On The Narcissistic Complex Of Blanche In Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest American playwrights succeeding Eugene O'Neill. Many of his works are autobiographical ones, among which A Streetcar Named Desire is considered to be his masterpiece. According to Williams, Streetcar is his favorite for the reason that it says everything he has to say.A Streetcar Named Desire is called the American Hamlet, which means that this play written by Tennessee Williams is very important in the field of literature and that this masterpiece is also very complicated. Therefore, there's no doubt that A Streetcar Named Desire is always the hot issue of many critics. Most of them draw their attention to such aspects as the potentially shocking nature of Williams's material, the apparently pessimistic attitude he takes toward human existence, meanings of symbols adopted in the play etc. Besides, much more critics focus on Williams's ambiguous attitude toward his two central characters and conflicts between them. Most of them hold the view that conflicts between Blanche and Stanley represent conflicts between the Old Southern tradition and the Northern Industrialism and they also assert that Williams always sides with Blanche, who is the representative for the Old South. Because Williams once asserts that he could completely identify with Blanche and he writes out of his love for the South.However, it is a well-known fact that Williams is a great playwright who centers on the inner world of human beings. In this case, the literary works of Tennessee Williams cannot be interpreted and evaluated properly without the help of the tools of modern psychology. As a matter of fact, there're still many critics interpreting Tennessee Williams' works through the perspective of psychoanalysis, but none of them interprets Streetcar, his autobiographical work, with the help of theory of "Narcissism". Therefore, the writer of the thesis is to reinterpret Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire based on the theory of "Narcissism". This thesis mainly consists of three parts. Chapter One focuses on the analysis of Blanche's narcissistic character. According to the five diagnostic criteria for the narcissistic personality disorder listed by DSM-III, Blanche is a typical narcissist, that is to say, she holds an abnormal personality from the beginning of the story, which is the root cause of her tragedy. Blanche's complex of "narcissism" is mainly manifested through three aspects. Firstly, she is always indulged in her romantic, dreamy world to escape from the realistic world, in which she suffers too much. Secondly, mirror images are adopted to reveal her narcissistic symptom of self-adoration. Finally, she is accustomed to considering herself as the center of the world. All the manifestations mentioned above are major symptoms of narcissistic personality, with which Blanche is doomed to be sent into an asylum.From analysis of Blanche's character in Chapter One, it is obvious that she holds an unhealthy personality from the beginning of the story. Then what makes her develop this unhealthy narcissistic personality? In Chapter Two, the writer of the thesis will trace Blanche's way to be a neurotic. According to Freud, the concept of "Narcissism" has to be subdivided into the phase of "Primary Narcissism" and that of "Pathological Narcissism". As an original libidinal cathexis of the self, "Primary Narcissism" exists in every living creature. Before a baby could be aware of the fact that he and his mother are independent individuals, he will throws this kind of cathexis at his mother, whom he views as part of himself. It can help the baby develop a healthy personality. After the baby could distinguish himself and his mother, his self cathexis is to be developed into object cathexis in a healthy way. However, if the baby fails in throwing this cathexis at an object, it will be withdrawn from an object to himself. In this case, "primary narcissism" will develop into "pathological narcissism". This is just the case of Blanche, who is a typical pathological narcissist.As an autobiographical work, Williams invites comparisons between his life and the characters in Streetcar, especially Blanche. Hence in Chapter Three, the writer of the thesis will elaborate Tennessee Williams's identification with his creation Blanche in three aspects. Firstly, similar to Blanche, Tennessee Williams is also an outsider of the real world. Both of them are indulged in nostalgia for their past in the Old South, which has already withered away. As a homosexual, Tennessee Williams challenges convention of American society at that time. What's more, homosexuality is the extreme form of a pathological narcissist according to Freud. Therefore, Tennessee Williams also identifies with Blanche at this point. Secondly, alienated from a world he lives in, Williams has to escape into his own world of writing. In the world of writing, he could say everything he wants to say through his characters. He once claims that he can completely identify with Blanche in Streetcar. Therefore, in the third part of Chapter Three, a detailed comparison between Tennessee and Blanche will be made.In conclusion, Blanche is a typical narcissist. Her complex of narcissism is the root cause of her tragic fate. Tennessee Williams expresses his own attitudes toward life through Blanche. In Streetcar he creates this aging Southern belle, who is just the representative for the Old South, to express his love and regret for the Old South. However he loves and regrets for both the Old South and Blanche, he knows well that both are to end in fetal tragedy.