Blanche: A Dying Rose In Patriarchal Society

ABSTRACT:As the only play that has ever won all three major drama awards in America, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire wins both the acknowledgements of the critics as well as the public. It is renowned for its vivid characterization, fierce conflicts and the ambiguity of the playwright's attitude to his characters.Yet in commenting on the play, most critics just stay on the historical and cultural levels of the play, and regard the confrontation of its main characters Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski as the reflection of the war between the South and the North. Some notice that Blanche is a suffering woman:she is a victim of traditional moral modes, modern civilization and masculine autonomy. However, few analyze this play from the angle of Marxist feminism, namely, few combine these two theories to probe into this world-known play. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to take an in-depth research into the main characters of the play to prove that under the circumstance of the then United States, Blanche Dubois, the protagonist of the play, is doomed to end up as a tragic woman.This thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter One serves as an "introduction", which gives a general survey of Williams' life, his works and relevant literature reviews with a focus on A Streetcar Named Desire and its heroine. In Chapter Two, Marxist historical materialism will be used to analyze the interpersonal relations among Blanche, Stanley, Stella and Mitch. In Chapter Three, a feminist approach to the play will be taken, and this chapter will analyze the inner conflicts in the protagonist's mind. At last, in Chapter Four, the conclusion will be arrived at, namely, through the image of Blanche, Williams presents a disintegrated woman tortured by so(?) norms, inner conflicts and evil forces. A southern belle like Blanche, who lives in the past and denies the present, will surely be denied by the reality. She either lives in illusions or dies sadly.