Tennessee Williams's World of Southern Descendants. On the Depiction of Women in his Plays

Research Paper (postgraduate) , 2018 , 45 Pages , Grade: 5.0

American Studies - Literature

These work is concerned with the depiction of women in Tennessee Williams´s plays.

Victims or manipulative creatures? Shy and innocent or seductive and well aware of their potential? What is the picture of Tennessee Williams’s women? The author has chosen two plays – The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to help with analysis of this question.

Indeed, a pure rhetorical analysis of his work that does not take into consideration the biographical aspects of Williams's characters and therefore cannot demonstrate the fullness of those characters, it also can it expect to accurately determine the message that the playwright sends us through those characters . What is also typical for Williams’s heroines is that they are not able to deal with their past, the problems of their history is growing stronger and is rooted in their everyday life. Consequently, those women of various age are stuck with the life in a state of current crisis. The hopelessness and the mediocrity of the characters in Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is caused by a serious breach between the characters’ feelings and their ability to verbalize the emotions.

The women that parade in a pages of this thesis – Laura, Amanda, Maggie and even Big Mamma and Mae are lacking in almost physical, tangible way something very important – freedom of emotions. Modern woman – an icon which presents self-made woman, are well aware of her targets, beautiful, treating her body as a medium to promote herself. Not so much changed in comparison with Tennessee Williams females. Tennessee Williams women are so strikingly up-to-date with a modern woman. They are left prostrate in their womanhood, unsatisfied needs and desires. They keep on going despite their failures; they have their goals to achieve and ways to do so.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Descendant of the Southern Genteel

Chapter Two: The Dreams of the Unicorn
2.1 The World Around the Women of The Glass Menagerie
2.2 The Women in the World of “The Glass Menagerie”
2.3 The Men around the Women of “The Glass Menagerie”
2.4 Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie

Chapter Three: Kitty in the Bottle – Maggie’s Battle with Brick
3.1 “Maggie the cat is alive. I'm alive.”
3.2 “Have you ever heard the word ‘mendacity’?”
3.3 Fairies on Plantation or the Themes in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
3.4 Cat, Bed and Fatherly Love – the Symbolism of Language

Conclusion

Bibliography

• College: Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce
• Grade: 5.0
• Author: Marta Zapała-Kraj (Author)
• Publication Year: 2018
• Pages: 45
• Catalog Number: V470987
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668952935
• ISBN (Book): 9783668952942
• Language: English
• Tags: Tennessee William, women, play, symbolism, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof