Further more, some scholars reach a similar conclusion of Blanche’s tragedy but with focus on the feminism. Ruth Foley (2013) interprets the play on the plight of Blanche in Southern patriarchal society, either degraded or destroyed in her search for identity and security. Foley analyzes that Stanley’s personality provides insight into how men dominate women and convince them of their inferiority. And Blanche is frantic about her fading good looks even if only through the realm of fantasy, deeply etched with the concept that youth and beauty are the only sources of feminine power. When Blanche is unable to live up to her self-imposed expectations as a properly raised Southern belle, she displays deep-seated psychological instability. Thus, Foley explicates Blanche as a helpless victim who cannot break from her traditional role in a society that empowers males and victimizes females. Wei Fang (2008) regards Blanche as the representative of delicate and fragile southern female images. Wei’s paper traces this typical controversial heroine in terms of social culture, economic factor and women’s psychology to find out the main factors for her destruction. In Wei’s opinion, it is difficult for Blanche to master her own fate and face conflicts brought by industrialization and commercialization under the restriction and oppression of patriarchy. Wei holds the view that once women yield themselves to patriarchy, instead of struggling indomitably for their freedom, their miserable situation will not be changed.

Another significant and productive approach to A Streetcar Named Desire concentrates on issues around sexuality, as scholars offer interpretations of Stanley’s rape of Blanche. Anne Fleche (1997) demonstrates the play’s theme from a poststructuralistic view. Her paper undertakes to show the tropes of spatial violation and sexual violence in the context of the relationship between realism and expressionism. John S. Bak (2004) examines the process by which Williams arrives at Stanley’s rape of Blanche as “the sole means of providing dramatic closure to his morality play.” Zou Xia (2013) describes Williams’ creative intention from the point of good and evil based on Williams’ view that choices, which are more under the influence of social, cultural and educational factors than one’s subjective will, made in a certain time usually decide one’s life so that the distinction between good and evil is always blurred and no one can be good or evil all the time. Chen Xiaodan (2015) suggests the ultimate meaning of the metaphor for Stanley’s rape of Blanche, i.e., the society needs to pay attention to human nature and people-oriented moral outlook by analyzing the theme image based on readers’ response theory.

Looking back at the studies, we can obviously see that there are many aspects of analysis of the theme of A Streetcar Named Desire. Nevertheless, probing into Williams’ experience as a known homosexual in an era of uproar against homosexuality,we find it not hard to dig out that his creation motive of A Streetcar Named Desire is inseparable from his personal experience of such complicated mentality as a playwright. But homosexuality is not discussed openly at that time. As 19th-century proprieties decline in the aftermath of World War I, American drama sparks controversy through its explorations of previously taboo subject matter. In 1927, after several works such as Mae West’s Sex and John Colton’s The Shanghai Gesture, which overtly exploit sexuality and mixed race relations, authorities enacted the Wales Padlock Law as a means of discouraging plays “depicting or dealing with the subject of sex degeneracy or sex perversion,” with the provision that the theaters where such plays are presented could be padlocked and thus prevented from generating income. As a consequence, any literary works involving homosexual themes face quite strict censorship. In order not to be found out the homosexuality in his work, Williams expresses his theme in a veiled way. And in fact, professor Li Shanghong has once noticed the homosexuality, on which his interpretation of Blanche’s tragedy is based. But few scholars at abroad or home do researches on the theme of homosexuality with social significance in modern society. Thus, this paper will first systematically illustrate Blanche’s identity as s doppelganger of homosexuality and then attempt to enrich the social significance of the right attitude towards vulnerable groups, which will help to provide a comprehensive understanding of the play as well as Tennessee Williams.