South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Tennessee Williams and the Predicament of Women
Author(s): Louise Blackwell
Source: South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Mar., 1970), pp. 9-14
Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
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TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND THE PREDICAMENT
OF WOMEN
LOUISE BLACKWELL
Florida A. and M. University
As a playwright,Tennessee Williams has chosen to feature
women as major charactersmore often than men. This choice, in
view of his unusual perception,has enabled him to display his
talentin a remarkablesuccessionof plays. Early in his career,how-
ever, the subtletyof his themesand characterizationsresulted in
misinterpretation on the part of criticsand audiences. In recent
years, Williams has made his themesexplicitby having major char-
actersdiscussthem,but his purposeis still lost on some viewersand
readers. As late as 1961,forinstance,Hodding Carterwrotein the
New York Times Magazine thathe did not recognizethe "Southern
womenfolk" portrayed by Williams. On the other hand, Signi
Lenea Falk has called the playwright'sfemale characterseither
Southerngentlewomenor Southernwenches.While it is true that
many of William's charactersspeak with Southern accents, close
scrutinyreveals that theirproblemsare the old, universal ones of
the human heart in its search for realityand meaning in life.
Williams is makinga commentaryon Westerncultureby dram-
atizing his belief thatmen and women find realityand meaning in
life throughsatisfactorysexual relationships. His drama derives
fromthe characters'recognitionof certainneeds withinthemselves
and their consequent demands for the "right" mate. Frustration
is the surfaceevidence of the predicamentof his female characters,
but Williams is careful to distinguishthe underlyingreasons for
their behavior. Analysis of the various plays reveals subtle differ-
ences in the cause of theirfrustration, so that thereis not as much
similarityamong the charactersas is often supposed.
One approach to the study of these charactersis to categorize
themaccordingto theirsituationat the time of the action, so long
as we allow for variationswithin each category.Four groups thus
appear:
1. Women who have learned to be maladjusted throughadjust-
ment to abnormal family relationshipsand who strive to break
throughtheir bondage in order to find a mate.
In line with moderntheoriesof psychology,Tennessee Williams
believes that the individual learns to be maladjusted throughliv-
ing with and adjusting to maladjusted people. Anne Winemiller
in Summer and Smoke (1948) is in this group. She is the only
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10 South Atlantic Bulletin
child of a rigid,scholarly,and self-righteous preacherand his wife
who is described as "a spoiled and selfishgirl who evaded the
responsibilitiesof later life by slipping into a state of perverse
childishness.She is knownas Mr. Winemiller's'Cross'." Of course,
she is Alma's Cross,too, as is the father.
Mrs. Winernilleris not, as ProfessorFalk has written,simply
"senile and mean." She has had a mental break with reality;and
Alma has had to learn to live with thisstrangecreaturewho is her
mother.In this household,then,Alma has multiple roles to play.
As a resultof being,at once, the daughterof her fatherand mother,
sisterand parent to her mother,and social head of the household
forher father,Alma has no role that she desiresforherself.
In such a household thereis a failureof meaningfulcommuni-
cation so that the privateneeds of the daughterare never consid-
ered by the parents. The only way Alma can get out of the house
for a date with John Buchanan is to grab her purse and rush out
the door, leaving her fathercalling afterher. Rash action is often
the result of inadequate communicationwithin familyunits, and
the warningsignals are presenthere.
Her mother'sbreak with mature behavior presagesa reversal
in Alma's character.She does not, like her mother,regressto child-
hood and negate sexual relations,but she does abandon her pre-
vious moralisticapproach to life for a profligatesex experience.
Her later life is possible because she has learned fromher mother
how to reverseher life for more satisfyingexperiences.
Blanche DuBois of A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947) also be-
longs in this category.She was a dutifulchild, remainingwith her
aged parents long beyond the marryingage for most women and
later stayingbehind to tryto save the familyestate,while her sis-
ter,Stella, went out to findher place in the world. Since Blanche
had adjusted to an abnormalfamilylife,she was unable, when she
had the opportunity,to relate to the so-callednormalworld of her
sister. She was, in fact,followinga familypattern when she be-
came sexually profligateafterthe death of her parents. In a dis-
cussion of propertymatters,she said that the plantationhad been
disposed of gradually by "improvidentgrandfathersand father
and uncles and brothers"who exchanged the land for their "epic
fornications."
In an earlier play, The Glass Menagerie (1945), Laura Wing-
fieldhas learned to be maladjusted fromher mother,Amanda. In
his notes on the characters,Williams states that Amanda Wing-
fieldis "a littlewoman of greatbut confusedvitality,clingingfran-
tically to another time and place . . . . She is not paranoiac, but
her life is paranoia." Amanda's husband and son have long since
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South Atlantic Bulletin 11
desertedher, but Laura, who has been crippled since birth,has no
escape open to her. She must adjust to her motherwho is so un-
realistic that she denies that Laura is crippled. According to the
author,she has "failed to establishcontactwith reality,continues
to live vitally in her illusions." Indeed, the only way Laura can
surviveis to retreatinto her own delusions.
In You Touched Me! (1945), written in collaboration with
Donald Windham, Williams depicts Emmie Rockley as having
learned to distrustmen and the idea of a mature sexual relation-
ship fromher spinsteraunt, Matilda Rockley.This play ends hap-
pily for Emmie, but apparentlylife has not looked so simple to
Williams since then, as he has not given us happy solutions for
complicatedproblems.
2. Women who have subordinatedthemselvesto a domineering
and ofteninferiorperson in an effortto attain realityand meaning
throughcommunicationwith anotherperson.
Stella Kowalski, in A StreetcarNamed Desire (1947), is superi-
or in backgroundand personal endowmentsto her mate, but she
subordinatesherselfto his way of life because theyhave a satisfying
sexual relationship.When her sisterBlanche cannot believe that
Stella is happy with her crude husband, Stella tells her that "there
are thingsthat happen betweena man and a woman in the dark-
thatsortof make everything else seem-unimportant."When Stella
is willing to send her sisterto a mental institutionratherthan be-
lieve that Stanleyhas raped Blanche we see just how fara seeming-
lygentleand attractivewoman will go to defendher sexual partner.
In Period of Adjustment (1960), Dotty Bates will tolerate in-
sult and abuse fromher husband Ralph, so long as their sexual
relationshipis satisfying.She knows that he marriedher to please
her wealthyfather;and he frequentlylets her know that she is
so homelyshe mightnever have marriedif he hadn't come along.
Aftera quarrel in which Ralph repeats all of the old insults,the
two finallysit down to talk mattersover. When theirdisagreements
have been smoothedover, theygo to bed together,this being the
essential act in the vision of Tennessee Williams if Dotty is to
maintain her grasp of realityand meaning in life.
Hannah Jelkes,in The Night of the Iguana (1961), is an ex-
ample of the woman who has made the best of a relationshipthat
is not so good as the true matingof a woman with a man. She is
an unmarriedartistwho has travelledforyearswithher aged grand-
father,a minor poet. In discussingher relationshipto her grand-
fathershe states:
We make a home for each other my grandfatherand I.
Do you know what I mean by a home? I don't mean a
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12 South Atlantic Bulletin
regular home. I mneanI don't mean what other people
mean when theyspeak of a home, because I don't regard
a home as a ... well, as a place, a building ... a house
. of wood, bricks,stone. I thinkof a home as being a
thing that two people have between them in which each
can . . . well, nest-rest-live in, emotionally speaking.
When Reverend Shannon reminds her that birds build nests in
relativelypermanentlocations"forthe purposeof matingand prop-
agating" the species, she responds that she is not a bird but a
human being that needs to nest in the heart of anotherbeing. She
then tells him that she has learned to believe in briefperiods of
understandingbetween two people. Never having had a mature
sexual relationship,Hannah has sacrificedher life for her grand-
fatherand she has managed to survive with fleetingand insig-
nificantrelationships.
Althoughshe is not the major characterin SweetBird of Youth
(1959), Heavenly Finleyis a vital characterwhose life is controlled
by her crude and domineeringfatherand the memoryof Chance
Wayne,with whom she fell in love as a young girl. Chance, after
seducingHeavenly and givingher venerealdisease,leaves town.He
is a handsome cad, but because of her few intimatecontactswith
him,Heavenly wastesher lifeyearningforhis return.
3. Women who struggleto make relationshipswith men who
are unable or unwilling to make lasting relationships.
In fourplays,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), OrpheusDescend-
ing (1958), SuddenlyLast Summer (1959), and Period of Adjust-
ment (1960), Williams createda group of womenwho are remark-
able fortheirsexual demandsupon men who are eitherhomosexual
or otherwiseinadequate to make a lastingrelationship.In Cat on a
Hot Tin Roof Maggie and Brick, presumably,had a satisfactory
sexual relationshipearly in theirmarriage.Problemsbegan to de-
velop, however,when Maggie decided that Brick's close friendship
with Skipper indicated homosexual tendencies.Afterthe death of
Skipper,Brick was so grievedover the loss of his friendthat he be-
came disgustedwith Maggie and insistedupon sleepingseparately.
He would gladly have terminatedthe marriage,but Maggie would
not leave him. In an effortto assuage his feelings,Brick began
drinkingheavily. Maggie finallybribed her husband to go to bed
with her by locking up his liquor. Undoubtedlyshe is one of the
determinedfemalecharactersin moderndrama.
Lady Torrance, in Orpheus Descending,is a strongand decent
woman who has been a hard-working and devotedwifeto her hus-
band, Jabe, whom she married for economic security.He is some
years older than she. ActuallyJabe was responsibleforthe death of
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South Atlantic Bulletin 13
her fatherwhen she was a youngwoman, but Lady does not know
this until near the end of the play. Her yearningfor the love of a
man her own age is aroused when Val Xavier comes to town,carry-
ing a guitar,and asks fora job in the Torrance store.Even though
Jabe is dyingof cancer in the familyapartmentup over the store,
Lady arrangesto sleep withVal in a small room at the back of the
store.
When Val, who is a man with no lasting ties,decides to move
on, he tells Lady that he will leave her a forwardingaddress. She
replies:
Ask me how it feltto be coupled with death up there,and
I can tell you. My skin crawledwhen he touchedme. But
I enduredit. I guessmyheartknew thatsomebodymustbe
coming to take me out of this hell! You did. You came.
Now look at me! I'm alive once more!
Through her sexual relationship with Val, Lady Torrance has
attained reality and meaning in life. Although Val shows some
remorsewhen he learns that Lady is pregnant,he is unwilling to
assume responsibilityfor a permanentmate and he resumes his
transientlife.
In Suddenly Last Summer,Mrs. Venable and Catharine clash
over a dead man, Sebastian. Sebastian was Mrs. Venable's son and
Catharine her niece. Throughout his life Sebastian, a would-be
poet and sexual misfit,was pampered, overprotected,and domi-
nated by his mother.Catharine was in love with Sebastian and, at
therequestof his mother,she willinglyagreed to travelabroad with
him. Later, in spite of the threatsof Mrs. Venable, she insisted
upon telling the truthabout how Sebastian was killed and partly
devouredby a group of cannibalisticboyson a tropicalisland. The
unique thingabout Catharine is that she yearnedfor a sexual re-
lationshipwith a man, her cousin,whom she knew to be weak and
strangelyperverted.
George and Isabel Haverstick,in Period of Adjustment, met in
a veterans'hospital where George sufferedfrom"the shakes" and
Isabel was his nurse. Despite the fact that George is a weak man
and Isabel knows that he shakeswhen he has to face certain situa-
tions in life,she expectshim to be the model of composureon the
firstnightof theirhoneymoon.He is not. It is on the second night
aftertheirwedding,when Isabel begins to motherand pet George
again, as if she were his nurse, that the audience is led to believe
the marriagewill be consummated.
4. Women who have known happiness, but who have lost their
mates and who try to overcome the loss.
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14 South Atlantic Bulletin
The PrincessKosmonopolisin Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) is
an aging actresswho has known both happiness with a lover and
popularitywith audiences.Afterlosing both, she failed in a come-
back effortas actressand embarkedupon a searchforanotherlover
who could returnher to reality. She becomes attractedto Chance
Wayne,a beach boy in Palm Beach. When he does not meet her
needs, she dumps him in a Gulf Coast town where he must take
his chanceswith some citizenswho know him verywell because of
his treatmentof Heavenly Finley. The Princesswill continue her
searchin Hollywoood.
The Rose Tattoo (1951) is one of Tennessee William's most
down-to-earth plays about the sufferingof a woman who has known
and lost a mate who gave her completesexual happiness. Serafina
delle Rose, an Italian-Americanliving on the Gulf Coast, is com-
pletlydevastatedupon learningthat her truck-driver husband has
been killed in an automobile accident.In spite of the needs of her
children,she loses touchwithreality,and life has no furthermean-
ing forher. Afterthreeyearsof isolation,Serafinais shockedback
to realitywhen some of her neighborstell her thather husband had
been killed while smugglingdope and that, furthermore, he had
had a mistress.Shortlyafterwards, she findsanothermate.
Maxine Faulk in The Night of the Iguana (1961) has just lost
her husband when the play opens. She has knownsexual happiness
with him, and having known realityand meaning in life through
her happy relationship,Mrs. Faulk is one of thosewomen who will
waste no time in tryingto re-establisha satisfyingsexual relation-
ship. It is apparentlyaccidental that the Reverend Shannon, a
guide fora group of women,should stop at Mrs. Faulk's hotel at a
timewhen she is most in need of a mate. She has knownShannon
for some years and she knows him to be a weak man, leaning
towardalcoholism. But in her lonelystate,she will gladly provide
the strength,to say nothingof the financialsupportfor a relation-
ship with him.
Regardlessof whetherone agrees with the thesisof Tennessee
Williams that mostpeople findrealityand meaningin life through
satisfactorysexual adjustment,one has to acknowledge that his
major femalecharactersfighta continuousbattle to finda mate or
to keep the mate theyhave alreadyfound. What Williams will do
in the futureto illustratehis thesisis anybody'sguess.
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