[Abstract] The direct cause of the collapse of the heroine Blanche in Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire" is the rape of her brother-in-law Stanley, but there is another character in Blanche's slippage. In the process of entering the abyss, it even played a more destructive role than Stanley. This is the second male protagonist in the work-Mickey. Mickey appears as Blanche's savior, but performs a tragedy that destroys Blanche himself. This article attempts to start from Blanche's life and mental journey, and through a detailed text analysis of the original work, analyze the reasons why Blanche finally went to destruction.
[Keywords] psychological shadow; degeneration; collapse
Opening "A Streetcar Named Desire", Williams' typical female image - Bu Lan Qi walked over with a strange and moving brilliance and told us her miserable life experience.
Blanche - the typical representative of southern women in Williams' drama world - has the temperament of a southern lady that is deeply fascinating, well-educated, gentle, delicate and virtuous; However, it combines the contradiction between elegant taste and self-degradation, struggling between the ancient traditional values ????of the old South and the indifferent and inhuman reality of modern industrial society. After experiencing multiple blows, it gradually slipped to the edge of collapse, and finally He had to escape into the crazy world to find relief.
It should be said that Blanche’s tragedy is that she was frozen three feet in a day. In addition to the larger historical environment - the declining aristocratic culture of the south is destined to be defeated by the powerful industrial culture of the north - simply based on the life experience and mental journey of the characters in the play, you will find that Mickey and Blanche's brother-in-law Stanley Her friends played an important role in fueling the flames as she slid into the abyss step by step. They were a force that cannot be ignored that pushed Blanche to final destruction.
The first blow-the disintegration of marriage
When Blanche was young, she was beautiful and innocent, full of rosy fantasies about a better life. Stella - Blanche's sister - once said to Stanley: "You don't know Blanche when she was a child." No one is more gentle and trusting than her. ?(Tennessee Williams, 1980:136) Blanche married a young, handsome and talented poet Aaron when she was 16 years old. She loves her husband deeply, so sincerely and passionately. However, marriage did not take her to the road of happiness. On the contrary, it brought her the first fatal scar in her life that lasted her whole life - her husband was gay and shot himself after being discovered by Blanche. This caused her, who was less than 20 years old, to have doubts about the ideal and sacred love. She was also in great pain for losing her deeply loved and even admired husband, and she began to feel depressed mentally. The author believes that this experience of Blanche paved the way for her later emotional entanglement with Mickey, and that Blanche tried to heal the past trauma from Mickey's love, seek a spiritual destination and reaffirm the sanctity of love. Sex laid the foundation and directly enhanced Mickey's status and importance in Blanche's life.
The second blow - the shadow of death
After that, due to various reasons, the once-prominent Dobius family declined, and Blanche's relatives also passed away one after another. The Belle Reve manor, which was like a "beautiful dream", was also sold out. The death of her parents made young Blanche face death so closely for the first time, and made her realize for the first time that she was inexperienced in the world. Death - I am sitting here, it is sitting there, just like you are sitting now. The heart-rending cry of such a close relative (Tennessee Williams, 1980:148), "Don't let me die!" (Tennessee Williams, 1980:21), lingered in my ears for a long time and refused to go away. , became her second nightmare, and her psychological trauma was aggravated. She was entangled all day long, with nowhere to escape.
The third blow - survival crisis
In order to survive and refuse to die, she found a career as a teacher to make a living. However, the shadow of the past has been lingering in my heart and cannot be driven away. In order to escape these injuries, Blanche must constantly anesthetize herself, and eventually evolved into pathologically seducing her underage students. The school exposed the scandal and fired Blanche from her job. In order to make a living, she was reduced to a sex worker. Because she was so notorious, she was eventually deported by the local government. This news directly pushed Blanche, who was already extremely depressed, to the line of life and death.
Fatal blow - disillusionment
In desperation, Blanche had to seek refuge with her sister Stella, who had been away from home for ten years, and looked forward to starting a new life in a new environment. Life. She tried her best to hide her abnormal mental state at her sister's house, and tried her best to show good education and ladylike demeanor. It should be said that at this time, Blanche was making her final efforts for a normal existence after experiencing the blow to her emotions, family and life. The author believes that this is a very critical moment, because at this time Blanche has reached the edge of collapse, which can be seen from her uncontrollable nervousness and hysteria from time to time. If there was a small hope that could make her feel the value of life, she would never collapse. The second male protagonist Mickey appears when Blanche is suffering so much and is about to lose her support.
His appearance, for Blanche, is tantamount to a savior from spiritual to material. It should be said that sister Stella's home was the turning point in Blanche's life. If the twist goes well, Blanche is saved; if the twist goes wrong, Blanche falls into the abyss. And Mickey is the messenger standing at the intersection. Will he bring her happiness and lead her to the light? Or will he work with other forces to push her into the abyss of eternal destruction? In this sense, at least half of Blanche's fate is in Mickey's hands.
Mickey is the first “gentleman” to realize that Blanche is “different” after all the hardships in Blanche’s life. When he first met Blanche, he was attracted by Blanche's elegant appearance, which led to the idea of ????further contact with her. He has always loved playing cards, so he set up a card table and took the initiative to talk to Blanche without caring about the situation. When Blanche asked him for cigarettes, he showed Blanche his cigarette case engraved with Mrs. Browning's famous poem, and told her a romantic love story. His words revealed his unforgettable loyalty to love. , arousing Blanche's emotion that she is also a fallen person at the end of the world. What's more coincidental is that she also has a special liking for these two lines of poetry. Then he praised her and praised her, saying that she was a teacher of art or music (Tennessee Williams, 1980:61). Undoubtedly, for Blanche, who pursues elegant life taste and good artistic accomplishment, her vanity has been greatly satisfied. This kind of praise and cries made Blanche's heart beat wildly, and Mickey began to occupy a place in Blanche's heart.
In the scene where Stanley got angry and hit Stella, Blanche was frightened and frightened, and her fragile nerves were hit again. Anger, humiliation and panic mixed with worry about her sister filled her heart, causing her to linger in front of the Stanleys' door for a long time. At this time, Mickey appeared, comforting her and accompanying her, making her once again feel that this man could be relied on, thus further strengthening her affection for him.
After further contact, when the two were alone together, Mickey mentioned his mother to Blanche and conveyed his mother's question about Blanche's age. The author believes that here, Mickey is ready to enter the substantive stage with Blanche, that is, he is preparing to propose to Blanche. Blanche also opened her mind for the first time and told him about her past unfortunate marriage experience. The author believes that this is an important chapter for Blanche to reopen the door of hope. She is willing to confide in others the painful past that she has buried for many years, which is a sign of her trust in this person. She hopes to use this to arouse Mickey's sympathy and increase his love for her, so as to gain his warmth and protection and lead herself out of the quagmire from which she is almost unable to extricate herself. After hearing her miserable past, Mickey slowly pulled her into his arms and said softly: "You need someone, and I need someone too, so you and I, can you-" (Tennessee Williams) ,1980:116) This vague proposal rekindled Blanche's hope. This short sentence is like a glimmer of light that illuminates Blanche's originally hopeless life.
Blanche agreed to him in her expectation of life. For Blanche, Mickey is a life-saving straw and a hero who saves her spirit and soul. Mickey thus becomes the spiritual pillar in Blanche's life that allows her to get rid of the shadow of the past and become a new person. At this point, Mickey has occupied an unparalleled position in Blanche's heart. You can imagine what consequences will be caused to Blanche once this pillar collapses.
However, what we feared most happened happened. Stanley reveals Blanche's depraved past to Mickey. Let’s take a look at what this hero who keeps claiming to have met the “unique” Blanche does. He ran to Stanley's house without changing his clothes or shaving his face. When he saw Blanche, he even spoke rudely, unforgivably insulting a lady. (Tennessee Williams, 1980:140) And roughly dragged Blanche under the bright electric light to examine her closely. This is especially true for Blanche, who is not in her youth, is already very sensitive to her age and appearance, and needs others to constantly praise her for looking good (Tennessee Williams, 1980:15). To say that is undoubtedly a great insult. Then he recounted all the scandals about Blanche that he heard from Stanley, and emphasized that he had confirmed them from "informants". The opening of this door of memories undoubtedly adds a pinch of salt to Blanche's unhealed wounds, especially when she plans to have a relationship with her. In front of Mickey who got married. Blanche's fear, shame and anger at this time can be imagined.
However, she ignored Mickey's rudeness and told the truth, and explained the reason for her depravity at that time - the fear of death and the spiritual emptiness and panic after Aaron's death, hoping to gain Mickey's forgiveness. and tolerance. ?After Aaron died, I had sex with a lot of strangers, and it seemed like the only way I could fill the void? I guess it was fear, just fear. It drove me from one person to another, looking for someone. kind of protection. ?(Tennessee Williams, 1980:146) However, what happened was counterproductive, Mickey just exposed her ruthlessly, saying that she was "not frank", (Tennessee Williams, 1980:145) accusing her of cheating on his feelings.
Faced with the only support she could hold on to, Blanche temporarily abandoned her dignity as a lady and wanted to make a final struggle.
When Mickey showed that he wanted to be intimate with her, she took the next best step and wanted to impress Mickey with sex and achieve the purpose of marrying him. But Mickey's cruel words completely shattered Blanche's last fantasy: "I don't think I will marry you." ?If you are not clean, you cannot enter the house and serve my mother. ?(Tennessee Williams, 1980:150)
At this point, Blanche’s only hope for the world has been ruthlessly extinguished by Mickey in the most vicious way. She was disheartened and despaired of this cruel world, and had lost any support for her to continue her normal life. After driving Mickey away, she has entered a semi-mad state.
Conclusion
Therefore, judging from the several blows Blanche suffered and the mental journey she went through, although the direct cause of her mental breakdown was Stanley She was raped, but before that, she was despairing and had no hope at all. Stanley's violence was just an external cause and trigger that completely destroyed her, but what really caused her collapse was the multiple blows she suffered in her heart and her despair for this cold world. In the process, Mickey appeared as her last savior, but gave her the most fatal blow, shattering all the beautiful illusions she had about life. Therefore, the author believes that Mickey, the second male protagonist, even plays a more important role in Blanche's life than the first male protagonist Stanley, and plays a more powerful role in destroying Blanche.
[References]
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[About the author] Zheng Xinning (1978- ), female, from Weifang, Shandong, master's student at Nankai University, lecturer at Weifang University, main research Direction: Translation theory and practice.