作者：张霞
　　【Abstract】the heroine in the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams， Blanche， has constructed herself an imaginary world which she seek protection from， but this imaginary world is destroyed by the outside powerful real world， and the cause of this destruction is complex which is worth exploring.
　　【Key words】imaginary world； construction； destruction； reality
　　【作者簡介】张霞，天津外国语大学。
　　Introduction
　　In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams， the heroine Blanche DuBois has created an imaginary world for herself，， and she tries to make others also live in this imaginary world； she says， “I don’t want realism. I want magic. I try to give that to people... I don’t tell truth. I tell what ought to be truth” （Williams 117）. And she involves herself in this imaginary world， and refuses to face the real world. But her imaginary world is an unacceptable world to others， because her environment has changed from the past Belle Reve to the modern industrial city， New Orleans， where people are no longer whom she has met in Belle Reve. The reasons of her strong desire to devote herself in the past life and avoid the real world are three： one is she had caused her husband’s death for her mindless words， about which she is very guilty. Allan’s death is like a piece of music always surrounding Blanche. That’s why each time when people mentioned Allan， the polka music will sound in her mind. The second reason is the loss of the Belle Reve， her home； Belle Reve is lost for the death of their families. They did not leave anything for Blanche but debt because they have sold their states to maintain their luxury life. The third reason is that Blanche once has lead a disgraceful life because she wants to drive away her loneliness. After her husband’s death， she fell in loneliness and in order to gain comfort and make up her lost love， she keeps accompany with different people. And this kind of company is temperamental and when people realize it they will leave her and she becomes lonely again. It is obvious that her imaginary world totally collapsed， and the reason for the breaking of the dream is that she chooses a wrong place as her refugee， and she is quite different from the people in this real world. The contradiction between Blanche and Stanley is the contradiction between the imagination and the reality， and the result is that the imagination loses to the reality. However， the reason of the failure is complex which involves the contradiction of men and women， conventional southern agricultural life and modern industrial life， and imagination and reality.