On Tennessee Williams' Vision Of Females And Its Reflections In His Works

Playwright, poet, and fiction writer, Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) left a powerful mark on American theatre. At their best, his twenty-five full-length plays combined lyrical intensity, haunting loneliness, and hypnotic violence. He is widely considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American drama.In his controversial and poetic plays he depicted turbulent emotional and sexual forces, physical and spiritual needs, and through his attempts he achieved universal themes. His plays are full of outcasts of life. Nearly all of the main characters are outcasts. Among those outcasts, his female characters are the most memorable of all and they stand out from the plays like lighthouse in stormy weather. He created such unforgettable female characters as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. Not adapting to the reality, these females experience severe disillusionment. When we probe into the possible causes for their disillusionments, their gender awareness and its consequent sexuality are the first to be examined.Due to the thematic and psychological complexity and the profound indeterminacy of his works, Tennessee Williams' plays are capable of being examined in different perspectives with the application of different critical approaches. Yet a thorough study of his vision of females from the gender perspective is not available. Although an individual's biological sex in itself may have little relevance in a work of art, gender---a person's socialization or experience as male or female---may determine his or her responses and choices.The thesis is divided into six parts.The first part introduces Tennessee Williams as a prominent playwright in American literary history and his enduring achievements in literary creation for his characterization of the disillusioned females. This part is used to reveal Williams' creative drive as a therapy as well as the influence of his family on his two major works in which female characters reign.Part two sets up the basic framework of gender study in illustrating Williams'...