Sexuality and Death of Desire in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire
Abstract
This paper makes a psychoanalytical study of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire regarding the ideas of sexuality and death of desire. Tennessee Williams is one of the most exceptional American playwrights. His plays have mostly the implicit ideas of sexuality and death of desire. Psychoanalytic criticism has always had a particular fascination with texts dealing with the psyche and personality of the characters and provides readers better understanding of literary texts. The protagonist of the selected play has been focused to highlight how Tennessee Williams’ characters are motivated by their unconscious drives. The protagonist in this play is found to quench her sexual desire, escaping reality, living in her imaginary world and trying to satisfy her innate sexual requirements. Throughout the action of the play, the protagonist is found to be in misperception with respect to the life she is living and is portrayed to be dealing with death of her desire. By applying Freud’s psychoanalytic approach, regarding his ideas of id, ego and superego
Authors
Mahmood Ahmad
Lecturer , Department of English , Institute of Arts and Sciences, Gujranwala, Punjab, Pakistan
Dr. Muhammad Akbar Khan
Assistant Professor , Department of English , University of Lahore, Chenab Campus, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan
Hafiz Muhammad Qasim
Lecturer , Department of Applied Linguistics , GC University Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
Keywords
Death (Moral or Physical), Desire (Sexual Cravings), Freudian Components of Personality, Sexuality