An Elegy For The Lost Eden

Tennessee Williams is regarded as one of the most outstanding figures in the history of American literature. His reputation is mainly built on the plays he finished in the first half of his writing career. Most of his plays are crazily favoured, but are partly understood, and even misinterpreted. This is because of their abundance of violence, imageries with multiple meanings, homosexual and mythological implications. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, firstly staged in 1955, has run for almost 700 performances. It is one of Williams's most famous plays, and one of his most ambiguous and controversial plays. Critics both abroad and home habitually center on such topics as homosexual implications, homophobic issue, Williams's identity as a homosexual who frequently writes gay men, his family and love outlook, features of his language, time, the loneliness of human existence, the outcasts, and the three female characters. However, they rarely touched the elegiac theme of the play. It was not until Roger Boxill that it was noticed. He, in his essay "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", points out that the play is a "dramatic elegy" and Big Daddy is an "elegiac figure". However, it is pity that only no more than two sentences are devoted to the interpretation. After Boxill, the elegiac theme research is suspended. Thus, the existential research work of the play is far insufficient. The present thesis is an attempt to make up the lack. It focuses on the elegiac theme of the play. The term "elegy" is applied, and the theory of mythological and archetypal criticism is adopted, to interpret the play, in a more comprehensive and profound manner.The first part of the thesis makes a brief introduction of Williams and the play. It mainly centers on the existential research works. Following this are detailed explanations of several key terms that are to be applied in the thesis. Finally, the structure of the thesis and its main idea are offered.The second part makes the first chapter of the thesis. Its first half is a general introduction of both Biblical Eden myth, and Miltonic one represented by Paradise Lost. It argues that innocence, constant youth, harmony, glory and love are its characteristics. The remaining part focuses on the play. Brick and Skipper's noble friendship, their identity as glorious football player heroes, and Big Daddy's identity as plantation maker and master, are analyzed. It argues that they are the symbols of innocence, youth, harmony and glory. The elapsed life of the play's protagonists presented through memory is a kind of variation of Eden myth.The third part carries the second chapter further on. After reviewing the original Edenic life, it turns to consider the reasons for its final loss. Sins that led to the destruction of happiness in Eden are explored. Similarly, both Biblical and Miltonic versions of sins are discussed at first. It argues that Satan's intrusion, externally breaks the peace and barred state of Eden. His later temptation of Eve and offering the fruit of Forbidden Tree bring about the mortal death. Internally, Eve's unnatural desire to be wise as God is a taboo in Eden, for it violates the original status and order of the cosmos. Her desire also makes it possible for the success of Satan's temptation. Sins finally drive Eve and Adam out of Eden. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the pattern is recurrent. The protagonists had enjoyed a happy life:Brick owned noble friendship with Skipper; Maggie and Brick were "happy" and "blissful", and they "hit heaven" together with Brick everyday; Big Daddy had the glory of being a big plantation maker and master. Nevertheless, the happiness now only exists in their memory. Their present life is filled with sins and torture. The innocence, the youth, the glory and love are eaten up by sin. The Eden myth is demythicized.The fourth part carries into the life of Biblical and Miltonic protagonists and into that of the protagonists in the play after the loss of Eden. As Bible tells, cruel and violent things as death, greed, murder and all that are evil appeared in the fallen world. People cherish the memory of life in Eden in different ways. They endlessly recall and tell things that have gone. Sometimes, the way is too cruel, even through self-sacrifice or sacrifice of their beloved, attempting to fight against the present and hold onto the past. What Williams tells in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the same. Thus, based on the previous work, it goes into the death of Skipper, the decay of Brick, and the disease of Big Daddy. It argues that the death, decay and disease are the expressions of elegy for the lost Eden.Based on the study, the thesis finally concludes that the play is an elegiac one. Williams, through memory of the protagonists, on the one hand, presents the past happy life that is tinged with the significance of Eden myth. On the other hand, he provides their present grievous life, which ironically shapes a clear contrast with the originally happy one. It dismembers the previous Eden myth. The present worldly life of the protagonists is full of the tortures of death, decay and disease. Skipper's death is a self-sacrifice one, an elegy for the loss of his friendship, football player hero identity, and all that are beautiful and noble he had owned. Brick's self-sacrifice just starts and he is in decay now. He, in alcoholism and detachment, through his decay, denotes his disgust towards the mendacity, and his nostalgia for the lost friendship, the glorious football hero time. Thus, his decay acts as an elegy for the loss of these beautiful things. It is so with Big Daddy. His disease is an expression of the elegy for the glorious plantation maker and master age. It argues that, the three protagonists, through death, decay and disease, sing an elegy for the lost Eden.