Amanda And Blanche: Victims Of Cultural Clashes

Tennessee Williams is generally known as the most important playwright American South has ever produced. He is famous for his characterization of heroines with a background of traditional southern belle education. Such heroines as Amanda and Blanche sense that their southern culture of traditions is of some value but somehow cannot be recognized by a new world, the modern industrial world. Incapable of integrating themselves into the contemporary world that is too hostile and ugly, Williams' southern heroines, consciously or not, turn to their culture for protection and comfort. Thus they all enjoy, to various degrees, an illusionary world since their culture has been fast fading away.The Glass Menagerie is Williams' first big commercial success in which a character of his own style, Amanda, is created. There are some Amandas to come, among whom the most distinguishable one is Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. The author of this thesis intends to explore how Amanda and Blanche are victimized by the culture clashes they undergo on the basis of close textual reading of the two plays. At the same time, attention is given to Williams' family and his personal experiences since he claimed that he was a very personal writer. Also, a comparison study of the two cultures, the traditional southern culture and the modern industrial culture, is made while emphasis is put on the study of the former culture.This thesis falls into four chapters.The introduction briefly introduces Tennessee Williams and his plays that are studied in the thesis. Then the research questions will be brought about: How does...