An Analysis Of A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams In Light Of Personality Structure Theory

Being one of the most famous and excellent playwrights in America, TennesseeWilliams has made enormous contributions to the development and the revolution ofAmerican drama. His play A Streetcar Named Desire won instant success after beingstaged in New York, gaining two major prizes of drama in America, namely thePulitzer Prize, and the New York Drama Critics’ Awards. Generally regarded as themost successful play of Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire has beendrawing attention of the critics from both America and abroad. Tennessee Williamsexcels in depicting intricate relationship among human beings and their subtlepsychological activities, and this paper aims at investigating the psychological stateand the personalities of the main characters in A Streetcar Named Desire.The study is conducted under the guidance of Freud’s Personality StructureTheory. Four main characters in the play are chosen to be the objects of the analysis.First, the thesis analyzes the deformed personality structure of Blanche Dubois, theheroine, and points that there exists an irreconcilable state among her id, ego andsuperego, which finally leads her to self-destruction. Then it analyzes the imbalancedpersonality structure of Stanley, the monstrous man in the play. And then Blanche’slover Mitch and their failed relationship are discussed. Finally, the personalitystructure of Stella, Blanche’s sister is under discussion. Her healthy personalitystructure saves her from the abyss of destruction.In a word, this thesis intends to disclose the intricate relationship between thepersonality structure of the main characters and their behaviors in light of PersonalityStructure Theory, and then find a special angle of understanding their psychologicaldilemmas and struggles in survival. The tragedies of the characters are closely relatedto their unhealthy personality structures. To avoid such tragedies, one has to maintainsound personality structure.