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A Contextualized Interpretation of A Streetcar Named Desire
So much has been written about A Streetcar Named Desire in terms
ofthe oppositions set up in the play between soul and body, life
and death,past and present, that Tennessee Williams' primary
intention as revealedin his use of visual, aural and verbal
langauges to create a world characterized by voices of
distinctive consciousness to depict significantproblems such as
the revolutionary nature of drama has been obscured. Thisstudy
of the revolutionary art in Tennesssee Williams' A Streetcar
NamedDesire thus intends to demonstrate the author's
revolutionary spirit in bothsocial and artistic concerns.
Beginning with the remarks about his "revolutionary" ideas given
by Tennessee Williams , Chapter One recognizes the achievement
in the effortsmade by Tennessee Williams to meet his need for a
system ofcommunication, for a theatrical langauge related
specifically to the interpretation of reality in the modern
world, and thus capable of distinctly connoting human
consciousness. To clarify Williams' uniqueness as a
revolutionary American artist, this thesis is therefore to be
divided into three main parts, and the heading ofeach highlights
its central emphasis. Assuming that literature reflectssociety
and that the writer is a very sensitive antenna to what is going
onin society, Chapter Two further examines how Tennessee
Williams exploresthe conventional perceptions of and attitudes
toward men and women, their changing roles, morality and values,
and how these have all materializedin the portrayal of
characters. It also speculates on how these images reflect the
author's ideas about gender, society and culture.
Discourseanalysis is the main mode of interpretation with a
focus on the questionof the identities of men and women, their
changing roles, morality andvalues, and how these have all
materialized in the portrayal of characters. It also speculates
on how these images reflect the author'sideas about gender,
society and culture. Discourse analysis is the mainmode of
interpretation with a focus on the questions of the identities
of men and women in relation to socio-economic and psychological
factors. To bring to light the revolutionary features of
multiplicity of theplay, this thesis attempts to take a new look
at the conflicts betweenthe characters from a historical
perspective to elucidate the overlookedsocial background. By
presenting the conflicts between Blanche's and Stanley's
historical discourses, Williams implicates in the play the
socio-economic influences of historical upheavals over men and
women in the late1930s and 1940s. Chapter Three makes
efforts to figure out the plot structure of the playbeneath the
flow of the dialogue and the color of the personalities. In
addition to his achievement in formal structure, Williams'
artistic revolutionlies in his innovatory "plastic theater."
His plastic theater signifies thetheater that does not restrict
itself to the verbal but incorporates the visual,the aural, and
the tactile, all the sensuous menas available to the writer.
Nevertheless, the plastic theater cannot be fulfilled unless
materilizedon stage. Chapter four thus discusses the artistic
revolution of Williams'plastic theater through his cooperation
with the director and the designer. With the increasingly
and variusly produced critical interpretations byfilm, by
alternative theaters as well as by critical readings, Williams'
work has in effect transcended the limitations imposed by the
racial andsexual modes of one single production. Consequently,
the final chapter illustrates how Williams' artistic revolution
helps him to achieve his"humanitarian" polities through
multitudinous critical interpretations.
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