Chris Pasquariello
Andrea Leslie
Drama 1051-40; Essay 2
March 25, 2010
Critics search for ways to connect characters in literature
to their creators. They often compare the personalities of
different characters and their relationships with one another in
order to find parallels to the author. In “A Streetcar Named
Desire”, Tennessee Williams brings to life controversial
characters with strong opposing conflicts. W. Scott Griffies
explores the psychoanalytic symbolism of Williams’ play in his
article “A Streetcar Named Desire and Tennessee Williams’
Object-Relational Conflicts”. Griffies attempts to “derive a
psychodynamic understanding of some of Tennessee Williams
compulsive behaviors and fixations by using “A Streetcar Named
Desire” as a symbolic representation of his core object
relational conflicts”(Griffies 125).
Griffies opens his article with a broad generalization of
art. Griffies believes “Art, as a symbolic expression, often
reflects intrapsychic conflicts within the artist” (Griffies
110). He concludes that Williams’ consistent themes of
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loneliness, disconnectedness, and victimization infer Williams
experience with such emotional conflicts. Although his statement
toward symbolic interpretation is true to an extent, he holds a
high literal perception of the characters in “A Streetcar Named
Desire”. Williams himself points out his work has “no
relationship to the actual events in [his] life, but reflects
the emotional currents of [his] life” (Griffies 112). Griffies
has delivered his theory of the dynamic characters as a mirror
image of Williams’ life. However, the truth is that fictional
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- Winter '10
- Leslie
- Literature, A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella Kowalski, Blanche DuBois
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