An Interpretation Of Blanche's Tragic Fate In A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams, as one of the most brilliant playwrights in the twentieth century, has reached the peak of writing with the publication of A Streetcar Names Desire. In recent years,Blanche in the play has aroused numerous lasting attention and admiration from critics on the hero image and tragic fate.This paper takes the perspective of Blanche's tragic. Chapter One mainly discusses Blanche's doomed fate. A Streetcar Named Desire is a tragedy of Blanche. Blanche is grown up on a declining Southern plantation, and she holds firmly to her aristocratic identity in order to get rebirth. However, what she has cherished in Stanley's eyes is only exhausted tradition. Blanche lacks the courage to face reality. So, when conflicting with Stanley, she is doomed to be a loser. Eventually, Stanley finally defeats Blanche through the physical violation. Meanwhile, there is also discussion about Blanche's struggle against fate. Her fate is just like a rope that bundles her. Suffering from her husband's death, family's misfortune and unconventional life, Blanche bears a tremendous psychological burden. So, she decides to go to New Orleans to start a new journey. However, she doesn't surrender to fate, and she still pursues her ideal love during this journey. Chapter Two analyses the personal causes and social roots of Blanche's tragic fate. Her escapement from a past filled with death at Belle Reve by means of desire for love, compassion, understanding shelter and protection eventually leads to her gaining rest in the form of spiritual death in an insane asylum. However, the more she idealizes and romanticizes in the realm of imagination, the less she catches hold of in reality and she can only retreat to the imagination of the doctor as her protector of salvation in the end. Blanche is the product of the feudalism of the old south and also the victim of the capitalism. Southern culture has influenced her deeply, and she considers men as the only way to get happiness. Eventually, she can't find her own way, and is deserted by the society.Chapter Three mainly describes how Williams uses symbols to highlight Blanche's tragic fate. In this play, Williams uses some symbolic meaning of the specific things to express the theme of the drama which leaves a deep impression on the readers. Stanley is the symbol of cruel reality and new social orders after Civil War. Meanwhile, light, music, water and so on are given deep symbol meanings to intensify Blanche's tragic fate. By these identical and different symbols,Williams eludes Blanche's inevitable fate.Through Blanche, Williams presents a disintegrated being tortured by her own inner conflicts. By analyzing her fate and the causes of her fate, this paper attempts to offer some explanations for the modern man trapped in similar circumstances.