Author(s): Pankhuri Singh

Abstract: T. S. Eliot in his most acclaimed work ‘The Hollow Men’ very rightly mentioned that “This is the way the world ends, Not with the bang but with the whimper” , the slow and gradual crumbling of the universe is what the characters covered within the ambit of this paper experiences. The two characters i.e Tomas from Milan Kundera’s chef d’ oeuvre, ‘The Unbearable lightness of being’ and Blanche Du Bois from Tennessee Williams masterpiece ‘A streetcar named Desire’ have one thing in common that both of them were challenging the existing normative behavioral pattern and was trying to make things seem content in the disillusioned universe. Both Tomas and Blanche can be seen as portraying the image of the disillusioned modern men/women lost in the realm of something in between the unstable private or personal and the hostile Public realms. Amidst the upheavals and turmoil Kundera’s protagonist was searching for the meaning of the ‘self’ and on the other side Blanche was assertive towards her feminine sensibility. This research work will attempt a psychoanalytic study of the progression of the characters and will attempt an analysis that how their assertive ‘self’ suffered a tragic end. This paper will further discuss the ‘Oedipus’ like fate of Tomas arising due to his ill judgments and the development of Masculinity complex in Blanche Du Bois while highlighting the interplay of Animus leading to her tragic fate.

Keywords: Self, Oedipus, Animus, public v/s private, Trauma, modern men/women, existence

Article Info: Received: 11 Jun 2024; Received in revised form:14 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Jul 2024; Available online: 30 Jul, 2024

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.94.20