《玻璃动物园》与《欲望号街车》的女性主义对比研究_英语论文

Different Tragedies of Laura and Blanche—A Feminist Reading of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire

摘要

悲剧是戏剧的主要题材之一，从古至今许多优秀的戏剧作品都以悲剧告终。田纳西•威廉斯（1911-1983）作为美国二十世纪最杰出的剧作家之一，更是对悲剧的发展起了举足轻重的作用，跟之前的悲剧不同，他更为关注小人物的艰难和痛苦遭遇。因为威廉斯个人的南方背景和经历，他对南方女性有着深刻的了解和理解；他以同情的口吻刻画了一群南方女性形象，她们受到工业革命的冲击，却无力摆脱南方陈旧的思想，又对现实生活中严酷的生存竞争无所适从，最终被无情地淘汰。《玻璃动物园》中的劳拉和《欲望号街车》中的布兰奇就是其中的代表人物。她们在外貌、性格、抗争方式上的不同，导致她们不同的悲剧命运。本文从女性主义视角出发，对威廉斯的两部杰作《玻璃动物园》和《欲望号街车》中劳拉和布兰奇进行对比研究，通过两人的比较，探究造成她们悲剧本质上不同的原因，以期深入了解作者对女性的悲剧观。

关键词：悲剧；女性主义；南方女性

Abstract

Tragedy is one of the main types of drama. From the ancient till now, lots of famous dramas end as tragedies. Tennessee Williams was one of the most distinguished playwrights in the twentieth century, who played an important role in the development of tragedies and whose tragedies are concerned about the difficulty and painful experience of the common people. Because of his own southern background and experience, Williams had a deep understanding of southern women, who were greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution, however, they couldn’t get rid of the old southern thoughts and thus who could not fit well in the fierce competition of reality and were finally weeded out by the society. Choosing them as main characters, Williams described a group of southern women with compassion. Laura in The Glass Menagerie and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire were two of the typical ones of southern women, having different characteristics but ending as tragedies. Their differences in appearance, characters, and fighting ways led to different tragedies. From women’s perspective, this thesis is to compare two characters, Laura and Blanche, in The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire and to analyze the different reasons leading to their tragedies, so as to look forward to studying the author’s views on tragedy.

Key words: tragedy; feminism; southern women

Contents

Introduction 1

1. Feminism and Tennessee Williams 3

1.1 The Definition and Development of Feminism 3

1.2About the Author 4

1.2.1 Williams’ life experience 4

1.2.2 Williams’ Women Characters 5

2. Introduction of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire 6

2.1 Writing Background 6

2.2 The Glass Menagerie 8

2.3 A Streetcar Named Desire 9

3. Comparison of Laura in The Glass Menagerie and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire 10

3.1 Character Analysis of Laura 10

3.2 Character Analysis of Blanche 11

3.3 The Same Result –Tragedy 12

3.3.1 The Definition and Development of Tragedy 13

3.4 Differences in Their Tragedies 14

3.4.1Difference in Their Appearance 14

3.4.2 Differences in Their Characters 14

3.4.3 Difference in Their Struggles for Their Fate 15

3.5 Reasons for Their Tragedies 18

3.5.1 Wrong Fighting Ways 18

3.5.2 Social Circumstance 19

Conclusion 20

References 22