche’s desire and tragedy-5

4.2 Allan’s desire and tragedy-7

5. Author’s Desire and Tragedy-7

5.1 Author’s desire and tragedy-7

5.2 Analysis of author-8

6. Conclusion-10

Works Cited-11