Several elements in A Streetcar Named Desire 《 欲望号街车 》 戏剧赏析

1. Several elements in A Streetcar Named Desire《欲望号街车》戏剧赏析

2. Tennessee Williams(March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983)

3. Tennessee Williams (1911—1983), One of the most prominent playwrights in United States after World War II. Regarded as controversial and poetic, his plays write about the loneliness andisolation of modern man, revealing themes such asviolence, frustrations, sex, even homosexuality. Many of Williams’s plays reflect the romantic Southern Tradition as is exemplified in the worksWilliam Faulknerandsexual freedom as in the novels ofD.H. Lawrence. His characters are victims of having outlived the southern past in which they had been at home.

4. Major Plays The Glass Menagerie(1945),Williams’s first major success, won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. A Streetcar Named Desire(1947), his second major play, won a Pulitzer Prize, and established him as an major American dramatist. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof(1955), alsoa Pulitzer Prize

5. Themes Many of his plays are autobiographical, including references to elements of his life such as homosexuality, mental instability and alcoholism. He wrote about sensitive, poetic misfits who escape from reality into a world of illusion/art. Williams propounded the feminizing of American culture as a counter to a society built on masculine ideals of strength and power.

6. Style and Features • Like Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams wanted to challenge some of the conventions of naturalistic theatre. • Williams is known as a "poetic" realist. His plays explore ways of using the stage to depict the interior life and memories of a character.

7. 欲望号街车

8. How come the play is namedA Streetcar Named Desire？ In scene one, Branche’s first line is: “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at -- Elysian Fields!”

9. Among the play‘s greatest achievements is the depiction of the psychology of working class characters. Williams tries to portray the blue-collar characters on their own terms, without romanticizing them.

10. Plot • 布兰奇·杜包尔斯，因为“不适当”的行为而被解除了教师职务。她只得到新奥尔良妹妹家居住。妹妹一家住在一栋肮脏的公寓里。姐妹俩都接受过旧式的南方教育。俩人都为爱而嫁，但姐姐的婚姻却很不幸。妹妹丝黛拉嫁给了波白移民的儿子——斯坦利。布兰奇与斯坦利一见面，俩人就对对方产生了厌恶感。斯坦利认为布兰奇不值得信任，会给妻子带来不好的影响，而且他作为一家之主的地位也会受到威胁。布兰奇认为斯坦利是个没受过教育的波兰小混混。 　　布兰奇在逗留期间遇到了斯坦利的朋友米奇。米奇很善良，也很喜欢布兰奇。布兰奇告诉米奇自己丈夫不幸的死亡。斯坦利由于不满布兰奇对妻子和朋友施加影响的作法，而准备毁掉她。但怀孕的丝黛拉却不准斯坦利碰姐姐一下。经过一番调查，斯坦利终于发现了布兰奇的秘密，原来她并非那么纯洁，他让米奇知道了这个秘密，米奇觉得受了愚弄，喝得大醉。他无情地抛弃了布兰奇。 　　这时，斯坦利的孩子降生了。他从医院醉酒回家，发现布兰奇准备“同以前的男友私奔”。在酒精的刺激下，斯坦利疯狂地追上了布兰奇并强奸了她。布兰奇真的发疯了。

11. characters Blanche, because of her “inappropriate manner”, she loses her job and leaves her hometown to live with her pregnant sister. She is highly vulnerable and neurotic. She looks Stanley as a rude man and always has conflicts with him. In the end, being raped by Stanley ,she lost her mind and is sent to an insane asylum .

12. Stanley, a bad tempered blue collar ,who is Blanche’s brother-in-law, devoting himself to alcohol, gambling and desire. He hates Blanche because of her influence on his wife, so he wants to destroy her dignity and pride. He reveals Blanche’s past and ruins her engagement. Finally, he successfully gets rid of Blanche and sends her to an asylum .

13. Stella, Blanche’s sister, Stanley’s wife, a simple- minded woman who is intrigued to her husband. Like Branche, she is from an upper-class family in the south, but she has a totally different attitude towards love from her sister. Mitch, Stanley’s friend, who initially wants to marry Blanche, knowing her past from Stanley, he leaves Branche and coldly insults her which partly leads to her madness.

14. P.1173 Middle to bottom Stella: Why are you sensitive about your age? Blanche: Because of hard knocks my vanity’s been given. What I mean is –he thinks I ‘m sort of prim and proper, you know! [ She laughs out sharply.] I want to deceive him enough to make him- want me… Stella: Blanche, do you want him? Blanche: I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! Yes- I want Mitch…very badly! Just think! If it happens ! I can leave here and not be anyone’s problem…

15. The complexity of A Streetcar Named Desire is not the plot of its story, but its social background and the creating motive of the auther Tennessee Williams who puts his own personal experiences into this drama. These two points lead to reveal the essential elements of the drama and reflect a variety of themes in it. There will be different themes when we read it from slightly different angles.

16. Horizon of Expectation a term used in the reception theory of Hans Robert Jauss to designate the set of cultural norms, assumptions, and criteria shaping the way in which readers understand and judge a literary work at a given time.

17. It may be formed by such factors as the prevailing conventions and definitions of art, or current moral codes. Such ‘horizons’ are subject to historical change, so that a later generation of readers may see a very different range of meanings in the same work, and revalue it accordingly.

18. Fantasy Cannot Overcome Reality The characteristic of indulging in fantasies is embodied in many characters in this play. Of course, Blanche is the much more typical one. She avoids reality by indulging in fantasies which is reflected through the whole story line.

19. Blanche avoidance of light---avoidance of reality a millionaire---southern gentlemen Dating with Mitch the kindness of strangers bathes herself, drink

20. Women`s Tragedy According to the Victorian social codes, women are completely submissive to men, and they do not have their independent identities. Both Stella and Blanche think that woman cannot lead a respectable life without depending on a man.

21. submissive to men Blanche: Father---husband---Mitch---the millionaire---doctor Stella: Stanley

22. Victim of the Old Southern Culture South: gentlemen and ladies Puritans New Orleans Northern and Southern conflicts

23. Blanche and Stanley the destruction of the old south genteel world

24. Analysis of the uncertainties inA Streetcar Named Desire • Williams’ works are characteristic of ambiguity. • Wolfgang Iser 伊塞尔 • Theory of Gap or Blankness 空白理论: • To engage the reader's imagination and participation, a text must not give the whole story but leave some unwritten parts(scenes or dialogue).

25. Uncertainties about the past of Blanche • When Blanche firstly appears, she is presented as a mystery, whose past remains to be narrated both by herself and to be revealed by Stanley. • Thus, during the reading of Act I to Act X, readers generally fall into two categories: • 1. readers who believe in Blanche’s narration • 2. readers who side with Stanley • Stella and Mitch, to some extent, can be considered as readers, whose attitude to their different narrations will help us better understand real readers' response.

26. 1.Mitch • In Act VI, Blanche tells Mitch about her past, including her husband Alan’s suicide, which immediately wins the understanding and compassion of Mitch, as well as readers. • 2.Stella • In terms of the other reader Stella, Blanche awankens the southern tradition and values insider her.

27. “Surely you can't have forgotten that much of our up-bring, Stella, that you just suppose that there's any part of a gentleman in his nature! He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! There's even something- sub-human about him. Thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is- Stanley Kowalski- survivor of the stone age!” • “你还没有忘记我们的高贵血统吧，丝黛拉？ 你认为他品质中会有一点绅士风度吗？他好像个畜生，畜生的习惯。他甚至像个类人猿，成千上万年过去了，而他，斯坦利.科瓦斯基，就好像石器时代的幸存者。”

28. Through her long paragraphs of accusation against Stanley, Blanche not only convinces Stella of Stanley’s coarse and vulgar nature, but also presents herself to readers as a defender of the Southern tradition. • Uncertainty: • After Stanley’s revelation of Blanche’s corrupt and shameful past, including her frequent changes of sexual partners and seduction of a teenage boy, readers are caught up in confusion and can’t help but to wonder what kind of person Blanche really is.

29. Uncertainties about the conflicting images • Conflicts are always the soul of a drama, which, in this work, are best represented by the confrontation between the Southern tradition(Blanche) and the Northern Materialism(Stanley). • Sinsitive and fragile Blanche stands for the weak side—the dying South • Robust and brutal Stanley stands for the strong side—the thriving North

30. Uncertainties about Blanche's image • The biggest tragedy about Blanche is that as a defender of the Southern tradition, she finds herself involuntarily attracted by Stanley. • Evidence: • When Blanche fistly meets Stanley in Act I, she takes a furtive glance of Stanley’s robust build. • In Act Ⅱ, she teasingly sprays her purfum onto Stanley and even asks him to help her with the button. • She also tries to flatter Stanley by saying “My sister has married a man.”

31. “…maybe he's what we need to mix with our blood now that we've lost Belle Reve and have to go without Belle Reve to protect us.” • “既然我们已经失去了贝尔立夫而且再也得不到它的保护，也许他（斯坦尼）真的是我们应该与之联姻的那类人。” • All these details manifest Blanche’s rocognition of and reconciliation to Stanley and what he represents, which undoubtedly weakens her image as a firm defender in readers’ eyes.

32. Uncertainties about Stanley's image • Based on director Ellia kazan, Stanley is the kind of character that embodies the hedonism and cruelness of the North. However, there exists some uncertainties about his image in the drama. • Evidence: • In Act 3, after a fight, Stella runs away from home and hides herself in a neighbor’s house, Stanley wailed with remorse and cried out that he is sorry. • This scene has brought out Stanley’s weak and gentle side to the readers and somewhat weakens his former cruelness. • Moreover, it’s an undeniable fact that Blanche’s stay indeed influences Stanley and Stella’s marriage life, which again arouses readers’ sympathy for them.

33. The aforementioned uncertainties have made it quite difficult for the readers to truely understand the characters based on limited information and confusing details. • But towards the end in Act XI, all the uncertainties and doubts are resolved by Stanley’s ruthless rape of Blanche. • Readers who formerly side with Stanley finally see through his nature as a brutal materialist and turn to sympathize with the weak one Blanche. • Meanwhile, by means of such a deliberate tragic ending, readers get to fully appreciate Williams’ deep love for and empathy with Blanche and the South.

34. Thanks!