MYTHOLOGICAL REFERENCES AND ARCHETYPES IN “A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE”

Abstract

The present paper is inspired by one of the most beloved and famous plays in modern culture, “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947), written by the American playwright Tennessee Williams. The problem set to be analyzed focuses on why the explicit and implicit mythological references and archetypes are incorporated in some of the play’s key scenes and how they are connected to the conflict between the two main characters, Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. As a basis for the literary research serves the “mythical method” (a concept created by T. S. Eliot in his review of Joyce’s “Ulysses”), which Williams never openly theorizes about but uses in a lot of his works, as well as the different layers of symbolism which successfully cooperate with the realistic elements in the play.