Journal Article

Conflicting Mythical Forces in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

Abdelsamie, Adel Mohamed

2011

Overview

This paper explores the conflict between and within the main characters of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). It shows how that the strife between the characters, the ultimate result of the individual's fixed adherence to established ideals and the denial of his instinctive impulses, are equivalent to the mythical Apollonian Dionysian forces. While the one of these opposed forces represents the learned, acquired traits, the other represents the unlearned, primitive impulses. Within the individual's divided psyche, the two forces display that the harmonious coexistence of both man's conscious and unconscious impulses brings about his emotional stability. In short, the paper suggests that man's natural impulses can never be suppressed or denied for like nature itself they are powerful and essential for man's basic existence and spiritual redemption. It can be argued that Dionysus for Williams represents modern man, who, despite being threatened by ineffectual traditional values and by modern technological inventions, refuses to submit and defiantly fights to create a new significant life. Thus, Dionysus to Williams, becomes the symbol of modern man. Haunted by an ordered Victorian culture and threatened by a feeling of impermanence effected by the decay of Southern social order and technological advances, modern man rebels refusing extinction. Finally, Williams offers us in his play a belief that man can build new foundations and raise fresh hopes for the future on this very basic assumption that life is worth living and fighting for.

• Publisher: جامعة جنوب الوادي - كلية الآداب
• Subject: المسرحية - تاريخ ونقد / النقد الأدبى / مسرحية عربة أسمها الرغبة / ويليامز، تينيسى