Abstract

Tennessee Williams, formerly known as Thomas Lanier Williams, is a bright star of the post-war American theater. With his prestigious literary achievement, he is considered “contemporary O'Neill”. A Streetcar Named Desire is recognized as Williams’ masterpiece. Symbolism is used to the extreme here, and the author invests profound meaning in a great number of symbols: names, places, objects, different scenarios, which represent the trend that the backward southern plantation economy is on the decline, while the emerging northern modern industry will eventually win.
This paper attempts to conduct a detailed interpretation of the symbolism in this drama and to explore the social themes of the play. The main issues to be addressed include the following five parts: 1. The Introduction section describes Tennessee Williams and A Streetcar Named Desire and gives a brief introduction of domestic and foreign studies. 2. The description of symbolism. 3. The third chapter first describes the definition of symbolism, and then provides a detailed analysis of the various symbols, including the names and places, music and color, poker and lampshades. 4. The forth chapter focuses on the symbolism of characters and on the basis of this explore the social themes. 5. The Conclusion chapter will make a comprehensive exposition and summary.

Keywords:  Symbolism  Tennessee Williams   A Streetcar Named Desire  theme
 
摘要

田纳西·威廉斯原名托马斯·拉尼尔·威廉斯，是战后美国剧坛上又一颗璀璨耀眼的巨星，被认为是“当代的奥尼尔”，成为享有盛名的文学巨匠。《欲望号街车》被公认为威廉斯的代表作,它同时获得普利策戏剧奖、纽约戏剧评论家协会奖和唐纳森奖, 是有史以来第一部同时获得三大奖项的剧作。象征主义的写作手法在这里发挥到了极致，作者运用寓意深刻的人名，地名，不同的场景等达到一定的象征目的，象征了代表落后的南方种植园经济的文化终究要落败，代表新兴产业的北方现代工业的文化终要取胜的结局。
本文试图通过对此戏剧中的象征主义进行详细解读，并通过讨论人物象征主义的运用来探索文章的社会主题。拟解决的主要问题包括以下五部分：一、介绍田纳西·威廉斯以及《欲望号街车》，并简单介绍国内外学者对此戏剧的研究方向和研究内容。二、对象征主义进行阐述。三、对象征主义进行阐述，并详细地分析了各种象征物，包括人名和地名，音乐和色彩，扑克和灯罩等。四、最后着重分析人物的象征主义，并在理解人物象征主义的基础上探索社会主题。五、总结部分对上述进行分析与研究做出一个综合性的阐述和总结。

关键词: 象征主义；田纳西·威廉斯；欲望号街车；主题