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 faceof these certainties, there emerges a sense of nobility in his characters.”
DiscussA Streetcar Named DesireandSweet Bird of Youthin 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”illustratethese 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 describinga charactersuch 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 usesNarrative 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 theindividual’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 afabricated 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.
InA 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 throughher 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 playSweet Bird Of YouthWilliams 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 fancyclothes 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 justlike 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 thathis character ThePrincess Kosmonopolis, is a fading beauty. Williams makes his character face up to the cruelreality of time and howthe character is no longer youthful and inher 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 combattedat all times.
Very similarly in ‘A Streecar Named Desire’ the character of Blanche alsohas to fight back time asher enemy. She is a Southern Belle who has relied on her good looks and charm to get herthrough her life. Looks to her are everything and without them she has nothing to offer in life. To combat the fading youththe character of Blanche,constantly stays hiddenfrom strong lights, covering them up wherever she goes as shown throughWilliams stage directions. One of Williams most effective usages of Stage Directions toconvey Blanches fearof time is; ‘[He turns the light on and stares ather. 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.