Tennessee Williams’ Awareness of Feminist Issues in A Streetcar Named Desire —From Readers to Ideal Readers

Abstract

On the one side, as a male, Tennessee Williams showed a strong awareness on feminist issues because of his special personal experience, which can be proved by his many plays portraying women. On the other side, he expressed admiration to the muscular beauty of men. A Streetcar Named Desire can be seen as a play to display the conflict in Williams’ mind and to demonstrate his deep sympathy to women. By constructing the confrontation between hero and heroine, Tennessee succeeded guiding readers to the ideal readers to share what in his mind. In this thesis, the author will use the theory of Reader-Response Criticism to explore Tennessee’s awareness on feminist issues, and display how he converted the real readers to the ideal ones step by step.