williams albee.pptVIP

Lecture Twenty-six Modern American Drama (2) Contents Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Arthur Miller (1915-2005) Edward Albee (1928-) Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Thomas Lanier Williams Columbus, Mississippi (1911) St. Louis (1918) Tennessee Williams (1939) Major Works The Glass Menagerie (1945) Three Pulitzer Prize-winning plays A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) ; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955); The Night of Iguana (1961) Plays in 1970s The Red Devil Battery Sign (1976), Vieux Carre (1977)( about loneliness and the need for human connection) Features of Williams’s Plays Thematically 1) Focusing on the plight of those left behind by the bright lights and noise of the modern society. 2) themes of violence, sex, and homosexuality A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche Du Bois ) Stylistically: Romantic Southern Gothic Tradition Female Characterization Women, portrayed often with great sympathy, are at the same time fragile and strong, attractive and repulsive, lonely and vulnerable. The Glass Menagerie Theatrical form: a “memory play”(the narrator summons moments from his memory) Characters: the Wingfields (Amada, Tom, Laura) and Jim O’Connor Characterization Amada: 1) An escapist into time 2) A loving and caring mother Tom: An escapist into space a young man torn between responsibility for his crippled sister and a free life as a writer responsible to only himself Laura: An escapist withdrawing into her own imagined world. Jim O’Connor: the embodiment of reality Themes Illusion and reality With the shattering of illusion, people have to come to terms with ruthless reality with courage and confidence 2) Escapism and participation Escapism is not the answer to the problems Arthur Miller (1915-2005) NY (1915) University of Michigan (1934) No Villain (1936) Marilyn Monroe (1956) Heart failure (Feb. 10, 2005) Major Works The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944); All My Sons (1947); Death of a Salesman (1947); The Crucible (1953); A View from the Bridge(1955); Af