欲望号街车 终板

《欲望号街车》全本人物表白兰琪斯蒂拉斯坦利米奇尤尼斯斯狄夫巴勃罗黑人妇女大夫护士年轻收款员墨西哥妇女第一场【新奥尔良一条街拐角一栋两层楼房的外景。

街名依利恩地段，位于L及N交通沿线与河之间。

这地区虽穷，但却和美国其他城市里相应的地区不同，倒有一种可爱的俗气。

房子大都是白色框架，因风吹日晒已变成灰色，外面有一道摇摇欲坠的楼梯、走廊和装饰古怪的山墙。

楼房有上下两套房间，由一道白色油漆已经脱落的楼梯通往这两套房间的门口。

【这是五月初傍晚天刚黑的时候。

天空衬着朦朦胧胧的白楼房显得特别蔚蓝，使景色增添了优雅的情趣，巧妙地冲淡了落日的气氛。

你仿佛可以嗅到从那黄褐色的河面飘来的热气，河岸远处有一排排散发着香蕉和咖啡清香的仓库。

黑人乐队在街头拐角一家酒吧间里奏出配合气氛的音乐。

在新奥尔良这一地区，你总可以在街角或沿街走不到几家门口，就能听到由棕色的手指在小钢琴上娴熟的演奏出的音乐。

这种“布鲁斯钢琴曲”表达出此地的生活风貌。

【两个妇女，一个白人和一个黑人，正在楼梯上乘凉。

白人妇女是住在楼上套间的尤尼斯；黑人妇女是邻居，因为新奥尔良是个世界性城市，旧城有多名族混杂居住，相处的比较热情和睦。

【街上传来人声，盖住了“布鲁斯钢琴曲”。

【两个男人，斯坦利.科华尔斯基和米奇走到街头拐角。

他们二十八或三十岁左右，随随便便穿着一身蓝色斜纹工作服。

斯坦利拿着他的滚木求外套和一包从肉铺里买来沾着血斑的东西。

他们在楼梯口停下。

斯坦利：（大声喊）喂，喂！斯蒂拉，宝贝！【斯蒂拉从底层平台上走出来。

她是个年轻温厚的女人，二十五岁左右，出身显然和她丈夫大不相同。

斯蒂拉：（温和的）别这样对我嚷嚷。

米奇，你好。

斯坦利：接住！斯蒂拉：什么东西“斯坦利：肉！【他把纸包递给她。

她责怪的叫起来，勉强接住，随即喘着气笑起来。

她丈夫和同伴已转身回街角。

斯蒂拉：（在他后面喊）斯坦利！你去哪儿？斯坦利：打滚木球去！斯蒂拉：我可以来看吗？斯坦利：来吧。

（下）斯蒂拉：一会儿就完了。

Blanche Dubois: An Anti-Hero In a streetcar named desire Abstract:This paper was how much I disagreed with some of the claims made about Blanche，I genuinely found some of the statements made by thesecritics to be quite inaccurate, at least in my opinion, so proving themwrong with the evidence from Tennessee Williams in my paper followednaturally. Blanche, as the representative of delicate and fragile southernfemale images, has been the focus of discussion. Later on, this paperanalyzes this typical controversial heroine from the perspective offeminism in terms of social culture, economic factorKeywords: desire, feminism, social culture, economic factor1IntroductionTennessee Williams is widely considered the greatest southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American drama, whose masterpieces include Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana, etc.. In these plays, he creates many unforgettable characters, especially lonely, depressed, coward and mind-distorted southern female images.As one of the most recognizable characters in American drama and a fading but sexy Southern belle, Blanche Dubois suffers from the death of her husband who has turned out to be homosexual and committed suicide, the loss of her ancestral home and the passing away of her elder relatives. Guilty and grieve, she dates with a variety of men. Finally her reputation is ruined and she is dismissed due to having an affair with a young boy in her school. And then she turns to her sister Stella for help, who lives in the slum of New Orleans where she is acquainted with Mitch, the brother-in-law Stanley‟s fellow worker. Blanche dreams to start a new life with him, but the dream is broken due to her conflict with Stanley. In the end, their final, inevitable confrontation—a rape—results in Blanches nervous breakdown, and she is sent to a madhouse. Like a delicate and fragile work of art handed down from American Old South, she cannot get rid of a set of hypocritical, strict and controversial moral standards and shows difficulty in adapting to modern culture. She is doomed to undergo misfortunes, lose self and finally go to destruction.2 From the perspective of Tennessee WilliamsThrough the play , Wi lliams‟s sympathies lie with Blanche; this sympathy condemns the environment that has brought about Blanches tragic circumstances. Sympathy for Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire is found in large part from the obvious trauma she has experienced due to the loss of her beloved husband, Allan Grey. Ironically, this aspect of the play is also one that critics and readers frequently use to demonize Blanche and disprove her role as a sympathetic character. critics claim Williams believes Blanche behaved hatefully toward her husband or failed him in some manner, leading to the death she now laments and Blanche had a responsibility as a wife to somehow rescue her husband from his own sexuality However, this claim compared with the trauma that the death has caused Blanche, and the implications of the overwhelming love she felt for Allan Grey may have been the last true emoti on‟Evidence also shows that the traumatic loss of her husband was a driving force that leads Blanche to Stella‟s doorstep. The scandalous event s that drive Blanche to her ultimate defeat do not begin until after Allan‟s death, and she even admits, “After the death of Allan—intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with . . . I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection”. Williams implies that Blanche is not inherently impious; the disintegration of the loving marriage she once clung to leads her to a wrong path.Another situation in which Williams shows sympathy toward Blanche is her most dramatic victimization in the play: her rape. This scene requires careful analysis to understand that Stanley‟s rape of Blanche is indeed an antagonistic victimization, some claim that Williams goes to great lengths to obscure the fact that rape is a political crime ,making this seem a crime of passion and desire rather than one of violence, cruelty, and revenge .However, this argument is in complete dissonance with the obvious signs of Blanches noncompliance in the rape and utterly ignores Williams‟s vilification of Stanley throughout the play. In addition to Blanches evident noncompliance, Williams‟s vilification of Stanley throughout the entire play draws aclear distinction between victim and villain in the rape scene. Upon Stanley‟s first appearance, Williams describes how “he seizes women up at a glance . . . crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them,” and in the next line Blanche not coincidentally “draw s involuntarily back from his stare” (25). This significant exchange sets the mood for the tension between Blanche and Stanley that continues throughout the play. Several times Blanche regards Stanley with a “look of panic” or a “frightened look”, subtle stage directions that further Stanley‟s dark portrayal and foreshadow his victimization of Blanche. The fact that Stanley is characterized as erotic and Blanche merely as mentally weak and insecure reflects where Williams‟s sympathies lie; it does not imply that Blanche brings on Stanley‟s womanizing cruelty but rather that any woman could become his prey. Williams establishes Blanche‟s role as Stanley‟s victim far earlier on in the play than his physical domination of her, and Stanley‟s menacing characterization implies that Blanche‟s flawed chara cter does not give her singular potential to fall victim to him.In A Streetcar Named Desire‟s final scene, Williams makes his sympathetic tone toward Blanche tangible by exploiting her vulnerability before the indifference of the people and society that surrounds her. In addition to the ir onic comment “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”, Blanche‟s vulnerability is also illuminated through stage directions such as “a look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience shows on her face” and “She turns her face to [the doctor] and stares at him with desperate pleading”. Blanches vulnerability leaves her sharply exposed before the cold unresponsiveness of the people who witness her defeat and represent the society in which she has been immersed: the men‟s poker game resumes abruptly after her dramatic exit, Blanches own sister Stella returns her pleas delivered in a “frightening whisper” by staring blankly back at her in a “moment of silence”, and Eunice simply responds to her claim of rape with, “Don‟t ever believe it. Life has got to go on”. The other characters in the play, representative of the era‟s misogynistic society, choose to disregard Blanches plight in accordance with what society expects. Blanche has fallen victim to the brutality of male dominance, yet even the women around her turn a blind eye to her suffering in order to avoid any disruption of theireveryday lives.One can easily deduce Williams‟s sympathy toward Blanche throughout the play and even in the circumstances of her downfall, which gives greater insight into both Williams‟s perceptions of her role as a character and his own views. Although at first glance Blanches checkered sexual past and addiction to the attention of men seem to safely secure her a pigeonhole in a womanizing society, in reality her experiences have only broken down her weak spirit and driven her to her downfall. Because of Williams‟s sympathy, Blanche becomes a tra gic protagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire and transforms the play into a sort of allegory: Williams uses her plight to criticize the social circumstances that have both shaped her flawed persona and led to her demise. This social commentary leaves Williams‟s motivations in question: as a homosexual male, why exactly is Williams so sympathetic toward Blanche? One possibility is that Williams‟s homosexuality in a heavily masculine society rendered him naturally sympathetic toward the plight of women, with whom he probably identified more than with the archetypical male of the era. Another explanationis that, as a homosexual, Williams criticized heterosexuality itself, condemning the sexuality that turns Blanche into a victim, Stanley into a monster, and the rest of the characters into puppets on socio-cultural strings. Altho ugh Williams‟s personal motives are debatable, the story he creates with Blanche Dubois presents a clearly sympathetic portrait of a woman .3. Social cultureIt is reasonable that almost every person‟s fame is closely related to the place where he/she grows up, so it is necessary to probe into briefly the history of the South and its cultural background in order to have a deeper investigation of the heroine‟s destruction. The prewar South is full of contradictory memories. The Southern plantation economy set a division between planters and slaves. The slaves worked all-day long under the whip, whereas the rich planters behaved like feudal lords and lived a luxury life. Under the influence of such an economic environment, the upper class of the South believ ed “itself to be unique, because it projected itself as suchthrough its writers and spokesmen, because it manufactured a folklore of plantation aristocracy, of the magnolia paradise of the antebellum days, of the Greek society and the peculiar institution of slavery, of the Lost Cause, of White Supremacy, and of the need to be born there to understand it all, and Southerners repeated this litany so many times that it became true—or almost so.” (Horton, 1987: 377) Then the framework of the South can be established: its social pattern is based on manor; its civilization is Permeated with idealized chivalry; its ruling class behaves as an aristocracy, either a gentleman or a lovely lady. They live in large mansions, own lots of estates, and have colorful soci al life. It is a “world singularly polished and mellow and poised, wholly dominated by ideals of honor and chivalry and noblesse” (Li, 2004: 21), where Blanche was brought up and used to live for years. In fact, the self-contained and self-sufficient South is an epitome of patriarchal society. Simone de Boudoir points out in her book The second sex, “males don‟t interpret females according to females Themselves, whereas they regard females as independent ones… males can be taken as the reference to define and distinguish females, while the reference to define and distinguish males cannot be females. …She‟ is the Essential in opposition of the Inessential. …He‟ is the subject and the Absolute, whereas …she‟ is the other.” (Boudoir, 1998:11) From the above arguments, it can be seen that there exists a relation of subordination and dominance, the essential and inessential, object and subject, and the other and self between males and females. Therefore, in patriarchal society, males stand at a positive position and females play a passive and inessential role. Charlotte Perkins Gilman also considers gender as the core of analysis to reveal the fact of gender oppression, pointing out that the females‟ dependence on males is not due to physiological difference but the result of coercive act of male culture (Jin, 2004:367). Particularly Kate Millet holds in Sexual Politics that the gender relation between males and females is a kind of power one, that is “sexual politics” (Jin, 2004:595). Similarly, in the south, the men as the center of the society control money, power and even women. They form their own standards to evaluate the society and other people. Women live a life of dependence on them, both economically and mentally. And there is another obvious feature here. That is the tendency toward idealism, romanticismand hedonism. Women have to keep beautiful appearance, behave graciously and flirt with men in order to please them. It is inevitable that women would lose their self when faced with traditional customs and strict standards set by men.4. Economical factorMarxism feminist theory argues that economic factor is the root of the oppression that women suffer from (Luo, 2004:100). The economic dependence on men deprives women of the right to dominate their own fate and the strength to struggle against men so that they are reduced into the other affiliated by men. British writer, Virginia Woolf thinks that women‟s independent economic status is the material foundation to obtain personal freedom. If women are dependent on men economically, they are deprived of all the equal rights (Wu, 2005:69). The economic structure of plantation in the South removes women from productive labor so that they cannot obtain the independent economic status. Even if Blanche is forced to work outside because of economic necessity, she has to choose to be a teacher in a high school which is regarded as a decent occupation of women. And as Blanche tells Mitch her miserable situation, “A teacher‟s salary is barely sufficient for her living expenses. I didn‟t save a penny last year and so I had to come here for the summer.”(Williams, 2005:1179) Evidently, her meager incomes are barely enough to maintain her extravagant life. So, it is quite natural that she has to turn to men for help after the suicide of her husband, death of relatives and loss of her manor, and she considers it the only choice to face the cruel environment, as she says, “Whoever you are-I have always dependedon the kindness of strangers” (Williams, 2005:1203) She is in and out through the gate of the second-rate hotel of Laurel and keeps dating with different men until she is banished from the town. Then she doesn‟t have any thing to her name except a dishonorable past and a trunk that just contains her clothes and some worthless papers, so she has no alternative but to seek refuge from her sister Stella in New Orleans. In Stella‟s house, she seduces her brother-in-law Stanley when meeting him for the first time, because she understands that she needs his financial support when she stays there. She says, “…maybe he (Stanley) is what we need to mix with our blood nowthat we‟ve lost Belle Reve.”(Williams, 2005:1156) But her behavior of Southern culture of delicacy and romance doesn‟t fit in with Stanley who is an animalize d person with peevish disposition. It is an irony that just immediately after she resolves to Stella at the poker night “I‟m going to do something. Get hold of myself and make myself a new life,” (Williams, 2005:1166), she turns to a married millionaire S hep Huntleigh for financial support. Her excuse is that she only has “sixty-five measly cents in coin of the realm” in the purse. Thus having recourse to this millionaire seems an effective means “to get hold of some money” and “the way out.” (Williams, 2005:1166) However, the help call and the message are not sent out. And her next proposal is Stanley‟s fellow worker Mitch, by whom she wants to get rid of the destitution and the dependence on Stanley. She thinks if the marriage with Mitch happens, she can “leave here (Stella‟s home), and not be anyone‟s problem” (Williams, 2005:1173) and live a stable life. But things do not turn out as one wishes. When knowing her past, Mitch abandons her ruthlessly. After she parts company with Mitch, she is so depressed that she creates an illusion for herself, in which she has received a telegram form Shep Huntleigh inviting her to a cruise of the Caribbean on a yacht. Without exception her luxurious life is again built on the support of men, even in an illusion. Actually, this millionaire may not exist at all, and just appears an imagined person in Blanche‟s one-sided statement. He stands for an ideal symbol that can bring material strength of dependence and guarantee for women, more exactly for Blanche. That he never shows up and gives the substantial aid to Blanche may suggest that if women place their hope and fortune on men, their oppressed and subordinate status can never be changed, and their dream of happy life is bound to break. In short, women‟s economic depende nce on men in patriarchal society serves as one of factors that result in Blanche‟s destruction.5.ConclusionBlanche is one of such females born and brought up in Old South who feels difficult in mastering her own fate and facing conflicts brought by industrialization and commercialization under the restriction and oppression of patriarchy, and onlyhides herself in imaginative world to release herself. Williams extends his great sympathy to this victim of patriarchy. However, it is evident from what Williams depicts about women that once they yield themselves to patriarchy, instead of struggling indomitably for their freedom, their miserable situation will not be changed.REFERENCES[1]Beauvoir, Simone de. (1998). The second sex. (Tao Tiezhu, Trans.). Beijing: China Books Press.[2]Horton, Rod W. & Edwards, Herbert W.. (1987). Backgrounds of American literary thought (3rd ed.).[3]JIN Li. (2004). Literary females and female literature. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press.[4]LI Li. (2004). Women‟s growth: a feminist approach to Tennessee Williams‟s works. Tianjin: Tianjin[5]People‟s Publishing House. [4]LUO Ting. (2004). Feminist literary criticism in West and China. Beijing: China Social Science Press.[6]Williams, Tennessee. A streetcar named desire. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, & Kelly J. Mays (Eds.)。

第一幕ST Sister Blanche, I've got a little birthday remembrance for you. I hope that you like it.B Why- Why, it's aST It's a ticket! Back to Auriol! On a bus! Tuesday!S Blanche!You didn't need to do that.ST Don't forget all that I took off her.S You don't need to be so cruel to someone alone as she is. –ST Delicate article as she is.S She is! She was! You didn't know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was as tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.B Oh, stop it!S Why did you do this to her?ST Let go of my shirt.S I want to know why. Tell me why.ST The first time, baby, when we first met, me and you , baby, you thought I was common as dirt. How right you was, I was common as dirt. And wasn't we happy together, wasn't all okay till she showed here? Hoity-toity, describing me like an ape.Stella! What 's the matter with you?B Honey, what's the matter with you?ST Did I hurt you?B Honey? What is it?S Take me to the hospital.第二幕B Who is it , please?M Me- me, me. Mitch.B Hello Mitch! Y' know, I really shouldn't let you in after the treatment I have received from you this evening! So utterly uncavalier! But I forgive you. I forgive you because it' s such a relief to see you. You've stopped that polka tune that I had caught in my head.How's your mother? Is your mother ill?M Why?B Why, what's the matter with you tonight? But never mind，I'll just- pretend I don't notice anything different about you! That- music a gain…M What music?B The polka tune they were playing when Allan- wait!There! That shot! It always stops after that. Yes, now it's stopped.M Are you boxed out of you r mind?B I cant hear what u r saying ,Had you forgotten your invitation to supper?M I wasn't going to see you any more.B What's in your mind? I see something in your eyes!M I've never seen you in the light, that's a fact! I've never had a real good look at you, Blanche,Let's turn on the light in here.B Light? Which light? What for? Oh! What did you do that for?M So I can take a look at you good and plain!B Of course you don't really mean to be insulting!M No, just realistic.B I don't want realism. I want magic!M Magic!B Yes, yes, magic!I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell the truth,I tell what ought to be truth.DON'T TURN THE LIGHT ON…M Oh, I don't mind you being older than what I thought, But- but, all the rest of it- Oh! The pitch about your ideals being so old-fashioned，But I was a fool enough to believe you was straight.B Who told you I wasn't- 'Straight'? My loving brother-in-law. And you believe him.M No! No! I called him a liar at first. And then I checked on the story.Didn't you stay at a hotel called the Flamingo?B Flamingo? NO! Tarantula was the name of it!M Tarantula Arms?B Yes, a big spider! Yes, I've had many meeting with strangers.After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty … .. it was panic, just panic, that drove me searching for some protection- even, at last, in a seventeen-year-old boy but- I was played out. You know what played out is?M I thought you were straight. –B Straight? What's straight?A line can be straight or a street, but the heart of a human being…M You lied to me, Blanche. –B Don't say I lied to you.M Lies, lies, inside and out, all lies. –B Never inside, I never lied in my heart…卖花人- Flores!…Flores para los muertos … - Flores!…Flores para los muertos …B What? Oh! Someone outside.卖花人Crona! Crona! Crones para los muertos… Flowers! Flowers for the dead.祭奠死者的花，要不要？B No, no! not now! not now!I lived into the house once where death was as close as you are…The opposite is desire. How could you wonder? How could you possibly wonder!Marry me, Mitch! –M No. I don't think I want to marry you any more.B No? –M You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.B Get out of here before I start screaming. Get out of here quick before I start screaming!第三幕ST Blanchy…B Oh, StanleyST What've you got the fine features out for? –B Oh, that's right. You left before my wire came.ST Oh, you got a wire?B I received a telegram from an old admirer of mine.ST - Anything good? –B I think so. An invitation.ST - What to?B - A cruise of the Caribbean on a yacht!ST - Who did you say it was from?B An old beau of mine. Mr. Shep Huntliegh,. I didn't seen him for a while.ST This millionaire isn't going to interfere with your privacy none?B This man is a gentleman and he respect me. What he want is my companionship.A cultivated woman, can enrich a man's life. .Physical beauty is passing. But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart increase with the years! Oh- How strange that I should be called a destitute woman! I think of myself as a very, very rich woman! But I have been foolish.ST Swine huh ?B Yes, swine! And I'm thinking not only of you but of your friend, Mr. Micthell. He came here tonight, And to repeat slander to me, vicious stories that he had gotten from you!I gave him his walking papers… But then he returned. He returned with a box of roses to beg my forgiveness!But something's are not forgivable. So I said to him, "thank you,"So farewell, my friend! And let there be no hard feelings…ST as this before or after you got the telegram?B Telegram? What telegram! Oh! As a matter of fact, my wire came just asST As a mater of fact, there wasn't no wire at all! There is no millionaire! And Mitch didn't come in here with roses' cause I know where he is- There isn't a goddam thing but imagination! and lies and conceit and tricks! Take a look at yourself in that worn-out MardiGras outfit, and with the crazy crown on. What kind of queen do you think you are? You know that I don’t like you from the start! You came in here and you spray perfume and you stick a paper lantern over the light bulb and make youself into the Queen.Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor! You know what I say? Ha!- Ha!- Ha! Do you hear me? Ha!- Ha!- Ha!卖花者Flores. Flores. Flores para los muertos! Corones. Corones para los muertos. Flowers. Flores para los muertos! 花！祭奠死者的花！B Oh, no! not now.Operator! Operator! Get me western Union.Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Take down this message!"In desperate, desperate circumstances! Caught in a trap. Help me! Caught in a trap!", Oh!第四幕旁白：now, they want to send blanchy to psychological hospital…ST Would you mind waiting outside a second? She's…DOCTOR --Surely!ST Someone is calling for Blanche.B It is for me, then!Is it the gentleman I was expecting from Dallas?ST Yes!B yes, honey. I believe it is. – I'm not - not- quite ready.ST Everything packed? –Shall we go now, Blanche?S Stanley, she'll be out in a minute.I'll go with you.B How do I look?S Lovely. - Lovely.B You are not the gentleman I was excepting. S Did you forget something, Blanche? –B Yes! Yes- I forgot something!S What are they going to do? Don't let them hurt her!What did you forget, Blanche?DOCTOR It does’t matter. We can pick it up later. –ST Sure. We can send it along with the trunk.B I don't know you- I don't know you. I want to be- left alone- please!ST Now, Blanche! you left nothing here -unless it's the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern? DOCTOR Miss Dubois-- Please. - It' won't be necessary.B Ask him to let go of me.DOCTOR Yes- let go.B Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers。

《欲望号街车》中布兰奇厄运之源The Causes of The Tragic Fate of BlanchIn A Streetcar Named Desire摘要田纳西·威廉斯是第二次世界大战后崛起的最杰出的美国剧作家之一。

在他的作品中可以观察到美国南北社会文化传统对峙时期的社会文化特征。

《欲望号街车》为他赢得首个普利策奖，其中女主角布兰奇成为美国南北过渡时期的各种文化冲突的主要代表，将当时的冲突和矛盾淋漓尽致的表现出来，是一部不可多得的剧作，赢得世界人民的广泛好评。

本文主要分析布兰奇悲惨的一生，阐述导致她的悲剧的各种原因，其中主要从时代背景，个人感情生活经历，亲友的影响以及心理学理论对其进行了多角度的分析。

关键词：布兰奇，悲剧，原因ABSTRACTTennessee Williams is one of the most excellent playwriters after World War Two.We can get some basic observation of the society's cultural characteristics in his works.A Streetcar Named Desire wins him the first Pulitzer Prize.The heroine is the representative in the period of great transition.The article mainly focuses on the tragic fate of Blanch ,especially the causes of her life like this.There are several factors that contributing to the end,such as the current situation,love experiences,impacts from relatives and friends as well as the perspective of psychology.Key words:Blanch,tragic,causes1 IntroductionA Streetcar Named Desire is a stage play with elements of tragedy and pathos. After tryout productions performed in Boston, Philadelphia, and New Haven, Conn., the play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, after 855 performances. Blanch's tragic fateis regarded as the major clue as well as the main conflict and confrontation of the play.It also gradually push the plot to the climax.It is discernible that there are about three factors related to the traumatic result.The first to do is the social situation.It happened when America were in the transition period from Agricultural Civilization to Industrial Civilization.It is impossible to bring the two totally different cultures into line.The second to do is Blanch' own setback,for instance her desire for sex and the abnormal love,which, in turn,lead to her pathetic life.To the end,that is her relatives,especially her brother-in-law Stanley ,who directly made her become insane.2 The Three Factors2.1 The current situationThe situation in New Orleans just epitomizes the collision and conflict between two entirely independent civilization , that is the gradually declining southern plantations civilization of the early time and the powerful south industrial civilization that is taking its shape.Meanwhile the latter is rapidly changing and tends to dominate the city. Blanch ,the heroine from the south of Ameria, is the representative of the old southern plantations civilization. Influenced by the existing social value system, women are not engaged in any work the whole life.They must get marry with a rich man so that they can have a comfortable and luxurious life.They are the attachments to male in the society.Even when her family has tumbled down,Blanch refuses to accept the reality and still keeps some habits formed when she was still an noble of the old time，keeping a southern old lady's speech and manner.This is the civilization of the Capitalism class in which people are so pratical and seek to pursue the material and industrial petition for their own benefits is more and more fierce ,killing the well-mannered behaviour. Vulgar materialistic enjoyment has gradually replaced the elegant demeanour.Their perspective of value is so out of fashion that can not live harmonious with the new one.Blanch is just the typical victim of the times in the old noble culture.The development of the industrial civilization has destroyed that of the old plantation economy.However,she could not let the old concepts go ,being self-deluded and living in her imaging world in whichher speech and act is still of real value in the real world. She could not cope with the real life,thus failing to adapt to new circumstance.2.2 personal experiences2.2.1 Her educationIn terms of Blanch, she is deeply impacted by the women's ethics of the old southern culture , woman is supposed to suppress the native and inhere desire and must not have sex with someone that is out of the tolerance of the general people.She finally breaks up this kind of soffocating female value system that women have always been indulged in,which is fully demonstrated by her romantic affairs with every other strange man.She just failed to put her noble identity and the inhibited desire in a harmonious situation.In order to get rid of the spiritual loneliness and to change the life in which she had no one to depend on for future,Blanch sleeps with different man again and again and meanwhile she puts a man into her arms to drive away another man's threat as a means of seeking safety.Except for the instance happiness from the indulgence of the flesh,she could never enjoy the real delight in her spirit,instead,dropping herself into the deeper desire.She is a combination of desire and ethic.She is so ashamed of her acts that she could do nothing but to imagine a life so as to take an ignorance of her desire for sex and energy.Desire plays an important role in life as well as an significant drive to life.If the strong desire can not be wiped out in a regular way, it will lead to some psychological ill just like Blanch's.In a nut shell,that is the uncontrolled desire and the loss of love that eventually makes her a tragic woman.2.2.2 Pursuit of loveBlanch has ever had a marriage. The boy is very handsome.It seems that they are born for each other.One day,however, by accident, she found her dear husband is gay to her surprise. It is such a big shock to her that it is hard to accept the truth, deeply wronged and cheated. She criticized her husband sharply ,which led to his suicide.Blanch considered herself to have killed her husband, and therefore sank into deep remorse and regret and can not extricate herself out of the guilt. Shocks heavilybeat on her one by one,making her more more fragile and sensitive.On the other hand ,she could not find anybody to tell her sadness and solitary,beginning to get lost.Later,she meets Mickey and finds that he is a good man to spend her rest life.She begins to sketch the coming happy family life.However, all this is destroyed by her past affairs.She takes every chance to make explanation to Mickey ,seeking to win his acknowledgement and sympathy.But it is so ridiculous that he asks for some the so-called sexual compensation.The dream of love breaks into pieces forever.She drives away Mickey, herself into deeper despair.2.2.3 Freud's theory of people's psychological structureFrom the perspective of the theory of Freud,the theory of people's psychological structure will be divided into three parts as the "id", "self" and "super-ego" three parts. "Id" refers to all the primordial instinct and desire and sexual impulse as the essential. "Self" represents refers to rational and judgment, it should meet the requirements of "I",and make it confronted with reality.That is to say ,it plays the role of harmonizing the contradiction between them. "Super-ego" is a kind of moral restrictions on id, on the contrary opposition of id.It gives its guidance to id impulse through super-ego. Under the normal circumstances, the "id", "self" and "super-ego" are in a balancing state.Once unbalanced,it will lead to the abnormal behaviour of people.For Blanch , the id is a beautiful female shining with the confident of being young.Her Self is a lady of the southern, being elegant, gentle, self-confidence, and intelligent.When the self are powerful enough to reason and judge, it can control id very well. Therefore, she can live in a step-by-step manner with a stable job to fill the emptiness in spirit. But just this kind of seemingly harmony brings Blanch to a dead end: The fact that her husband is gay gives Blanch a fatal blow. Her attitude of distaining toward him leads to her loss of her husband.Then the id could not find a real approach to vent. At the same time, as a good educated southern female super ego impose strict constraints to id. In the end, under the threats of these issues, Blanch becomes crazy.2.3 Stanley’s roleAs representative of the southern culture, she was deeply influenced by the southern culture,being romantic, gentle and graceful , while Stanley represents the northern industrial civilization which is practical and judging everty matter according to the real situation. Blanch could not find any characteristic of a gentle man should have,such as the gentleness and modest to ladys that is highly held up by in the south culture.On the contrary,what he has is impolite and the ideology of male chauvinist.It id doomed to have an irreconcilable conflict between.They both feel extremely hateful to each other,which finally leads to the tragic of rape.That is to say,Stanely is the direct factor that causes Blanch's traumatic life.3 ConclusionA Street Car Named Desire is an interesting play becauseit reveals a woman’s tragic fate from different prospects. The play shows a true life picture during the post war period in the South.Whatever,Blanch is no doubt a tragic woman,but she is not alone to get troubled in this kind of situation,just a typical example.Lots of others are suffering from the same in such a difficult time.The ownership system is changing in a step-by-step manner. Lots of the landlords are losing their wealth and can not accept the truth.They can adapt to the new things ,but is eventually abandoned by the society.References[1] 杨义华.文明与欲望的挽歌———《欲望号街车》中布兰奇悲剧命运探源.盐城师范学院学报(人文社会科学版) ,2009,29 (06):91~95[2] 田平谢，荣泉.《欲望号街车》的人物性格及其命运解读.《大舞台》单月号,2009,(05):36~38[3] 程磊.《欲望号街车》女主人公布兰奇的人生轨迹. 河南新乡:2009:97~99[4] 许红彬.从弗洛伊德理论角度看《欲望号街车》里布兰奇的悲剧命运.81~82[5] 弗洛伊德《弗洛伊德的智慧———弗洛伊德心理哲学解读》[M]. 北京：中国电影出版社，2005.。

A Streetcar Named Desire--- Tennessee Williams背景The play takes place in a shabby apartment building in the working-class district of New Orleans in the 1940’s, shortly after the Second World War.The play deals with a culture clash between two characters, Blanche DuBois, a fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban working class.主要情节After being exiled from hometown for seduc ing her student, Blanche arrives at her sister Stella’s hom e in New Orleans and wants to begin a new life. However, she can’t get along well with her brother-in-law, Stanley who is rude and uncivilized. He maliciously reveals Blanche’s dissolute past and ruins her relationship with purser. He even rapes her, which further accelerates her descent into madness.人物分析Blanche DuBois （vanity; total dependence upon man）From an old Southern family, was raised to see herself as socially eliteUsed to be a high school English teacher, but was forced to leave her post.A loquacious and fragile woman, lived in her own imaginationA fallen woman in society’s eyes, a relic from a defunct social hierachy, an insecure, dislocated individualHad strong sexual urges and a bad drinking problem, but pretended to be a woman who had never known indignityDepended on male sexual admiration for her sense of self-esteemStanley KowalskiFrom immigrant family, was a pround member of the working classThe epitome of vital forceLoyal to his friends, passionate to his wife, heartlessly cruel to Blanche, but lacked idesl and imaginationR epresents the new heterogeneous America which Blanche doesn’t belongDisturbing, degenerte nature, first hinted at when he beated his wife, was fully evident after raped his sister-in-law.Shows no remose for his brutal actionsEach represents values that are antagonistic(敌对的)to the other’s chance at success in the modern world.Representation of Blanche and StanleyBlanche: the Old South / demise of the agrarian societycan’t surviveStanley: the New South / industrialization of the Southis well adaptedConflicts:Conflicts of their personalitiesBlanche: illusionary / self-deceptiveStanley: down-to-earth / practicalConflicts of their behaviors and attitudesTo Blanche:(1) Stanley’s drunkenness(2) Stanley’s brutal ity & rudenessTo Stanley:(1) Blanche’s belittlement by the name “Polack”(2) Blanche’s sense of superiorityConflicts of social background and social statusSocial backgroundBlanche: Southern aristocracyStanley: immigrant / working classSocial statusBlanche: fallingStanley: rising人物性格简介Blanche: unrealistic, arrogant, fragile, romanticStella: mild, kind-hearted, escapistStanley: practical, primitive, vitalMitch: sensitive, compassionate, filialSymbolism1Blanche says she rode a streetcar named desire and then transferred to a streetcar named Cemeteries(公墓号), which brought her to a street named Elysian Field (天堂福地）象征了Blanche’s strong desire of love, statue and understanding.The inevitability of Blanche’s insanity and tragic fate.2 NamesBlanche DuBois: white forestspurity, innocenceBlanche always wearing white suit , white gloves , white hat and pearl earrings .----to hide her inner sins and create an image of innocence.Blanche spills coke on her white dress . ( p.1173 scene 5 )----it is indicative that her past is spotted. She tries to blot outthe coke stain, just as she tries to blot out the truth of her past.Stella (妹妹) :Stella means star or like a star in LatinGuide -- led Blanche to New OrleansBright -- the star of her husband (Stanley)Remote -- estranged from Blanchein the end (out of reach, as a star)and has different value from Blanche3. lightThroughout the play, Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light especially in front of her suitor, Mitch. For her, light symbolizes the reality of Blanche’s past.In scene six, Blanche tells Mitch that being in love with her husband, Allan Grey, was like in bright vivid light. Since Allen’s suicide, the bright light is missing and only poor light is there. bright light innocencepoor light disillusionment(幻想破灭)theme1. Fantasy’s inability to overcome reality.Blanche refuses to accept the hard fate, so she lies to her sister and people around, She wants to live a life that doesn’t belong to her.Stanley is a practical man firmly grounded in the physical world. He tries to disdain and unravel Blanche’s fabrications.2. Women’s dependence on menA Streetcar Named Desire presents a sharp critique of the way of institutions and attitudes of postwar Amer ican placed restrictions on women’s lives.For Blanche, she sees marriage to Mitch as her means of escaping destitution. When Mitch hears about her scandals and rejects her, she immediately thinks of the millionaire Shep.Scenes 分析Scene 1- ArrivalBlanche, Stella, Stanleyone set for the entire play – the crowded apartment of the Kowalskis"They told me to take a street-car named Desire." Blanche's first action in the play is one of confusion, ambivalence（矛盾，摇摆不定）, disorientation.Elysian（乐土的，像天堂的）FieldsThroughout Blanche’s adult life，she has been riding two metaphorical streetcars named Desire and Cemeteries –the dual themes of lust and death .Blanche’s defensive strategy is to stay on the offensive –criticizing Stella's lifestyle and social standing when Blanche is in an even worse situation herself, defending herself against blame for the loss of Belle Reve before Stella can even say a wordStanley and Blanche are characterized as polar opposites. He is brutish粗野, coarse粗鲁, primitive; she is dainty精致优雅, elegant, delicate. He sizes her up with a glance; she hides her eyes from him. He is direct and blunt直率; she dances around every topic. But the funny thing about opposites is that they attract. The instant animus敌意仇视between the characters is powerful and binds them together.Scene 2- Suspect of SwindleBlanche is coy and flirting – Stanley will have none of that. she emerges from the bathroom to find her belongings strewn about, but she treats it lightly to avoid confrontation.Belle Reve was not lost to Blanche's failure, or to General Sherman, or to a shifting economy, but to a long line of indiscretions.Defeated, Stanley retreats to his room with the papers, as Blanche brags to Stella that she successfully merged her "jasmine perfume" approach with Stanley's primitive directness, and has emerged the victor.Scene 3 – Poker nightWhen the women come home, Stanley has been losing money, and needs to save face with his buddies. The combination of liquor, the late hour, the bad poker hands, and Stanley's increasing annoyance at his sister-in-law's presence all lead to him finally striking his wife."It makes me so mad when he does that in front of people," Stella says, when Stanley smacks her the first time.They can do what they want when they're alone, but as long as Blanche is around they will not be alone.Mitch is drawn to Blanche, and she to him, but for different reasons. Mitch is enraptured by Blanche's many tricks and tools of coquettish seduction, and desperate Blanche latches on to the stable and supportive idea of a husband. They share a familiarity with death - Blanche watched the older generation of her family die, and Mitch lost the girl who gave him the cigarette lighter. But Blanche's loss is more profound, more crippling, and the darkness in her quickly threatens to overwhelm the simplicity of Mitch.The famous image from this scene –and indeed, the most famous image in the Williams canon –is Stanley Kowalski, symbol of virility（男性气概）and manhood, kneeling exposed and half-naked on the pavement as he desperately cries his wife's name.Stanley and Stella's reunion is without words – their connection is silent, physical. Stanley must likewise be a physical, commanding, dominating force in this scene, a center of gravity to attract Stella and pull her towards him, pull her down the stairs and quite literally down to his level.For Blanche, desire is something to be dressed up in lace and perfume and hidden from sight – it certainly exists in her life, as one of the driving forces that brought her downfall, but never as baldly and bawdily as with her sister and her brother-in-law.Blanche has never experienced this lustful love, but only calculated lust and chaste love. It is something foreign to her, something animal, and she fears it – but is drawn to it just the same. It is an incredibly complex moment of drama, rightfully iconic.关于作者Tennessee Williams ( born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi , March 26, 1911 –February 25, 1983) was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth.代表作Battle of Angels (1940)The Glass Menagerie (1944) ←New York Drama Critics' Circle AwardYou Touched Me (1945)A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) ←Pulitzer PrizeSummer and Smoke (1948)The Rose Tattoo (1951) ←Tony AwardCat On a Hot Tin Roof (1955) ←Pulitzer PrizeThe Night of the Iguana (1961)The Two-Character Play (1973)。