Hope and despair: visual arts in the drama of Tennessee Williams

Abstract

The following investigation will focus on three of Tennessee Williams' later plays: The Red Devil Battery Sign, Vieux Carre, and The Two-Character Play. By drawing parallels between these three samples of his later work and various movements in the visual arts, I hope to draw attention to them as viable works of study. As Williams grew older, he became more cynical and his plays reflect that shift. Despair is a pervading feeling in these pieces-a reflection, for example, of the Expressionist movement. I focus on how Williams' late works relate primarily to Expressionism, but will touch on the Symbolist movement (in a discussion of a furthering of Expressionist technique in the symbolization his characters' physical ailments), and the Surrealism of Rene Magritte. I also study reviews of the actual productions of the plays as a possible cause of their subsequent inattention.