Comment On Southern Gentlewomen In Tennessee Williams' Works

Tennessee Williams, one of the best playwrights in American drama, is a very prolific writer. In most of his works, he shows great concern about women, especially Southern gentlewomen. He associates with the South when he creates these belles. In fact, the South is a unique land which is totally different from other parts of America. As Southern gentlewomen are greatly affected by the Southern culture and tradition, they form special characters.Meanwhile, Williams' relationship with the South is both personal and cultural. Based on his own understanding of the Southern culture and myth, he perfectly gives the reader vivid pictures of the Southern belles. All these characters are sensitive, delicate, and anguish women who are the typical to represent the culture and gentility of the South. Thus, from this perspective, the thesis will analyze the characteristics of Southern gentlewomen.Chapter One explores a vivid image of strong-willed mother. Amanda Wingfield of The Glass menagerie is the typical example of this sort. Amanda is a Southern descendant, who is lost in modern life. She wonders between illusion and reality; but, she is not always complaining all the time. She also maintains her awareness of the reality under the pleasant disguise of illusion and shows her fighting spirit of a homecare taker, which is much more significant for the reader to understand.Chapter Two shows the fragile female figure—Laura of The Glass Menagerie. Laura is crippled, introverted, and fragile. She is the embodiment of Williams' sister—Rose. There are many factors, such as her own reason as well as reasons from the society and her family, caused her become this kind of girl. The reader is supposed to show much more sympathy to this character.Chapter Three discusses virgin image of the Southern gentlewomen. Alma Winemiller of Summer and Smoke and Hannah Jelkes of The Nigh of the Iguana are the perfect examples in this category. These belles share the unique character of "virgin complex". In this part, the thesis focuses on how "virgin complex" comes into being and how this complex influences their lives.Chapter Four discusses the image of social outcast. Blanche DuBois of A Streetcar Named Desire is the best example. In this part, three stages of Blanche's life are dissected. In stage one, she loses the family plantation, her family members as well as her beloved homosexual husband. Plus, her ancestors' "epic fornications" determine her fate. In stage two, she is as a seducer to many strangers. Stanley's rape of Blanche is focused on here. In stage three, as a misfit, Blanche can not escape her fate in struggling against the conventional morality. Thus, she is doomed to become a social outcast.Chapter Five explores the causes for Southern gentlewomen becoming social victims. The inevitable fate of Williams' women characters are closely related with the patriarchal society. Regardless of their different experiences, three reasons may account for their frustration: first, the patriarchal tradition serves as a trap on their journey of quest for the liberation; second, they fail to break the familial entrapment; thirdly, a variety of escape-mechanism and their bom dependence result in the fruitless effort in their search for the meaning of life.After the economic system of Southern plantation collapsed, these belles are suddenly thrown into the modern society which they are not accustomed to. As a matter of fact, they are deeply uprooted in the past. They are conflicting between illusion and reality. But they attempt to search for love and sympathy. However, each of them is doomed to be a failure.More than twenty years after Tennessee Williams' death, he is still considered to be one of the best writers in American literature as well as world's literature. The Southern gentlewomen, created by Tennessee Williams, who are varied and impressed, will be etched on everyone's mind forever.