Subiectul 9

Psihologia personajelor feminine din opera lui T. Williams

(Un tramvai numit dorina, Menajeria de sticla, Vara si fum)

 -influenta Freudiana
 preocupari psihanalitice = pers. Se afla in conflict cu ele insele, realitatea striveste iluziile
individuale
 domina patologicul, obsesii sexuale care duc la dezastre fizice si morale, substraturi
tulburi ale constiintei, fapturi umane neimplinite, nevroze
 Femei fragile cu probleme, anxioase, depresive
 Blanche Dupont- a fost parasita de barbatul ei si cauta la inceputul piesei o schimbare in
viata (locul petrecerii actiunii sugereaza acelasi lucru, pentru ca ea coboara din tramvai in
statia Champs Elysees).
 depresiva si alcoolica, s-a prostituat, pierde averea familiei
 se ascunde dupa pudra si abajururi colorate
 campiile elizee – contrast comic cu mahalaua
 -fragila, anxioasa, frivola, mincinoasa, in urma violului lui Stenley – are o cadere
nervoasa = e internata la nebuni
 Alma Winemiller - destin violent neimplinit. Femeie iubita in tinerete de John Buchanan,
iubire pe care, initial, a ales s-o refuze, dar pe care, ulterior, a vrut s-o recastige, fara
succes.
 Aceste doua personaje feminine au avut parte prea devreme in viata de ocazia de a-si
indeplini aceste destine fericite bazate pe iubire, dar, voit sau nevoit, au ratat aceste ocazii
ajungand mai tarziu sa regrete si sa incerce in mod obsesiv sa repare greselile din trecut si
sa-si creeze o lume proprie ca forma de aparare.

 preocupari psihanalitice: personajele se afla in conflict cu ele insele, realitatea striveste

iluziile individuale;
 domina patologicul, obsesii sexuale care duc la dezastre fizice si morale; substraturi
tulburi ale constiintei; perversiuni; fapturi umane neimplinite; insatisfactii tragice,
nevroze;
 Atmosfera Sudului
 Influența Freudiană
  Simboluri – inorogul, câmpiile elizee, fumul din vară și fum, simbolul sufletului
 Personaje – trecut și tare; trecutul acționează cum?
 Femei fragile cu probleme, anxioase, depresive

Un tramvai numit dorinta

Widely considered a landmark play, A Streetcar Named Desire deals with a culture clash
between two characters, Blanche DuBois, a relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising
member of the industrial, urban working class.[1]
The play presents Blanche DuBois, a fading but still-attractive Southern belle whose pretensions
to virtue and culture only thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an
illusion she presents to shield others (but most of all, herself) from her reality, and an attempt
to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives at the apartment of her
sister Stella Kowalski in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields
Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named
"Desire." The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves. Blanche is welcomed with
some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband Stanley. As Blanche explains
that their ancestral Southern plantation, Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi, has been "lost" due to
the "epic fornications" of their ancestors, her veneer of self-possession begins to slip drastically.
Blanche tells Stella that her supervisor allowed her to take time off from her job as an English
teacher because of her upset nerves, when in fact, she has been fired for having an affair with a
17-year-old student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she has engaged in—and, along
with other problems, has led her to escape Laurel. A brief marriage marred by the discovery
that her husband, Allan Grey, was having a homosexual affair and his subsequent suicide has
led Blanche to withdraw into a world in which fantasies and illusions blend seamlessly with
reality.
In contrast to both the self-effacing and deferential Stella and the pretentious refinement of
Blanche, Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, is a force of nature: primal, rough-hewn, brutish,
and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way and is physically and emotionally abusive.[1] Stella
tolerates his primal behavior as this is part of what attracted her in the first place; their love
and relationship are heavily based on powerful—even animal-like—sexual chemistry,
something that Blanche finds impossible to understand.
The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister and brother-in-law's system of mutual dependence.
Stella's concern for her sister's well-being emboldens Blanche to hold court in the Kowalski
apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Blanche
and Stanley are on a collision course, and Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor, Harold
"Mitch" Mitchell,[1] get trampled in their path. Stanley discovers Blanche's past through a co-
worker who travels to Laurel frequently, and he confronts her with the things she has been
trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the
lives of those in her new home, just as they were in Laurel, and partly out of a distaste for
pretense in general. However, his attempts to "unmask" her are predictably cruel and violent.
In their final confrontation, Stanley rapes Blanche, which results in her nervous breakdown.
Stanley has her committed to a mental institution, and in the closing moments, Blanche utters
her signature line to the kindly doctor who leads her away: "Whoever you are, I have always
depended on the kindness of strangers."
The reference to the streetcar called Desire—providing the aura of New Orleans geography—is
symbolic. Blanche not only has to travel on a streetcar route named "Desire" to reach Stella's
home on "Elysian Fields" but her desire acts as an irrepressible force throughout the play—she
can only hang on as her desires lead her.
The character of Blanche is thought to be based on Williams' sister Rose Williams who struggled
with her mental health and became incapacitated after a lobotomy.[1]

Menajeria de sticla

The play is introduced to the audience by Tom, the narrator and protagonist, as a
memory play based on his recollection of his mother Amanda and his sister Laura.
Because the play is based on memory, Tom cautions the audience that what they
see may not be precisely what happened.
Amanda Wingfield, a faded Southern belle of middle age, shares a dingy St. Louis
apartment with her son Tom, in his early twenties, and his slightly elder sister, Laura.
Although she is a survivor and a pragmatist, Amanda yearns for the comforts and
admiration she remembers from her days as a fêted debutante. She worries
especially about the future of her daughter Laura, a young woman with a limp (an
after-effect of a bout of polio) and a tremulous insecurity about the outside world.
Tom works in a shoe warehouse doing his best to support the family. He chafes
under the banality and boredom of everyday life and struggles to write, while
spending much of his spare time going to the movies — or so he says — at all hours
of the night.
Amanda is obsessed with finding a suitor (or, as she puts it, a "gentleman caller") for
Laura, her daughter, whose crippling shyness has led her to drop out of both high
school and a subsequent secretarial course, and who spends much of her time
polishing and arranging her collection of little glass animals. Pressured by his
mother to help find a caller for Laura, Tom invites Jim, an acquaintance from work,
home for dinner.
The delighted Amanda spruces up the apartment, prepares a special dinner, and
converses coquettishly with Jim, almost reliving her youth when she had an
abundance of suitors calling on her. Laura discovers that Jim is the boy she was
attracted to in high school and has often thought of since, though the relationship
between the shy Laura and the "most likely to succeed" Jim was never more than a
distant, teasing acquaintanceship. Initially, Laura is so overcome by shyness that
she is unable to join the others at dinner, and she claims to be ill. After dinner,
however, Jim and Laura are left alone by candlelight in the living room, waiting for
the electricity to be restored. (Tom has not paid the power bill, which hints to the
audience that he is banking the bill money and preparing to leave the household.)
As the evening progresses, Jim recognizes Laura's feelings of inferiority and
encourages her to think better of herself. He and Laura share a quiet dance, in
which he accidentally brushes against her glass menagerie, knocking a glass
unicorn to the floor and breaking off its horn. Jim then compliments Laura and kisses
her. After Jim tells Laura that he is engaged to be married, Laura asks him to take
the broken unicorn as a gift and he then leaves. When Amanda learns that Jim is to
be married, she turns her anger upon Tom and cruelly lashes out at him, although
Tom did not know that Jim was engaged. In fact, Tom seems quite surprised by this,
and it is possible that Jim was only making up the story of the engagement as he felt
that the family was trying to set him up with Laura, and he had no romantic interest
in her.
The play concludes with Tom saying that he left home soon afterward and never
returned. He then bids farewell to his mother and sister, and asks Laura to blow out
the candles.