The methods applied in this thesis are literary research and film studies. As a
matter of course, I analysed the plays on their written basis, which raises the
general question to what extent the perceptions by the audience and the
reader differ. ‘The readers of a play must use their imagination to flesh out the
characters, and to place them in an appropriate setting’ (Sambrook, 6).
Williams gives very precise and evocative stage directions, which help the
reader to imagine the situations in many details. Meaning is often conveyed
by poetic images. By employing figurative language he tries to ‘paint a word
picture or convey in words the quality of a sound’ (Sambrook, 48). The critic
also notes that in Streetcar, these stage directions contrast and ‘serve to
underline the uneducated speech’ (Sambrook, 14) of most characters, except
for the DuBois sisters. The audience of a play or film, on the other hand,
cannot perceive these aspects; rather, the spectators are confronted with a
particular setting and with concrete actors and actresses. ...
“For Williams, Time is the enemy: things go; things fade; things end. And yet, in
the face of these certainties, there emerges a sense of nobility in his characters.”
Discuss A Streetcar Named Desire and Sweet Bird of Youth in the light of this
statement.
Youth is short lived and fleeting. People who have lost their youth tend to envy
the young, whilst the young tend to abuse and waste their youth, scoffing at the
old. Usually however, those who treasure youth above all other attributes are
those who have once felt the desirable benefits that both great beauty and youth
combined can potentially bring to a person’s life. In some cases,(though certainly
not all), this leads to a downward spiral in which illusion and reality become
almost interchangeable as the quest to rediscover and reclaim what once was but
can never again be , spasms out of control. This is a struggle which we all face
eventually, if in varying degrees, but it almost always transpires that our strength
of character is heightened from the experiences. Tennessee William’s plays “A
Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” illustrate these themes
through several expertly implemented literary techniques such as, narrative
voice, characterisation, symbolism, setting and stage direction – to name a few.
No matter the trauma he puts his characters through, they all emerge having
acquired new perspectives on the world around them. It is perhaps this ability to
learn from their own misfortune that creates the sense of nobility that surrounds
William’s characters and makes them almost inexplicitly admirable.
It is immediately obvious upon reading either play that William’s has constructed
a personal narrative voice which acts as a tool to enhance his chosen themes to
the reader. In both plays the initial description of the setting in the stage
directions has a first person narrative. This first person narrative sits in the
background of the play, occasionally creeping up and throwing the reader right
into the scene and creating a greater sense of involvement.
As well as the occasional first person Narrative to draw the readers involvement,
each character also has their own unique Narrative voice shown continuously
through their dialogue and stage directions. When describing a character such as
Stanley the stage directions carry a Narrative voice distinctive to this character;
portraying the very essence of him and delving the reader further into the plays
atmosphere. This technique can be seen for William’s characters throughout both
plays. He also uses Narrative voice , as a whole, in each play to manipulate the
readers perspective of his characters and plot in order to help the reader relate to
each character and experience sympathy or animosity for the individual’s story.
Many of Tennessee William’s characters in each play share qualities that link
them through their experiences or demeanour and in which the audiance is able
to see their conflicting realities. Two such characters are Stella and Heavenly;
both characters, from similar – old southern - backgrounds, sustain a bridge
between reality and a fabricated world. In ‘A streetcar Named Desire’ the
character of Stella is constantly in the dynamic flow between Stanley – her
passion – and Blanche – her past – in which she is portrayed as confused and
unsure of herself. Williams portrays the character of Heavenly from ‘Sweet Bird of
Youth’ in a similar way; she is steeped in the fabricated world of the rich and yet
craves to live what is real.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams’ character of Blanche is perhaps
the epitome of someone who is suffering at the hands of time. In the play
Williams writes that Blanche finds herself washed up and out of place in New
Orleans, so far from the Deep South and everything it stood for that she has
always known, and struggling to hold on to the youth she so treasures above all
else. For Blanche, the loss of her youth means losing the opportunity to make
something of herself and that her dreams of a fairy-tale romance are slipping
away. In the first description that the reader gets of Blanche Williams writes “her
delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”. The use of the word ‘delicate’ here
suggests that a beauty which was once strong is now weaker, more frail, and
perhaps should be carefully looked after. The ’strong light’ is something which is
referred to throughout the play, as Williams writes Blanche continually hiding
herself in the shadows to avoid others seeing through her facade and discovering
that she is not as youthful as she once was. Throughout the play the character of
Blanche tries to build up that facade to protect the faded beauty inside and panics
when it is under threat. In scene three Williams writes “I don’t know how much
longer I can turn the trick .. I’m fading now!” Blanche hides away behind
seemingly fancy clothes and pretty old-fashioned mannerisms, harking back to
the time when she was in her element and had everything in the palm of her
hand.
Similarly, in his play Sweet Bird Of Youth Williams has created another character
mourning for the loss of their youth. Chance Wayne is a faded Hollywood
wannabe, whose only chance at stardom was with his now faded looks. In the
same way that Williams’ character of Blanche hides behind a facade of
fancy clothes and mannerisms, Williams’ character of Chance blackmails his way
into a borrowed Cadillac and money to pretend to everyone in his home-town of
St Cloud that he has now made it; when in reality he’s been wasting his life and
has sunk to the new low of latching on to the paranoid movie star Alexandra Del
Lago. Chance swings into town and tries to tell everyone that he is back this time
on a high, that he’s finally had some good fortune, but just like Blanche it’s all a
facade, and time, the enemy, is winning.
The characters of Blanche and Chance are both clinging to their fading youth, but
although Blanche does all that she can to retain her youthful beauty, Williams
portrays Chance as having a much more realistic mindset to the inevitable
process of ageing. Williams’ notion of time being the enemy contributes to the
demise of Blanche but in the case of Chance, although he does also see time as
the enemy, “I understand. Time does it. Hardens people…”, it is contrasted
against the character of Blanche as he uses it to continue his determination to
succeed in his dream of an acting career before it is too late for him, “In a life like
mine, you can’t just stop, you know, can’t take time out between steps…”.
“I felt worse than embarrassed when I found out that Dr George Scudder’s knife
had cut the youth out of my body, made me an old childless woman. Dry, cold,
empty like an old woman…” Williams’ theme of loss of youth is continued in
Sweet Bird of Youth through his other characters, Heavenly being a prime
example. She has literally had her youth snatched away from her which was
ironically caused by Chance’s need to hold onto his own youth by any means
possible. Motherhood is strongly associated with youth, with no chance of ever
having children Heavenly succumbs to the realisation that youth is something she
no longer possesses.
Williams’ continues to effectively convey his loss of youth theme through the
character of Alexandra De Lego in Sweet Bird of Youth. Similarly to Blanche in A
Streetcar Named Desire, she hides away, and even runs away for the enemy of
time and the inevitable loss of youth. Embarrassed by her latest work and
ashamed of her life as an ageing starlet she becomes dependant on drugs and
alcohol and uses them as an escape in a similar way to Blanches escape from
reality by her dependency on alcohol. Also both the characters of Blanche and
Alexandra De Lego use their sexual relationships with men much younger than
themselves as another way to escape from the reality of ageing and to hold onto
their fading youth.
Symbolism is an integral cog to the function of Williams’ work. It is intrinsic to
both “Sweet Bird of Youth” and “A Street Car Named Desire”. Williams also
imbues certain characters with a sense of nobility. For example, “I don’t ask for
your pity, just for your understanding – not even that – no. Just for your
recognition of me in you, and the enemy, time, in us all.” This is the end of the
play, when the character of Chance turns his back on the character of Alexandra
del lago. This is symbolic because her character represents “the cult of
Hollywood” and in the action of turning his back, the character of Chance
renounces this cult for what it is; a sham. A display of nobility is demonstrated
via this epiphany, that as humans, we are all united, insofar as, we will all
succumb to ageing, whether we are Hollywood actresses or gigolos, we are all
equals in this respect. The character Chance’s acceptance of this shows his
nobility, and is emphasised by the fact that the character Alexandra del Lago
does not. Alexandra is shown to allow her will to be shattered by a transistory
return to the spotlight and gives her life to the façade. While Chance stoically
swallows reality.
Not only are the character’s actions symbolic in conveying William’s themes, but
the use of inanimate objects are used effectively to emphasise the protagonist’s
upkeep of ‘the facade.’ William’s uses clothes to indicate the presence of the
facade especially in the character of Blanche in Streetcar. Always found wearing
faux-furs and rhinestones, Blanche persists that she is still in fact the southern
belle that she is initially perceived as, despite the fact Stanley Kowalski is
convinced of her youth. However, the audience are enabled to view this
demonstration of ‘youth’ as a mere front.
Not only are clothes used to show the facade but in addition Blanche’s accessories
coexist in the theme of madness. We find Blanche near the end of the piece in a
tiara whilst giving a romantic conception of Shep Huntleigh. William’s has created
this obvious lie on Blanche’s behalf in order to prove to his audience that she is in
fact going insane.
However, the object that holds the most prominent symbol towards maintaining
the facade for Blanche is that of the lampshade. This character doesn’t want her
true age to become known to the rest of the cast and therefore avoids light to the
best of her ability. In getting Mitch to cover the light with the lampshade
symbolises what her real intentions are for him – keeping up the facade of the
coy, young ‘girl.’ On the other hand, Stanley tearing it down symbolically ‘casts
light’ on Blanche and reveals the facade she struggles to hide behind throughout
the play.
Williams makes extensive use of setting in order to convey a number of points
and emphasise the character’s nobility. In his play “A Streetcar Named Desire”
the setting is of great importance as it has a strong influence over the characters.
Williams places the character of Blanche in the more modern society of the New
Orleans and clearly displays her character’s struggle in the attempt to keep hold
of the traditional ways of the “Old South”. There are a number of times
throughout the play when Williams demonstrates Blanche’s unfamiliarity with the
new society, particularly when her character comes in contact with the character
of Stanley. As the two clearly contrast with one another, Williams is able to
represent the clash of the “Old South” with the new. At these times Blanche is
described to soak herself in perfume and dress in clothing that depicts the “Old
South”; anything to maintain the facade that which she hides behind. With this,
Williams shows that the character of Blanche possesses a certain nobility despite
her failure in attempting to keep up an appearance, as her character continues to
do so whilst clearly out of place in society.
Williams also uses setting to an extent in the play “Sweet Bird of Youth” to
convey the character of Chance’s loss of innocence and nobility in returning to St.
Cloud, despite his past. Williams uses the town St. Cloud to represent the facade
for the corruption of the townsfolk which on the surface is merely beautiful and
pure. He then isolates Chance in this society. Although his character is also
influenced by the facade of the town, many of the powerful figures of St. Cloud
reject him and prevent him from obtaining his greatest desires. Despite this, his
character remains strong in the attempt to reunite with the character of
Heavenly, his only true love. In doing so, Williams depicts his character’s nobility,
as although Chance is placed in a setting that is corrupt at the core, he is shown
to continue fighting for what he wants.
Tenessee Williams’ usage of stage directions to convey the theme of time being
the enemy, is very clearly shown throughout ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and
‘Sweet Bird Of Youth’.
In my opinion the best use of stage direction in ‘Sweet Bird Of Youth’ is ‘[He
turns her forcibly to the mirror]‘ Tenessee does this to show and emphasise the
fact that his character The Princess Kosmonopolis, is a fading beauty. Williams
makes his character face up to the cruel reality of time and how the character is
no longer youthful and in her prime, she is now a no one because she no longer
has her youth to rely on. Time has eaten away at her good looks and left her old
and tired out but by no means unattractive. In her line of work you must be
young and time is therefore the enemy because it snatches away the one thing
needed to succeed, so it must be combatted at all times.
Very similarly in ‘A Streecar Named Desire’ the character of Blanche also has to
fight back time as her enemy. She is a Southern Belle who has relied on her good
looks and charm to get her through her life. Looks to her are everything and
without them she has nothing to offer in life. To combat the fading youth the
character of Blanche, constantly stays hidden from strong lights, covering them
up wherever she goes as shown through Williams stage directions. One of
Williams most effective usages of Stage Directions to convey Blanches fear of
time is; ‘[He turns the light on and stares at her. She cries out and covers her
face.]‘ Williams does this in order to show her fear but also to show that time has
conquered over the character Blanche, and that she is now being exposed for
what she really is. Nothing. Because she is nothing without her facade and her
looks. She is cowereing away from the light which is symbolic of Time exposing
her wasted beauty. She has become a withered rose, time has sapped her of all
youthfulness and a lot of her vitality and this is effectively conveyed through
Williams use of stage directions.
Williams’ use of stage directions are very important at the beginning of both plays
with in-depth detail of the façade that Blanche represents in “Streetcar Named
Desire” and hints of slipping youth and beauty in “Sweet Bird of Youth”. Williams
creates a feeling that either the Princess and Blanche cannot be touched by harsh
light or their demise will be unveiled.
“The sleeping woman’s face is partly covered…to protect her from morning glare”,
similarly Williams, when describing Blanch, writes, “Her delicate beauty must
avoid a strong light”, and it can therefore be seen the beauty, which was
everything to these women, is slipping.
Dialogue is an important technique when analysing Williams’ belief of “time is the
enemy” due to the fact he uses the characters speech to convey his feelings. In
“Sweet Bird of Youth” the princess is a character who realises this and therefore
she is use heavily to convey the “enemy”. “At some point in your life, the thing
that you lived for is lost or abandoned, and then…you die”, although the quote
may be with reference to the Princess’ acting career this is directly linked with her
youth and now that she no longer has that youth she has nothing to live for.
It was once written “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other
name would smell as sweet”. However, in the plays “Sweet Bird of Youth” and “A
Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams this is not the case. The
playwright has put a strong emphasis on the symbolism of names to convey
meaning and create characterisation.
In “Sweet Bird of Youth”, this symbolism can be quite blunt and apparent. With
the character of Chance Wayne, his name reveals his life hitherto: a boy once
brimming with potential and good luck (Chance) has been ravaged by reality and
this good luck is beginning to wane (Wayne). Disillusioned by the lifestyle he has
led – at first a promising actor, later a glorified gigolo – and the detrimental effect
it has on him, he returns to the shining beacon of hope in his misspent youth
Heavenly Finlay. “Heavenly” denotes a purity to this character and, in the eyes of
Chance, is the antithesis to the corruption and filth which has poisoned his youth
– however, there is a cruel irony by Williams here as the connotations of chastity
from “Heavenly” are torn away with the knowledge that Chance gave Heavenly a
venereal disease from the many women he’s slept with, causing her to be
“gutted” from within and removing her ability to bear children. This knowledge of
this barren, hollow women contradicts the positive attributes of “Heavenly” and
mirrors Chance’s ignorance of the damage he has done to her.
From this, is it arguable that Chance’s actions are noble. Despite numerous
warnings and threats throughout, he still pursues Heavenly with the hope he can
recapture the purity and joy she brought him in his youth. He also attempts to
create a secure future for the two of them by trying to manipulate Princess,
however there are strong reasons why he is not a noble character. His pursuit of
Heavenly is mostly for himself: he is trying to claw back some of the youth and
beauty which used to define him, as well as his past actions as a male prostitute
for older women. He sold himself for money for no-one’s gain but his own. He is
often a very narcissistic character, fixated with himself and how he looks.
Additionally the town name of St Cloud gives hints to the makeup of the town. A
cloud, from a distance on the surface looks graceful and beautiful. However, what
is a cloud made of? Water vapour: it’s vacuous, empty, lifeless. This is a
metaphor for the town itself, it appears to epitomise the gracious lifestyle of the
Southern states of America but behind the veneer it is rotten with corruption.
Williams illustrates this with the behaviour of Boss Finley; he comes across as
friendly, earnest politician on his televised speech however he has laundered
large amounts of money from the oil fund as well as injuring the his mistress in
vengeance for her loose tongue.
In “Streetcar Named Desire” the naming is somewhat more subtle. Stanley
Kowalski is the primary male character, a working class man who is steeped in
reality. “Stanley” means stony meadow in Old English, reflecting his no-nonsense
approach to life, and “Kowalski” is a Polish surname equivalent to “Smith” in
English: a very common last name showing Stanley is just as ‘common‘. It also
shows the audience his practical, hard working background and his decadency
from Polish immigrants. This is important in the play as Stanley represents the
‘New South’: the fresh face of post-war America brushing away the pretence of
grace and manners of the ‘Old South’, represented by Blanche DuBois or “White
Woods” in French. The symbolic meaning of “Blanche” is to create an impression
of a white, almost virginal, innocent Southern Belle. However, this is how Blanche
is presented initially. The audience soon learn however that there is more to her
than this first image; there’s more than just the first line of trees in a forest. As
you look in deeper, there is a darker side to Blanche hidden beneath the surface,
the façade she tries to create.
The tendency of Stanley to unearth the brutal truth could be considered a noble
act: he tries to convince Stella of the true nature of Blanche so Stella isn’t fooled
by her but Stanley’s final action to rid Blanche’s façade is grave and despicable.
By raping her, he as a character loses any nobility he had for his cause as it is
revealed he has done it for self-gain — similar to Chance, he acted out of selfsatisfaction.
Although the plays, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” are set
in – on the surface – very different circumstances, they are laced with a multitude
of parallel themes.
Symbolism is used strongly in Williams’ plays to crucially create a depth of
character and meaning throughout. Clothes, for example, serve as an
unavoidable mechanism in illustrating the significance of Williams’ characters,
how he uses them to explicitly illustrate their true feelings and natures.
In “A Sweetbird of Youth”, written prior to “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the plays
main protagonist, Chance Wayne, is described as having “a body born to wear
suits”. The implication by the playwright suggests his character is the epitome of
youth and stereotypical beauty, a man who exudes a sexual air. This is
intrinsically linked to the main characters central obsession; the importance of
youth and the physical world. In comparison to the sophisticated sexuality of
Chance, in “A Streetcar named Desire”, the main male character Stanley Kowalski
oozes ashamedly the scent of pure sexual domination. His “red-silk pyjamas” are
used as a warning symbol whenever there is a hint of sexual tension in the
scenes and act as a beacon of brash sexual feeling. Throughout each play
Williams’ use of clothes gives us an invaluable insight into the nature and motives
of each of his male characters, Chance and Stanley respectively, and aids us –
the reader- in understanding the central themes of the two works. In Sweet Bird
of Youth the emphasis of the play is on the false cult of physical beauty and how
looks are ultimately inconsequential in the real world. In Streetcar, it is shown
that the sexual beast in Stanley and his unashamed, unabashed openness is what
the then current social climate is leaning towards and that although it is not
something we like to acknowledge – as Stanley in the end brutally rapes the
female main female character – it is an attitude which is the new face of the then
New South.
A final technique employed by Tennessee Williams when displaying that time is
the ultimate enemy to us all is dialogue. Throughout both “A Streetcar Named
Desire” and “Sweet Bird of Youth” Williams manipulates dialogue between his
characters to convey his necessary themes and create the drama of his plays. To
begin with, in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Williams constantly uses the dialogue
of Blanche to portray to the audience that her character is one with a façade and
is desperately clinging to that façade as a sense of security. For example, when
Stella is shown lighting candles for Blanche’s birthday, Williams shows her to
protest, not wanting Stella to illuminate her true age – “Oh, those pretty, pretty
little candles! Oh, don’t burn them Stella.” In addition to this, when Williams
portrays Blanche with Mitch whilst she is staring at the stars, she is depicted very
strongly as the gracious, Southern school mistress as she is pretending to be
knowledgeable and interested in astronomy when she is only really displaying the
façade for Mitch. However on the other hand, Williams uses Blanche’s dialogue to
symbolise the death of the Old South when she is discussing staying at Belle Reve
and watching the Old Southern families die out with no money to help her
survive, the brutal reality of her situation – “Death is expensive, Miss Stella! And
old Cousin Jessie’s, right after Margaret’s, hers! Why the Grim Reaper had put up
his tent on our doorstep…which of them left us a fortune? Which of them left a
cent of insurance even?”
Despite depicted as the old gracious Southern lady, Williams does present
Blanche in a different sense, where she temporarily lets the façade of the Old
South die and embraces reality, becoming the brazen whore and lusting after
younger men. This is shown through the dialogue between Blanche and the
character of the young collector when she flagrantly flirts with the young collector
to remind her of the happier times she had with Alan Gray – “Come on over here
like I told you! I want to kiss you – just once – softly and sweetly on your
mouth.” However, the character of Blanche truly believes that her life as a
prostitute was a necessity and therefore was in no way wrong, revealing Williams
theme of illusion versus reality – “-make a little – temporary magic just in order
to pay for – one night’s shelter!” Ultimately, after Blanche is brutally raped by
Stanley, she becomes emotionally devastated and descends into madness,
another key theme of Williams. He conveys the symbolic death of the façade
within the household through Stanley’s ripping down the lampshade, Blanche’s
protection from light and her ultimate exposure – “-unless it’s the paper lantern
you want to take with you. You want the lantern?” By doing this, although he is a
thoroughly loathsome character, Williams depicts a warped sense of nobility
through Stanley’s action as he is symbolically bringing an end to the façade within
New Orleans but is giving Blanche her protection so she is able to take her façade
with her.
Williams extensively uses dialogue in “Sweet Bird of Youth” to convey his chosen
themes and convey the symbolic enemy of time. In the case of Princess, she, like
Blanche, uses younger men to try and recapture her youth that time has taken
from her. Williams uses the character of Chance Wayne as the current source of
Princess’ needs and wants as it is he that makes her feel young again – “Now get
a little sweet music on the radio and come here to me and make me almost
believe that we are a pair of young lovers without any shame.” This conveys the
ravages of time upon both Princess and Chance, as she must indulge in young
men to rekindle her youth and he has been reduced to a gigolo in a vain attempt
to make it into Hollywood. However, the character of Chance realises his fate in
due course and accepts that time is indeed against him and there is no hope of
his achieving his dreams – “I don’t ask for you pity, but just for your
understanding – not even that – no. Just for your recognition of me in you, and
the enemy, time, in us all.” In a sense, this displays nobility in the character of
Chance as he has accepted his destiny and will stop trying to bring back his
youth.
Williams also uses dialogue in the character of Boss Finley to convey the façade
of the town of St Cloud. When in public and around other people, Williams
portrays Boss as a kindly Southern gentleman who is perfectly respectable – “Go
on, smile for the birdie! Ain’t she Heavenly, ain’t that the right name for her!”
However, behind closed doors, he is shown as a truly corrupt character, only
maintaining the façade to further his reputation within the town, even using his
own daughter to his advantage – “And you’re gonna wear a proud happy smile on
your face, you’re gonna stare straight out at the crowd in the ballroom with pride
and joy in your eyes. Lookin’ at you, all in white like a virgin, nobody would dare
to speak or believe the ugly stories about you. I’m relying a great deal on this
campaign to bring in young voters for the crusade I’m leading”.
Overall, throughout the plays “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Sweet Bird of
Youth” Tennessee Williams, to great effect, manipulates various literary
techniques – narrative voice, setting, stage direction, symbolism and dialogue –
in order to convey his chosen themes. Furthermore, Williams can also portray
time as being the enemy and how everything has its time and everything must
die.