THE USE OF THE TECHNIQUE OF IMPRESSIONISTIC

PAINTING IN THE SELECTED PLAYS OF

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

ABSTRACT

THESIS
SUBMHTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

©ottor of ^IjUosfopIip
IN

ENGLISH

BY
SAMl RAFIQ

Under the supervision of

PROFESSOR K. S. MISRA

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY
ALIGARH
1997
%y. /'b
S ^ \.^ V,^ S-> ' - ^ ' J ' J

16 DEC 1999
 ABSTRACT

The present study contains an analysis of the selected plays of

Tennessee Williams with reference to the technique of Impressionistic

painting. The study is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is

introductory in nature and it deals with the relevant biographical

information, an explication of the devices of Impressionistic painting

and the assessment of critical work on Tennessee Williams. (The

following six chapters contain analyses of six selected plays. The

final chapter which is the conclusion sums up the entire study. Finally

a select bibliography has been added).

The plays of Williams have hitherto been studied in great

detail along conventiomnal lines of critical enquiry. Under the

category of the conventional approaches, the autobiographical,

psychological and sociological details have received much attention.

Critics like Stephen S. Stanton and Norman J.Fedder have supported

one or the other of the conventional approaches. Critics such as Ruby

Cohen, Leiand Starnes, Henry I.Schvey and Mary Ann Corrigan

besides others have explored Williams's use of expressionistic

devices in his plays.

1
 However, studies of Willliams's plays on unconventional lines

have not paid attention to his use of colours which reveal a pattern

based on the technique of Impressionistic painting. Each of the plays

under consideration in the present study reveals an underlying

Impressionistic pattern through the use of colours and analogic

equivalents to colours such as sound, images, stage setting, stage

props, characters, lighting, etc.

The second chapter of the study deals with the analysis of

The Purification an early play, in The Purification Williams makes

use of the technique of Impressionistic painting through primary

colours such as blue, yellow and red. The colours individualjy and

collectively present three worlds —the cosmic, natural and human.

The decay in the human world creates a disparity between all the

three worlds. The pervading sense of evil is presented through various

colours and their analogic equivalents.

The third chapter contains an analysis of The GJBBS

Menagerie. In the The Glass menaoerie. too, a juxtaposition of loud

and soft colours as found in the previous play, has been used

2
suggestively. Colours in this play present the inner world of a

character with greater sharpness and depth.

The fourth chapter deals with A Streetcar Named Desire, a

play which turned out to be a major stage success. While The Glass

Menagerie dealt with the illusions of a family, Williams takes the same

theme and makes the play revolve around the illusions of one-

character 'Blanche Du Bois.' The play is the portrait of Blanche's

journey towards insanity. Her victimization by the world of reality and

her attempt to give her imaginary world a relevance are depicted by

sounds, images and colours of varying dimness and loudness. The

conflict between two opposing worlds is sharply brought through the

juxtaposition of loud and soft colours.

The fifth chapter deals with Camino Real which gives proof

of Williams' deft and controlled handling of the technique of

Impressionistic painting. The play is built up by a series of miniature

paintings which Williams calls blocks. The sixteen blocks are like a

disconnected montage with a thread of underlying unity as it happens

in a dream play. Movement to these montages is lent through the

subtle manipulation of the conflict between sustaining illusion and

3
harsh reality. Each miniature painting contains a certain event or

emotional moment presented through varying colours. The

predominant stances created by the colours represent Williams's

vision of life. Darker colours depict Camino Real as the place of

deadening reality where passions and dreams represented by red

and blue respectively are trying to survive.

The sixth chapter deals with Rose Tattoo, another play which

deals with the illusions and fulfilment of a single character Serafina.

The urn which holds the ashes of her dead husband, is similar to the

Glass Menagerie which holds the dreams and illusions of the Wingfield

family. Loud and soft colours create a painting which depicts

Serafina's struggle with reality and her journey towards fulfillment.

The two opposing worlds are depicted through loud and soft colours .

The alternation between loudness and softness provides movement

to the play and to Serafina who finds fulfillment depicted by a profusion

of colours and analogic equivalents at the end of the play.

The seventh chapter deals with The Milk Train Doesn't Stoo

Here Anymore, a play of greater maturity and tautness than the earlier

plays. The elements of the technique of Impressionistic painting are

4
still visible but not too loudly as other influences seem to have taken

over. In the present play Williams has borrowed certain techniques

from Kabuki Theatre and blended them with elements from

Impressionistic painting.

Thus all the plays considered in the present study reveal a

distinct use of the technique of Impressionistic painting. This accounts

for the disconnectedness and weakness of the story in some plays.

Williams has used colours to bring greater richness and life like

reality in his plays and to finally present to his readers his vision of

life in an effective manner. The final chapter is a recapitulation of

the major points which have emerged during the discussion of the

plays.
THE USE OF THE TECHNIQUE OF IMPRESSIONISTIC
PAINTING IN THE SELECTED PLAYS OF
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

THESIS
SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

©ottor of ^fjilofllopfip
IN

ENGLISH

BY
SAMI RAFIQ

Under the supervision of

PROFESSOR K. S. MISRA

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY
ALIGARH
1997
T5114
mr.
 CONTENTS

Page Nos.

PREFACE .. i
1. Chapter One
INTRODUCrrON .001
2. Chapter Two
THE PURIFICATION 021
3. Chapter Three
THE GLASS MENAGERIE 042
4. Chapter Four
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE .061
5. Cfhapter Five
CAMINO REAL 183
6. Chapter Six
ROSE TATTOO 103
7. Chapter Seven
THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP
HERE ANYMORE 124
8. Chapter Eight
CONCLUSION ...156

BIBLIOGRAPHY 166
P^Ef ht
 PREFACE

The present study of the selected plays of Tennessee Williams deals with

the analysts of the plays on the basis of the technique of Impressionistic

painting. The scholarship on the work of Tennessee Williams has been

covered in the Introduction which is the first chapter. The plays of Williams

have been studied in great detail along conventional lines of critical enquiry.

Under the category of the conventional approaches, the autobiographical,

psychological and sociological details have received minute attention. Critics

like Stephen S. Stanton and Norman J.Redder have adhered to one or the

other of the conventional approaches. The other category of approaches

involve the study of Williams's plays on unconventional lines. Critics such

as Ruby Cohen, Leiand Starnes, Henry I. Schvey and Mary Ahn Corrigan

besides others have explored Williams's use of expressionistic devices in

his plays. Even studies of Williams' plays on unconventional lines have not

paid attention to his use of colours which reveals a pattern based on the

Impressionistic technique of painting. The present study aims to take a fresh

look at Williams's plays which has not been undertaken before.

The study is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is

introductory and deals with a survey of Williams scholarship, relevant

biographical information and an explication of the devices of Impressionistic

painting. The six chapters which follow contain analyses of the plays to

demonstrate Willliams's exploitation of the technique of Impressionistic

painting The last chapter is a summing up of the entire study. Finally a

select Bibliography has been added.

I express my gratitude to a number of people named and unnamed

who have contributed generously in a variety of ways towards putting my

Ph.D. on the road to actualization. At the offset I would like to express my

humble gratitude and indebtness to my teacher and guide Prof. K.S. Mishra,

Chairman, Dept. of English, AMU, without whose guidance this study might

not have come through. I would like to acknowledge the help and services

of the staff of ASRC, Hyderabad, American Center Library, New Delhi, The

British Council Library, New Delhi and Lucknow and Maulana Azad Library,

A.M.U. I would also like to express my gratitude for all the help to the staff

of the Fine Arts Section, Women's College, A.M.U., Aligarh. I owe special

thanks to Prof. Seema Javed, Chairman, Deptt. of Fine Arts and other

members of the Department of Fine Arts for their generous and willing help.

And last but not the least I would like to thank the staff of the Department of

English, especially Mr. Mohd Owais Khan, whose services have been

invaluable to me. I would like to thank my husband Dr. Asim Siddiqui for

willingly sparing his time, his patience and his unending encouragement. I

owe my parents and brother humble thanks for their help and support at
difficult times I also owe a special thanks to my husband's family for their

patience and support while my thesis was in progress. I would further like

to thank my dear friends Shaheena Tarannum, Veena Kumar, Seema Khanam

and Surekha Singh for their invaluable contributions along this difficult

journey.

Sami Rafiq

111
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
I

Thomas Lanier Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus Mississippi. In 1918 the
family shifted to St. Louis, Mississippi v\4iich Williams later called a tragic move.
In his Memoirs Williams has warmly recalled those eight years in Mississippi
spent with his mother and grandparents. Perhaps it was there that his artistic
talents first showed signs of sprouting:

My first eight years of childhood in Mississippi were the most joyously

innocent in my life, due to the beneficient home life provided by my beloved
Dakin grandparents with whom we lived. And to the wild and sweet half-
imaginary world in which my sister and our beautiful black nurse Ozzie
existed separate, almost invisible to anyone except our cabalistic circle
of three.^

The peaceful world saw the occasional harsh intrusion of his father, Cornelius
Coffin Williams, a travelling shoe-salesman and always out on the road. The
idyllic world was shattered when the family shifted to St. Louis v^en his father,
on being promoted as sales manager to a branch of the International Shoe
Company, had to leave the place His father's alcoholism, the indifferent
metropolis, the rude school children and southern snobbery took their toll on
Rose {his sister) who had became psychologically disbalanced. Williams, in
recounting the travails, also acknowledged that the period offered valuable
experience for him as a writer:

1. Tennessee Williams: Memoirs. (New York.Doubieday & Company, Inc., 1975), p.11.
 It produced a shock and a rebellion that has grown into an inherent part of my
worl^. It was the beginning of the social consciousness which I think has marked
most of my writing. I am glad that I received this bitter education, for I don't
think any writer has much purpose back of him unless he feels bitteriy the
inequities of the society he lives in.^

Williams tried to find escape from the inclement environment inthe world of
writing and movies. Throughout his life Williams had a close relationship with
his brother Dakin Williams and his sister Rose Isabel Williams. While his
relationship to Rose was close, sympathetic, harmonious and one which helped
him gain profound psychological insight (seen in his heroines); his relationship
to Dakin was close as well, but volatile and sometimes stormy.

His first romantic involvement \N\\.[) Hazel, a childhood friend, with a

curious mixture of shared artistic pursuits and Platonic love, inspite of later
encounters,— both homosexual and heterosexual— remained one of the lasting
influences in his life. The unexpected marriage of Hazel to Terrence McCabe in
1934 resulted in the beginning of a heart problem of an unspecified nature and
sharpened his creative powers. In William's own words:

I felt as though the sky had fallen on me and my reaction was to start
working every evening on short stories overcoming fatigue with black coffee.^

The influence of his grandparents persisted throughout his artistic career even
after he was physically removed from them. He received financial help from —

2. Christine R.Day and Bob Woods, eds., "Tennessee, Williams: Where I Live", Selected
Essays. (New York, New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1978), p.78.
3. Memoirs, p.38.
them from time to time. Williams' reminiscences about his grandfather's
personality shed light on the development of Williams' humane side as a writer:

Grandfather was always terribly frightened for me when I escaped from

his sight and from the party of ladies. He was not a scolder, he was never
severe....^

Aside from family influences, Williams' own readings of philosophy,

psychology and literature exercised a major influence on his works. As a young
boy Williams remembered having written lyrical poetry in imitation of Edna Millay
He was also influenced by works of writers such as Anton Chekhov, Bertolt
Brecht, Edgar Allan Poe and D.H. Lawrence. According to June Bennett Larson,
Williams owed his preoccupation with death to Poe.

Poe influences Williams both directly and by way of the French and
German symbolists. Poe and Williams, both southerners, share a
mystique about death that has always been a preoccupation in the South.*

But Williams himself gave major credit only to Chekhov as an influence and
laid emphasis on his individuality.

Well, Lawrence was, indeed, a highly sympatico figure in my literary

upbringing, but Chekhov takes precedence as an influence— that is, if
there has been any particular influence beside my own solitary bent....^

However, Williams's literary career was not influenced in any remarkable manner

4. ibid.,p.2l.
5. Jac Tharpe ed., Tennessee Williams. Part I, (Jackson, University Press of Mississippi,
1977), p.414.
6. Memoirs, p.41.
by the writers mentioned above His career and his works owed considerably
to his interactions with people from different disciplines, such as artists, poets,
playwrights, directors and performers through whom he also gained first-hand
information about Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, such as Paul
Cezanne, Chirico, Vincent Van Gogh, El Greco, Paul Klee, Salvador Daii etc.
Williams's first exposure to theatre experience as separate from the theoretical
experience gained from Washington University and the State University of Iowa
was from the Mummers of St. Louis a professional theatre company. In the
Introduction to 27 Wagons Full of Cotton Williams commented on their influence
as follows

Dynamism was what The Mummers had, and for about five years—
roughly from about 1935 to 1940—they burned like one of Miss Millay's
improvident little candles—and then expired.^

His sympathetic relationship with Audrey Wood when his plays were first
shown on Broadway deserves special mention. She was his director and agent
and had a major influence on his play-writing, at times even negative as Williams
has himself admitted:

I don't think Audrey ever realized how suject I was to depression

about my work or surely she would have acknowledged the play.... I
am afraid that her phone call may have prevented me from making a
very very beautiful play out of Camino Real....*

Williams'relationship to Elia Kazan,a distinguished director, during his middle

7 Tennessee Williams, "Something Wild..." in the Introduction to 27 Waoons Full of Cotton.

(Connecticut, New Directions, 1953), P.ix.
8. Memoirs, p.101.
period is of prime importance. Not only did Kazan interpret, direct and edit
Williams's plays, but also interacted with writers, actors, theorists etc., on a
large scale which helped Williams grow as a playwright. Harold Clurman, Jose
Quintero, Herbert Machiz, George Roy Hill and Frank Corsaro were some of
the artists who worked closely with Williams's plays; Williams owed much to
Kazan's stable and supportive personality in timesof depression and frustration.
Williams has commented on his relationship with Kazan as follows:

He was always very fair to me during rehearsals...whatever his personal

complaints....He was never difficult, never falsely critical, always
generous. He worked everyday, he brought in new material for rehearsals
every afternoon. He was really an adorable man to work with, and I loved
and respected him enormously.'

Kazan was also greatly influenced by the aestheticism of Paul Cezanne.the

Impressionist painter.which Influenced Williams's mind. Williams's concept of
the plastic theatre when it finally emerged as a new form owed much to his
studies in theatre at the universities under distinguished academicians, such
as George P. Baker, Grander Matthews, Thomas Dickinson, etc.

Williams's achievements as a playwright owe much to the working

collaboration of Williams, Kazan, Jo Mielziner, Lee Strasberg and Jean
Rosenthal. Williams owed much to O'Neill who was one of the earliest artists to
experiment and attempt to create a new kind of dramaturgical strategy as is
discernible in The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape.

Brenda Murphy, Tennessee Williams and Ella Kazan. (London, Cambridge University
Press, 1992), p.143.
 While Williams's contact with the Impressionist painters was mostly indirect,
in the case of Vincent Van Gogh, Gauguin, El Greco and Georgio de Chirico it
appeared more direct. In his play, Summer and Smoke, he admits to having
been influenced by Giorgio de Chirico. In The Glass Menagerie he involves El
Greco and in Street Car Named Desire he intentionally introduces a painting by
Vincent Van Gogh. In his Memoirs Williams summed up his vision of life as
moments of beauty which he felt Van Gogh alone could capture in his unique
manner:

The work of a fine painter committed only to vision, abstract and allusive
as he pleases, is better able to create for you his moments of intensely
perceptive being. Jackson Pollock could paint ecstasy.... Van Gogh could
capture for you moments of beauty indescribable as descent into
madness.^"

The influences on Williams briefly sketched above are a pointer to the

ever-increasing thematic and technical complexity in his plays as well as to a
pressing dramatic intention to probe deeper and deeper into the psychic realities
of life. The devices of Impressionistic painting came quite handy in the
materialisation of his dramatic intentions.

It is pertinent to remark that the volumnious existence of literature on the

study of Williams's plays may look askance at any new venture in this direction.
Before coming to assert the freshness and originality of the present study, it will
only be logical if we briefly glance over the heterogeneous and sometimes
amorphous types of studies—both dramatic and theatrical— which have already

10. Memoirs. p.250.

been carried out on the plays of Tennessee Williams For the convenience of
description, expediency of the space available and clarity of presentation we
can classify these studies on Williams's plays broadly under the conventional
and unconventional approaches Such a simplistic classificaton is bound to be
tentative and quite often superficial Its only purpose is to give an overview of
the tremendous cntical interest in Williams's plays as well as to prepare a ground
for a fresh approach which will enable us to understand the technical richness
of his dramaturgy in a better way

Under the category of the conventional approaches we can mention

autobiographical studies, and such other studies as aim at determining the
contemporary and topical rootedness of Williams's plays Critics concerned
with the autobiographical approach to Williams's plays have primarily
concentrated on the recurrent thematic patterns and the emergent vision of life
which are the outcome of biographical factors in his life For example Williams's
struggle to be recognised as a playwright found expression in his characters
Philip C Kolin and Jurgen Wolter" analyse the symbolic significance and
relevance of A Streetcar Named Desire v^th personal names and places with
which Williams was familiar and wtiich he was using continuously Leonard
Berkman avers that love and establishment of relationships are the primary
quest of Blanche Du Bois reflecting youthful romantic involvements of Williams "
According to Robert Brustein (The Hudson Review. 1959) the mam characters
of Williams's plays are noble martyrs who suffer defeat and humiliation even
when they are innocent ^' George Niesen and Mary McBride have found

11 "Williams A Street Car Named Desire.'The Explicator. Vol 41 (Summer 1991), p 241
12 "The Tragic Downfall of Blanche Du Bois," Modem Drama. Vol 10 (Dec 1967), pp 251-
52
13 "Williams's Nebulous Nightmare, "The Hudson Review. Vol 12 (Summer 1959), p 259
a destructive and escapist attitude as characteristic of Williams's pfeiys "I hey
base their argument on biographical factors.

The patterns of escapism and self-inflicted martyrdom in his piays have

been discovered by critics to parallel Williams's escape (in his personal life)
from the harshness of life in St Louis or the omnipotent perilous presenco of
his father. Stephen S. Stanton asserts that Williams's plays are 'metaphors of
his ov^ life.'^" We find the same parallelism to Williams's life whent Norman J.
Redder asserts that 'his typical plot involves the defeat or destruction of a highly
pitiable protagonist.'^* Though exploration of biographical elen.ants in Williams's
plays does yield a rich reserve of material which assists in understanding the
complexity in his piays, the over-emphasis on this approach underestimates
the artistic integrity of the playwright. It may sound rather paradbxical to
concentrate on biographical details for exposition of a dramatist's thematic
choices because drama is primariy the most objective genre of literature.

Other critics have taken a realistic approach to Williams's plays by

analysing psychological and sociological problems in his plays. The realistic
approach does have some relevance, as Williams's plays were rooted (though
not entirely) in the realism of the theatre of his time. The dramatic work of
playwrights after the Second World War was rooted in realism and expressed
sociological and moralistic concerns as in the works of Elmer Rice, Arthur Miller
and Eugene O'Neill. The preoccupation with gross reality was the result of
Ibsen in modern drama. According to Lawrence Kitchin:

14. Stephen S. Stanton, ed., Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays, (New
Jersey, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1977), p.3.
15. Jac Tharpe, ed., Tennessee Williams. Part 2, p.798
 (Miller) goes in with a scalpel, dissects the morally diseased tissue at the
roots of his theme and describes in human terms the damage it does to the
body as a whole ^^

What prompted this obssessive concern with society and corruption was the
decadence of the period after the Second World War American society had
become infested with materialistic concerns as it tried to spring back to economic
rejuvenation after the bleak war years But moving simultaneously along with
this realistic expression, was the symbolist current. Symbolism appeared in
America in the 1920's under the influence of German Expressionistic drama
August Strindberg's experimental drama set the tone for Expressionsitic play-
writing which does not adhere to tight chronological plotting and the construction
of the play is often episodic rather than thematic Americal dramatists who
expenmented with Expressionism were Elmer Rice, Eugene O'Neill, Howard
Lawson, Paul Green, etc

Williams had absorbed the technique of Expressionism v ^ e n he was

studying drama at Washingtom University and the University of Iowa in the
1930's During the 1940's when Williams was v\/riting his plays, he found a post
Impressionistic era mixed with realism on stage

Williams broke away from the confines of the negativism of the symbolists
who relied on morbid and perverse symbols and from the moralistic concerns of
the realists who were restrictive in their vision But in trying to create a new
kind of dramatic expression he retained some influences from both June Bennet
Larson has quoted Williams as saying

16. Lawrence Kitchin, Mid-Centurv Drama.(Faber & Faber Ltd , 1960), p.60
 Williams says the critics 'want to try to Judge you on traditional form
when you're trying to move to something freer, like presentational theatre,
when you depart from realism '"

Williams termed his new experimental drama plastic theatre', meaning

anti-realistic, in his production notes to The Glass Menagerie in 1945. His plastic
theatre also found inspiration in the Wagnerian synthesis of music, poetry and
design on stage '* Therefore realistic approaches of critics, such as Gerald M
Berkowitz who explore Williams's vision of life in his plays," have largely ignored
the experimental nature of Williams's plays

We find that Williams's plays have been studied in great detail along
conventional lines of critical enquiry However, Williams's expenmentation, by
including elements on stage from diverse fields such as music and painting
has not been entirely ignored Many a critic has analysed his plays on
unconventional lines, especially while exploring his use of expressionistic
devices Ruby Cohn, Judith J Thompson, June Bennett Larson, Mary Ann
Corrigan, Henry I Schvey and Leiand Starnes are some of the names worth
mentioning Ruby Cohn avers that a combination of verbal and theatncal imagery
creates 'a symbolic resonance' in Williams's plays 2° According to Leiand Starnes
the combmatiomn of episodes, music and lights creates a 'poetic realism'^^ in
Williams's plays

17 Jac Tharpe. ed , Tennessee Williams, Part 1. p 416

18 Ibid
19 Jac Tharpe. ed . Tennessee Wi"'a"is, Part 2 p712
20 Stephen Stanton, ed , A Collection of Critical Essays. (New Jersey, Prentice Hall Inc ,
1977), p 56
21 "The Grotesque Children of the Rose Tattoo "Modern Drama. Vol 12 (Feb 1970), p 357

10
 Critics, such as Henry I Schvey and Mary Ann Corrigan, have found
pictonal elements to be of paramount importance in Williams's plays Schvey"
asserts that Williams's plays deal with colour symbolism taken from Renaissance
painting and makes references to paintings by Impressionists Similarly, Mary
Ann Corngan asserts that Williams makes use of models of paintings for special
effects in his plays " Though the unconventional approach is based on a critical
analysis of various unconventional elements used by Williams on stage, their
relevance to the playv^ight's dramatic artistry has not been fully explored The
present study analyses those elements as analogic equivalents to elements
from the v\/orld of Impressionistic painting

II

Impressionism was a movement in art in France during the 19thcentury

which arose in reaction to the established classical principles on which art was
based Callen says that

Painting or colouring was relegated to a secondary role because of its

association with the senses and with the vulgar imitation of raw nature, as
well as with the dirty practical side of art At all costs painting had to be
seen to the higher, moral side of the human mind, not merely to satisfy
sensual appetites ^'

The split between the intellect and the senses had deepened with the

22 Harold Bloom, ed , Tennessee Williams's A Street Car Named Desire,(New York, Chelsea
House publishers, 1988), pp 103-104
23 Jac Tharpe, ed Tennessee Williams. Part 1, (Jackson, University Press of Mississippi,
1977), p 383
24 Anthea Callen, Techniques of the Impressionists. (London, New Burlington Books, 1987)
p8

11
establishment of the Royal Academy in the 1640's which was created to raise
the status of the French artists. The status of artists was therefore raised from
manual labourers to the position of craftsmen who worked under traditional
guilds that were trained by the Academy

. ..the Academy encouraged students to familiarize themselves with details

of classical history and mythology and to study and copy the works of
suitable old Masters.'*

Certain techniques, such as chiaroscuro (in which parts of the white canvas are
left blank suggestively), ebauche (laying the broad outlines of the subject matter
to be painted) and tonal gradations (the laying of dark and light tones side by
side) were strictly followed by the trainees of the Academy. Certain artists who
were independent of the Academy attempfeAto create an art opposed to the
principles of the Academy.

Charles Glyre and Thomas Couture belonging to the mid-nineteenth century

were among these independent artists who brought a change in artistic subject
matter. They encouraged outdoor landscape painting and a respect for
craftmanship. Glyre's famous pupils were Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Bazille
whereas Couture's famous pupil,Edouard Manet (1832-1883), ushered in a new
movement in the world of art. Manet learnt much from Couture in handling light
and shade unconventionally, and ultimately developed his own style.

In 1874 a group of independent artists held an exhibition of their paintings

in France. The unconventional subject matter of the paintings by such artists
as Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Armand Gullaumin, Camille Pissaro, Pierre

25. ibid., p.io.

12
Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Berthe Monsot and Alfred Sisley besides others,
created a storm Louis Leroy after a painting by Monet named 'Impression'
called the young artists the Impressionists Although all the artists of this new
style came from different backgrounds and had their individualistic styles, what
bound them together was their CoTnmitment to the freedom of expression on
canvas

The new artists painted nature in all her varied faces and moods They
were seeking a reality not seen and expressed by painters before them The
new artists painted whatever appealed to their senses be it parisian girls on the
street, boats in open waters, a charming little village, ballerinas or even the
fascinating figure of an ordinary working girl Such subjects were rejected by
the Academy The individual styles and subject-matter of different artists had
something to contribute to the new movement in art Their methodsof work were
different
Manet paints his whole picture from nature, trusting his instinct
to lead him anght through the devious labyrinth of selection
Nor does his instinct ever fail, there is a vision in his eyes
which he calls nature thinking and declaring vehemently that
the artist should not seek a synthesis, but should paint merely
what he sees ^^

Besides being spontaneous Manet also used modern themes as subject matter
"Artists like Manet took up the challenge at the same time seeking a new style
and pictorial construction to reflect modern themes "^^ Manet also said 'there

26 Kate Flint ed , Impressionists in England The Cntical Reception. (London, Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1984), p 246
27 Anthea Callen, Techniques of the Impressionists, p 43

13
are no lines in nature' i e , he abandoned outlines and shaped his forms by a
subtle gradation of tints that fused into one another

With the Industrial revolution of the 19th century, the prosperous middle
class emerged in England and was looking for different kinds of entertainment
to fill leisure hours, such as visiting the theatre or ballet or strolling outdoors in
natural surroundings The Impressionist was ready to capture these scenes on
his canvas But while the other painters of the group were merely observing
and recording, Renoir (1841-1919) made a transition from Realism to the
Expressionism of the 20th century In Renoir's paintings creation of mental
images and deliberate exaggeration of the truth perhaps first laid the path for
later movements in art which were opposed to the Impressionistic movement
According to Renoir, "A painting is primarily a product of the imagination of the
artist""

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) evolved the 'directional' brush-stroke

This meant that his brushmarks were all generally placed in

parallel lines, similar to a hatched drawing technique usually
running from top right to bottom left in his paintings ^^

Claude Monet (1840-1926) defined objects in his paintings by colours rather

than by firm outlines

(red, yellow, blue) against their complementaries (green, violet,

orange), laid on in short, broad strokes He became fascinated
with atmospheric conditions and painted mists and thaws in

28 Dr Charles Fabri, An Introduction to European Painting.(New Delhi, Asia Publishing

House, 1964), p 39
29 Techniques of the Impressionists, p 104

14
 which mass and form dissolved, until light itself seemed to be
the subject— the physical objects hardly more than the means
by which light could conjure up its own shape.*^

Camille Pissaro's (1830-1902) paintings showed a creative use of light. His

paintings are close to nature not conventionally, but nature appears changed
and enhanced by light and shadow.

Alfred Sisley (1839-99) was not one of the major artists among the
Impressionists but his paintings, too, revealed a use of light and pure colours.
Some of the characteristics of Impressionistic painting common to all the painters
of the group are as follows: The Impressionists made a good use of light in their
painting. The main reasons for this emphasis lay in the scientific theories of the
19th century. Nature was basic to their art wtiether it was natural scenery or
sunlight outlining a subject indoors. For all their paintings they captured natural
sunlight and shadows. Their profound knowledge of light and its subtle
gradations from brilliance to darkness came from Augustan Fresnel, a 19th
century scientist, who published important papers on the diffraction of light.
During this period Helmholtz, the German scientist, too, became very popular
for his discoveries on the mechanics of vision, which inspired the
Impressionists.'^ Thus the Impressionists were enlightened about retinal fusion
or how the eye perceives a large scene constituted of different objects. They

30. The Illustrated Library of Art- Part 3

The History of Painting and Sculpture New Horizons, (London. Mitchell Beazley
Publishers. 1986), pp.564-565.
31. Please See Charles Edward Gauss, The Aesthetic Theories of French Artists.
(Baitimore.The John Hopkins Press, 1949), pp.22-23.

15
had learnt that an object or objects form separate images on the eyes and the
separate images are carried by the nerve impulses to the cortex (a part of the
brain) where they are integrated into a single blot Amidst the objects perceived
there is a sensitive area which is more distinct and the background is hazy The
Impressionists very intelligently tned to recreate this wonder of human perception
on canvas Thus an Impressionistic painting presents a compact scene of diverse
elements and colours, but the colours in the foreground are darker to highlight
the sensitive area of vision and the background consists of paler tones

'Instantaneous vision' was ajlchnical term which set Impressionistic painting

apart from the painting of the classical school described by the term 'consecutive
vision ' Consecutive vision is related to the paintings by old masters, i e , the
human eye can perceive the entire picture background and foreground by shifting
focus Thus details are laboriously worked out in old paintings Instantaneous
vision means on the other hand that the whole picture is taken in at one glance
The whole painting is the capturing of one fleeting glance, whereas in realistic
painting the diverse details require individual attention

This technique of painting had a certain realism about it and excluded

romanticism According to Courbet painting is essentially the representation of
tangible objects

Though Impressionistic paintings in the early phase were full of lively and
bright colours a revolution in the style of using colours only took place in the
second phase of Impressionism, under Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro who
first made use of the seven colours of the solar spectrum

The Impressionistic style of colouring was inventive and unusual

16
Impressionists experimented with colour contrasts For instance, the cream
coloured bacKground showing through a blue sky gave the effect of warmth and
sunlight They revised the concept of local colour

Local colour is the actual colour of objects— ttie greenness of

grass or yellowness of lemons They noticed that every object's
'local colour' appears to the eyes modified by reflected colours
from surrounding objects and by the coloured atmospheric light
or sunlight '^

The Impressionists used the technique of broken colour in their painting

which meant using small touches of colour side by side The Impressionist did
not mix the colours on his palette For instance, to produce green, he did not
mix yellow and blue on the palette Instead he placed yellow and blue dots side
by side in the painting which, vjhen observed from a certain distance, gave the
effect of the colour green During the last decade of the 19th century the
Impressionists had grown out of the old world They began to present reality as
perceived individually by them This appears to be the beginning of symbolism
The new movement headed by George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac
(1863-1935) was called 'Neo Impressionism' Other movements that followed
and turned entirely against the principles of Impressionistic art were
Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, Fauvism etc While Seurat evolved the
pointillist technique in v^ich a painting was made up of dots of colour instead
of strokes. Expressionists such as Van Gogh expressed the inner emotional
world symbolically through nature

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903) was one of the forerunners of Post-impressionism

in which the artists' intention was to create a new world built on instinct and

32 Techniques of the impressionists, p 64

17
self-expression. Charles Fabri describes August Macke's (1887-1914) cubist
style as follows.

...the German painter organises his picture to make an attractive

pattern completely transfiguring nature's appearance into a
design; but he also sees geometric shapes, cubes, circles,
triangles in all appearance, and it is mainly out of these shapes
that he builds up his picture."

Surrealists, like Paul Klee, were greatly influenced by the themes of Sigmund
Freud. They delved deep into the subconscious world of desires and longings.
Disjointed objects in their paintings have an unexpected meaning. The sharp
definition of these disjointed elements is brought out powerfully by their melting
into each other or being connected to each other. Neo-impressionistic painting
not only brought about images and truncated symbols^ on canvas, but colour,
too, began to be used symbolicaly. The colours in the paintings of Gaugin and
Signac are anti-naturalistic, i.e. grass for instance may not be presented in the
conventional green colour, but in any other colour to represent subconscious
feelings.
While Gaugin was famous for his symbolist Tahitian paintings, Fauves
and Matisse freed colour from its conventionally imitative function, doing away
with Impressionistic naturalism.'^ Even though the movements that arose in
opposition to Impressionistic naturalism had their distinct principles, it can be
easily observed from a study of Impressionistic painting that the symbolism,
etc., had all been inherent in the Impressionistic school of Art. Edgar Degas
(1834-1917) had made a good use of truncated symbols (or pieces representing

33. Introduction to European Painting, p.43,

34. Ibid.
35. Techniques of the Impressionists, p.157,

18
the whole) in his paintings. It wcs the same in the case of Renoir.

The Impressionist movement which began in the 1860's

flourished through the 1870"s and early 1880's, produced works
of high artistic quality and constituted an important stage in the
development of modern art. The gradual but broad acceptance
of Impressionism (in various disciplines) set the stage for more
rapid artistic revolutions to follow. Impressionism furnished a
stylistic base for the nineteenth century Post-Impressionism,
Symbolism and Expressionism— and ultimately the stylistic
freedom of the twentieth century.'*

72rfavesseeW\\\\ams, both consciously and unconsciously, explored the devices

of the Impressionists in the structure of his plays. He made a creative use of
Impressionistic technique and elements in his plays. The elements of
Impressionistic painting are symbols, images and colours but Williams has used
these elements explicitly as well as analogically through music, stage setting,
props and background, both physical and mental. Williams's images and symbols
and even colours are anti-naturalistic under the influence of the Post-
Impressionists. Therefore natural symbols like the rose, for instance, have an
anti-naturalistic colour blue in his plays.

Williams, also, followed the technique of retinal fusion in order to create a

compact scene of diverse elements with some modifications. Thus each play of
Williams resembles a large Impressionistic painting with a darker and distinct
foreground and a hazy, indistinct background. The arrangement of analogic
colours in the plays, too, follow the Impressionists' technique of broken colour

36. The New Intemational Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Art. (New York, The Greystone Press),
p.2275.

19
and dark tones are placed side by side. Other techniques of the early
Impressionists such as chiaroscuro (leaving parts of the white canvas
uncoloured) and tonal gradations can also be discovered in our close study of
Williams's plays.

Williams's exploitation of the devices of Impressionistic paintings enabled

him to probe deeper into the meaning of life and existence and attain greater
precision and concentration in his attempt to present reality than was possible
with the naturalistic technique. Like the Impressionists, Williams made a good
use of light and darkness which helped in bringing psychological plausibility in
the characters. Since Impressionism had brought freedom to an artist's
expression, Williams exploited the freedom to the fullest by combining elements
from impressionistic painting with elements from other fields in his plays, giving
his plays a rare uniqueness.

20
 (tihg^liii' Iw©

im pummmmn
 CHAPTER il

THE PURIFICATION

Exploitation of the devices of the technique of Impressionistic painting is

discernible even in Williams's early dramatic pieces contained in the collection
of plays entitled 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One-Act Plays. A repetitive
use of such colours as crimson, white and blue is clearly seen in 27 Wagons
Full of Cotton. The Purification. The Strangest Kind of Romance and This
Property is Condemned. The combined use of musical tones, settings and
images from American Indian mythology such as locusts, the'7;'20on, and hovyling
dogs etc., is made as analogous of colours.

The Purification, written in 1940, gives us the strongest evidence

ofWilliams's use of the pattern of Impressionistic painting. In his Memoirs
Tennessee Williams recalls the company of 'an uncelebrated abstract painter',
around the time of his vy^iting The Purification.'' His attempt to create a play with
an intricate non-naturalistic technique as well as to project a vision of life was
echoed in his essay, "Something Wild..."

"Art is only anarchy in juxtaposition with organised society. It

runs counter to the sort of orderliness on which organised society
apparently must be based. It is a benevolent anarchy....^

1. Tennessee Williams, Memoirs, p.53.

2. Tennessee Williams, 'Something Wild..." in the Introduction to 27 Wagons Full of Cotton.

(Connecticut, New Directions, 1953), p.vii.

21
The deliberate disconnectedness and vagueness in the dialogues by various

characters in the play is a pointer to the dramatist's intention to rely upon the

colour scheme of Impressionistic painting.

The realistic element is strongly present in the form of the decadent human

world but the aura of fantasy also exists through the presence of the cosmic

and natural v^^orlds of American Indian mythology. The world of the play, in fact,

metaphorically presents a microcosm. The realistic stuff of the drama, suggestive

of the extended implication, is in keeping with the symbolical suggestions of

Impressionistic painting.

The play on a simplistic level deals with the themes of incest and murder

and the resultant punishment or expiation. The whole drama is enacted in the

courtroom through a series of flashbacks. A judge is presiding over a homicide

case and the murderer, the spirit of his dead victim, the brother of the murdered

girl and several other witnesses are present.

The pervading evil and the ultimate purification are reflected in the dryness

of the natural and the cosmic worlds and the coming of the rain in the end. In

the introduction of the characters we find that the dramatis personae are not

presented to us conventionally by physical identification and external features.

Instead, we are presented with psycological portraits. For example, the youth

is described as 'handsome, irrationally tense of feeling' and the rancher —

The burnt-out shell of a longing....'

22
 The opening scene is like a large portrait in which colours depict the three

different worlds that touch each other.

Scene: A bare room, white or pearl gray. A number of plain

wooden benches, a small square table for the Judge.Skull of a
steer on wall. The wide arched door admits a vista of plain and
sky:the sky is a delicate aquamarine: the plain pale gold. A
range of purplish mountains between. Two high-set windows
with sunlight slanting through them.'

The scene thus presented represents the whole play as a portrait at one glance.

On the realistic level the entire drama unfolds in this courtroom and the

depositions of the witnesses are through flashbacks or a flood of memories

within the minds of the characters who are distinguished by the arrangement of

disparate colours and images.

On a symbolic level the glimpse of the 'vista of plain and sky' through the

arched door implies the penetration of the cosmic world into the narrow interior

inhabited by the human world. The 'slanting sunlight' into the room is a

compulsive intrusion of vitality and positivism in the world set for decay and

degeneration. The simultaneity of the two worlds— disparate and yet fused—

is visually realized by the colour adjustment in the painting of the whole scene

presented in the initial stage direction detailing the setting.

The colours, however, independent, — both In existence and meaning —

3. Tennessee Williams, 27 Wagons of Cotton and Other One-Act Plays, p.31. All subsequent

textual references are to this edition.

23
merge through retinal fusion to create a unified reality, which is independent

and at the same time inclusive of all the signification that the colours stand for.

The skull of a steer is a truncated symbol representing the concealed vitality

and grace in a decadent human world. The browns and greys of the courtroom

accentuate this decadence. The wide arched door is like the expanse of canvas

which shows us at a glance the coming together of the delicate aquamarine sky

representing the cosmic world, the world of nature and the courtroom of browns

and greys. The sunlight is the ray of hope and fertility that connects the human

world to the other worlds. In the style of Impressionistic painting we find here

the use of opposing tones to create the identity of a vision which is complete

and yet vividly realized. As mentioned earlier this richly suggestive pale

foregroMnd is the background for all the dramatic action of the play.

The son's description of his sister Elena reveals to us the complex picture

of a girl v ^ o represents the purity of the natural and cosmic worlds.The son

makes use of disparate images to describe the character of Elena. According

to him:
Her eyes were always
excessively clear in the morning.
Transparency is a bad omen....
It makes flight necessary....*

He further associates her with 'the long crystal beads that she wanted...'and

with 'those spring freshets she bathes in'.

The transparency in her eyes associates her with the purity and freshness

4. Jbld., p.34.

24
of spring water which symbolizes natural beauty and is in conjunction with the
azure sky mentioned above. The world of flight and her desire for long crystal
beads all imply a transcendence into a cosmic and spiritual world which is
available through the symbolic hinting of it in the reference to the blue of the
sky. It also focuses on her unsuitability for the material, degenerate human
world.

The 'freshets' in v^ich she submerges herself stand for fresh water that
flows into the sea. She represents therefore a unity of the human, natural and
cosmic worlds. The following description of her intensifies her kinship to the
natural and cosmic worlds.

She knew also

glaciers, intensely blue,
valleys, brilliant with sunlight,
lemon-yellow, terrific!....*

The colours blue, yellow and white are highly individualistic and symbolic. The
'intensely blue' glaciers symbolize a frozen vitality and a distance from the
human world. The frozen vitality is what conveys to us a concentrated power of
potential vitality rather than a lack of vitality. This cold, icy blue is contrasted
with the warmth of green, sunlit valleys— 'lemon-yellow terrific' The image,
thus, becomes complex and highly meaningful because of the arrangement of
colours.

These opposing colours that emerge in Rosalie's mind give us a combined

5. Ibid., p.35.

25
portrait of coolness and warmth to describe Elenasjourney from coolness to
warmth, from bondage, and denial, to freedom and fulfillment Yet another
glimpse of Elena, who appears as a vision to Rosalio.shows Williams's deft
handling of colours The visual and auditory effects are fused to portray Elena
and her inner reality

The Wide arched portal that gives on the aquamarine of the

desert sky now lightens with a ghostly radiance Bells toll softly
The guitar weaves a pattern of rapture Rosalio's sister, Elena
of the Spnngs.steps into the doorway She wears a sheer white
robe and bears white flowers ®

The apparition of the girl appears to Rosalio as a melting together of various

colours The aquamarine desert sky is a combination of the parched yellow
earth and the blue sky, reminding us of the primary colours, blue and yellow,
v^ich the Impressionists used to create green Here the touching together of
the two colours represents the meetingof two worlds that can be seen through
the wide gateway or door The sky and desert are lighted by the effectsofa
world beyond the human and natural— it is theghostly spiritual presence of
Elena that lights the place

The bells tolling and guitar weaving a pattern of rapture are the elements
that create the effect of awe, mystery and sublimity in the totality of the entire
picture of Elena Her white robe and v^ite flowers lend a cosmic aura to her
appearance The picture concerns not only supra-reality or the cosmic world, it
IS also a pyschological presentation of the inner world of Rosalio He is more in

6 ibid_, p 36

26
touch with the cosmic realms than the other characters who are unable to see
the vision. The vision appears in his mind and he can be called a dreamer or
visionary. He lacks the strength of a flesh and blood character. The description
of him by the servant woman lends plausibility to the fact that through him
Williams was painting a complex portrait of the subconscious rather than of a
frail human character'.

He rode at night bare-back,

through the Sangre de Cristo,
shouting aloud and making ridiculous gestures.
(The guitar plays lyrical chords)
You know how it is in August?
CHORUS; Yes, in August!
LUISA: The stars make—sudden excursions.
The moon's—lopsided.
The dogs go howling
demons about the ranches?^

The above picture reveals savagery and wildness as opposed to the civilized
world. It reveals the primitive world of the unconscious mind. It reveals a world
opposed to the one of the courtroom in which the characters have assembled.
The lopsided moon and the howling dogs remind us of the anti-realistic colours
and symbols used by the Post-Impressionists. For instance, the conventional,
peaceful picture of night-time has been replaced with a night expressive of the
passion and wildness in the inner self. The mother defends her son and says
that she, too, at his age 'rode on horse-back through the mountains.' The mother
describes these elements in her son to be the last remnants of their Indian

7. Ibid., pp.37-38.

27
blood. The scene of a chaotic night resembles a night of Lunar eclipse which to

the Indians had various mythical connotations:'

Mother: Our people- were Indian fighters...

The Indians now are subdued —
So what can we do but contend with our own
queer shadows?^

The picture of the subconscious mind through analogic colours gains

greater significance when we consider that behind them lies the fantasy and

natural mythology of the American Indians. The picture evokes the primitive

and richly symbolic world of nature to which the Indians were closely aligned.

This world also had a cosmic and spiritual significance.•'° This dream-like world

also colours Rosalie's relationship v^th his sister which is adjudged as incestuous

by the court and witnesses.

The following lines convey the dream-like quality of their relationship

through the image of birds which themselves symbolize flight and unearthliness:

Resistless it was,
this coming of birds together
in heaven's center...
Plumage- song- the dizzy spirals of flight

8. Pierre Grimal, ed., Larousse World MvtholOQv. (London, The Hamlyn Publishing Group,
1973), p.489.
9. 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. P.40.

10. Larousse World Mythology. p.450.

28
 all suddenly forced together

in one brief, burning conjunction!"

The picture combines audio-visual effects that are analogic equivalents to colour.

In Scene II the son's description of the Rancher is once again a

psychological portrait but one v^ich is opposed in every way to the first picture
v*4iich represented liveliness and animation.

Dark clouds form the background of this portrait. The following descriptions
of the Rancher who murdered Elena show us the effects of combined analogic
equivalents:

You, repairman, come early,

before daybreak can betray you.
Now clasp in your hand
the smooth white heft of the axe!
But wait! Wait - first-
Fill up the tin buckets
with chalky white fluid, the milk
of that phosphorescent green lizard -

Memory, passion.^^

This miniature portrait of a repairman coming at daybreak with a brush and

bucket of paint has been transformed through the use of mental colours and
images into the picture of a murderer. He holds an axe in place of a paint brush

11- 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, p.45.

12. Ibid., pp.46-47.

29
signalling his destructiveness. His bucket is filled not with paint but the milk of

a vicious vice which is represented by the image of a phosphorescent green

lizard. The combined effect is forboding of death and disaster. The colour white

that is used here for the Rancher is different from the white used for the first

vision of Elena. While the white of Elena symbolized purity and the frozen vitality

of glaciers, here the white is tainted by the colour green. It reminds us of

the'aquamarine of the desert sky' v^ich had been the background of the first

vision of Elena. The blue sky is, in other words, touched by the green (symbolic

of evil) which makes it look aquamarine. Williams has, through the medium of

colours, expressed how the cosmic and spiritual world represented by the sky

is affected by the evil in the human world. As opposed to the v^ld and unrestricted

gamboling of the brother and sister and their quest for truth in the portrait

presented in Scene 1 the portrait in Scene II introduces us to death and its slow

and gradual approach through a series of truncated symbols and audio-visual

effects:

Carry your axe and your bucket

slow clanking past frozen hen-tiouses
Where sinister stalactite fowls nrjake rigid comment
claw-beak — ....
Go on — go on to where
the barn,
that moon-paled building,
large
and church-like in arch of timber,

tumescent between the sensual fingers of vines,'^

13. Ibid., p.48.

30
The element of fear has been evoked through 'slow-clanking' and images of
'frozen hen houses.' The frozen birds still with fear remind us of the vibrant
union of birds, their 'dizzy spirals of flight' in Scene I. Death is creeping into not
only the natural and physical world but the spiritual world as well.

The church-like building is 'tumescent' or abnormally/morbidly swollen

amidst the vines. The morbidity of the Rancher's intention has, as it were, robbed
even the spiritual world of its grace. The Rancher calls the barn or the place
occupied by the lovers a 'deep well of light':

RANCHER; (trance-like)
It stood
in a deep well of light.
It stood like a tiuge wrecked vessel -in deep
seas of light!
SON: You halted...
SON: At this infimemorial vault,^^

The use of the word 'vault' is very significant because the word suggests a
'spring' or 'fountain' meaning the highest stratum in the series of worlds that the
American Indians' mythological world was made up of.

As an image from the Impressionistic paintings shows us the disunited

cosmic, natural and human worlds the 'vault' suggests a point of imagined or
hoped-for unity.The incestuous love between Rosalio and his sister on a cosmic

14. Ibid,

31
level stands for unity and truth. When the murder is finally committed we find
that a juxtapositon of loud and soft tones used as analogic equivalents of
colours— gives us the effect of violence and conflict:

CHORUS: Struck!
SON: And she didn't cry...
RANCHER. Struck?
Aye, struck- struck- struck!
CHORUS: Struck:
(Dissonant chords on the guitar, with cymbals. The two men surge
together... There is a rumble of thunder).^*

The use of the term 'struck' as an analogic equivalent is very significant here. It
is rendered with a loudness that gives the impact of breaking up the harmoniuos
order of the world suggested by the 'dissonant chords on the guitar.' There is a
contrast between the guitar chords which created harmony and ecstasy in the
first vision of Elena and the now disturbed chords. The rumble of thunder gives
greater volume and breadth to this disturbance.

The words 'dissonant chords' and 'surging together' are close to the
Impressionists' method of the use of colours as they imply the juxtaposition and
blending of various tones. We are given another image of Elena this time flowing
out of the Rancher's mind. While the brother saw her as a natural symbol of
purity, life and rejuvenation, the Rancher's vision of Elena is tainted by death

15. Ibid., p.49.

32
and decay, on a larger scale the cosmic and natural worlds have been affected

by the corruption in the human world The Rancher makes use of such phrases

as water sealed under a rock water that ran through my fingers when I was

athirst' to describe how Elena shunned him and how apart she was from him in

nature

Before the second vision of Elena the 'sound of mocking laughter conveys

to us that what is happening in the Rancher's mind is his own recapitulation of

the way he was rejected by Elena

The dissonant notes are repeated The rustling is louder A

sound of mocking laughter outside the door, sudden and brief
The Desert Elena appears It is the same lost girl but not as
the brother had seen her This is the vision of the loveless bride
the water sealed under rock from the lovers thirst— not the
green of the mountains and the clear sw^ift streams, but the
sun-parched desert Her figure is closely sheathed in a coarse-
fibred bleached material, her hair bound tight to her skull She
bears a vessel in either hand like balanced scales one
containing a cactus, the other a wooden grave-cross with a
wreath of dry, artificial flowers on it Only the Rancher observes
her^«

We find that in the total Impressionistic painting this psychological mini portrait

of Elena is in sharp contrast to the first portrait which was visible only to the

brother This portrait of Elena which expresses a tainted world is further reinforced

by other images that show that even the spiritual world represented by the

monks has lost its grace

16 ibid . p 51

33
 ELENA; ...The old monks whittle— they make prayer-beads in the
cellar. Their fingers are getting too stiff to continue the work.
They dread the bells. For the bells are heavy and iron and
have no wetness in them.''

The life of the monks has become dull and miserable, even the bells that
symbolize a spiritual calling have grown too heavy for them. In the same way
the sisters too have an existence where there is no grace or salvation. The
colour black which was used for the nadir point in American Indian mythology
characterises the nuns;

The sisters come out in a quick and steady file and their black
skirts whisper dryer and dryer and dryer,...'*

But in the characteristic manner of the Impressionists these dull tones are
juxtaposed to dissonant and bright colours;

(She turns austerely and moves away from the door. Three
dissonant notes on the guitar and the sound of the dead rustling
leaves is repeated. A yellow flash of lightning in the portal,
now vacant, and the sound of wind.)''

These colours suggest the flight of Elena to freedom. Her escape, however, is
not just the escape from a corrupted world but, on a deeper level, it implies
rejuvenation which is aptly conveyed through the dance of the three white-

17. Ibid., p.53.

18. Ibid.
19. ibid,
34
robed women. Williams has combined elements of American Indian ceremonial
dance*" with analogic colours to create a mini picture.

The white robed women emulate the parched, lifeless world of nature. The
white colour is a contrast to the black of the sister's clothes. The black and
white arefifecontrast to the golden blue and white which characterized the first
vision of Elena.

The soft music of the guitar and drums, the slow dance-like movements
and the colour white intermingling with the above analogic equivalents to soft
tones have a redemptive effect on the death-like frozen silence of the earlier
images. As if timed with this ritual dance, the picture of fleeing Elena fills the
Rancher's mind. Her flight is not described in the conventional way but in the
style of the Impressionists through various natural images. Her escape is
picturised thus:

RANCHER: At once the clouds

had changed their weight into motion,
their inkiness thinned,
their cunr^ulous forms rose higher,
their edges were stirred

as radiant feathers, upwards, above the mountains.^^

The upward movement of the clouds expresses Elena's spiritual progress.

20. "...occasionally local Indian prophets predicting the return of the dead...instituted

ceremonial dances in preparation for this return (Ghost Dance):" Larousse World
Mythology: P.449.
21. 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, p.54.
35
Likewise in the following dialogue the images of the birds and the Eucalyptus
tree, too, are drawn from nature and effectively through their softness and solidity
give us a picture of Elena's journey. The rain and the Angelus bells that
accompany her escape shows us that her escape is not personal but related to
the natural and cosmic rejuvenation.

RANCHER: A treble choir

now sang in the eucalyptus,
an Angelus rang!
...The birds already, the swallows,
before the rainstorm ceased,
had begun to climb
...The long and tremendous
song of the eucalyptus described this flight:
the shoulders inclined stiffly forward,
the arms flung out, throat arched,
more as though drunk
with a kind of heroic abandon — than blinded — by fright.^^

As this narration of Elena's flight ends, a cloud that had brought momentary
respite from the heat disappears. This momentary cloud or flash of memory in
the Rancher's mind reminds us of the Impressionists' attempt to capture one
brief moment of life on the canvas. With all the soft and dark colours, this mini
painting captures the death of Elena and her escape through a series of
variations.

So far the mental scenes have dealt with psychological portraits of Elena

22. Ibid., p.55.

36
or Rosalio, her brother. Even the murder and Elena's final escape have received

more than adequate expression through images and colours that create a picture.

This Impressionistic technique has helped to communicate reality or the vision

of life at a much deeper level than the one usually explored through a

conventional technique.

In Scene III we are given a psychological portrait of the Rancher which

includes his confession of the crime, his death and the redemption of the three

worlds from the burden of evil. It is worth noting that while Elena was represented

through the images of the clouds, birds and the eucalyptus, the Rancher is

represented through the image of a dark cellar which is corroding or decaying

v^thin:

...emptiness, still unfilled, became a cellar,

a cellar into which blackness dripped and trickled,
a slow, corrosive seepage.
Then the reticence
was no longer noble — but locked—resentful,
and breeding a need for destruction."

The images of the cellar symbolize isolation and it is filled with evil and

resentment. While Elena belonged to a higher world to which she had to climb,

please refer to the usage of the words 'deep well of light' and 'immemorial

vault'2* in part II.

23. Ibid., p.56.

24. Ibid., p.48.

37
 An important point regarding the colour black used todescribe the

psychological world of the Rancher is that American Indian mythology divided

the cosmic and natural worlds on the basis of colours:

A sacred colour is associated with each sector or direction:

The Zuni tribe in New Mexico and several other Peublo
Societies think of the north as yellow, the west as blue, the
south as red, the east as white, the zenith as multi coloured
and the nadir as black."

The comparison between 'immemorial vault' and the black cellar brings out the

American Indian visualization of the world. Elena was at the zenith while the

Rancher is at the nadir point.

While light (which symbolizes grace) characterises Elena, the Rancher is

characterised by darkness which stands for a lack of divine grace. This is

apparent from the Judge's questioning the Rancher as follows.

THE JUDGE: How did the light come through?

RANCHER: Through the crookedest entrance, the narrowest archway:
THE JUDGE: And where you walked— what was it you walked among?
RANCHER: A pile of my own dead bones — the discarded lumber.
THE JUDGE: The day was still.
RANCHER: Oppressively stil.
THE JUDGE. Noon— breathless. The sky was vacant.
White — plague-like-exhausted.2^

25. Pierre Grimal, ed., Larousse World Mythology, p 450.

26. 27 Waoons Full of Cotton, p.57.

38
This mini picture gives us a description of the world of the Rancher which is
coloured with the horrifying images of dead bones, a white sky and a very thin
ray of light. It resembles the world of a grave.

The ominousness within the Rancher's mind is highlighted by the aura of

decay in the background through audio-visual effects.

Rancher: Once it disgorged

A turbulent swarnn of locusts.
Heat made wave-like motions
over the terrible
desert statement of distance.
Giants came down
invisibly,

pounding huge— huge-drums:"

The 'swarm of locusts', the 'wave-like motions', the 'giants', 'the huge— huge
drums' are ail antinatural images used to convey the unnatural and evil world of
the Rancher.

As mentioned earlier, in the style of the Post Impressionists, Williams drew

natural symbols and myths from American Indian mythology and by combining
them expressed emotions of varying intensity. The Rancher, for example, tries
to find deliverance from his tainted state in Elena's freshness and purity. Once
again the son uses Impressionistic and mental images to describe Elena and
her journey:

27. ibii. p.57.

39
 this quick silver girl,
this skyward diver,
(his searcher after pearls,
terrestrial striver!
Blue —
Blue —

Immortality blue...^°

The words, 'skyward diver', indicate flight and the colour blue is used not only
for her but for the sky as well.

The blue used here has a purity and dream-like quality which Williams
exploited for artistic purposes in such plays as Camino Real, The Glass
Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. The vision of the first Elena reappears
before Rosalio and the youth by killing himself merges himself v^th Elena or
with their quest:

Bells toll softly once more and again the girl reappears in the
doorway. It is (he first vision again of Elena of the Springs.^^

We find that Williams has tried to create a single visual impact in the last scene
through the suicide of the youth, the guitar player sweeping back him crimson
cape, the darkening sky, the sound of thunder, the image of Peeto the pony in
the youth's mind and the co-mingling of the music of the guitar, the singing
women and falling rain on the roof. This interfusing of analogic equivalents with

28. Ibid^, p.59.

29. ibid,, p.60.

40
soft and loud colours here, representing the portrait as a whole creates Williams
vision of life which is a unity of disparate elements.

The inner world represented by the courtroom and the outer world of
nature are united and the unity has been presented impressionistically, the
ultimate unity of all the three worlds.

41
 Clha^l^i' Ihf^ih

im (^ims mmmEM
 CHAPTER III

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

The Glass Menagerie, a revised version of the Gentleman Caller,

was written in 1943 just three years after The Purification and bears
unmistakable resemblances to it in its style and technique. Music and colours
in The Glass Menagerie have been used repetitively according to the
Impressionistic pattern that was found in the earlier play. Just as in The
Purification, in the present play, too, soft and dark colours are used in
contrast and the colours are individualistic and symbolic of the character's
inner state of mind. In the present play we find that, just as black had been
used to present the Rancher's mind in The Purification, the colour blue
expresses here Laura's inner world. Williams himself admitted to being under
the influence of Impressionists around 1939 which implies that he used
those influences here consciously, and sub-consciously in the years that
followed in several of his plays:

I suppose that summer (of 1939) was the happiest and

healthiest and most radiant time of my life. I know that I
kept a journal then, and in this journal I referred to that
season as Nave Nave Mahana, which is the title of Tny
favourite (Tahitian) painting by Gaugin and which means
The Careless Days'.^

1. Tennessee Williams. Memoirs, p.6.

42
 The origins of The Glass Menagerie can be traced to a story,

amongst Williams's early writings, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass". As the title

indicates the intention behind the story was to create a picture of a girl (his

sister) but the picture that evolved in The Glass Menagerie is a much more

complicated and carefully constructed large painting which is constituted

of seven miniature paintings All the seven scenes or miniature paintings,

through repetitive colours and colour analogues taken from other Arts, create

a portrait of the world of the girl, which is the Wingfield family. The Glass

Menagerie is an impressionistic portrait of a family built on flashes of memory

in Tom Wingfield's mind. The Impressionists, too, captured life on canvas

in sudden momentary flashes.

The moments of memory are painted in colour and analogic

equivalents to colour such as images, legends, settings and music, all of

which symbolize specific emotions. The thematic pattern of the play

underlies these flashes of memory. The following opening lines of Scene I

hint at the thematic concern of the play which is dream versus reality:

The Wingfield apartment is in the rear of the building, one

of those vast hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-
units that flower as warty growths in over -crowded urban
centers ... The apartment faces an alley and is entered by
a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of
accidental poetic truth, for all these huge buildings are

43
 always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human
desperation....^

The gross reality of an over-crowded urban center is confronted

with unreal escape in the form of the fire escape, 'whose name is a touch of
accidental poetic truth.' All the three characters, Amanda, Laura and Tom,
framed in the portrait of memory, are figures seen struggling with reality
and trying to find refuge in illusion Their struggle is static and they remain
where they are from the beginning to the end— this is characteristic of a
typical Impressionistic painting

The constant refrain of the legend, where are the snows', and
Amanda's repeated recalling (her past) the Blue Mountain are once again a
focus on illusion symbolized by the fire escape The screen legends and
screen images have special significance with relation to the Impressionistic
or undefined structure of the play. According to Esther Merle Jackson

., the basic structure of narrative line may be obscured from

the audience;the effect may seem fragmentary rather than
architectural. . The legend or image upon the screen will
strengthen the effect of what is merely allusion in the
writing...^

2 John Gassner. ed.. The Glass Menagerie in Best Plays of Modern American Theatre,
Second Series, (New York Crown Publishers Inc , 1957), p 3 All subsequent

references to the text are from this edition

3. Quoted by Estlier Merle Jackson in The proken World of Tennessee Williams,

(London, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), p.91.

44
 The following lines reveal a soft, dreamlike atmosphere where the
legend, the gestures and the soft light are muted background tones creating
the Wingfield world of hopes and illusions.

Legend on Screen: "Ou Sont Les Neiges,

(Where are the snows)
... AMANDA and LAURA are seated at a drop leaf table.
Eating is indicated by gestures without food or utensils...
The interior has lit up softly..."

Against the soft-toned world picturised above, there is the intrusion

of reality followed by the Glass Menagerie Music.

Here is Amanda's sudden collision with reality when Laura points

out that there is not going to be any gentleman caller:

Amanda: You nnust be joking!... (A shaft of clear light is thrown

on her face against the faded tapestry of the curtains.)
(Music: -THE GLASS MENAGERIE" UNDER FAINTLY.)^

The intrusion of reality against the lighted figure of Amanda in a

softly-coloured background of fading colours and music is presented
impressionistically.

4. Modern American Theatre, p.4.

5. Ibid., p.6.

45
 Scene II is a picture of the inner worlds of each member of the

Wingfield family Colours mdividualistically represent the desparate world

of each of the three characters and their relationship to reality The following

lines are highly significant for understanding, through colours and images,

the differences between the psyche of Laura and that of Amanda

On the dark stage the screen is lighted with the image of

blue roses Laura is seated in the delicate ivory chair at
the small claw foot table She wears a dress of soft violet
material . She is washmg and polishing her collection of
glass Amanda appears on the fire escape steps (She
has) a look that is grim and hopeless and a little absurd
She has on one of those cheap or imitation velvet-looking
cloth coats with imitation fur collar. ..she is clasping an
enormous black patent-leather pocket book with nickel
clasps and initials ^

While Laura is symbolized by the blue roses which mean a lack of

vitality, blue is an anti-natural colour for a rose, she is rooted in her world

of glass through the images of 'the delicate ivory chair' and the dress of

'soft violet material' She has no wish to escape her delicate dream world.

Amanda seen standing on the fire escape steps is trying to escape the

reality of her self and her daughter's inner self. Her imitation-jewellery and

clothes further intensify her desperation to escape reality

6 Ibid . p.6

46
 The colours used not only reveal the inner worlds of the three

characters but also give us momentary flashes of their daily lives;

IMAGE: A SWARM OF TYPEWRITERS.

But I stopped off at Rubicam's business college to speak
to your teachers about your having a cold and ask them
what progress they thought you were making down there.^

The swarm of typewriters is suggestive of dark overpowering shades

of reality and the words 'down there' indicate a (dark) world opposed to the

one of the (soft-toned) Blue Mountain. Laura's walking out in the (white

coloured) snow to avoid the typewriting class (dark swarm) shows us how

dream and reality are presented in soft and dark tones:

LAURA; It was the lesser of the two evils.

Mother. (IMAGE: WINTER SCENE IN PARK).»

After the image of the winter scene we have the far removed

'LEGEND; THE CRUST OF HUMILITY', which is supposed to represent the

appearance of Amanda's face which Laura likens to the picture of Jesus'

mother in the museum. Such a comparison shows that the characters in the

play are static, immobile figures of an Impressionistic painting rather than

full-blooded beings. The sad, suffering face of Amanda is contrasted with

7. Ibid., p.7

8. Ibid.

47
youth and liveliness as in the following image

(SCREEN IMAGE: JIM AS HIGH - SCHOOL HERO

BEARING A SILVER CUP.f

This image of youth and vitality is followed by the image of blue

roses which stands for a lack of vitality. Thus we find that Scene 11 is one

picture out of Tom's memory that reveals the Wingfields, their hopes,

illusions and memories.

In Scene III the legend on screen, 'After the Fiasco', implies a

struggle which ends in a fiasco. Amanda, Laura and Tom are all part of the

struggle to escape reality and Tom and Laura are seeking desperately to

fulfilltheir desires. The following lines supply us with an image that

symbolizes this struggle.

it became an obsession. Like some archetype of the

universal unconscious, the image of the gentleman caller
haunted our small apartment...

(IMAGE: YOUNG MAN AT DOOR WITH FLOWERS )^-

Other images are used to express Amanda's craving for youth and

beauty as in the following lines, whichcollectiveiy create the image of the

9. Ibid., p.8.

10. Ibid., p.9.

48
Glamour Magazine Cover

... the type of journal that features the serialized

sublimations of ladies of letters who think m terms of
delicate cup-like breasts, slim, tapering waists, rich, creamy
thighs, eyes like wood-smoke in autumn, fingers that soothe
and caress like strains of music, bodies as powerful as
Etruscan sculpture "

While the image of the gentleman caller represents Amanda's desire

for love, the image of the glamour magazine cover represents her yearning

for youth and beauty

Just after this sojourn into Amanda's inner v\/orld the legend on

screen is seen as -("YOU THINK I'M IN LOVE WITH CONTINENTAL

SHOEMAKERS")— revealing Tom's desire for freedom

Before the stage is lighted, the violent voices of Tom and

Amanda are heard ^^

The soft tones of the images that represent Amanda's yearnings

are suddenly juxtaposed by loud tones in the over-powering reality of the

image of the Continental Shoemakers In addition, the sounds have grown

loud and violent just as the Impressionist enjoyed using loud and sharply

11 ibid_

12 Ibid., p.9.

49
contrasting tones There is a quarrel between Amanda and Tom Amanda
tries to control Tom wtiile he goes on a wild spree and the following lines
suggestively indicate the passionate intensity in Tom which she tries to
suppress.

Amanda, I took that horrible novel back to the library- yes'

that hideous book by that insane Mr Lawrence "

The mental state of Amanda is expressed through a number of

images and the conflict between Amanda and Tom through the muted tones
represented by the smoky glow

TOM I don't want to hear anymore' (He tears the portieres open
The upstage area is lit with a turgid smoky red glow)
(AMANDA'S hair is in metal curlers and she wears a very
old bathrobe, much too large for her slight figure )''

Donald Spoto has commented on the picture-like quality of the

Gentleman Caller, a seminal version of the Glass Menagerie

With Its indication of dissolves and image-overlays, its

insertion of musical motifs and it's plastic, dreamlike
construction, it was conceived as a film of memory ''

13 ibid
14. Ibid
15 Donald Spoto, The Kindness of Strangers the Life of Tennessee Williams (Boston,
Little Brown, 1941), p 97

50
 The term 'film' is very important as the Impressionists were trying
to film reality on canvas more through the vision than the intellect

It can be observed m Scene III as in the whole play that m each

miniature portrait of the family we are presented with succession of colours
and their analogic equivalents not telling a story but creating an
Impressionistic portrait of a family

Scene III which began with the legend 'After the Fiasco' develops
into the images of the Gentleman Caller and the associated images of the
Glamour Magazine Cover grow into a muted collision of soft and loud tones
in the turgid smoky glow Finally Tom makes a bold attempt to break free
from the pinioning unreality of The Glass Menaoerie as follows

H I S arm catches in the sleeve of the coat as he struggles to

pull It on For a moment he is pmioned by the bulky garment
With an outraged groan he tears the coat off agam, splittmg
the shoulder of it and hurls it across the room It strikes
against the shelf of LAURAS glass collection there is a
tinkle of shattering glass LAURA cries out as if wounded
(MUSIC LEGEND THE GLASS MENAGERIE ^

The 'tinkle of shattering glass' is an analogic equivalent of a loud

colour that contains all the other analogic colours in the scene It is followed

16 Ibid • p 11

51
by a cry from Laura and the Glass Menagerie music. Laura's cry is what
indicates that the portrait is of a family in which all the characters are bound
to each other and the Glass Menagerie music is a repetitive 'colour' in the
play— signifying the fragility of the Glass Menagerie built on illusion.

Scene IV is once again a painting of a family with a dark and faintly-

lighted back-ground and a series of images in the background that represent
their individualities. The introduction concentrates on the dark background
of the painting in which there is dim light.

The interior is dark. Faint light in the alley. A deep voiced

bell in a church is tolling the hour of five as the scene
commences.^^

The tolling of the bell and the faint light impart a dream-like softness
to the scene. A disagreement like a loud tone impinges on the soft
background; it is between Amanda and Tom. The description of Amanda
with the subtle interplay of light and darkness on her face has Impressionistic
overtones.

(As Tom enters listlessly for his coffee, she turns her back
to him and stands rigidly facing the window on the gloomy
gray vault of the areaway. Its light on herface with its aged
but childish features is cruelly sharp, satirical as a Daumier
print.'^

17. ibid,

18. ibid., p.13.

52
 This description of Amanda is followed by the music, 'Ave Maria',

which is equivalent to soft tones that enhance her motherliness which is

implied repetitively by her arguments with her son while Amanda is

discussing Laura, her daughter, who is characterised by the screen legend

'Laura' and the Glass Menagerie music.

Tom's adventurous spirit is highlighted by the following image,

(IMAGE ON SCREEN: SAILING VESSEL WITH

JOLLY R0GER.)^9

Towards the end of Scene IV the focus on Amanda's suffering

becomes highly significant:

You're a Christian martyr, yes, honey, that's

what you are, a Christian martyr!^''

The statement suggests that Amanda lives in a world of illusion

which is the Glass Menagerie and is the victimof reality. In fact, Scene IV

gives us glimpses of the lives of the Wingfields presented as a miniature

painting.

19 »bid.. p.14.

20. ibid., p.15.

53
 In Scene V we find a picture in which the accent is on hope. This is
done through colours and their analogic equivalents such as images and
legends. The legend on screen is Annunciation' which refers to the
announcement of the incarnation by Angel Gabriel. The legend therefore
sets the tone of hope and expectancy:

It is early dusk of a spring evening. Supper has just been

finished in the Wingfield apartment. AMANDA and LAURA
in light coloured dresses are removing dishes from the table,
in the upstage area, which is shadowy, their movements
formalized almost as a dance or ritual, their moving forms
as pale and silent as moths. Tom, in white shirt and trousers,
rises.... ^'

The colour white and other light tones give the scene a dream-like
unreality as compared to the picture of the present which seems rather
contrived. The past seen through Tom's memory seems more real and solid:

On evenings in spring the windows and doors were open

and the music came outdoors. Sometimes the lights were
turned out except for a large glass sphere that hung from
the ceiling. It would turn slowly about and filter the dusk with
delicate rainbow colours. Then the orchestra played a waltz
or a tango, something that had a slow and sensuous rhythm.^^

The slow and sensuous rhythm is an equivalent to richer and fuller

21. Ibid.. p.i6.

22. Ibid.

54
colour and so are the rainbow colours. Contrasted to the lightly coloured
present the picture of the past seems richer and filled with vitality.

The following lines by Amanda give us an idea of the arrest of time

in sudden moments in the play:

AMANDA: You are the only young man that I know who ignores
the fact that the future becomes the present, the
present the past..."

Amanda reveals the static quality of the moments of time (of the
past and present) captured in the play in an Impressionistic manner.

The past and present are also distinguished as reality and dream.
Judith J.Thompson has commented on the contrast between dream and
reality v^rfiich alternate as light and dark tones in The Glass Menagerie.

The underlying structure of The Glass Menagerie is

formed by a tension between the illusion of moving
forward and the reality of moving backward, between
dream and destiny, the two so perfectly balanced that
the effect is the arrest of time.^*

In Scene IV, too, the alternating pattern of dark and light tones can
be seen, The following lines that show a changed appearance of the

23. ibid., p.18.

24. Jac Tharpe, ed., Tennessee Williams. Part 2. p.685.

55
Wingfield apartment hint at the attempt of Amanda to conceal the darker
tones of reality with the lighter tones of the dream world:

(AMANDA has worked like a Turk in preparation for the

gentleman caller. The results are astonishing. The new floor
lamp with its rose-silk shade is in place, a colored paper
lantern conceals the broken light fixture in the ceiling, new
billowing white curtains are at the window, chintz covers
are on chairs and sofa...)-*

A similar pattern of alternating light and dark tones can be seen as

Amanda reminisces over her past:

Evenings, dances!-Afternoons, long, long rides! Picnics-

lovely!— So lovely, that country in May — All lacy with
dogwood, literally flooded with jonquils! That was the spring
I had the craze for jonquils.^^

These bright tones are followed by ominous music that hints at the
darker shades of reality. Similarly, the first legend expresses Terror i.e. the
nervous state of Laura and the next legend reads as The Opening of a
door'.

The first legend expresses fear as contrasted to the second v^tiich

expresses the softness of expectancy. The earlier images are used

25. Modern American Theatre, p.21.

26. Ibtd.. p.22.

56
repetitively such as the image of Jolly Roger and Amanda as a young girl

A third image of the Executive at desk, represents Jim the gentleman

caller. These three opposing images remind us of the Impressionists' use
of disparate colours. Towards the end we are presented with a comingling
of loud and soft tones,

(LEGEND "TERROR!")
(Outside a summer storm is commg abruptly The white
curtains billow inward at the wmdows and there is a
sorrowful murmur and deep blue dusk y

The emotion, of 'terror' is an analogic equivalent to a loud tone,

the sorrowful murmur to a soft tone, the deep blue is yet another colour
The white colour too is prominent The impact of the scene which shows
the overpowering darkness of reality is in the gentle relief brought by the
deep blue which symbolizes hope

It IS worth noting here that 'blue' has a symbolic significance in

this play as in others The colour blue in The Glass Menaoerie is native to
Laura's inner self It represents her fragile world of dreams and hopes, but
also represents the entire world of the Wingfield family which lives on
memories and dreams

27. Ibid., p.26.

57
 Thus in Scene Vlll we are given a wider use of the colour blue

As the curtain rises LAURA is still huddled upon the sofa,

hei feet drawn under her, her head resting on a pale blue
pillow, her eyes wide and mysteriously watchful The new
floor lamp with its shade of rose-coloured silk gives a soft,
becoming light to her face, bringing out the fragile, unearthly
prettiness which usually escapes attention There is a steady
murmur of ram, but it is slackening and stops soon after
the scene begins the air outside becomes pale and luminous
as the moon breaks out

A moment after the curtain rises the lights flicker and go

out =

The blue of her pillow the pink of her lamp, the murmur of ram in

the background and the pale moonlight are tones that highlight Laura's

fragility Laura s gradual movement out of her cloister is conveyed through

the medium of colours

During her interaction and communication with Jim, her feelings

intensify when she reminisces about being called Blue Roses' by Jim in

the past There is an intimate exchange between them as follows

This one is one of the oldest Its nearly thirteen

(MUSIC "THE GLASS MENAGERIE')

28 Ibid

58
 (He stretches out his hand )
Oh, be careful— if you breathe, it breaksP'

The music of The Glass Menagerie intensifies the growing bond

between Laura and Jim They discover mutual attraction between them and

both have the need of each other As they begin to dance, the Image on

Screen is Blue Roses and as he tries to kiss her the music swells

tumultuously After this sudden intensity and d e p t h of colour, Jim

acknowledges his love for someone else

(The holy candles in the altar of LAURA'S face have been

snuffed out There is a look of almost infinite desolation) ^"

The legend on screen, Things have a way of turning out so badly''

and the image of the Gentleman Caller, waving good-bye— gaily,' all signify

a change of colour, mood and tone Towards the close of the play Tom's

summing up of the pictures of his memory presents to us the whole play

which IS a family portrait created of moments and pieces of colour It is a

still, lifeless picture to which Tom returns often symbolically

Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some

strange city, before I have found companions I pass
thelighted window of a shop The window is filled with

29 Ibid • p 32.

30 Ibid . p.35.

59
 pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate
colors, like bits of shattered rainbow.'^

The play is the portrait of a family which embodies Williams' vision

of life. Williams communicates in this play, as in the other plays, two worlds-
the world of illusion and the world of reality which are perpetually in conflict
with each other. Through the Impressionistic portrait of the Wingfield family
Williams presents a slice of life animated with colours. While in The
Purification Williams was uniting different worlds through the medium of
painting, in the present play he is immortalizing that unity through Art. Tom's
memory is the Impressionistic canvas which captures the impressions of
life permanently.

31- Ityd.. p.38.

60
 tk^pimt fi^m

h %mmi(LM mmm
 CHAPTER IV

A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE

A Street Car Named Desire written in 1945 turned out to be one of the most

successful plays of Tennessee Williams. It was written two years after The

Glass Menaoerie. another major stage success. While The Glass Menagerie

dealt with the illusions of a family, Williams takes the same theme in A

Streetcar and makes the play revolve around the illusions of one character,

Blanche Du Bois, studying her inner and outer worlds with greater depth

and giving colours and analogic equivalents greater sharpness and meaning.

The broad plot outline of the play is firmly rooted in the naturalistic

convention. Simplistically approached the plot-line of the play runs as

follows: Blanche Du Bois has come from an affluent section of society to

live with her sister Stella and, Stanley, her husband, in their financially

impoverished world. Blanche's sense of alienation in the new world leads

her to escape into her own world of illusions and unreality which ultimately

results in drastic developments. Finally Blanche has to be sent away to a

state institution. The play is not about what the plot tells us. Williams's

concern is to explore the deeper psyche of Blanche caught in incompatible

attitudes and approaches to life. This could not have been achieved through

following only naturalistic convention aided by symbolism. This deeper

probing has been achieved by Williams through his exploitation of the

61
devices of Impressionistic painting which operate both at the literal level of

selection and combination of colours as v^ll as the analogic level where a

number of other devices are brought in. In Williams's ov^ words.

There's a line of streetcar which belongs to Blanche. Mitch

has told her he'd thought that she was 'straight',and she
has replied, 'What is straight?' A line can be straight, or a
street, but the human heart, oh no, curved like a road
through mountains!^

This illustrates Williams'spreoccupation with the Impressionistic technique

in the play, which views life from the subconscious level and through the

use of images, symbols, colours and sounds rather than as a faithful and

'straight' rendering of conventional attitudes to life.

It is pertinent to recall that Williams had first intended to call the

play 'The Poker Night' after the painting of the Impressionist and

Expressionist, Vincent Van Gogh's "All Night Cafe" (1888) which is

mentioned in Sc. ill of the play. The whole play is divided into eleven pictures

or scenes interwoven together by surrealistic, symbolic, expressionistic and

naturalistic techniques to create a large Impressionistic painting.

In the opening scene we are presented with a picture of polarities worked

1. Tennessee Williams, Men^O'rs. p.53.

62
out through colour and its analogic equivalents:

It is the first darlc of an evening, early in May. The sky that

shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender
blue, almost a turquoise.which invests the scene with a
kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere
of decay. You can almost feel the warm breath of the brown
river beyond the river warehouses with their faint
redolences of bananas and coffee. A corresponding air is
evoked by the music of Negro entertainers at the barroom
around the corner.^

The blue colour 'that invests the scene with a kind of lyricism' reminds of

Williams' conscious use of the primary colour blue of the Impressionistic

school and it is used suggestively and symbolically. In The Purification the

colour blue suggests the rejuvenation and vitality of the natural world

whereas in The Glass Menagerie blue stands for the delicate, fragile and

lifeless world of Laura Wingfield. The colour blue has also a redemptive

effect in the atmosphere of decay besides hinting at the presence of two

worlds, one fragile, delicate, perhaps belonging to Blanche and the other,

sordid and decaying belonging to that of her sister. The colour blue is

'peculiar' and alien to the world of the brown river, the redolences of coffee

2. John Gassner, ed.. Best American Plavs Third Series 1945-1951 , p.52.

All subsequent textual references are to this edition.

63
and bananas, and the floating music of Negro entertainers which are

symbolised by the colour red as the play progresses.

This setting of dark and dull colours is further complimented by

the loud laughter and the unsophisticated exchange (of the red package)

between Stanley and Stella and the other women Against this background,

as softly as the peculiar colour blue Blanche makes her entry, dressed in

white

Her appearance is incongruous in this setting She is

daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace
and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if
she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail '

The white colour of Blanche has been compared to the white colour of

a moth The image of the moth captures her entire self and suggests her

nervousness, instability, vulnerability and intense feelings and desires

The deliberate use of the colours blue, red and white is highly significant to

the Impressionistic structure of the play and these colours are used

symbolically throughout the play

The bold dramatic intention of Williams makes a heavy demand

on the director where he has to make colours speak in conjunction with the

3. Ibid., p.52

64
modulation of music so that the desired dramatic atmosphere and mood are

created initially Though naturalistic, the atmosphere should have an element

of supra-realism, illusion or unreality The present picture of contrasts points

to the central conflict between two forces The exchange between Stanley

and Stella suggests a violent vitality between the two that is threatening to

Blanche In fact the incongruity of Blanche in the setting of dark grey and

browns is highly suggestive

The background represents a static, unchanging world which will

eventually mutilate, destroy and overcome the white moth-like delicacy of

Blanche

The pattern of relationships is highly significant in the play as

they are analogic equivalents to colour and help define the persona of

Blanche Blanche's interacton with the others makes her a tragic figure

Thomas P Adier has aptly commented that the relationships in the play

are crucial to the total design"" When Blanche is first introduced to Stanley

he has been described as follows

He IS of medium height, about five feet eight or nine, and

strongly, compactly built, animal joy in his being is implicit
in all his movementsand attitudes Since earliest manhood

4 Thomas P AdIer, A Streetcar Named Desire The Moth and the Lantern. (Boston,

Twaynes' Masterwork Studies, 1990), p 23

65
 the center of his hfe has been pleasure with women .with
the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among
hens '

The colourful image of the richly feathered male bird is antithetical to the

image of the white moth that represents Blanche The two images together

ominously imply the relationship between the predator and the victim

Similarly, the screeching of cats and the faint music of the polka, like

opposing tones, intensify the implications of this relationship, which though

fearful is still mysterious

Blanche's relationship to her sister Stella is somewhat pretended

and unreal, for she is a misfit in Stellas' world

The use of the colour yellow and the sound of the blue piano have together

very effectively brought out the disparity between the two sisters' worlds

They stare at each other across the yellow-checked linoleum

of the table Blanche slowly nods her head and Stella looks
slowly down at her hands folded on the table The music of
the "blue piano" grows louder. Blanchetouches her
handkerchief to her forehead ^

5 Best Amencan Plavs. p 57.

6. Ibid., p.56

66
Here the colour yellow used like a background tone symbolizes the

lifelessness and distance in the relationship between the two sisters and

the increasingly loud music of the blue piano heightens the discord

emphasised by the colour yellow

The entrance of Stanley Steve and Mitch,^ where Stanley pauses near

his door, Steve at the foot of the spiral stairs and Mitch slightly above them

both, shows us their relationship to Blanche and also that the three together

create a world hostile to Blanche

Steve's remark,

Sure that's how he got it. He hit the old weatherbird for
300 bucks on a six- number ticlcet.'

could well signify the precarious position of Blanche in their midst Scene I

through loud and soft colours, images and musical tones gives us clues to

the developing Impressionistic pattern of the whole play. In Scene]J|[we are

presented with the Poker Night Scene which is central to the play The

colours of this scene echo throughout the play:

There is a picture of Van Gogh's of a billiard-parlor at night.

The kitchen now suggests that sort of lurid nocturnal

7 Ibid., p.56-57.
8. Ibid., p.57.

67
 brilliance, the raw colors of childhood s spectrum Over the
yellow linoleum of the kitchen table hangs an electric bulb
with a vivid green glass shade The poker players—Stanley,
Steve, Mitch and Pablo-wear colored shirts, solid blues, a
purple, a red-and-white check a light green and they are
men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and
direct and powerful as the primary colors There are vivid
slices of watermelon on the table whiskey bottles and
glasses *

The primary colours merge together and create an atmosphere of coarse

animals delighting in savagery The colours used in the above scene are

the primary and secondary colours which were used by the Impressionists

Esther Merle Jackson has commented on the sculptural quality of the scene

as Williams has deftly handled the colours outlines and forms ^° This is to

say that it is a carefully constructed Impressionistic painting with diverse

colours and images Williams's colours are not limited to expressing scenic

beauty and liveliness but instead the colours have individuality and are

highly symbolic, used to express inner psychic reality as well as external

consciousness

The Poker scene contains all the tones and images expressive of

the emotions and violence in the play The colours of the poker players'

clothes are expressive of their inner natures as well as their world that is

9 Ibid • p 62
10 Esther Merle Jackson, The Broken World of Tennessee Williams. (Wisconsin, The

University of Wisconsin Press, 1965), p 96

68
hostile to Blanche's world of white. Stanley who is dressed in solid blues

states his solid physical presence with a hint of romance through the colour

blue. It would be pertinent to mention here that the colour blue has been

exploited by Williams to express a variety of stances. Steve dressed in

purple, a colour which is a combination of red and blue reveals brute passion

and tenderness within him. Mitch's red and white clothes stand somewhere

in between desire and a lack of vitality, and predictably in the play he is

unable to identify himself.

While the Poker game is going on Stella in her blue satin kimiono

compliments Stanley in his solid blues. The red slices of water melon recall,

the brute passion inherent in the red meat package and in Blanche's red

wrapper. The kitchen table with the yellow linoleum is the yellow background

for the interplay of blue and red in the foreground. Through the individualistic

symbolism of the three primary colours, red, blue and yellow, we find a

painting of the two opposing forces at play. Harold Bloom postulates that

the violence and vibrance created by the scene indicate degeneracy." But

the real spirit of the play doesn't seem to warrant investigation into ethical

issues of the play.

The dark and soft primary colours are further exploited analogically

11. Harold Bloom ed., Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire. (New York,
Chelsae House Publishers, 1988), p.51.

69
in the scene when the Poker game breaks up abruptly. Stanley flies at Stella

in a rage and beats her up and the blue music of the Negro entertainers

plays 'Paper Doll slow and blue' '^

Stanley's attempt to reach Stella by phone results in crashing

disharmoniuous sounds that accompany the fall of darkness and the

appearance of empty white walls:

An indistinguishable shrill voice is heard. He hurls phone

to floor. Dissonant brass and piano sounds as the rooms
dim out to darkness and the outer walls appear in the
night light. The 'blue piano' plays for a brief interval.'^

After the loud and clashing colours of Scene III the colours in the

opening of Scene IV seem rather sedate and subdued. The street cries

sound like 'a choral chant', Stella's face has the narcotized tranquility that

is in the faces of Eastern idols, and through the door is visible ' a sky of

summer brilliance' all of which represent soft tones.

In Scene V the growth of Blanche's insanity is shown through a

pattern of broken colours, opposite tones placed side by side. Blanche's

pleasant reverie is broken by dashing-sounds that accompany the quarrel

12. Best American Plavs, p.66.

13. Ibid., p.66.

70
between Eunice and Steve upstairs:

A clatter of aluminium striking a wall, is heard, followed

by a man's angry roar, shouts and overturned furniture.
There is a crash; then a relative hush.^*

Stanley's assertion that Blanche's secret past has been uncovered causes

her to become breathless and faint. Her mental anguish is once more

juxtaposed by the happy reunion of Eunice and Steve.

These tones are used repetitively when Stanley and Stella quarrel and

make up:

Stanley and Stella twine arms as they follow, laughing.

(Dusk settles deeper. The music from the Four Deuces is
slow and blue).^^

The music which is slow and blue while it evokes the bliss between Stanley

and Stella, heightens the loneliness and disorientation in Blanche's mind.

Finally Blanche stops the newspaper boy who comes to the door and kisses

him. The boy is a truncated image through which Williams has represented

Blanche's lost innocence. Blanche herself says to the boy:

14. Ibid.. p.7l.

15. Ibid., p.73.

71
 Now run along, now quickly! It would be nice to keep you

but I've got to....keep my hands off children.'*

Thus through the repetitive use of broken colours and truncated images

Williams has created a miniature Impressionistic painting of Blanche's

growing insanity. The picture-like quality of each scene is averred to also

by Judith J.Thompson according to whom "The structure of romance (in the

Streetcar) is ...a series of disconnected episodes."^^

In Scene VI the image of the locomotive makes an appearance in

succession to the two trains that made their appearance along with Stanley

in Scene IV. The trains and locomotives are correlatives of the Streetcar

named Desire which brought Blanche to the Elysian Fields. They symbolise

parts of Blanche's journey through a simultaneity of sound, light (colour)

and background, towards destruction and insanity. The locomotive in the

present scene represents a part of Blanche's journey (towards collapse)—

where she is still trying to retain her hold on desires and life. She is

conversing with Mitch after their night out. It is perhaps her last attempt to

retain her dream world which Mitch uncovers to reveal a grim reality.

16 Ibid., p.74.
17. Judith J. Thompson. Tennessee Williams' PLavs: Memory. Mvth and Symbol. (New

York, Peter Lang Publishing Inc.. 1987), p.26.

72
She reveals to Mitch the story of her guilt at the suicide of Allan Grey At

that crucial point in the story when she was narrating that she discovered

the boy with an older man, the locomotive makes its appearance, symbolising

the point from where she began her journey of evasion and deception and

also a journey towards fulfilment:

A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She claps her

hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlight of
the locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past.^'

Blanche's narrative continues in which she mentions that they were dancing

the Varsouviana when the boy broke away. The polka music is heard and

thereafter it becomes the music in her mind that haunts her.

Here we find that the softness of the Varsouviana and the loudness

of the locomotive bring Blanche's past and present together as the painting

of one brief moment of life. This technique of capturing time and life in one

scene has also been seen in The Glass Menagerie.

In Scene VII there is the presentation of the overlapping reality

and unreality through analogic equivalents to colour. There are three main

situations enacted In this miniature painting of life: Stella's arrangements

18. Best American Plavs. p.78.

73
for the birthday supper, the cake representing celebration of life; Stanley's

revelation of Blanche's sordid past to Mitch, and Blanche singing in the

bathroom representing her escape from reality into dream. The rejuvenation

suggested by the cake is in disquieting contrast to Stanley's revelations of

Blanche's ugly past and the contrasted hints of discord.

Blanche's song sung in the bathroom is pictorial and evocative of

dramatic irony; while she romanticises about life, the outside world is

preparing to pounce upon her with all its brutalities:

Say, its only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea—

But it wouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me!'^

The glimpses of life in the form of a birthday celebration or a song in the

bathroom are parts of the total picture of Blanche's journey towards insanity.

'The distant piano going into a hectic breakdown' intensifies the pace at

which Blanche hurtles towards insanity or the world of unreality. Mary Ann

Corrigan's remark in this context is pertinent: "...the symbolism of a Streetcar

Named Desire indicates the stages in Blanche's progression towards

insanity.""

In Williams's attempt to project Blanche's fragmented world his

19. Ibid., p.79.

20. Jack Tharpe, ed., Tennessee Williams, p.393.

74
method of evoking a mood by putting together disparate tones of music,

colour and opposing symbols is similar to the technique of Post-

Impressionistic painters, such as Paul Klee, who were influenced by the

theories of Sigmund Freud. Post-Impressionists, like Paul Klee, delved into

the subconscious world of desires and longings. Disjointed objects in their

paintings have an unexpected meaning. The sharp definition of these

disjointed elements is brought out powerfully by their melting into each other

or being connected to each other.^^

In Scene VIII Blanche's splintered sanity is presented through

her alienation and her being closed in by reality in various tones, loud and

soft. The fact that she has been stood up by Mitch, Stanley's frightening

looks, the tussle between Stella and Stanley and the soft music are all

fragments of the picture of alienation. The effect of Blanche being trapped

by reality is presented as follow:

She clutches her throat and then runs into the bathroom.
Coughing,gagging sounds are heard.^^

The symbolic use of blue is apparent in this scene It is worth noting that

the pink candles that Stella sticks into the cake in Scene V I I " are called

blue by Blanche:

21. Dr. Charles Fabri, An Introducton to European Painting. (New Delhi, Asia Publishing
House, 1964), p.44.
22. Best American Plays, p.83.

x%-Ii^; f.8^.
75
 Oh, I hope candles are going to glow In his life and I hope
that his eyes are going to be like candles, like two blue
candles lighted in a white cake!-*

The colour blue is symbolic of Blanche's aspiration in her dream world.

Blanche's seeing the pink as blue reminds us of the earlier interplay of the

colours, red and blue, representing the brute world of reality and the fragile

world of dream in Scene III. Thus we see through the picture of Blanche's

splintered mentality a tussle between two opposite worlds. Yet the softer

tones prevail in the background in the form of the birthday cake with 'blue'

candles and the arrival of the baby.

Through the use of loud colours, such as green and scarlet,in

combination with images and music,symbolizing disaster,Williams has

presented the mental collapse of Blanche in Scene IX:

Blanche is seated in a tense hunched position in a bedroonn

chair that she has re-covered with diagonal green and white
stripes. She has on her scarlet satin robe. On the table
beside chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass. The rapid,
feverish polka tune, 'the Varsouviana' is heard. The music
is in her nnind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of
disaster Is closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the

24. Ibid., p.82.

76
 words of the song An electric fan is turning back and forth
across h e r "

We find that Blanche has finally reached a crisis point where all the colours

and the polka music mingle together The uninterrupted cutting movement

of the fan is symbolic of the relentless reality that is overcoming Blanche

We find also that amidst the colours, green, white and scarlet, the colour

blue IS missing which means that her mental disorientation is complete and

irreversible

Mitch comes m and later tears the paper lantern off the light bulb

so that she is forced to face the reality of her past To Mitch's question

whether she had stayed at a hotel called The Flamingo (from where she

had been thrown out for her dark deeds) she answers

Flamingo'? No' Tarantula was the name of iti I stayed at

a hotel called the Tarantula arms ^

The Tarantula represents the harsh constricting world of reality earlier

represented through screeching cats and the Polka music playing

intermittently This picture of Blanche's mental crisis is conveyed through

images from the past and present She relives her past and the Polka plays

25. Ibid., p.84.

26 Ibid., p 85.

77
and a distant shot is heard. She relives the deaths in Belle Reve and her

romantic escapades. She strongly desires to hold on to Mitch to protect her

in her present state of isolation. The image of death looms over her desires

for fulfillment. The Mexican flower seller combines both the intensity of desire

and death. To the Mexican woman selling flowers

*No, no! Not now! Not now! (She darts back into the
apartment, slamming the door)-'"

This picture of Blanche's splintered mentality comprising her

inability to face reality, her desires for fulfilment, her fear of death and her

being deserted by Mitch, however, finds relief in the colour blue.

She suddenly rushes to the big window with its pale blue
square of the soft summer light....^°

The colour blue here symbolizes a world of hope amidst the darker world of

reality.

Norman J.Fedder's opinion that each scene of the play works

towards a progressive disintegration of Blanche's mind^® is adequate to

27. Ibid., p.86.

28. Ibid.
29. Jac Tharpe, ed., Tennessee Williams. Part 2 (Jackson, University Press of

Mississippi, 1977), p.798.

78
sum up the gradual and ultimate mental breakdown of Blanche in the

present scene

In Scene X the conflict between two opposite worlds is brought out

through colours, events and images

Blanche makes another attempt to recapture her world of romance

. she has decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and

crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed
silver slippers with brilliants set in their heels ^°

Stanley's derogatory and mocking attitude makes her recoil in fear As she

becomes insecure In the menacing presence of Stanley, images, reflections,

sounds, and grotesque projections of her mind are seen through the

backwalls of the rooms.Through the back wall of the rooms which have

become transparent, can be seen the sidewalk A prostitute has roiled a

drunkard He pursues her along the walk, overtakes her and there is a

struggle ^^

The above mental projection of Blanche's m'nd hints at the on-coming rape

of Blanche by Stanley, but it is not rape on the physical level, it is the struggle

30 Best American Plavs. p.87.

31. Ibid., p.89

79
of one world (Stanley's world) to overcome the other (Blanche's world).

The growing chaos in her mind is symbolically presented by the gradual

loudening of the blue piano, roar of a locomotive and 'inhuman jungle voices'.

After the rape 'the hot trumpets and drums from the Four Deuces

sound loudly' as if in celebration of the defeat of one world. Thus Scene X

gives us a picture of struggle through various analogues to colours.

In Scene XI, the last scene of the play, we find the recapitulation

of all the miniature paintings into one whole painting. Blanche on her chaotic,

tumultuous journey moves out of Stanley and Stella's world,and their world

regains its animality and familiar luridness. The following description

concretizes Blanche's alienation from the beginning to the end. She has

remained throughout secluded and a world apart:

The portieres are partly open on the poker players—Stanley,

Steve, Mitch and Pablo—who sit around the table in the
kitchen. The atmosphere of the kitchen is now the same
raw, lurid one of the disastrous poker night. The building
is framed by the sky of turquoise."

The entire play has been built up scene by scene into a large

Impressionistic painting. Blanche's interactions with different characters give

32. Ibid.. p.90.

the painting a tight pictorial framework, reminiscent of the works of

Impressionists, like Degas:

The linear structure of the background is reminiscent of

Degas' portrait compositons in which the figure of the sitter
was often anchored tautly within the pictorial space by
interlocking horizontals and verticals.*'

What seemed to have been the defeat of one world as seen in the previous

scene was on]y temporary. Blanche in her state of insanity still pursues her

romantic dreams:

I shall die of eating an unwashed grape one day out on

the ocean. I will die—With my hand in the hand of
some nice-lookingship's doctor, a vev.young one with a
small blondt mustache and a big silver watch.'^

The ship, like the streetcar, the trains, and the locomotives, is also an image

representing Blanche's journey. The ocean suggests that her journey is

inconclusive. The mental chaos and alienation are somewhat lessened

v^en she is led away by the doctor and states in her characteristic way:

Who ever you are— I have always depended on the kindness

of strangers."

33. Anthea Callen, Technique of the Impressionists. (London, New Burlington Books,
1987), p.88.
34. Best American Plays. p.91.

35. Ibid., p.93.

81
The use of the colour blue again here is also significant as Blanche, when

parting, is seen wearing a blue jacket which she says is the blue of the robe

in old Madonna pictures The companson to Madonna seems rather unusual

after the tragic catastrophe that Blanche has suffered Finally, Eunice hands

the baby wrapped in a pale blue blanket to grieving Stella Through the

colour blue and through Blanche's illusion that she is embarking on a

romantic sojourn—Blanche's dream world gains a terrifying relevance

The two incompatible worlds that cannot coexist finally separate The

incompatibility as well as the validity of the two worlds have been adequately

presented through the technique of Impressionistic painting

82
cmmd MEAL
 CHAPTER V

CAMINO REAL

Camino Real was written in 1946, a year after The Street Car Named Desire.

Though not as successful on stage as the earlier play, Camino Real gives

adequate proof of Williams's growing vision as a dramatist. The play owes

Its origin primarily to the Post-Impressionistic scenario prevailing in America

at the time of its writing. Williams had, however, moved beyond the subjective

technique used by the expressionists by bringing in colours, tones and music

on stage, patterned on the style of the Impressionistic painters;

That Williams was familiar early in his career with

not only the theory of Expressionism but also its

earlier...manifestations (such as Impressionism)

seems evident from his unpublished play, Stairs to

the Roof....'

Just as in The Glass Menagerie colours define two contradictory worlds,

i.e. of Laura and Amanda, and of Blanche and Stanley in The Street car

1. Quoted by Mary Ann Corrigan in Jac Tharpe. ed., Tennessee Williams. Part I

(Jackson University PressrfMississippi, 1977), p.378.

83
Named Desire, so also in Camino Real colours create a picture of love,

death and re-emergence in the two worlds. As compared to The Street Car

Named Desire the present play has a larger canvas, is more crowded with

characters and colourful events. But still,like all the previous plays, this

play, too, is built up by a series of miniature paintings which Williams calls

sixteen blocks. The sixteen blocks are like a disconnected montage with a

thread of underlying unity as it happens in a dream play. Movement to these

montages is lent through the subtle manipulation of the conflict between

sustaining illusion and harsh reality.

The play does not have a conventionally developed story pattern.

It is rather a dream sequence built up of disconnected blocks or pieces.

Like a large Impressionistic painting the story is created out of colours and

their analogic equivalents, such as sounds of varying loudness and tonality

as well as images which offer parallelism to the two colours, which have

been used as such and symbolically to create the main theme of the play.

They are red and blue, the two primary colours used by the Impressionistic

painters. The two colours are often juxtaposed by the black and white colours

that signify emptiness and barrenness on the Camino Real.

The two main characters of the play are Casanova and Kilroy.

The play is a form of dream reverie of Don Quixote who falls asleep and his

mission is taken over by Jacques Casanova.

84
Quixote is seen entering in a ray of blue light and the following words by

him reveal the Impressionistic pattern in the structure of the play.

And my dream wil be a pageant, a masque in which

old meanings will be remembered and possibly new

ones discovered...^

The play is a pageant and a masque of colours, the interaction and blending

of which create a story. The colour red that Kilroy represents is symbolic of

vigour, passion and intensity and does not seem to find a place on Camino

Real. In the same way the blue colour that Jacques Casanova represents

stands for tenderness, etherealness and dreams which do not find a place

on the Camino Real v^ich is a place of deadening reality. The blue and red

colours that are analogically presented through various figures and

situations are contradicted by darker and ominous shades in the forms of

The Bum, A.Ratt, The Loan Shark and Gutman.

The following lines in the prologue hint at the ominous overpowering reality

of the Camino Real trying to suppress the intensity of the colour red;

2 Ibid., p.239.

85
 ...a pair of Guards cross with red lanterns to either

side of the proscenium where they lower black and

white striped barrier gates .-'

In Block 2, the tenderness and softness, analogic to the colour blue, are

evoked when La Madrecita is cradling a dying man in her arms and the

dreamer is playing the guitar beside her

All at once there is a discordant blast of brass

in^uments. Kilroy comes into the plaza/

Kilroy's bursting into the plaza reveals his vibrance and energy The music

of the guitar, the piping of the street cleaners, the sound of human voices

and the discordant blast in the background like background tones give us a

clearer perspective of Kilroy

In Block 3 Kilroy is lost and is confronted with death in the form of

the street cleaners whose laughter, in keeping with the Impressionistic

structure of the play, is highly significant Kilroy's ignorance of the place in

the present context is met with ridicule.

Tennessee Williams, Four Plays. (i-^'^i^toTt^dUji I U^.I>UJL^ 1957). p.

86
 OFFICER- making it sound like a death-rattle

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha *

Laughter is an expression of a psychic state of the street people that

symbolizes their distrust of the rich and the affluent, the perpetrators of

deadening reality on the Camino Real

Ttiey giggle again Briskly they lift the body and stuff

It into the barrel, then trundle it off, looking back at

Kilroy, giggling and whispering ^

Laughter in its various forms, from loud boisterous laughter to low giggling,

shows how varying shades of the same colour are analogically presented

The following description of the gypsy stall is a collection of

symbols that represents the primary and secondary colours used by the

Impressionists The various tonal resources of the attitudes (ridicule,

laughter), objects, colours, actions involving all the senses create an image

of the complexity of the reality of Camino Real:

5 ibid^, p.251.

6 Ibid • p.253.

87
 There is the GIPSY'S stall with its cabalistic devices,

its sectional cranium and palm, three luminous brass

balls... trumpets, banjos, fur coats, tuxedos... loops

of pearls and rhine stones. Dimly behind this display

is a neon sign in three pastel colours, pink, green

and blue....One of the windows of this upper story is

practical. Figures appear in it sometimes, leaning

out as if suffocating or to hawk and spit into the street

below. This side of the street should have ail colour

and animation that are permitted by the resources

of the production. There may be moments of

dancelike action, a fight, a seduction, a sale of

narcotics, arrest, etc.^

Besides the use of colours, the arresting of moments of action also reveals

the Impressionistic technique in the construction of the scene.

In Block 4 dreaminess, tenderness, etherealness are confronted

with harsh death like reality of Carnino Real through colours. The Baron De

Charlus is associated with the colours, pink, yellow and blue. These

7. ibid., p.254.

88
represent the Baron as a dreamer. The Baron De Charlus is overcome by

the reality of the Camino Real presented through tonal gradations of a

dark colour:

The BUM laughs from the window. A.RATT laughs

from his shadowy doorway. The LOAN SHARK

laughs....Everybody laughs louder and the laughter

seems to reverbrate from the mountains. The light

changes, dims a little in the plaza....The BARON, his

elegant white shoes portuding from the barrel, is

wheeled up the Alleyway Out.*

The white of the Baron's shoes stands out as his dreamv^orld which is

overcome by the ominous reality of the Camino Real.

The reverberating laughter from the mountains is equivalent to the dark

ominous reality which has unvanquished supremacy on Camino Real.

In Block 5 the dark ominous reality of Camino Real is strengthened

still further. The setting for Block 5 is formed of disparate pieces, which are

lighted with a sunset glow. The sunset glow symbolizes the other world

8. i b i i , pp.258-59.

89
(opposed to reality) into which Kilroy wants to escape. But his escape ends

in emptiness and desolation and the block closes with the menacing

approach of the following figures:

The BUM comes to his window. A RATT enters his

doorway. GUTMAN enters below KILROY.^

Thus we find that the Camino Real, with its complex pattern of red and blue

colours, overpowered by darker shades, is an Impressionistic picture of

reality.

In Block 6 the conflict between dream and reality continues as

bright colours, analogically presented in emotions such as frenzy, excitement

and anxiety, move against the deadening reality of the Camino ReglKilroy

and Esmeralda, the gypsy girl, attempt to escape the reality of the Camino

Real.

We find that Kilroy and Esmeralda are like two solitary figures in

the foreground surrounded by a mixture of sounds and colours in the

background. The word 'rhubarb , used as follows, represents the background

9. Ibid., p.261

90
as filled with uneven tones which from a distance appear united:

These shouts are mostly lost in the general rhubarb

of the chase and the shouting STREET PEOPLE.

ESMERALDA crouches on the forestage, screaming

encouragement in Spanish to the fugitive/"

The pursuit of Kilroy, as painted below, shows modes of action, all at the

same time, which are analogic equivalents to bright, lively colours, such as

blue and red which are suppressed on the Camino Real:

Meanwhile—timed with the above action—shots are

fired in the air by KILROY'S pursuers. He dashes,

panting, into the boxes of the theatre....^^

Towards the end of the Block all this liveliness and wildness is suppressed

in the symbolic red-coloured nose of Kilroy.

In Block 7 the colours, blue and red, are used together but they do not

stand for the same things. While 'blue' is the colour of distance (as quoted

by Quixote earlier in the play), tender sentiment and unearthly passion, red

10. Ibid., p.265.

11. ibid,

91
stands for earthly passion which can only be suppressed but not destroyed

by the reality of the Camino Real.

In the beginning of Block 7, Gutman is seen surrounded by soft

blue dusk that characterises his elevation or distance from the other people

on the Camino Real. A soft blue flame springs up in the chafing dish at the

Mulligan's table when Marguerite talks of death— giving a touch of romance

to Mulligan and Margeurite. This ephemeral blue colour is contrasted with

Kilroy's red nose in which his wild spirit is confined

In Block 8 we find a free use of the colour blue in outlining Byron

the poet and in the blue fire from which Shelley's heart is rescued. The

colour red symbolized by Byron who stands for anarchic passion is

vicariously presented through an over-dose of blue and through appropriate

analogic equivalents. The 'loud desert wind' and 'flamenco cry' when Byron

enters are analogic equivalents to loud and soft colours. The flickering

'diamond blue radiance that floods the hotel entrance' as Byron prepares

to leave is highly significant in the above context. Byron utters the following

lines:

And snatched out—as a baker would a biscuit! the

heart of Shelley! Snatched the heart of Shelley out

92
 of the blistering corpse!-Out of the purifying—blue

flanfie....'^

Byron's concern with rescuing the heart of the poet from the blue flame,

shows him as a contender for earthly and anarchic passion i.e., beauty

associated with the heart rather than the mind. According to Byron the blue

flame represents the world of mind and soul which does not help the poet to

do justice to his art:

BYRON....He ought to purify, it i d lift it above its

ordinary level. For what is the heart but a sort of —

...instrument! That translates noise into music, chaos

into —order...^^

Byron subtly reveals Williams's purpose in the present play to achieve

harmony out of disparate colours in the style of the Impressionists. Byron

gives us various images which seem to be drawn from various Impressionistic

paintings. In the following lines we can discover a glimpse of paintings from

Manet's natural scenes to Rembrandt's creations of human flesh.

12. Ibid,, p.277.

13. Ibid,, p.278.

93
 ...-Baroque facades, canopies and carpets,

candelabra and gold plate among snowy damask,

ladies witti ttiroats as slender as flower-stems, ...And

everywhere marble, the visible grandeur of marble,

pink and grey marble, veined and tinted as flayed

corrupting flesh...^*

It is worth noting that unlike the Baron de Charlus (representing

romantic and unearthly passion) Byron is not overcome by the reality of

death on Camino Real. When Byron enters he is ready for departure and

after giving some of his notions on the poet's Vocation leaves the Camino

Real for Terra Incognitdor the unknown land. Thus Byron's vision of Art is

like the Impressionist's vision where art is not based on solid or conventional

outlines and so Byron, the espouser of beauty as perceived by the senses

and displayed acordingly through colours of varying intensity, exits to a

region v^ich is unknown and undiscovered in the conventional sense.

In Block 9 the Fugitive which had been briefly mentioned in Block

7 as the 'unscheduled thing', emerges as an artistic image and an escape

route similar to the Terra Incognita which Byron had taken to escape the

unreality (to him) of Camino Real. The introduction to Block 9 reveals loud,

14. ibid., pp.278-79.

94
vivid, pulsating sounds which are analogic equivalents to the colour red in

its different variations:

A faint and faraway humming sound becomes

audible A very low percussion begins with the

humming sound, as if excited hearts are beating.''

The scene of the landing of Fugitivo is remarkably reminiscent of an

Impressionistic painting with a mixture of disparate colours and images:

There is a great whistling and screeching sound as

the aerial transport halts somewhere close by,

accompanied by rainbow splashes of light and cries

like children on a roller coaster. Some incoming

PASSENGERS approach the stage down an aisle of

the theatre, preceded by Redcaps with luggage.'^

Conforming to the Impressionistic style the contours of the fugitivo are not

displayed in conventional outlines. Instead its essence is demonstrated

through light, sound and colours. The dark and loud splashes of colour,

specially the red dots, give the effect of the converging together of the two

15. ibid., p.280.

16. Ibid., p.281.

95
worlds of dream and sustaining reality.

When the Fugitivo leaves we have again the death-like grim picture of the

reality of Camino Real presented through dark colours and various images

in the main characters' minds. The place looks like a city that has been

bombarded and is spread with red flickering lights and wisps of smoke and

smouldering ruins. In the words of Marguerite:

We're threatened with eviction, for this is a port of

entry and departure, there are no permanent guests!

and where else have we to go when we leave here?

Bide-a-While? 'Ritz Men only?" Or under that

ominous arch into Terra Incognita? We're lonely.

We are frightened. We hear the street cleaner's

piping not far away."

The three images that describe the reality on the Camino Real are 'Bide-a-

while', 'Ritz Men Only' and 'Terra Incognita'.

The image of violets has an important significance in the colour

pattern of the Impressionistic play and is mentioned by Marguerite as follows:

17. Ibid., pp.288-89.

96
 Something, yes something- delicate, unreal,

bloodless! The sort of violets that could grow on the

moon or in the crevices of those far away

mountains ^'

The violets seem to present a sense of hope for the helpless creatures on

the Camino Real. The colour purple of violets is a secondary colour v^/hich

Is created out of mixing the two primary colours 'red' amd 'blue'. Marguerite,

therefore, hints at a perfect world that could be brought about by the merging

together of dream and reality.

As if to intentionally bring about an interplay of dark and soft

colours after the above phase of dimness and desolation, preparations are

being made to celebrate the fertility of Esmeralda. But once again the

brightness seems to be short-lived as the dark reality of the Camino Real

begins to take over as seen in the closing lines:

The drum of JACQUES cave is taken up by other

percussive instruments, and almost unnoticeably at

first,wierd-looking celebrants or carnival mummers

18. Ibid., p.289.

07
 creep into the plaza, silently as spiders descending

a wall.'*

In contrast to this darknes and grimness we have the gentle awakening of

the dream world as Block 11 opens.

A white radiance is appearing over the ancient wall

of the town. The mountains become luminous. There

is music. Everyone, with breathless attention, faces

the light.20

Block 12 gives us a fleeting glimpse of love—a scene in which Esmeralda,

the gypsy girl, is dressed like an Eastern slave and is wooed by Kilroy. But

the intended amorous encounter ends prematurely when Kilroy is called

away by the piping of the street cleaners. The piping of the street cleaners

gathers strength in the form of images and sounds in Block 13, which

combine to create the ominousness of death that menacingly threatens to

destroy the passion that Kilroy represents and the dream Esmeralda

embodies.

In Block 13 death or the reality of Camino Real gathers strength.

19. Ibid., p.290.

20. Ibid., p.291.

98
Various images and sounds represent the reality of Camino Real which are

antithetical to the colours, red and blue. Jacque's portmanteau is an

important image which is associated with a fragile world of dreams:

GUTMAN raises the portmanteau again....Ttie

portmanteau lands with a crash. The BUM comes to

the window at the crash. A.RATT comes out to his

doorway at the same time.^'

In Block 14 death continues to pursue Kilroy on the Camino Real;

At the opening, the BUM is still at the window. The

STREETCLEANER'S piping continues a little

louder...."

Finally Kilroy is surrounded, and his tussle with reality is presented in the

form of a fight.
A gong sounds. KILROY swings at the

STREETCLEANERS. They circle about him out of

reach, turning him by each of their movements. The

swings grow wilder like a boxer's. He falls to his

21. Ibid., p.309.

22. Ibid., p.310.

OQ
 knees still swinging and finally collapses flat on his

face.^

The movements resemble the movements on the Impressionistic painter's

brush creating a clash of opposing colours.

In Block 15 autopsy is being performed on Kilroy's dead body.

The nurses are in white surgical outfits and there is emphasis on light;

INSTRUCTOR: More light please!

LA MADRECITA: More light!

INSTRUCTOR: Can everyone see clearly!^*

The dead body remains behind on the Camino Real, the land of the dead,

whereas Kilroy's passion escapes (in the form of his solid gold heart) which

remains unvanquished.

In Block 16 Kilroy is shown snatching away his golden heart and

running away:

KILROY dashes offstage into an aisle of the theatre.

23. Ibid., p.313.

24. Ibid^
100
 There is the wail of a siren: the air is filled with

calls and whistles, roar of motors, screeching brakes,

pistol shots, thundering footsteps. The dimness of

the auditorium is transected by searching rays of

light—but there are no visible pursuers.^'

The use of analogic equivalents in the above picture give it a static quality,

for Kilroy is freed of the reality of the Camino Real.

The awakening of Quixote and the freedom of Kilroy's passionate

heart happen together and symbolize the union of the worlds of dream and

earthly passion. The awakening brings rejuvenation and the dry fountain

begins to flow. Symbolically Quixote and Kilroy go through the arch heralding

victory which means unity brought by the merging together of the two worlds.

Quixote's last words are significant and echo Marguerites' hope in Block

10;

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.^^

Gutman's words are the curtain call on the death-like reality of the Camino

Real:

25. ibid., p.315.

26. Ibid., p.320.

lOl
 The Curtain Line has been spoken!...Bring it down.^'

The image of the violets concludes the play as the colour (a secondary

colour) or purpose formed out of the merging together of blue and red,

suggests a unique picture of life which Williams tries to create through

colours. Through a pattern of red and blue colours (that in unity, represent

life) o p p o s e d to darker s h a d e s , W i l l i a m s presents on stage an

Impressionistic picture of life. All the blocks of the Camino Real are part of

the total picture of life. In the Impressionistic sense, life is presented to us

in all its shades and Williams does not Intend to sermonize. The merging

together of dream and passion in the image of the violets is Williams's

attempt to capture life in its totality and essence.

27. Ibid.

102
Clha^^^ir Sas?

mm iMim
 CHAPTER VI

ROSE TATTOO

The play was written in 1948 just two years after Camino Real. As in the

earlier play, here too, Williams has exploited colours to bring richness,

depth and clarity c^focus on the vision of life. But the present play also has

some shortcomings as it lacks the connectedness of Camino Real. Williams

has tried, as it were, to draw upon the world of painting and literature and

create a new kind of symbolism to express his vision of life. The play is like

a large painting of life divided into three acts which are like miniature

paintings and which individually picturize the main character's journey

towards fulfillment.

The play on the surface level has the realistic story of Serafina, a

widow who has preserved the ashes of her dead husband in an urn. She is

trying to come to terms with the said infidelity of her husband and his death.

Williams has made a bold and innovative use of colours and analogic

equivalents, to depict her fight with reality and her regaining her dreamworld.

The urn which embodies her dream world, is similar to the glass menagerie

which holds the Wingfield family's dreams and illusions.

The opening of the play hints at the characterstic mixture of

103
opposites such as romanticism and realism:

It is the hour that the Italians call 'prima sera* the

beginning of dusk. Between the house and the palm

tree bums the female star with an almost emerald lustre.

The mothers of the neighbourhood are beginning to call

their children home to supper, in voices near and distant,

urgent and tender, like the variable notes of wind and

water.'

Assunta, the medicine woman, appears dressed in grey. An approaching

truck outside heightens the contrast between light and dark colours. Soon

after this contrast there is reference by Serafina to the rose which symbolizes

her obsession with the romantic world just as the moth had symbolized

Blanche's world of unfulfilled desires. The colours which have been used in

an impressionistic pattern have their characteristic repetitiveness. They are

used in a way as to show Serafina's attempt to shut out reality:

Serafina: No, the clock is a fool. I don't listen to it. My

clock is my heart and my heart don't say tick-tick, it

says love-love.^

1. Tennessee Williams, Four Plays.(Lg>\ol<n..^ ^fj^jj^ U/«A<iw«4J!^t957), p 135.

All subsequent references to the text are from this edition. *
2. Ibid., p.139.

104
Estelle Hohengarten, the woman with whom Serafina's late husband had a

romantic involvement makes an appearance.

She is a thin blonde woman in a dress of Egyptian

design, and her blonde hair has an unnatural gloss

in the clear, greenish duSk.^

The Egyptian dress and the combination of yellow and green give her an

outlandish appearance. The colours express a lack of vitality as compared

to the preceding situation in which Serafina considers herself 'big with life'

and picks up a bowl of roses. The overpowering reality which seems to

threaten the existence of Serafina in her delicate world is visually presented

through dark and bold colours. The following sounds have been used as

analogic equivalents and are highly significant.

Outside there is the sound of the goat bleating and

the jingle of its harness; then the crash of wood

splintering."

The stage direction shows a co-mingling of reality and unreality. But a variety

of analogic equivalents have also been used together to give the effect of

3. Ibid.. P. 139.

4. Ibid.. P. 140.

lOS
contrived reality and vibrant unreality. The strega and the goat are images

of unreality \A^ich border on the phantasmagoria of the subconscious. The

conflict between the two worlds is apparent in the following stage direction:

...The STREGA runs into the yard. She has a mop of

wild grey hair and is holding her black skirts up from

her bare hairy legs. The sound of the goat's bleating

and the jingling of his harness is heard in the windy

blue dusk.... Arrived in the yard, she (Rosa) directs

the goat chase imperiously with her yellow paper

fan....^

The two tones used here are dark and light, black and yellow. While the

black colour represents the dark mysterious world of the subconscious, the

yellow represents the conscious world of reality. Rosa finally witnesses the

truimph of one world over the other.

The following stage direction is highly significant to the context.

SERAFINA crosses abruptly to the porch. At the same

moment the boy runs around the house leading the

5. Ibid., p 141.

106
 captured goat by its bell harness. It is a middle-sized

black goat with great yellow eyes. The STREGA runs

behind with the broken rope.°

Here the juxtaposition of reality and fantasy is brought out analogically.

The broken rope is an image that ironically does not suggest freedom, it

suggest instead a captivity within reality, in other words the truimph of reality.

As opposed to Scene I, Scene II presents the use of colours which suggest

inactivity and sorrow. Serafina's frozen attitude, the keening women and

Assunta's 'grey shawl of pity'^ are images and colours that create a picture

of sorrow. The background tones are impressionistically created by the

keening women.

Against the various shades in the background represented through

audio-visual images, such as whispering and gesticulating, Estelle

Hohengarten makes an appearance bearing the colours black and red. She

bears a bouquet of roses which she loses in the swarming crowd that has

been compared to a cloud of attacking birds. The thorns tear away her veil.

Through the use of impressionistic images such as birds and thorns Estelle's

true self is revealed. In the succeeding scenes of Act I we find that loud

6. Ibid,, p.142.

7. Please see p.143.

107
and soft colours are interwoven to create a mini picture. A variety of analogic

equivalents, such as sounds and images to depict the struggle between

two worlds have also been used. Scene IV opens with bright light and

swiftness of movement.

A scream and running footsteps are heard. The front

door opens and SERAFINA staggers out on to the

porch. She is wearing a soiled pink slip....'

The analogic equivalents in the above stage direction show vibrance and

vitality. Emotions, such as shame, fury and sorrow, alternate till the

background music stops and resumes its course. The closing of scene 4

mellows into white radiance. In scene 5 the colours grow deeper, such as

blue and purple. Sound also develops a sharpness and coarseness as the

scene progresses. Serafina's vibrant activity is followed by a train whistle

in the background. The sound grows from bird squawking to human laughter,

to the mechanical horn of a car:

They laugh and applaud at the window. The

LEGIONNAIRES are heard laughing. A car horn is

heard as the LEGIONNAIRES drive away.^

8. Ibid., p.147

9. Ibid.. 0.1SS

108
The sound finally develops to a deafening loudness as "She slams the

wooden door shut with a violence that shakes the walls".^°

Serafina finally learns that her late husband had had a romantic involvement

with Estelle Hohengarten and her mental state is one of heightened

nervousness and frenzy. Here the music which had been in the background

loudens to a frenzy and then the scene dims out:

Estelle, Esteile Hohengarten? - 'A shirt for a man

I'm in love with! This man- is-wild like a gypsy'O

Oh,Oh, Lady-The rose-coloured-silk...No,

no,no,no,no,! 1 don't remember! It wasn't that name,

I don't remember that name! (The band music grows

louder....")

The chaotic reality of Scene 5 is relieved in Scene 6 by the appearance of

Rosa and Jack, the romantic duo. In the opening of Scene 6 'the starry blue

robe of Our Lady' amidst the pitch dark gives hope of a romantic revival.

The image of roses and gay laughter give the scene an aura of unreality.

There is a juxtaposition of two different kinds of unreality, one belonging to

10. iDid^

11. Ibid., p.159.

109
Rosa and Jack and the other to Rosa's mother Serafina. The unreality of

Serafina's world is depicted through lifeless images such as those of

dummies:

She is grotesquely surrounded by the dummies, as

though she has been holding a silent conference with

them. Her appearance, in slovenly deshabille, is both

comic and shocking/^

The image of Serafina in totality is anti-naturalistic resembling elements of

Post-Impressionistic paintings. Rosa's description of the graduation makes

use of the colours blue, red and white which were used in isolation in the

earlier scenes.

Rosa; Oh! you know what they wore. They

wore blue coats and white pants and each had a

carnation!'^

Towards the end of Scene 6 there is a summing up of the different worlds of

Serafina and Rosa. The Strega makes a reappearance while Rosa departs.

The end of Scene 6 makes Act 1 a slice of the reality of life in which joy,

12. Ibid., p.161.

13. Ibid., p.162.

no
hope, excitement, solace and vitality return. The gold watch that Rosa leaves

behind is a symbol of vitality:

But the car has started off, with a medley of voices

shouting farewells, which fade quickly out of

hearing.... SERAFINA absently opens the package

and removes the little gold watch. She winds it and

then holds it against her ear. She shakes it and holds

it again to her ear. Then she holds it away from her

and glares at it fiercely.'*

The merging together of various sounds and moods to create a mini-picture

of life reveal the Impressionistic style of capturing life from moment to

moment.

In Act 2 Williams has created another mini-picture which, though

using the analogic elements in Act I, is more complex. In Act 2 the wildness

within Serafina is shown emerging through the medium of colours. Her

persona is formed out of various analogic equivalents such as emotions,

moods, memories, stage props and grotesque elements highlighting her

unreal world.

14. Ibid., p.169.

11
 In Scene 1 of Act 2 the mental and physical state of Serafma is

brought out through audio-visual effects Even though the following

picturization of Serafma takes place on the same day as in the previous

act, she appears much changed The painting illustrates Williams attempt

to capture individual moments of life like the Impressionists

SERAFINA comes out on to the porch, barefooted,

wearing a rayon slip Great shadows have appeared

beneath her eyes, her face and throat gleam with

sweat There are dark stains of wine on the rayon

slip It IS difficult for her to stand She makes a

sick moaning sound in herthroat almost continually

A hot wind rattles the cane-brake VIVI, the little

girl, comes up to the porch to stare at SERAFINA

as at a strange beast in a cage ViVI is chewing a

liquorice stick which stains her mouth and her

fingers She stands chewing and staring SERAFINA

evades her stare She wearily drags a broken wicker

chair down off the porch, all the way out in front of

the house, and sags heavily into it It sits awry on a

broken leg ''

15 Ibid . D I7n

112
This mini portrait reveals different sides of Serafina's nature from childish

innocence to animal-like wildness within her. The combination of physical

distraugtness and the chair with a broken leg evoke discomfort. The broken-

legged chair in which Serafina sits heavily is almost symbolic of her

deception. The colour grey and the description of a white sky later on gives

the scene a lack of vitality. In the style of the Impressionists opposing images

such as that of the child and the beast bring out the complicated inner nature

of Serafina.

The earlier images of the boy with a kite and the Strega make an

appearance once again. The two images are juxtaposed to each other as

the boy symbolizes hope for Serafina while the Strega inspires fear. Sound

in a variety of shades from soft whispering and squeaking to loud laughter

creates background tones that helps in depicting the wildness within

Serafina. For instance, the cry of a child inspires domesticity whereas the

animated muttering and whispers of the neighbour woman give the effect of

civilized social existence a part of the imprisoning reality that victimizes

Serafina. The tussle between Serafina and Father De Leo where she is

trying to attack him, is symbolically the conflict between opposing worlds

where one world is trying to outlive the other:

The neighbour women have been drawing closer as

113
 the argument progresses, and now they come to

Father DE LEO's rescue and assist him to get away

from SERAFINA, who is on the point of attacking

him bodily He cries out 'Officer' Officer'" but the

women drag SERAFINA from him and lead him away

with comforting murmurs '*

As in the earlier act, Serafma constantly addresses Madonna who

symbollises hope and a world of dreams As if in answer to her calling to

the icon a salesman and Alvaro make an appearance The colours that

depict them reveal the aura of fantasy in Serafina's persona

Various colours have been used to depict the salesman, such as

yellow, red and purple on his hat, his clothes are lavender, blue and yellow

A satiric strain of music plays beside him We find here a good use of the

primary colours, blue, red and yellow and the music is a muted background

tone Alvaro enters after the salesman and the colours used to depict him

are comparatively less brilliant and deep in hue

Alvaro comes down from the embankment He is

about twenty-five years old, dark and very

goodlooking He is one of those Mediterranean types

16 Ibid . p 175

114
 that resemble glossy young bulls. He is short in

stature, has a nnassively sculptural torso and bluish

blacK curls....At the moment when we first hear his

voice the sound of a timpani begins, at first very

pianissimo, but building up as he approaches, till it

reaches a vibrant climax with his appearance to

SERAFINA beside the house.'^

As opposed to the salesman who symbolizes civlized, social existence,

Aivaro represents the wildness within Serafina. Alvaro's closeness to

SErafina is brought out by the sound of the timpani which is primitive in

origin. The conflict between Aivaro and the salesman is once again the

conflict between two worlds. But the conflict which was external to Serafina

in Act I, is now internalized within her mind.

Spectators begin to gather at the edge of the scene.

Serafina stares at the truck driver, her eyes like a

somnabulist's.'*

The 'somnabulist's eyes' reveal that the conflict is part of her fantasy. After

the conflict there is a sudden revival of hope and memories of her dead

husband.

17. ibid., pp. 176-177.

18. Ibid., p.177.

115
Memory and hope are symbolically presented with the help of light, music

a n d the images of Alvaro and Madonna

Alvaro: . [He moves past her As he does so, she

picks up a pair of broken spectacles on the work

table Holding them by the single remaining side

piece, like a lorgnette, she inspects his passing

figure with an air of satisfaction My husband's

body, with the head of a clown']^'

Other images or analogic equivalents that help to intensify the memory of

her d e a d h u s b a n d are visual such as the bananas and the ashes of his

body a n d auditory such as the sound of the truck The cry of a child like

muted t o n e s brings out the emotons inherent m the memories

Alvaro [There is a distant cry of children as he

unwraps the package and holds up the rose silk shirt,

exclaiming in latin delight at the luxury of it 1^

The tender romantic interlude symbolized by the image of the rose is intruded

upon by t h e reality outside

19 Ibid • p 180

20 Ibid • p 187

116
 Outside the goat bleats and there is the sound of

splintering timber. One of the children races into the

front yard, crying out.^^

This picture of opposite colours placed side by side, such as domesticity

against wildness gives us, at a glance, the totality of Serafina's world.

Yet another mini-picture is created in which various analogic

equivalents, such as sound and images, come together to give the effect of

struggle towards completeness within Serafina.

ALVARO runs out the front door and joins in the

chase. The little boy is clapping together a pair of

tin pan lids which sound like cymbals. The effect is

weird and beautiful with the wild cries of the children

and the goat'sbleating. SERAFINA remains anxiously

halfway between the shutters and the protecting

Madonna. She gives a furious imitation of the

bleating goat contorting her face with loathing. It is

the fury of woman at the desire she suffers. At last

the goat is captured."

21. Ibid., p.188.

22. Ibid., p.188.

117
Various emotions such as excitement, fear, hope and anger come together

as analogic equivalents to create the impression of a desire towards

perfection on Serafina's behalf. As the scene comes to an end the colours

soften, such as the harsh and loud music changes to the music of a mandolin.

As Alvaro gets ready to leave he gives the indication of flight:

...He whistles like a bird and makes graceful winglike

motions with his hands."

The flight imagery brings an element of transcendence in Serafina's struggle

towards completeness. It also reveals Williams's belief in the richness and

fruitfulness of the subconscious or dream world. Towards the end of the

scene though the sanctity of the dream world seems fortified within Serafina's

mind completeness still eludes her. This is evident from the boy holding a

great golden bunch of bananas, a change from the red kite to the golden

bananas:

The light in the house dims out. A little boy races

into the yard holding truimphantly aloft a great golden

bunch of bananas. A little girl pursues him with shrill

23 Ibid.. P.19Q

118
 cries. He eludes her They dash around the house.

The light fades and the curtain falls.^*

In Act 3 Sc. 1 Alvaro reappears, as if in a vision. The picture of

Alvaro's pursuit of Serafina is anti-reahstic.

She springs up and runs into the parlour He pursues

The chase is grotesquely violent and comic A floor

lamp is overturned She seizes the chocolate box

and threatens to slam it into his face if he continues

toward her ^^

Serafina's fear suddenly turns into rage when she is reminded of Estelle

Hohengarten Her mounting rage and anxiety which are desires in disguise

are presented through various colours A juxtaposition of dream and reality

takes place as a goat bleats in the background and she calls the yellow

cab The black goat and yellow cab correspond to darkness and light which

have alternated impressionistically in the earlier acts Serafina's mental

crisis IS brought to a peak through analogic equivalents such as contrasting

colours and sounds

24 Ibid.. P 190

25 Ibid . P197

119
 The LITTLE BOY runs into the yard. He leans against

the bending trunk of the palm, counting loudly.

....There is the sound of ice being chopped in the

kitchen.^

The o v e r l a p p i n g of soft and loud sound gives the effect of the conflict

between t h e t w o worlds.

V a r i o u s colours, loud and soft, are brought together to picturize

Serafina's d e s i r e s , fears and hopes as she and Alvaro unite passionately

The parrot squawks at her. The goat bleats The

night is full of sinister noises, harsh bird cries, the

sudden flapping of wings in the cane-brake, a distant

shriek of Negro laughter SERAFINA catches her

breath and moves as though for protection behind

the dummy of the bride Alvaro enters through the

back door, calling out softly and hoarsely with great

excitement."

25 Ibid . p.197.
26 Ibid., p 201.
27 Ibid • p.203.

120
The union shown here is grotesque rather than romantic, which indicates

that it is the overpowering of the world of reality over dream. The

grotesqueness is still further intensified when the teeth of Alvaro glitter in

the moon as he grins. This destruction of the dreamworld is followed by a

recreation of a dreamworld by Rosa and Jack in Scene 2.

Whereas in Scene I Serafina is imprisoned by reality, in Sc.2 Rosa

and Jack try to escape imprisoning reality:

He breaks away and runs toward the road. From the

foot of the steps he glares fiercely back at her like a

tiger through the bars of cage.^'

In Act 3, Sc.3 reality is presented grotesquely in the form of Alvaro as he

enters the house and approaches Rosa who is fast asleep. Rosa is dressed

in a white bridal dress and he mistakes her for Serafina.

A faint light discloses ROSA asleep on the

coach...the sleeping girl., .is clad only in a sheer white

slip. Bedsprings creak as a heavy figure rises. There

28. Ibid., p.206.

121
 are heavy padding footsteps and ALVARO comes

stumbling rapidly into the dining room.^

This contrived, brute reality leads to sudden violent activity on behalf of

Serafina. Rosa's scream is followed by Serafina's scream. The bird imagery

acquires agg'jl/i^iveness and loudness in contrast to the earlier symbolism

of flight and dream.

She flies at him lil^e a great bird, tearing and clawing

at his stupefied figure.'"

The a g g r e s s i v e n e s s and violence on part of Serafina has greater

significance than a domestic tussle. As part of the total painting which

depicts Serafina's struggle with reality, it shows that Williams has brought

energy, vibrance, and justification to the dream world through the use of

colours.

As If to justify the co-existence of the two worlds, Serafina dresses

herself in 'a black rayon kimono sprinkled with poppies'. The black stands

for unreality and the red stands reality and passion. Towards the end of the

29. Ibid., p.207.

30. Ibid., p.208.

play the ashes of Serafina's dead husband have flown away and the urn is

in pieces. Assunta helps to pick up the pieces of the urn, which are actually

the pieces of a dreamworld shattered by reality. The dreamworld has

been reinstated and has found completion in Serafina's union with Alvaro.

The union is presented through a symbolic and sudden burst of colours in

the shirt that is to be worn by Alvaro:

With a soft cry, SERAFINA drops the shirt, which is

immediately snatched up by PEPPINA. At this point

the music begins again, with a crash of percussion

and continues to the end of the play. PEPPINA

flourishes the shirt in the air like a banner and tosses

it to GIUSEPPINA, who is now on the embankment.

GIUSEPPINA tosses it on to MARIELLA and she in

her turn to VIOLETTA who is above her so that the

brilliantly coloured shirt moves in a zig-zag course

through the pampas grass to the very top of the

embankment like a streak of flame shooting up a

dry hill. The women call out as they pass the shirt

along.*^

Williams has worked out his vision of life in the present play by presenting,

in the form of a painting, the life of Serafina, her journey towards fulfillment

and finally her triumph and the triumph of the dreamworld over reality.

31. Ibid.. p.212

123
 (Lh%^^!kf S<^<»<©(n

^im mm Jhrnrnm^
 CHAPTER VII

THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE

The play, with a scanty plot element, simplistically narrated, is the story of

a rich old woman who is sick and is living in her rich mountain home where

she is visited by a young poet, who helps her die peacefully. But at a deeper

level the play is a piece of complex work of art created by a mosaic of

scenes in the Impressionistic style of painting. A significant point to note

about the play is that here Williams shows his being influenced by also the

Japanese theatre known as Kabuki Theatre, references to which are made

in the play itself. Since Kabuki Theatre is a traditional art carried down

through many generations it does not allow for experimentation or

innovation. So Williams borrowed certain techniques from Kabuki Theatre

and blended them with elements from Impressionistic painting in the play

under consideration. John J. Fritscher has observed that

His Milk Train integrated a pair of stage assistants

that function in a way that's between the Kabuki

Theatre of Japan and the chorus of Greek Theatre.'

1. John J. Fritscher, "Some Attitudes And A Posture: Religious Metaphor and Ritual
in Tennessee Williams' Query of the American God*. Modern Drama. Vol.13, No.2

(Sept.1970), p.213.

124
 Besides the use of the stage assistants, Williams has also

borrowed the kata or poses which means that one or more actors freeze in

their movements to brmg out or further intensify the emotions in a certain

scene Williams found it easy to blend Kabuki and Impressionistic art,

because Impressionistic art in it's early origins borrowed influences from

Japanese art

Thus It becomes easier to understand that the stage assistants,

their speech and movements do not only interpret the on-going action but

also act as the truncated symbols of an Impressionistic painting. They are

small constituent parts of the whole scene and impart meaning to the whole

scene. The scenes on the stage are presented by the use of screens which

are handled by assistants The use of screens is not only a time-saving

technique but also Williams deft attempt to portray the fluctuating, changing

nature of life in the manner of the Impressionistic painters. The

Impressionists tried as closely as possible to imitate life and nature on their

canvas ratherthan paint them in the traditional way. Thus the use of screens

that brings different colours, moods, settings and shades of light and dark

upon the eye are a device of Impressionistic Art.

In the prologue we are presented by the setting on the stage which

consists of screens, masking individual areas, the stage assistants and a

125
banner with a golden griffin. The scene created by the stage assistants is

narrated as follows.
ONE: Daybreak: flag-raising ceremony on Mrs. Goforth's mountain.

TWO; Above the oldest sea in the western world.

ONE: Banner...

ONE: The device on the banner is a golden griffin.

TWO: A mythological monster, half lion and half eagle.-

The griffin is a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the

head and wings of an eagle. This grotesque creature represents the conflict,

which is central to the play, between the dream world of Mrs. Goforth and

the reality of Chris.

Mrs. Goforth's dream world consists of aspirations gone stale and

has no beauty or vitality, while Chris's world, though one of death, represents

hope for rejuvenation and a return to vitality. The settings on the whole

appear deliberately contrived and unreal to show us Mrs.Goforth's unreal

world. In Sc.l Mrs. Goforth is dictating events of her past life to her secretary

Blackie. The images through which she presents her husbands are

grotesque. Mrs. Goforth's past and present are flashed alternatively, creating

2. Tennessee Williams, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here

Anymore. The Night of The Iguana. (Hli^y(Mj^'^fm^^tok. lU- 1984).p. 137.

All subsequent references to the text are from this edition.

126
an Impressionistic vision of life which is shown, moment to moment, as an

impression rather than as something planned and conceived

When Mrs Goforth narrates about any one husband, she suddenly

breaks off to check Blackie and then launches onto another husband Blackie

comments on the discontinuity of her memoirs and hints at a post-

Impressionistic or expressionistic rather than a formally schematised

approach by Mrs Goforth BLACKIE I'm sorry, Mrs Goforth

I'm no writer but 1 do think in writing there has to be

some kind of logical—sequence, continuity—between

one bit and the next bit, and the last thing you

dictated to m e "

We find that her sojourn into the dream world of the past is interrupted by

the ringing of the phone The phone is from the business world related to

stocks When she bangs the phone it is removed by the assistants The

assistants thus cut off her connection with reality This work by the assistants

sets the tone for a scene of more violent reality

An assistant dressed in a doctor's white jacket wheels in a portable

3 ibid • p 140

127
X-ray machine. The assistant now creates the aura of ominous reality which

Mrs Goforth wants to escape

BLACKIE: It's something your doctor in Rome, Dr.—

what? Rengucci'?- had sent up here to spare you the

trouble of interrupting your work to take a new set

of pictures to show what progress there is in the

healing of the lesion, the lung abscess, that-.. •*

We learn that, though apparently Mrs Goforth is filled with the urge to

survive, within she is in a state of decay She throws the machine into the

sea, which represents a total rejection of reality. Mrs. Goforth is shown in

utter physical and emotional exhaustion In the following lines

Heart-beat sounds as Mrs GOFORTH moves

distractedly about the library area, calling out

breathlessly for BLACKIE She presses several

buttons on the inter-com box on the desk, electric

buzzers, sound from here and there on the stage but

no one responds '

We find that here sound is used as an analogic equivalent to background

4. Ibid., p 141.

5 Ibid . P U 2 .

128
tones in an Impressionistic painting to highlight the characteristics of the

central character. The heart beats representing vitality are juxtaposed to

the lifeless buzzing of machines. Together, the sounds make Mrs. Goforth

appear unreal and inhuman.

Harmonium music is heard in the background when she picks up

the mike and comes fore-stage to begin dictation once again:

HARMONIUM: a phrase of lyrical music:...-Then

suddenly the hard accretion of years is brolcen

through. The stage dims out except for her follow—

spot on the forestage.^

Through the use of music and concentrated light Williams has shown Mrs.

Goforth as a solitary figure and her attempt to retain a bit of the past is

pictorially presented by her standing in the spot of light.

In her narration of Alex, another husband of hers in the past, she

admits that she was dead, but he brought her new life. She ascribes to Alex

the perfection of a god:

The hard shell of my heart, the calcium deposits

6 Ibid., p.143.

129
 grown around it, could still be cracked, broken

through, and my last husband broke through it, and

I was brought back to life and Youth '

She seems to be lost momentarily m this sojourn to the past which is now

only a dream, when suddenly the dogs create a clamour outside The dream

world being disturbed by reality is suggestive of the conflict between two

opposing forces in the play The clamour set up by the dogs, which is an

invisible intrusion suddenly appears on the mountain The man who has

been attacked by dogs is presented with the sound of waves crashing m

the background

He IS described as follows

He has the opposite appearance to that which is

ordinarily encountered in poets as they are popularly

imagined His appearance is rough and weathered

his eyes wild, haggard He has the look of a powerful,

battered but still undefeated, fighter'

The young man whose name is Chris is directly opposite to Mrs Goforth

The difference between the two is that while Mrs Goforth is surrounded by

7 Ibid . p 143
8 Ibid . p 147

130
buzzing machines and the luxury of servants, secretary and a posh habitation

on the mountain, Chris has the sound of waves at the back, is weathered

and has travelled on foot. He has forced his entry into Mrs. Goforth's life:

While he presents the indefatigable spirit of adventure and conquest she is

suffering from a fatal disease. She knows she is dying and yet finds it difficult

to admit. Thereafter we find that while Mrs Goforth represents death and

decay, Chris represents life and rejuvenation. Mrs. Goforth herself admits

that Chris resembles her poet husband Alex who had given her life and

youth.

We find in the whole of scene I that Mrs. Goforth is made to move

unpredictably between the past and the present or between dream and

reality. The arrangementof flashbacks into her past suddenly intruded upon

by the reality of the present is put down in the Impressionistic style of

painting. Life as it revolves around Mrs. Goforth is put down in a manner

similar to the Impressionists' use of slabs of pure colour side by side. Looking

at the painting as a vision of life, so to say, the first scene, like all the other

scenes, is made out of tiny pieces of reality and unreality and thus contributes

to the creation of a large portrait of life.

It is significant to note that like Blanche in The Street Car Mrs.

Goforth, too, is surrounded by layers of pretence and unreality. Thus while

Mrs. Goforth tries to evade reality in her cocoon of an autobiography the

131
viscious watchman Rudy and the dogs are symbolic of the outer layers of

protection against the invasion of reality. The stage assistants also appear

contrived projections of her mind- to give her a sense of security and safety.

In Sc 2 according to Mrs. Goforth's orders, Chris is housed in the pink

villino Ths pink villino is decorated with cupids and pink beds. Since it is a

part of Mrs. Goforth's property it represents Chris's meeting with Goforth's

romanticized vision of life. Chris's conversation with Blackie throws some

light in this direction

CHRIS: I didn't see her. She saw me?

BLACKIE: She inspected you through a pair of

military field-glasses before she had me take you to

the pink villa with the king-size bath-tub, the pink

silk sheets and the cupids.

CHRIS: Do they, uh-signify something?

Blackie: Everything signifies something....*

This dialogue in which Goforth observes Chris through field glasses shows

the great distance between them. Chris's unloading a sack filled with heavy

metals in the pink villa shows us how unreality and reality have been

juxtaposed. Chris, before falling asleep, gives Blackie a gift to present to

9. Ibid , p.153.

132
Mrs. Goforth. It is a mobile which he calls 'The Earth is a wheel in a Great

Big Gambling Casino.' This is accompanied by Music:

The HARMONIUM PLAYER, in his dim upstage light,

starts playing softly.""

This mobile is the central symbol of the play and stands for movement,

vitality and life and the soft harmonium music accentuates its meaning. By

the title-the Earth Is a Wheel in a Great Big Gambling Casino- Williams

symbolically means that life on earth is one movement or one wheel out of

the great life in the Great big Universe. The image of the Universe as a

giant casino is symbolic of facing life and making choices rather than

escaping it.

Chris and Goforth are two people entirely opposed and while the

first is moving the second is stagnating and in decay. The mobile thus has

been used by Williams as a truncated symbol of life, though it is only a

piece of metal, its movement in the wind is suggestive of vitality. Chris

himself states in the following lines that he wants the mobile to give an

impression of life:

10. Ibid., p.155.

133
 I think you'd better hang it up before you show it to

her, if you don't mind, and in a place where it will

turn in the wind, so it will make a —more

impressive— impression..."

Mary McBride interprets the mobile as follows:

'The Earth is a Wheel in a great big gambling Casino'

It is constructed so that if hung in the wind the wheel

of fortune, like an Aeolian harp, is turned by nature,

a force beyond the control of man.'^

We find that Mary McBride is indirectly suggesting a forceful vitality in the

mobile which is symbolised by Chris, its creator.

The light dims in the pink villa and it is concentrated on a different

section of the stage. Assistants set up a screen to show the terrace of the

white villa where Mrs. Goforth is preparing for a sun-bath. It is ironic that

irkough she is supposed to be sunbathing, she is well protected against

the sun by a silk robe with signs of thezodiac, sunglasses, Bain-Soleil and

11. ibid^, p.155.

12 Jac Tharpe.ed., Tennessee Williams. Part I (Jackson, University Press of Mississippi,
1977), p.346.

134
acquaminerale. The sun is a symbol of fertility but Mrs. Goforth is afraid of

directly confronting the sun. She admits

...the Boss is-dying this summer! On the Oivina

Costiera, under that, that—angry old lion, the

sun,...'^

Thus the sun stands for the vitality and life that Mrs. Goforth is trying to

escape and the elements of that escape mentioned as follows are presented

like objects in post-Impressionistic paintings that symbolized the

subconscious.

MRS.GOFORTH: I -want a cold bottle of acqua

minerale, cigarettes, matches, my Bain-Soleil, my

codein and empirin tablets, a shot of cognac on the

rocks, the Paris Herald—Tribune, The Rome Daily

American, The Wall Street Journal, The London

Times and Express, the...^'

Blackie shows Mrs. Goforth the book that Chris has given her, it is a verse

adaptation called 'Meanings known and unknown'. The title can be

13. Tennessee Williams. p.143.

14. Ibid.. p.157.

135
interpreted at many levels, such as life (the known) and death (the unknown).

It is also related to the title,The Earth is a Wheel in a Great Big Gambling

Casino'. The Earth is one known thing amidst the vast unknown. The main

idea suggested is that Mrs. Goforth wants to cling to and find refuge in her

past life, because she fears reality and death which are unknown to her.

Chris through the book and the mobile suggests hope for her. She reads

the names of several rich old ladies (now dead) in his address book and

assumes he is a graveyard sexton. It somehow gives her peace that he will

dispel the fears of death from her mind too. There is some transformation

in her as the second scene closes:

...Hmmmm, the summer is coming to life! I'm coming

back to life with it! (She presses buttons on her inter-

com system: electric buzzers sound from various

points on the stage as the STAGE ASSISTANTS

cover the library area with the griffin-crested

screen.^'

The liveliness shown by her is mechanical and grotesque as symbolised by

the griffin. We find that the whole of Sell is connected by symbols, such as

the cupids of pink villa, the mobile, the book, the sun, the elements Goforth

15. IbM^. p.162.

136
uses for sunbathing, the samurai warrior gown, the changing screens and

the griffin-crested screen, all progressing in a manner of softand light tones,

to the darker and harsh ones culminating in the griffin. Besides the above

visual symbols, music of the harmonium and the use of light to separate

one area from another also complement the progress in this picture. The

symbols of the cupids and the griffin are not complimentary and hint at a

sinister and antagonistic development. Thus, Williams through the use of

the Impressionistic technique of juxtaposing anti-natural and natural images

and sounds has provided us with a vivid picture of the dramatic conflict in

Scene II.

Critics have commented variously on the lack of story element in

the play and the unpredictability of the main character, i.e. Mrs. Goforth:

And who on earth is Mrs.Goforth? at one moment

she is straight from a 1920s review, and wheezily

amusing at that:at the best she is a distraught figure

aspiring to tragedy....^*

Mrs. Goforth is like a figure out of an Impressionistic painting. What she

says about herself comes in bits and pieces, these pieces combined with

16. Quoted in Tennesse Williams on File.compiled by Catherine M.Arnott, ( LS^CUK

\A•i%m\^^985). p.50.

137
the analogic equivalents of music, settings and characters create her person

To be able to understand her one has to view her as a central figure in a

large Impressionistic painting that is made up of micro paintings Scene III

brings out Mrs Goforth's undiminished pleasure in the form of a picture

created by diverse unreal elements Scene III is largely Mrs Goforth's

undisturbed dream reverie The setting itself indicates a sense of being

contrived or being unnatural

At rise two screens are lighted one masking the

small dinner table on the forestage, the other MRS

GOFORTH A STAGE ASSISTANT stands beside

each screen so that they can be removed

simultaneously when a chord on the harmonium

provides the signal The middle panel of MRS

GOFORTH'S screen is topped by a gold winged

griffin to signify that she is in residence' behind i t ' '

When the musician strikes the chord, the screens are removed Mrs Goforth

IS seen in an oriental robe Rudy in a semi-military outfit is pouring a drink,

a flickering blue flame is seen in a copper brazier and Blackie is laying the

table for dinner This visual assimilation of different characters in outlandish

17 Tennesse Williams, p.163.

138
clothes resembles the use of anti-naturalistic colours in Post-Impressionistic

paintings. Mrs. Goforth puts on a black Kabuki wig and appears bizarre:

As she moves, now, out upon the forestage, the

harmonium outlines dimly against a starry night sity,

plays a bit of oriental music."

As Mrs Goforth moves about in her Kabuki style dress, her movements and

her environment is outlined by music. Here the Japanese technique of frozen

movement or Kata has been effectively used to intensify the emotion of this

scene The music from the harmonium, like the muted background tones in

Impressionistic painting, helps to accentuate the intensity of the situation.

Mrs. Goforth is expecting a guest who is called The Witch of Capri:

Blackie: The Witch of Capri has just gotten out of

the boat and is getting into the funicular.'*

This statement by Blackie gives strength to the fact that Scene III is a picture

of Mrs Goforth's momentary escape from reality. Mrs.Goforth's mountain is

surrounded by the sea that symbolises vitality and reality. The witch who is

18. Ibid., p.163.

19. Ibid . p.164.

13^
an unreal character has to use a boat to cross the sea rather than swim it,

and the funicular or rope along which she travels to Mrs.Goforth's home, is

Mrs Goforth's precarious and only link to reality Mrs. Goforth further

makes a statement on changing even ugliness to beauty.

Mrs Goforth Even my kidney-stones, if I had

kidney-stones, would be genuine diamonds fit for

queen's crown, Blackie ^°

It shows Mrs Goforth's mood or sense of escape into a world of fantasy

where even kidney-stones are envisioned as diamonds

In conrast to Mrs Goforth's fantastic dress, the Witch of Capri is

described as follows

She looks like a creature out of a sophisticated fairy

tale, her costume like something that might have

been designed for Fata Morgana Her dress is grey

chiffon, panelled and, on her blue-tinted head she

wears a cone-shaped hat, studded with pearls, the

peak of It draped with the materials of her dress,

her expressive claw-like hands a glitter with gems.^'

20 Ibid • p 164

21 Ibid • p 165

140
It is worth noticing that here is a contrast to Mrs.Goforth's unnatural, unlife-

llke pose in an oriental outfit—she is dressed in no other colour than grey

and white that are suggestive of a lack of vitality (a creature of unreality).

Further interaction between them reveals that they are both victims of reality.

(Mrs.Goforth) opens her Lacquered fan and executes

some Kabuki dance steps, humming weirdly: the

effect has a sort of grotesque beauty, but she is

suddenly dizzy and staggers against the table.^^

She says that it is the result of too much codein that she has been taking

for her neuralgia. The Witch says in answer:

The Witch: Well, I'm suffering too. We're suffering together.

Will you look at my arm....The sea is full of

Medusas.-^

The Witch, like Mrs.Goforth, is unable to face the sea full ofreality or

Medusas which will injure her. Mrs.Goforth, though injured, is not admitting

22. Ibid., p.165-66.

23. I M .

141
her injury but the Witch is more straightforward about hers. The Witch wants

to know the truth about the rumours that she has heard about Mrs Goforth*

IS trying to tell her the truth which does not bring out the theme of the play

or any specific moralistic concern She rather hints at the setting of the

stage

Mrs Goforth I'll tell you the truth (Rises and indicates the

inter-com speaker) I'm writing my memoirs this

summer I've got the whole place wired for

sound, a sort of very elaborate inter-com , or

walkie-talkie system, so I can dictate to my

secretary, Blackie I buzz my secretary any time

of the day and night and continue dictating to

her That's the truth, the true story -*

Williams is expressing through Mrs Goforth that the whole stage is an

inricate network meant to assimilate or absorb her memoirs at any time of

day or night In other words the whole stage is like the canvas of an

Impressionistic painter on which we see the instantaneous impressions of

Mrs G o f o r t h ' s life, past and present Nowhere in the play is the

Impressionistic structure more explicit than here in Scene 111.

24 Ibid . p 168

142
 Chris, who is a symbol of vitality, is entirely opposite to Mrs Goforth

who IS escaping reality and the Witch who is transcending it The

disparateness of the three characters is brought out when the Witch and

Mrs Goforth pay a visit to Chris who is asleep in the pink villa The music

played by the harmonium, which is perhaps Brahms the lullaby, corresponds

to the colour pink and softens the atmosphere like muted background tones

in Impressionistic painting

The Witch You know his story, don't you"?

(The Stage Assistants place a section of

balustrade, at an angle, beside them, and a

copper brazier with the blue flame in it The

flame flickers eerily on The Witch's face as she

tells what she knows of Chris

Harmonium plays under the stylized recitation ^^

The harmonium music here gives a sense of fantasy to the Witch s recitation

When they finally learn the truth that Chns has been the Death Angel for

many old ladies, the witch stoops to kiss the sleeping Chris

He rolls over quickly, shielding his lower face with

an arm and uttering a grunt of distaste 2*

25 Ibid . pp 171-72
26 Ibid • p 173

143
HIS repulsing the Witch is not a personal repulse to a woman; at a deeper

level, It IS the conflict between reality and unreality The Witch tries to

overcome him through her magic, but reality cannot be overpowered by

unreality

Scene IV is a miniature picture among the others that contributes

to the Impressionistic structure of the entire play When the scene opens

the time is late night on the terrace of the white villa The terrace is the

background against which several things happen together which are

diametrically opposed to each other Off set a long anguished groan of

Mrs Goforth is heard on the terrace Chris who has emerged on the terrace

looking for food is attacked by Mrs Goforth's bodyguard, Rudy Dogs are

barking and Mrs Goforth is heard groaning once again from behind her

griffin-crested screen When Blackie rescues Chris, he says

Chris The truth is I was looking for something

to eat I've had no food for five days -'

Blackie tells him that the food, she had left for him, must have been taken

away and that Mrs Goforth keeps the kitchen locked like a bank vault, so

27 ibid • p 175

144
he will have to wait till morning, to find food. All this indicates the total

absence of vitality and sustenance in the territory which belongs to

Mrs.Goforth;

(The cyclorama has lightened a little and there is

the sound of church-bells at a distance.)-'

The church bells have a calming effect and are directly opposed to

Mrs.Goforth's anguished groan. The juxtaposing together side by side of

opposite events and sounds is similar to the use of different strokes of colour

side by side in an Impressionistic painting. The scene ends with Mrs.Goforth

again narrating one of her memoirs in which she is trying to escape reality

or death. Ironically she is about to plunge to her death by unknowingly

jumping off the cliff into the sea of vitality but is saved by Blackie.

In her unconscious state of sleep she can feel the freshness and beauty of

a new life that comes afer death:

Wind, cold wind, clean, clean! Release! Relief!

Escape from—(She reaches the edges of the

orchestra pit. A wave crashes loudly below,....^^

28. Ibid., p. 176.

29. Ibid., p.177.

145
Thus we find that in Scene IV life and death are presented in different events

and sounds as analogic equivalents to dark and light shades of the

Impressionistic canvas.

The setting, as scene V opens, gives a suggestion of vitality and

pleasantness-

Above the table and about the ballustrade are

cascades of bougain- villaea: coins of gold light,

reflected from the sea far below, flicker upon the

playing area, which is backed by fair sky '°

The use of light in patches and the blue sky in the background resembles

the setting in an Impressionistic painting. Mrs. Goforth is attempting to define

life while she dictates her memoirs to Blackie Chris, on the other hand, is

looking for something to eat We find that against a bright, lively background

we have several different activities going on simultaneously, While Mrs.

Goforth is merely intellectualizing about life, Chris is trying to salvage (his)

life.

30 Ibid • p 179

146
 Like different strokes of colour the contrast between Mrs Goforth

and Chris's attitude is further intensified by the activity of the stage

assistants Their comments on life show us other colours or definitions to

depict life
(The Stage Assistants have come out of the wings)

One Charade Game

Two (tossmg a spangled ball to his partner) Past

time

One (tossmg the ball back) Flora's folly

One (Same action) Accident of Atoms

Two (Same action) Resulting from Indiscriminate

copulation '^

The stage assistants not only add colour to the picture of life but are also

summing up symbolically Mrs Goforth's frivolous attitude to life

In trying to define life for herself Mrs Goforth also throws light on her

peculiar attitude to life

Sometimes I think, I suspect, that everything that

we do IS a way of -not thinking about it Meaning of

life, and meaning of death too "

31 Ibid . p 179

32 Ibid

147
Her attitude to life is therefore escapist as contrasted to Chris's who tries

to salvage it. His being dressed in a Samurai robe reveals aggressiveness

and vitality. Blackie is shown throughout in opposition to Mrs.Goforth's

falsehood but she also helps to bring Mrs. Goforth closer to Chris. But

Blackie is also worn out by Mrs. Goforth's duties and her statement below

reflects on the structure of the play:

Blackie: I want to get off this mountain gone mad

with your madness!"

In other words Blackie is expressing that the whole mountain is an extension

of Mrs. Goforth's personality. That is to say that she is the central figure

held in place by a network of fears and fantasies created by her. Mrs.

Goforth's meeting with Chris contributes to the thematic development of

the play. A bond grows between them that has gradually developed out of

their differences. This is akin to the skilful and gradual mixing of different

colours by an Impressionistic painter on his canvas. Chris's statement is

meaningful in this regard:

Chris: Oh, me! I don't feel like a —mythological-

griffin with-gold wings, but this strong fresh wind's

33. ibid., p.181.

148
 reviving me like I'd had a —terrific breakfast!

Mrs. Goforth: Griffin, what's a griffin?

Chris: A force in life that's almost stronger than

death. (Springs up, turns to the booming sea)."

By making this statement Chris seems to suddenly overpower Mrs.Goforth

who appears lifeless and stagnant before him. The Griffin is a symbol of

great significance and through the image of the eagle and the lion brings

out or blends together the worlds of unreality and reality respectively. The

booming of the sea below them gives strength to Chris's vitality like a

background tone.

Thus Chris who is known as the Angel of Death, reveals to us that

Mrs.Goforth's life is meaningless and superficial.

Chris: ...When a wave breaks down there, it looks

as delicate as a white lace fan, but I bet if it hit you,

it would knock you against the rocks and break your

bones....^*

By 'breaking of bones', he means the breaking of the protective framework

34. Ibid., p.185.

35. Ibid.

14^)
around her He hints that only her complete surrender to the sea of vitality

or death as she sees it, will release her from her unreal, unhappy existence

The following lines of Chris throw light on Mrs Goforth's real condition

which she tries to conceal

A house full of -voices, noises objects, strange

shadows, light that's even stranger—we can't

understand ^^

Chris in a way paints the picture of not only Mrs Goforth's inner

world but of her outer world, the mountain which according to Blackie is

also an extension of her personality Chris's words about sounds,

unidentifiable objects, shadows and light hint at the subconscious world of

the Post-lmpressionists The entire scene is interpersed with Mrs Goforth's

awareness of death and her refusal to accept it The sounds of the

churchbells are followed by the boom of the sea of vitality Towards the

end she learns that her moutain home is being robbed, that is her protective

dream world which she also calls Divina costiera or the divine coast is

plundered The plunder of her home is accompanied by the symptoms of

physical destruction or physical agony

36 Ibid . p 190

150
 ( Mrs Goforth's shouting has brought on a coughing

spasm She covers her mouth with her hands and

rushes m a crouched position, toward the upstage

area of the hbrary )

Chris Boom

Blackie Release'"

The time of Scene VI is sundown Mrs Goforth's death which is anticipated

IS emphasized by the stage assistants

One Cable her daughter that the old bitch is dying

Two The banner of the Griffin is about to be lowered

Together Death Celebration '*

W i l l i a m s h e r e has p r e s e n t e d d e a t h not in the c o n v e n t i o n a l s e n s e of

mourning but in the sense of the awakening of new life Death is portrayed

by a mixture of different words and actions just as an Impressionist would

use opposite and brilliant colours to create a particular effect Death is

manifested in the word 'Boom' which is the sound from the sea as well as

the name of Chris's new mobile

Chris (As a wave crashes under the mountain):

Boom' I'd like to make a mobile, I'd call it BOOM

37 Ibid • p 209

38 Ibid , p 211

151
 The sea and the sky are turning the same colour,

dissolving into each othr. Wine-dark sea wine-dark

sky. In a little while the little fishing boats with their

lamps for night fishing will make the sea look like

thenight sky turned upside down ''

The mergence of the sea and sky on a symbolic level indicates Williams's

attempt to unite the worlds of reality and unreality in the death of Mrs

Goforth The mergenceof the two colours of the sky and sea, so that they

melt into a single tone, shows the Impressionistic technique of retinal fusion

where separate, incoherent images and objects as seen by the eye are

unified into a single image by the cortex.

But despite Chris's vision of a new life of unity and peace Mrs.

Goforth continues to struggle against death Mrs. Goforth tries to seduce

Chris into sleeping with her, but this has no moral overtones. It rather shows

the conflict between the two worlds. Chris compares her body to a 'great

fountain figure', in other words a lifeless stone statue. The physical form of

the old man that Chris mentions later is in direct juxtaposition to Mrs

Goforth's statue-like form.

39 Ibid-. P 213.

15N'>
 You couldn't believe how a hand that shrivelled and

splotched could make such a beautiful gesture of

holding out the hand to be helped from the ground.*

The old man does not have a smooth statue-like appearance, but he has

vitality that inspires Chris to accept each moment of life without escaping

it As opposed to the old man Mrs. Goforth fears that she might die any

moment The concept of accepting life as it is at a particular moment is

crucial to the basis of Impressionism as an Impressionist attempts to record

one instant or moment in a painting. It also throws light on what Chris

concretises as The Earth is a Wheel in a Great Big Gambling Casino'. Just

as the earth is one wheel in a giant universe, so also life has to be

understood as one moment in the cosmic plan. Williams has tried to present

this very idea of a single moment of life, creating a larger picture of life and

using sounds, symbols, lights and images instead of colours to paint that

picture.

When Mrs.Goforth is finally dying the scene is described thus:

(Then the Stage Assistants place before her the bed

screen with the gold-winged griffin cresting its middle

40. Ibid., p.221.

153
 panel. Light dims out on that area and is brought up

on the turning mobile. Music seems to come from

the turning mobile that casts very delicate gleams

of light on the stage.*^

The s o u n d and light which make the mobile a ceri'irw-piece create a sense

of unity that Mrs. Goforth has achieved t h r o u g h death. The last few lines of

the play complete the play like the finishing strokes in a picture:

Chris: She said to me: 'Be here when I wake up'—

After I'd taken her hand and stripped the rings off

her fingers.

Blackie: What did you do with-?

Chris: ...Under the pillow like a pharoahs' breakfast

waiting for the pharoah to wake up hungry....

(She comes up beside him on the forestage and

offers him the wine-gobiet. The sea is heard under

the mountain.)**

The mention of the pharoah's breakfast hints at the hope of a new life.

Chris's d r i n k i n g the wine reminds us of the unity of the wine-coloured sea

and sky Chris is symbolic of Mrs.Goforth rescuer, who through death gives

41. ibid., p.223.

42. Ibid., p.224.

154
her the hope of a new life.

The play has been severely criticized for its lack of connectivity

and lack of story But the play was created after the technique of painting

and hence the disconnectivity or lack of story becomes artistically desirable.

The creation of the play as a large painting necessitates that the play

comprises disconnected scenes which are strengthened by music and

symbols, analogic to the colours used by the Impressionistic painters

155
 th^^im EmM
caiNciysa©
 CHAPTER VIII

CONCLUSION

As the foregoing analysis of the plays has established Williams has made

a creative use of the three primary colours used by the Impressionistic

painters The primary colours red, blue and yellow are part of the solar

spectrum VIBGYOR to which the Impressionistic painters owed the liveliness

and brilliance In their paintings. Besides the use of the three colours blue,

red and yellow, we find that Williams has also intermixed the three colours

to come up with a variety of tones and combinations. In the selected plays

we also find a good use of secondary, tertiary, neutral, warm and cool

colours. Through the use of analogic equivalents such as images, symbols,

settings, stage props, music etc, Williams has also evolved his own concept

of what the Impressionists called subjective colour- "that which is derived

from the mind and reflects an individual's viewpoint or bias".

We find that the primary colours blue, red and yellow have given

his plays a richness, a sharpness and a closeness to life. The colour blue

stands for purity such as that of Elena in The Purification, of Laura in The

Glass Menagerie, of the pure dream-like innocence of Quixote in Camino

Real and of hope and redemption for Blanche in The Streetcar Named

156
Desire

The colour blue brings relief and hope in a world over powered by material

pursuits and passions brought out through the use of the colour red

In The Glass Menagerie the smoky red glow gives us the idea of

intense, simmering passions on a subconscious level In The Streetcar

Named Desire the use of red in various places shows us a sordid world of

brute passion belonging to Stanley and Stella to which Blanche is a stranger

In Camino Real the red nose of Kilroy indicates passion and wildness

confined However unlike the other plays in which the blue and red maintain

their individual identity, towards the end of Camino Real the red and blue

colours merge to create the colour purple in the image of the violets, which

is higher a reality or a vision of life according to Williams

Yellow, the third primary colour, too, has been used frequently in

the plays but with a lesser intensity and frequency

In The Purification there are references to pale gold and lemon

yellow while describing the natural world of Elena In Rose Ta^oo yellow

symbolizes the desire for fulfilment.ln Camino Real yellow is used in a bright

luminosity as golden colour or as dull as pale yellow In The Streetcar Named

157
Desire, Blanche refers very often to lemon coke to relieve her nerves and

she even dresses in cool yellow silk

Besides these primary colours, Williams has used various

combinations and permutations, to bring out his vision of the complicity of

life

Williams use of neutral colours such as brown, grey, black and

white IS highly significant to the underlying meaning in his plays In The

Purification and The Streetcar Named Desire low-key colours such as brown

and grey represent a human world in a state of decay Placing a soft tone

like blue against this dark, menacing background gives an indication of

hope m a sordid world In plays like The Streetcar Named Desire and The

Milktrain Williams has presented a contrast of these low-key colours with

white These low-key colours placed alongside white give us the feeling of

lifelessness and lack of vitality- as Blanche appears in white, which is

incongruous to the surroundings or as the witch of Capri appears dressed

in grey, blue and white White taken as an individual shade has a variety of

meanings and has been exploited artistically in different ways In The

Purification white, when associated with Elena, symbolizes beauty and purity

but when associated with the Rancher, it suggests a white plague-like sky

or white dead bones

158
 In the same way the mothlike whiteness of Blanche in The

Streetcar Named Desire, apparently shows us her lack of vitality and

as
incongruity to the*surroundings^to Blanche the moth is symbolic of unfulfilled

desires. Later on in the play she ascribes soft (rainbow) colours to the moth.

In The Glass Menaoerie the colour white is suggestive of fragility, daintiness

and romanticism. In The Glass Menagerie and Camino Real the image of

the moon is suggestive of purity and romance. The use of the colour green

which is created by mixing yellow and blue is also highly significant. The

delicate aquamarine in The Purification represents the touching together

of the two worlds of desert and sky. The use of the colour green is highly

significant in Blanche's journey from sanity to insanity. At the point where

her mental instability is irreversible green and white stripes express the

chaos in her psyche.

Various combinations of the primary colours are also significant

to the development of the themes in the plays. For instance Stanley's being

dressed in green and scarlet in The Streetcar Named Desire shows the use

of complementary colours- creating luridness and presenting his image of

menace to Blanche. At several places a mood is evoked by placing warm or

cool colours together. The combination of warm colours can be glimpsed in

159
the lowering of scarlet and yellow rice paper in a block in Camino Real.

Williams's juxtaposing of blue and white in many of the plays draws our

attention to an unusual combination of cool colours.

Blue and white which appear unequal In intensity, give us the

inequality of two opposing altitudes to life. In some plays Williams has also

used rainbow colours to present at a glance a kaliedoscopic view of life in

a variety of shades. The rainbow colours appear in The Glass Menagerie in

the stage props and costumes. In Camino Real the rainbow colours are

used to depict T h e Fugitive' which as a symbol of human desires and

illusions would be indescribable in words.

In The Streetcar Blanche in trying to explain her fragility mentions

the soft (rainbow) colours of a butterfly's wings. But the use of the primary

colours and their various combinations in Williams's plays has gained a

further dimension by his use of analogic equivalents to represent the colours

on the Impressionistic canvas. Music is the most significant of analogic

equivalents to the moods invoked by colours. Music in the various plays is

not merely melodious or instrumental it involves human and nature sounds,

too, in varying degree of loudness and dimness.

The mergence and interaction between the human, natural and

160
cosmic worlds is expressed through colours and their analogic equivalents

in The Purification. Human voices which can be just a soft murmur, whisper,

singing or laughter falling into a chorus give us different shades of the human

world represented through the colours brown, greys and white, suggestive

of the decadent human world. Nature's beauty and purity represented

through Elena as blue, yellow and white reverbrates through 'peals of

thunder', 'treble choir in the Eucalyptus', and 'rainstorm advancing like

armies of tall silent men'.

In the same way the black that represents the evil within the

rancher resounds in 'dissonant guitar chords, rustling of dead leaves', and

'giants pounding huge, huge drums'. The rise and fall of the Glass Menagerie

music intensifies Laura's loneliness suggested by the colour blue in The

Glass Menagerie. The music of The Glass Menagerie grows and swells

with the pace with which Laura and Tom come closer to each other. Music

as an analogic equivalent is of great significance in the Camino Real

specifically where colours bring about the clash of unreality and reality.

The death-like reality in Camino Real is effectively brought out

by the use of sound. The shades of reality or death are brought out by the

whispering, giggling, laughing, reverberating laughter, death-rattle, piping

or more objectively through sirerw , whistles, pistol shots, footsteps etc.

161
Music as an analogic equivalent is an indispensable means to express

Blanche's instability in The Streetcar

The screeching of cats, polka music, disharmonious sounds,

thundering of locomotives, blue piano etc. are analogic equivalents to

broken colours which soften and louden as Blanche's disorientation and

alienation grow

In The Milktram Doesn't Stop Here Anymore sound as an analogic

equivalent performs the function of intensifying the clash between reality

and unreality, life and death The opposing musical sounds resemble

opposing tones in an Impressionistic painting Sounds such as heartbeat

sounds, electric buzzers, Harmoniun music, barking dogs, church bells and

crashing waves are broken colours that represent Williams's vision of life

Besides music, 'symbols' and 'images' also serve as important

analogic equivalents that help to enlarge Williams's vision of life in a play

In The Purification the images and symbols are often analogic

equivalents to truncated symbols used by Impressionistic painters For

example, the spring freshets, the Eucalyptus tree, birds, clouds, etc

symbolize Elena's purity, oneness with nature and her quest for rejuvenation

162
In the same way symbols and images such as the cactus, wooden grave

cross, dead bones, phosphorescent green lizard, swarm of locusts, mucous

inflamed eyeballs, etc. represent the evil, stagnant and self-consuming world

of the Rancher.

In The Glass Menagerie Williams has made a bold and innovative

use of analogic equivalents such as screen images. The screen images of

Blue Roses suggesting Laura is a multifaceted symbol. Firstly it was Jim

who coined the term romanticizing Laura's illness, 'pluerosy', as 'Blue

Roses'. But on the aritistic level the colour blue is an antinatural colour for

a rose depriving it of its beauty and vitality. Thus the screen image- Blue

Roses- is crucial to depicting Laura's inner world.

The Screen L e g e n d - YOU THINK I'M IN LOVE WITH

CONTINENTAL SHOEMAKERirelated to Tom —helps in bringing out the

irony that he is a prisoner of reality which he cannot escape.

The Screen Images and Screen Legends are analogic equivalents

which function in connecting the whole play as a large painting out of

memory; more'so as the primary colours used as such are fewer in this

play.

163
 In The Streetcar Named Desire the images of the moth, the

tarantula and the locomotives are highly significant in Blanche's rapid

progression towards insanity. Even though the colour white apparently

indicates a lack of vitality, the image of the moth expresses Blanche's

concealed desires. Later In the play she sees herself not as a moth but as

a butterfly with beautiful colours. The locomotives bring out the element of

blindness and furious pursuit of desires which lay hidden within the moth.

The Flamingo is another representation of her desires which later appears

as Tarantula to her, the gripping advance of reality from which there is no

escape. Contrary to her moth-like image Stanley is associated with the image

of the richly feathered male bird. This clash of two opposing colours reveals

the relationship between the predator and the victim. She is the victim and

he is the predator.

In The Milktrain Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, too, the image of

the griffin (which is a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head

and wings of a bird) represents the conflict between reality and unreality

which is central to the play. Towards the close of the play when the conflict

is over, the griffin-crested banner is lowered.

A brief summing up of Williams' bold and innovative use of colours

shows the richer dimentsions of his plays. While the Impressionists tried to

164
merely record life as it was, Williams has successfully brought out his vision

of life through the interplay of colours and analogic equivalents. It is because

of his use of colours to depict life in his plays, that his plays do not follow a

simple, connected and uniform narrative form. We find that the narrative is

broken at places to accomodate the functional profusion of colours. Williams

Knot
has confined himself to using the Impressionistic technique alone, he has

rather created a new dramatic experience by borrowing elements from other

disciplines or cultures, such as Music, Kabuki Theatre or American Indian

Mythology.

165
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