Males In Morbid States-On Male Images In Tennessee Williams' Three Plays

The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof remain Tennessee Williams'great and major contributions to American dramas and literature. Williams'strength lies in his portraying women characters and his female characters, therefore, become the focus of the most critics; however, the study of his male characters does not attract enough attention it deserves. In these three plays, Tennessee Williams also creates many attractive male characters. They violate the patriarchal norms and are considered to be morbid. This thesis takes the perspectives of men's studies and analyzes the morbid male images with their traps in these three plays in order to prove that many men who are usually considered to be the beneficiaries in patriarchy are only the victims rather than reapers.This thesis includes an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. The introduction offers the literature review of the study on Tennessee Williams and the theory adopted:Men's studies.Chapter one puts emphasis on the study of the morbid males in The Glass Menagerie in order to prove that too much pressures and burdens make these morbid males only the victims of patriarchy rather than reapers. Under patriarchy, men are required to bear the variety of responsibilities and obligations to become the breadwinner of the family and even a big wheel of the society. Men are told and educated to be the one who supports a family, marries a wife, gives birth to children and brings them up, which becomes natural things for many in patriarchy. However, in order to satisfy this requirement, men have to bear more pressures and burdens than women. Escaping from family is a way to show struggle against their unbearable weight.Chapter two focuses on the study of the morbid males in A Streetcar Named Desire to show that the violent men and Mama's boys are also the victims in patriarchy. Men are educated to be the king of his own kingdom and even of the whole world. Power and violence become the necessary instruments to get and control their kingdoms. Once somebody offends or threatens his control of kingdom, he will become aggressive and spare no effort to attack and win it back. At this point, they are only educated or trained to be the executioner of patriarchal norm. Men with Oedipal complex fail in cutting from wombs. Because of their intimacy with mothers and failure in following their fathers'footsteps to gain manhood, the men with Oedipal complex don't succeed in satisfying the requirement of masculinities by patriarchy and thus suffer from the immaturities of themselves psychologically and sneers of others physically. They are only victims in it.Chapter three explores the morbid gay men with their traps in order to present that gays are far from the reapers but victims of patriarchy. Since homosexuality is unable to satisfy the function of continuing the patriarchal line as heterosexuality, it can not be accepted by patriarchy and therefore is marginalized by the masses who are educated by a patriarchal ideology. Gays, therefore, encounter many troubles in the process of finding and accepting their gender identity. Struggling in marginalization, gays could not be the beneficiaries of patriarchy but victims of it.In conclusion, patriarchy which is seemingly built for the benefits of men, as a matter of fact, makes many males victims in a world ruled by its ideologies and norms. Williams'description of morbid males in his three major plays presents the readers with a good view of men's troubles in patriarchy and reveals the destructiveness on men by patriarchy. From his works, readers are successful in distinguishing that patriarchy with its ideology and norm has trapped many men and they are also the victims in it.