Externalization Of Characters' Psyche In Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie And A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams is one of the greatest American playwrights. He is known for his powerfully written psychological dramas and is recognized as an innovator of the post-World War II new American drama.The thesis aims to conduct a detailed study of the techniques Williams uses to externalize the characters' psyche in his most outstanding plays ?The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Several elements have been studied including the characters' language, the characters' actions, and some subsidiary theatrical devices.Williams reveals the psyche of the characters chiefly through their language. Through the analysis of the characters' monologues and dialogues, a better picture of the characters' psyche is obtained. Williams makes his characters express their heart directly or reveal it by lying, recalling, or imagining. The characters' language serves as the window to their psyche.Williams also uses actions of the characters to explore their psyche. The detailed stage directions describe the characters' movements, gestures, and their facial expressions, all of which are effective methods to reveal the psyche of his characters. Like the telling dances in the ballet, these actions expose the delicate human psyche to the audience and inspire the creative imaginations of the readers.Williams's application of subsidiary theatrical devices is also an effective way to externalize the characters' psyche. Williams is such a careful expressionist playwright that he employs external images to reflect the inner world of characters,and brings into the theater a variety of nontraditional theatrical approaches, such as impressionistic stage settings, lightening, sounding, and costuming, etc. He also resorts to symbolism in his dramas to create characters. All these elements add life to his characters.A conclusion can be drawn in the light of the above statements that through the skillful revelation of his characters' psyche, Tennessee Williams provide us with a profound human psychological world, which greatly contributes to his real classics - The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.