Drama, southern Gothic and Tennessee Williams

What is Drama? Genre of literature that focuses on one or more major characters: their successes, failures, challenges and involvement with other characters How is drama separate from fiction and poetry? Text includes: Dialogue Monologue Stage Directions Immediate audience

Tragedy Tragedy: genre displaying conflict between protagonists and superior forces Classical: Always ends with the fall of main character(s), a person or persons typically of noble status plot unfolds based on an inevitable truth usually controlled by a superior presence Oedipus Rex Antigone Modern: Ordinary people in tragic situations Tragedy based largely on character actions and not spiritual forces All the King’s Men A Streetcar Named Desire

Realism and Modern Playwriting Plot contains secrets known to audience, but withheld from characters Revelation of secret is climax. Antagonist is revealed. Protagonist has dignity restored, and receives reward careful attention to exposition, usually the entire first act at minimum Remainder of plot uses contrived entrances, exits, and props to increase suspense

Realism and Modern Playwriting, cont. Expected and logical reversals, often between hero and antagonist Discovery scenes provide antagonist with knowledge that can hurt the protagonist Misunderstanding is known to the audience, but not to the characters. This increases suspense Denouement is believable and logical. Individual acts repeat the general action pattern of the entire play

Southern Gothic An subcategory of the Gothic Revival Movement Relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot The grotesque Popular in the 1700’s Applied to the American South Writers tried to show a more realistic South by breaking Southern stereotypes

Southern Gothic Characters Stock Characters: Content/oblivious slave Chivalrous gentlemen Southern Belle Righteous preacher Replaced by modern and realistic versions of classic Gothic stereotypes Spiteful and reclusive spinster Self-righteous politician White-suited lawyer Morally skewed protagonist

Themes in Southern Gothic Literature Good verses Evil Joy vs. Sorrow Light vs. Darkness Moral/ethical justification Grotesque Imprisonment Literal and Figurative Violence Character differences often provoke violence Racial, cultural, social, class differences Clearly presented Southern setting Old, worn-down buildings Writer uses ‘gloomy’ diction

Tennessee Williams March 26, 1911 - February 25, 1983 Famous Works include: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Night of the Iguana 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Large number of his dramas portray: Struggling/conflicting family Southern Gothic elements

Director Elia Kazan said of Williams: "Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life. He was so naked in his plays.“ Popular critical opinion is that Blanche is primarily a representation of Williams himself he often claimed that he always had, in fact, depended on the kindness of strangers Williams and Blanche were both quite sexually promiscuous constant fear of the imminence of death. Mental instability Addictions Kazan went so far as to say that "Blanche DuBois, the woman, is Williams . . . an ambivalent figure who is attracted to the harshness and vulgarity around him at the same time that he fears it, because it threatens his life."

A Streetcar Named Desire