"a Streetcar Named Desire" Alienation

Tennessee Williams is one of the most widely respected playwrights in the modern American theater; his masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire has won him a lot of fame since its publication. Williams exposes the inner conflicts of the characters and expresses plaint for the alienation of human nature with his keen eyes.This thesis applies the theory of alienation as the theoretical base for the analysis of its embodiments in A Streetcar Named Desire by means of close reading. The thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. The introduction introduces some related criticisms about Tennessee Williams and A Streetcar Named Desire made abroad and at home and the originality of this topic. The first chapter mainly presents the concept of alienation, and then illustrates the embodiment of alienation in the modern society and literature. As a significant concept in philosophy, alienation mainly incarnates as self-alienation, alienation from others and alienation from the society. The second chapter studies the three types of alienation in this play. The characters in the play, named as southern belles, southern gentlemen and Yankees, are alienated from themselves, from each other and from the society on different facets during the transitional period. Chapter three analyzes the reasons of alienation of the characters. The social transition serves as the basis of alienation of the characters while Williams presents this kind of feeling to his readers and audiences by reflecting his own experience. The last part of the thesis is the conclusion which sums up the whole thesis and points out its significance in real life.