浅析《欲望号街车》的主题隐喻_英语论文

On the Thematic Metaphor of A Streetcar Named Desire

摘要

田纳西·威廉姆斯是一位享有声望的美国剧作家。在威廉姆斯的众多作品中，《欲望号街车》被认为是最为成功的一部。在他的作品中可以观察到美国南北社会文化传统对峙时期的社会文化特征。

本文试用文学审美维度的表现说和实用说,分别对剧中人物的欲望和作者的创作欲望及动机进行解读。剧中人物的欲望表现了与作者生活中的欲望之间的映射关系。作者创作该剧是基于他对社会会宽容他的性取向的渴望这一欲望,而这种欲望在当时的社会背景下,是一种奢望、一种注定会失败的欲望。因此，《欲望号街车》的主题隐喻可概括为欲望的悲剧,是文学作品中的社会主流文化和个人个性之间矛盾的体现。

关键词：田纳西·威廉斯；《欲望号街车》；边缘人物；欲望；悲剧

Abstract

Tennessee Williams is a famous and successful American playwright. Among his works, it can be said that A Streetcar Named Desire is his greatest success. Social and cultural characteristics in the period of the civil society and cultural tradition in the United States can be observed in this work.

The thesis tries to use this literary aesthetic dimension of expression and practical theory to interpret the desire of the main characters in the play and the author’s writing desire and motivation. The desire of characters express the mapping relationship among the desires in author’s life. The creation of the play’s desire is that he is eager for social tolerance towards his sexual orientation,  and this kind of desire is doomed to fail in that social background. So, the thematic metaphor of A Streetcar Named Desire can be generalized as the tragedy of desire, is the embodiment of the contradiction between the literary creation of the social reason and the individual.

Keywords: Tennessee Williams; A Streetcar Named Desired; marginal characters; desire; tragedy 

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Theme of A Streetcar Named Desired 3

3.1 Desire 3

3.2 Tragedy 4

3.3 From desire to tragedy 4

4.The embodiment of the theme in the characters 5

4.1 Blanche’s desire and tragedy 5

4.2 Allan’s desire and tragedy 7

5. Author’s Desire and Tragedy 7

5.1 Author’s desire and tragedy 7

5.2 Analysis of author 8

6. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 11