Tennessee Williams's Romantic Style In His Three Major Plays

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is one of the most prolific, versatile American playwrights after Eugene O'Neill, also the most disputed figure in the literary circle that has drawn considerable attention and criticism. His three most critically acclaimed plays, The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) are widely studied from many perspectives, which map the contours of Williams's literary achievements in great detail. However, among these researches, the author finds that as to Williams's writing style, based merely on the text analysis of his plays, many scholars group Williams into a realist playwright and few of them have touched upon the romantic style in his plays. As drama is a kind of comprehensive art, which includes the script and the stage performance, we should not separate one from the other when we do research on drama. Taking all these elements into consideration, this thesis finds that Williams's writing style belongs to the domain of Romanticism. The thesis consists of five parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to the playwright and his above three plays with a brief literature review. The second part discusses the definitions and characteristics of both Realism and Romanticism. With the comparative study of the differences between Realism and Romanticism, the author points out that Williams's writing style belongs to the domain of Romanticism, rather than Realism. The third part analyzes the factors behind Williams's romantic style, including both environmental and predecessors' influences on Williams. The fourth part offers a detailed analysis of the romantic style in Williams's three major plays, including Williams's creation of romantic characters and his skillful use of romantic techniques. Based on the above analysis of the factors that affect Williams's romantic style and the reflection of his romantic style in his plays, the thesis in the final part draws a conclusion that Tennessee Williams is a playwright with romantic style. This thesis not only shows the doubt about the mainstream's classification of Williams as a realistic playwright in literary history, but also re-estimates the value of Williams's plays and re-considers his status in literary history. It also offers a new perspective for the further study of Williams in terms of his writing style.